11am Whiskey Shortage Panic

Shitbags!
Cockmongers!
Douchehounds!
Decent, loving, hardworking friends of mine!
Unite and rejoice, for it is once more, new post time!
Last night at the Mel, a friend and I were talking about the subject of interaction between customer and salesperson, and (I think?) I promised to blog about it.
More specifically, we were talking about the differences of people growing up with and without experience in the service industry. The first point raised is one that I think is pretty universally accepted, with the exception of the people it ought to apply to.  I feel that in order to graduate college you should have to work a service industry job.  Bear with me debutantes and celebutards, I'll explain my reasoning.  As most people who have worked in a food/beverage service capacity know, the public is, in general, a vast slobbering mongoloid-ish group of bastards, whiners, shit talkers, and non tippers.  And simply put, to avoid being a mongoloid-ish, whining, shit talking, non tipping bastard, you really need to deal with their kind, all up close and personal like. Nothing makes you think twice when eyeing a tip jar, talking to a waitress, or coming into a bar or restaurant five minutes before closing time like some service experience.
See, when you've been there you get an entirely different perspective. You start to think "wow, this guy probably depends on the buck or two I throw in here," "I know I said medium rare, but fuck it, rare's fine.  She's got four other tables and she looks pretty frazzled," and "Nope, they're quite ready to blow this joint, I'll go to taco bell."

Taco Bell: because you're drunk

It's a pretty basic concept but it's one that apparently a lot of people are missing, because, fuck me if I don't see bartenders, waitresses, tattoo artists, hairdressers and the lot get treated like shit every day.  You heard it here first, shit's gotta stop folks.  Just be a decent person mmkay?

The second point has to do with (subjectively I guess) cool jobs.  My previously mentioned friend, is dating a bartender and owner of the (in my opinion) coolest bar in town.  From what I'm told, his kids still think he's a total dork though.  Think I just made that example up? Well fuck you first off. Second, here's another.  One of my tattoo artists is semi famous at least.  He's appeared in a lot of magazines, won a lot of awards, and people travel pretty far to get tattooed by him.  Yet from what he tells me, his kids are in no way impressed by any of this.  Now I'm no expert in cool, far from it.  In fact, the shit you kids listen to is lame and probably too loud, and your clothes are silly and ill fitting.

This is what cool looks like to me

However I'm baffled by how the offspring of people who I consider to be well respected pillars of cooledom, think that their parents are any less than that.
Think about it, if you grow up with a "counter culture" kind of parent, and you decide to do some rebelling, how do you do that?  Start watching Glenn Beck?  Furiously organize your sock drawer? Lock your room and blare elevator music?  I dunno, I have no conclusion here, other that teenagers are fuckin' weird.  Yeah, I was, you were, and current teens are. They're strange and confusing, but eventually booze will level the playing field, so fuck it.

As always, if someone asks you if you're a god, you say yes
-Pretzel