O’Mei entrepreneur, Roger Grigsby, shared this gem with me. He overhead a former waiter approach a table about a month ago and actually ask the patrons, “You guys hangin’ in there OK?.” A true indication of just how genericized ordinary language has become.
I am about to give up my crusade to ban “you guys” from public communications, especially since I attended a lecture last week at Cowell College and heard the distinguished guest speaker begin his remarks with, “How are you guys tonight?”
Even ruder was the family I observed dining at Avanti two weeks ago, who allowed their “darling” 3-year-old to scream, bang spoons, wriggle down the chairs and over the table, and finally fling a full glass of something viscous — milk perhaps — across the chairs, floor and wall behind the table. It took two patient, hard-working servers the next five minutes — on their hands and knees — to clean up the mess. But the damage to everybody else’s dining experience had been done. A word to parents — (see my illustration above, created for a story I did a few years back about banning unruly youngsters from nice dining rooms) – leave the young ones at home until they can be controlled. A restaurant is NOT an extension of your private dining room. Others have paid money to enjoy their dinner.
