New Year's Eve Dinner Theater

Last night, Mr. Boe and I celebrated New Year's Eve and a special anniversary by dining at one of our favorite local restaurants. They were featuring a very nice preset dinner with wine pairings. I made reservations for "our table" well in advance; and we were quite looking forward to the evening.

We arrived a couple of minutes early. The place was bustling, which pleased me quite a bit as the economy is still a bit rocky. (Two of my favorite spots have closed in the last year, I'd hate to see another go under.) The owners greeted us, and mentioned that our table would soon be ready.

Stationing ourselves by the bar, we chatted with the bartender and a woman who was dining alone at the bar. I was beginning to feel that our seating was somewhat delayed when one of the owners came up to us looking somewhat flustered. She explained that another couple insisted that they had reserved our table and were quite upset, and asked if we would mind sitting at a table next to it. We told her that was no problem and not to worry.

I was curious as to who these people were; and being right next to them, had ample time for observation. What a boorish couple! They were so loud we could scarecely converse. And they were incredibly rude to the poor waitress.

First off, the Very Large Woman (she easily tips the scales at 250 lbs.) directed the waitress to allow 15 minutes between the end and the start of each of their courses. I could understand wanting to have a leisurely meal (we told the waitress we weren't in a hurry and left it at that). More on this later.

The menu began with an amuse bouche and a toast of champagne (a half pour instead of a full glass). Mr. Boe doesn't like champagne, so I poured his share into my glass and enjoyed it. When our neighbors' toasts arrives, She announced quite loudly that she wanted a full glass like I had, and made noises about being shorted in her serving. The waitress tried to explain how the menu worked, She cut her off and ordered her to bring two full glasses.

The meal was a four course version. We gave the waitress our selections, and then sat back for the dinner theater next to us as She gave her various orders. I tend to be a bit of a Sally when ordering, but She took pickiness to an entire new level.

Our first course arrived - a quite lovely butternut squash soup. Upon observing our soup, The Show decided they wanted soup instead, and when the waitress delivered the salads they had ordered, refused them and told her to bring soup instead.

We did our best to try to ignore them and enjoy our meal, but could not help overhearing their rather offensive conversation. I put the couple in the category of Aggrieved Black Yuppies With Huge Chips On Their Shoulders. Everything that happens must be done to offend them. Their behavior to the wait staff was quite consistent with this throughout the evening.

The waitress delivered The Show's second course at the proper time interval (I checked my watch out of curiosity). She told them that she "wouldn't touch that" - she wanted 25 minutes between courses. So, the waitress took the dishes away and returned 10 minutes later. This time, she was quizzed as to whether or not The Show was being served the same crab cakes and fois gras as had been presented 10 minutes earlier. The waitress didn't know, so The Show said she "wouldn't touch that" and sent the serving back for new ones.

Mr. Boe had had enough and went outside to smoke a cigarette. I continued to witness the entertainment. They then started discussing, at a volume which half the restaurant couldn't help overhearing, movies. They mentioned several old classic movies, and kept attributing the wrong actors to various parts. As they were so loud, I decided I was justified in setting the record straight, and interjected with corrections such as "Ray Milland and Robert Cummings were in 'Dial M For Murder', not Jimmy Stewart. And the movie in a British school starring Sidney Poitier was 'To Sir With Love', not 'Blackboard Jungle'. Poitier was in 'Blackboard Jungle', but he played a student."

I thoroughly enjoyed their shocked reaction, and the fact that after that they spoke with each other at a somewhat lower volume so that Mr. Boe and I could actually hear each other over our table.

The waitress then attempted to deliver the main course to The Show. She once again "wouldn't touch that" saying she wanted 30 minutes between courses. The waitress dutifully took the plate away, and returned in 5 minutes. She then examined the plate and decided that her duck breast entree, which was on the very rare side of medium rare, was overdone and that she wanted a new one. The waitress went back to the kitchen, and returned with a message from the chef that anything less done would be basically raw. She said that's how she wanted it and she "wouldn't touch that" unless is was cooked the way she wanted.

His dinner sat on the table cooling while The Show waited for the replacement duck dish. I secretly applauded the waitress for leaving His Dinner as there was nothing wrong with it. He, at this point, seemed to have had enough of her behavior, and started berating her for "Acting Like A White Woman". Needless to say, in my years of experience being a White Woman, I have never acted like Her, nor have I ever witnessed another White Woman behaving this way either.

10 minutes or so later, the waitress arrived with what can only be described as seared Duck Tartare. It looked positively revolting. She accepted the plate, and proceeded to inhale her meal in less than two minutes. After all of that production, I would have expected her to savor the course, but she just jabbed each rather large slice into her gullet. This display, in hindsight, was quite fitting.

The Show then continued to needle each other in harsh whispers for the rest of the meal. I won't describe the details of how they dealt with the wine pairings, but the method was quite similar to how the duck was handled, although with much samplings of the wine selections which ended up being a large quantity of Free Wine.

