Esprit de l'escalier
Jul. 15th, 2024 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynYou know that thing in my subject line, that thing where you think of a retort to something someone says two days later, usually in the shower or in bed at 3 in the morning? I actually thought of a retort to someone being an asshole to me in real time a short while ago, and I'm so fucking proud of myself that I've been annoying everyone by telling them about it, so now I'm annoying you.
I was at the grocery store and was having trouble juggling my cane (sometimes I need the cane or the walking pole to help me out), my mask, and my reusable bag and my purse or whatever. And I don't even wear fancy masks, just the surgical ones, but I'm pretty much stuck now with them forever when I go anywhere, because my immune system is so suppressed by these chemo drugs. And this guy was behind me, waiting for me to get out of the way so he could get a little cart, and he made this kind of snotty remark, I still don't really remember what he said, but just something about me having all that trouble when no one needs masks or something, but he was just so frigging condescending and smug about it.
And I stared at him as dead-eyed and flat affected as I could, and said in a mild voice, "Do you have bone marrow cancer?"
He was completely stymied by that. I could tell he didn't know how to process the question, and he went, "What?" and then seemed to almost regroup, and then went "What? No."
So then I left it a beat, and said, still in a totally flat voice, "Well, I do, and it’s incurable so I will have to wear masks for the rest of my life or until COVID truly goes away, because of all the assholes like you who don’t." And then I walked away.
He was very angry, I could tell. I had to go hide in the wine section for a while to avoid seeing him. But man, that totally felt so great. I've never been able to come up with a put-down in real time. And I live in an area that at one point during the height of the vaccination roll-out was the most-vaccinated zip code in the US. It's not like there aren't tons of people still wearing masks here, too, I see them at the stores all the time, in places where people have constant contact with others.
It was totally inspired by Lucy Liu as Joan Watson in Elementary, I think--I'd recently been rewatching it, and there was this episode where she looks at a guy blandly, one who's been giving them massive shit and is a smug jerk about it, and she says, "What's the hardest you've ever been hit?" and he goes into a mental shut-down. So that's the secret, maybe: channel Joan Watson.
Anyway, random post is random. I'm going to try to do a The Bear post this week sometime.
I was at the grocery store and was having trouble juggling my cane (sometimes I need the cane or the walking pole to help me out), my mask, and my reusable bag and my purse or whatever. And I don't even wear fancy masks, just the surgical ones, but I'm pretty much stuck now with them forever when I go anywhere, because my immune system is so suppressed by these chemo drugs. And this guy was behind me, waiting for me to get out of the way so he could get a little cart, and he made this kind of snotty remark, I still don't really remember what he said, but just something about me having all that trouble when no one needs masks or something, but he was just so frigging condescending and smug about it.
And I stared at him as dead-eyed and flat affected as I could, and said in a mild voice, "Do you have bone marrow cancer?"
He was completely stymied by that. I could tell he didn't know how to process the question, and he went, "What?" and then seemed to almost regroup, and then went "What? No."
So then I left it a beat, and said, still in a totally flat voice, "Well, I do, and it’s incurable so I will have to wear masks for the rest of my life or until COVID truly goes away, because of all the assholes like you who don’t." And then I walked away.
He was very angry, I could tell. I had to go hide in the wine section for a while to avoid seeing him. But man, that totally felt so great. I've never been able to come up with a put-down in real time. And I live in an area that at one point during the height of the vaccination roll-out was the most-vaccinated zip code in the US. It's not like there aren't tons of people still wearing masks here, too, I see them at the stores all the time, in places where people have constant contact with others.
It was totally inspired by Lucy Liu as Joan Watson in Elementary, I think--I'd recently been rewatching it, and there was this episode where she looks at a guy blandly, one who's been giving them massive shit and is a smug jerk about it, and she says, "What's the hardest you've ever been hit?" and he goes into a mental shut-down. So that's the secret, maybe: channel Joan Watson.
Anyway, random post is random. I'm going to try to do a The Bear post this week sometime.
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Date: 2024-07-15 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-15 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-15 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-15 11:41 pm (UTC)go you!!
I don't get at all why the hell folks think they have a right on others' taking precautions; what's it to Random Dude if I wear a mask? I'm not making him do so, after all
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Date: 2024-07-15 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2024-07-16 02:47 am (UTC)FUCK YEAH!
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Date: 2024-07-16 03:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-16 03:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-16 04:41 am (UTC)https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1812975469492641881.html
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Date: 2024-07-16 06:36 am (UTC)""What's the hardest you've ever been hit?"
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Date: 2024-07-16 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-16 03:50 pm (UTC)That was awesome!
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Date: 2024-07-16 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-16 07:14 pm (UTC)