The Rudest Thing I've Ever Witnessed

For lunch today I headed over to Panera to practice my ANOVA skills one last time before my big Statistics final this evening.  I think I’m ready but I wanted to give the Factorial ANOVA one more shot as it takes forever and I want to make sure I’m comfortable so I don’t run out of time….

Anyway, I get settled in with my practice sheet and start feverishly calculating the sum of squares when this older gentleman came by; he asked what I was studying for and then sat down.  He was carrying one of those old cd player radios and he positioned it on the table between us and turns on NPR….   Now, I have nothing against NPR.  Sometimes when I’m working and have spent a lot of time in the car I’ll flip to NPR as regular radio tends to rotate the same 40 songs over and over.  Just to chang it up a little....

But today, I couldn’t believe it.  I kept looking at him and looking back trying to focus on the ANOVA at hand.  But every time I would try to refocus--the astonishment of his audacity won out….seriously?  You can just bring a radio into a Panera and listen to whatever you want as loudly as you want with no real consequences.  Everyone sitting around us was staring and annoyed, rolling their eyes waiting for someone to ask him to turn it down!  Turn it down?  I say ear pieces...that is why they make ear phones--so you can listen to whatever crap you wanna to listen to without disturbing the people around you!  

Finally, one women asked him to please turn it off and his response:  “This America.  I can listen to whatever I want, when I want!  It’s a free country.” 

I finally packed my stuff up and left before my lunch break was over but next time I’ll be sure to play a little Deadmau5 for him and see how he likes it.