We left our waitress an extra tip; she demonstrated a great deal of fortitude and grace with The Show.

The End.

And of course incidents like that have never been acted out by white folk, eh?

I think the gentleman's comment spoke to that. I've a friend that as a child dreamed of having the money she does now. She is horrid to go out to dinner with or to somewhere like a hair salon. They can do NOTHING right.

She is a nice person under other circumstances, but all of her friends know that she's a pain and tip more than 20% and roll their eyes in sympathy with the waitstaff or salon people. Her husband loses it with her quite a lot, any surprise there?

Truly I don't know if she likes being that way or even recognizes that she is. She doesn't act that way to her cleaning lady, which surprised me to no end. All I can figure is that in her head she had it from years ago that if she ever was able to go to these places it would be the best time and food and service she could imagine. :shrug:
 
I never implied she was wrong to criticize their rude behavior. But the crux of even telling the story implied that said rudeness could ONLY be perpetrated by black people.
It did NOT.

And again, like I asked Jillian: Do you KNOW Bodeicca is white? NO YOU DO NOT.

Feel like possibly a fool yet? I bet not. Because YOU are the racist.

She said she was white.

"He, at this point, seemed to have had enough of her behavior, and started berating her for "Acting Like A White Woman". Needless to say, in my years of experience being a White Woman, I have never acted like Her, nor have I ever witnessed another White Woman behaving this way either."
 
I never implied she was wrong to criticize their rude behavior. But the crux of even telling the story implied that said rudeness could ONLY be perpetrated by black people.
It did NOT.

And again, like I asked Jillian: Do you KNOW Bodeicca is white? NO YOU DO NOT.

Feel like possibly a fool yet? I bet not. Because YOU are the racist.

She said she was white.

"He, at this point, seemed to have had enough of her behavior, and started berating her for "Acting Like A White Woman". Needless to say, in my years of experience being a White Woman, I have never acted like Her, nor have I ever witnessed another White Woman behaving this way either."
:lol:
 
I never implied she was wrong to criticize their rude behavior. But the crux of even telling the story implied that said rudeness could ONLY be perpetrated by black people.
It did NOT.

And again, like I asked Jillian: Do you KNOW Bodeicca is white? NO YOU DO NOT.

Feel like possibly a fool yet? I bet not. Because YOU are the racist.

She said she was white.

"He, at this point, seemed to have had enough of her behavior, and started berating her for "Acting Like A White Woman". Needless to say, in my years of experience being a White Woman, I have never acted like Her, nor have I ever witnessed another White Woman behaving this way either."
Wondered if you would bother going back!

However.... As it is, we really do NOT know. We know she says she is. Wait -- we also know she says she is a she! Is she?

That's my point -- you really do NOT know if it's male, female, white, black, blue, whatever. You're making your assumption based solely on your perception of Bodeicca as a white righty.

And that's all you're doing.
 
It did NOT.

And again, like I asked Jillian: Do you KNOW Bodeicca is white? NO YOU DO NOT.

Feel like possibly a fool yet? I bet not. Because YOU are the racist.

She said she was white.

"He, at this point, seemed to have had enough of her behavior, and started berating her for "Acting Like A White Woman". Needless to say, in my years of experience being a White Woman, I have never acted like Her, nor have I ever witnessed another White Woman behaving this way either."
Wondered if you would bother going back!

However.... As it is, we really do NOT know. We know she says she is. Wait -- we also know she says she is a she! Is she?

That's my point -- you really do NOT know if it's male, female, white, black, blue, whatever. You're making your assumption based solely on your perception of Bodeicca as a white righty.

And that's all you're doing.
You're right...Dicca could be a black man trying to make white women look racially insensitive.

:lol:
 
That's quoted out of context. But you know that.

She's quoting "the show's" dinner partner there.

By the way, is Boedicca white? Do you know?

No, you do not.
I'm not quoting it out of context. I am highlighting my doubt that this was said.

I don't care if Dicca is purple...I still doubt the story. I see two people, her and the other woman, relying on stereotypes...if this is even true.

Too bad we can't know the "other" side of this. While I don't doubt they were rude people, I have to wonder if they didn't exaggerate their displeasure with the service, etc., just to annoy those hoity-toity white folk who might have been visibly pissed off that they lost their reserved table. As Boe would say, "Just sayin..."
 
It did NOT.

And again, like I asked Jillian: Do you KNOW Bodeicca is white? NO YOU DO NOT.

Feel like possibly a fool yet? I bet not. Because YOU are the racist.

She said she was white.

"He, at this point, seemed to have had enough of her behavior, and started berating her for "Acting Like A White Woman". Needless to say, in my years of experience being a White Woman, I have never acted like Her, nor have I ever witnessed another White Woman behaving this way either."
Wondered if you would bother going back!

However.... As it is, we really do NOT know. We know she says she is. Wait -- we also know she says she is a she! Is she?

