bagel-ordering professor on spectrum? - lynne rosenthal
Posted by
Josie Barnshaw
on 19th August 2010
at 13:05
Hi Michael
I was a little curious and popped into the link for the Huffington Post. The first thing that struck me was her refusal to respond to the "butter or cheese" request simply because I see a contradiction in her request for a "plain multi-grain bagel". First of all, according to Webster's English Dictionary the word bagel does not exist!!! I then thought .. "OK, I will google" and therein it describes a bagel as a wheat dough formed into a ring. Further on it does mention all the different varieties amongst which is multi-grain, therefore I see her original request as a complete contradiction ... how can something that's plain also be sprinkled with multi-grain.
I wonder how she would have reacted had a member of the staff tried to figure out exactly what she wanted and responded with "Which is it you want ... plain or multi-grain".
I can imagine the staff at Starbucks having to deal with some difficult customers ... my kids love McDonalds and occasionally get one as a treat but none of them like the pickle mixture that they put on them so I have to place an order that is far from the standard with one child wanting a plain burger happy meal, one wanting a plain double cheesburger and Tom with his plain chicken mayo with a slice of cheese and therein lies another prime example of a contradiction ... a plain chicken mayo burger with a slice of cheese. The staff need a degree in double dutch, I think, and deserve a medal as far as I am concerned for getting it right most of the time!!!
Josie - Community Champion
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Posted by
michaelz
on 19th August 2010
at 11:50
Starbucks' strange vernacular finally drove a customer nuts.
Lynne Rosenthal, a college English professor from Manhattan, said three cops forcibly ejected her from an Upper West Side Starbucks yesterday morning after she got into a dispute with a counterperson -- make that barista -- for refusing to place her order by the coffee chain's rules.
Rosenthal, who is in her early 60s, asked for a toasted multigrain bagel -- and became enraged when the barista at the franchise, on Columbus Avenue at 86th Street, followed up by inquiring, "Do you want butter or cheese?"
"I just wanted a multigrain bagel," Rosenthal told The Post. "I refused to say 'without butter or cheese.' When you go to Burger King, you don't have to list the six things you don't want.
"Linguistically, it's stupid, and I'm a stickler for correct English"...
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/08/pragmatics
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/17/lynne-rosenthal-enraged-e_n_685067.html