Human Writes: Difficult Customer
Give me exactly what I want or give me death! | Non-Fiction | Fresh Soup
A friend of mine once told me that when she and her family used to go out for dinner, her father would order a bottle of wine, and as soon as he’d tasted it, he would pronounce it terrible and demand a different bottle. This happened every time they ate out. At the moment of uncorking, my friend and her whole family knew exactly what was coming: the wrinkled nose, the irritated expression, the uncomfortable exchange with the waiter and then with the restaurant manager. She told me this story while we were having dinner at a restaurant, to explain why she would not be ordering wine. That ritual of tasting the wine while the waiter stood there had become, for her, so brutal and traumatic that she’d rather drink a gallon of Dr. Pepper than relive it.
I’m not sure what made my friend’s dad return hundreds of bottles of wine over the course of his life, but I’m guessing it was a strategy: by acting aggressively, you give everyone around you the message that if they do something you don’t like, the response will be harsh and swift. We’ve all seen the movies in which a new prisoner picks a fight in order to let the other inmates know they shouldn’t mess with him, and I can understand why someone would risk a punch in the face if it decreases his chances of getting stabbed to death in the mess hall. But being snippy with a waiter at a gourmet restaurant because you think it’ll get you a better bottle of wine—that’s a different matter. When things are bad and you’re fighting for your life, notions such as “pleasant atmosphere,” “consideration,” and even “decency” lose their significance, but when you’re sipping a Chardonnay with your family at a birthday dinner, you have to be a very particular sort of person to make a scene that you know will cast a pall over the event.