That's my point -- you really do NOT know if it's male, female, white, black, blue, whatever. You're making your assumption based solely on your perception of Bodeicca as a white righty.

And that's all you're doing.

surrender-dorothy.jpg


:rofl:

give it up, fool

the key to escaping a hole is to stop digging

:thup:
 
It did NOT.

And again, like I asked Jillian: Do you KNOW Bodeicca is white? NO YOU DO NOT.

Feel like possibly a fool yet? I bet not. Because YOU are the racist.

She said she was white.

"He, at this point, seemed to have had enough of her behavior, and started berating her for "Acting Like A White Woman". Needless to say, in my years of experience being a White Woman, I have never acted like Her, nor have I ever witnessed another White Woman behaving this way either."
Wondered if you would bother going back!

However.... As it is, we really do NOT know. We know she says she is. Wait -- we also know she says she is a she! Is she?

That's my point -- you really do NOT know if it's male, female, white, black, blue, whatever. You're making your assumption based solely on your perception of Bodeicca as a white righty.

And that's all you're doing.

Oh...my...God... You are quite a spinmeister.
 
She said she was white.

"He, at this point, seemed to have had enough of her behavior, and started berating her for "Acting Like A White Woman". Needless to say, in my years of experience being a White Woman, I have never acted like Her, nor have I ever witnessed another White Woman behaving this way either."
Wondered if you would bother going back!

However.... As it is, we really do NOT know. We know she says she is. Wait -- we also know she says she is a she! Is she?

That's my point -- you really do NOT know if it's male, female, white, black, blue, whatever. You're making your assumption based solely on your perception of Bodeicca as a white righty.

And that's all you're doing.

surrender-dorothy.jpg


:rofl:

give it up, fool

the key to escaping a hole is to stop digging

:thup:
Only one out of three bothered going back to read the OP. So, not bad. I didn't expect any.
 
Wondered if you would bother going back!

However.... As it is, we really do NOT know. We know she says she is. Wait -- we also know she says she is a she! Is she?

That's my point -- you really do NOT know if it's male, female, white, black, blue, whatever. You're making your assumption based solely on your perception of Bodeicca as a white righty.

And that's all you're doing.

surrender-dorothy.jpg


:rofl:

give it up, fool

the key to escaping a hole is to stop digging

:thup:
Only one out of three bothered going back to read the OP. So, not bad. I didn't expect any.

you don't know that; you're just assuming that is the case because only one bothered to quote it. :eusa_shhh:

:rofl:

keep swinging
 
I've eaten in some of the finest restaurants from Los Angeles to New Orleans to New York City and have had to endure my share of rude and rowdy customers, and I can't think of a single incident where it was a group of black people who got out of hand. That was the reason for my comment. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, obviously, but to write a tome about an unfortunate incident with emphasis on their race as if only black people would act that way was typical of right wingers who claim it's "not them" who are racists but lefties who do race baiting. So now there's a whole thread full of names of people who sympathized with poor Boedicca, and I'll bet at some point in some thread they've all denied being racists.
He, at this point, seemed to have had enough of her behavior, and started berating her for "Acting Like A White Woman".​

Whatever you do, don't criticize the rude diners! :eek:

I never implied she was wrong to criticize their rude behavior.
I meant that you shouldn't criticize the black people. Apparently, that's subtle bigotry.
But the crux of even telling the story implied that said rudeness could ONLY be perpetrated by black people.
No, it wasn't. That's the crux of your perception of the story, perhaps.

Personally, I was picturing the couple as white until halfway through when she mentioned their race.
Does anyone remember Bill O'Reilly relating his experience eating at some restaurant in Harlem and saying he was surprised they actually used silverware? This is the same kind of subtle bigotry on display.
I don't. I don't do teevee or radio talking heads.
 
Hopefully I have inspired some thought among you about your kneejerk assumptions.

But I somehow, doubt it.

You had one clear-headed thought, and that was that their race should have been left out of the discussion. Because, yes, otherwise it was a fairly interesting story and I'm sure hit home to many people who have had similar experiences to relate.

But no, you lost in your defense, especially suggesting Boedicca herself might not be white. Can I suggest that if she were black, she would have said so and perhaps gone on to say something like "it's black people behaving badly that gives us a bad rap..." Now THAT would have been heartening! And true.
 
you don't know that; you're just assuming that is the case because only one bothered to quote it. :eusa_shhh:

:rofl:

keep swinging
:lol::lol::lol::lol:

But it's a better assumption than theirs! And far less harmful.

they made no assumption; they gave their opinion based on the facts presented by the OP.
Wrong!
to write a tome about an unfortunate incident with emphasis on their race as if only black people would act that way was typical of right wingers who claim it's "not them" who are racists but lefties who do race baiting. So now there's a whole thread full of names of people who sympathized with poor Boedicca, and I'll bet at some point in some thread they've all denied being racists.
Assumptions on top of assumptions.
 

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