Cite?
So who’s Harvey Wallbanger?
As Wikipedia says,
Shouldn’t that be a Lando Calrissian?
I find it ironic that a person who couldn’t muster the effort to check on a potentially dead human being could find the energy and the motivation to get upset about such an insignificant comment. I think a priority check is severely in order for you.
You want to talk about “taking things too lightly” or “pointing out things that make our world less than ideal”? Check out your behavior in this thread.
It’s from this huge shock of not being universally loved. It couldn’t be that there are customers who actually dislike being corrected, so it’s got to be hate.
Not really, no. When promised douche-baggery I expect something worth getting riled up over, like spitting in your face, or taking someone else’s bill off their table that was cheaper and leaving hers behind when she goes to the cashier, or paying a $60 meal in pennies. Choosing to use a different name for a pretty basic drink isn’t up there, even if it’s possibly done out of misplaced racial identity.
Of course there is also the possibility that she thinks that the drink was named in tribute to the greatest golfer of his time (rather than allegedly invented by him) and feels that, if you are going to insist that she pay tribute in order to order a friggin drink, that she can then pay tribute to whoever the hell she wants, and that paying tribute to today’s greatest golfer, who happens to at be percieved as Black, makes sense. She may even feel that your insisting that she pay tribute to an old White guy golfer, from an era when Blacks were not allowed on most of the links other than as help, in order to get a damn drink the way she wants it is a soft bit of unconscious racism on your part.
Sure, I used to create a layered soda using uncarbonated orange soda on the bottom, a bit of sprite in the middle, and diet coke on top. Regular coke wouldn’t work. You get a great layer, but since there is no orange on top it is not much of a stripe.
To play the devil’s advocate like some of the other replies, she might not have been trying to be racist; she may have been merely trying to update it by using the name of a different, more modern well-known golfer… who just so happens to be black.
Or she may have been trying to be racist. We won’t really know unless she’s asked.
As far as the “shut your mouth and serve” attitude; I’ve worked in customer service my entire (post-legal-working-age) life, and I’ve always been told that I’m not being paid so the customers can abuse me. I was instructed that if a customer ever insults, harasses, or abuses me in any way that we refuse to serve them and grab a manager, with the potential of removing them from the premises. What the OP did was right in this case; it MAY have been an insult, but a subtle/mild one so you just smile and nod and vent to your coworkers (and fellow dopers) to help you get you through the day. Just because you’re “paying our salary” (as some customers would put it) it doesn’t give you the right to treat the help like they aren’t human.
Were I in a similar situation to the OP (and I have been before), I simply play dumb. Nothing ruins a person’s lame joke like pretending you don’t get it:
Me: You mean an Arnie Palmer?
Customer: No, a Tiger Woods.
Me: … I’m sorry, I don’t get it. (confused look)
Customer: (lame explanation)
Me: … but Arnold Palmer made it famous? Why would it be named after anyone else? (still confused look)
Customer: (head a’splodes)
And for the record, does this mean we should find a new PC term for the Nobel Prize? He’s white, but the prize is open to all races…
I’m just relieved to learn that an “Arnold Palmer” drink doesn’t have Quaker State Pennzoil as an ingredient .
I don’t see that people are advocating rudeness towards waitstaff.
But in your hypothetical exchange, it is borderline rude for you to correct the customer on such an obscure point. If I’m describing a drink by its ingredients, chances are I do not know it has a formal name. You saying “an Arnie Palmer?” sounds like you’re being a know-it-all snob, like your ears are too special to receive non-technical information
It’s kind of like if I work for a plant nursery, you ask where the red maples are, and I say, “You mean the Acer rubrum?” I know exactly what kind of tree you want, so I’m kind of being a jerk by using unnecessary jargon.
That’s OK. When I first saw the thread title and before I opened the thread, I was afraid that it was going to have something to do with methods to straighten one’s putter.
And that’s right when Nelson Muntz begins beating the crap out of you.
I didn’t mean to imply people were, but I saw a post or two towards the beginning which seemed to assert that if a waitstaff didn’t like the way their customers were treating them they should quit. I probably just misinterpreted the posts-in-question’s intent.
It all depends on your inflection and tone of voice. Obviously it’s extremely difficult to convey my tone of voice through text, but I know what you mean by being snooty, and it’s definitely not the tone I’d be using.
As regards repeating back what someone asks, I used to work at a video rental store, and oftentimes people would come and get part of a movie title right, and I’d repeat the correct title both to help them out in the future and to verify I did in fact know what they were talking about:
Cust: Yeah, you guys got that Talamadayguh Knights movie in?
Me: You mean Taladega Nights, with Will Ferrel? The comedy about NASCAR?
Cust: Oh, nevermind… I thought it was about swords and stuff.
Many a time a customer would come in and ask about one movie while thinking about another, and repeating the title with a quick description often helped fix the issue. Unfortunately some customers took offense, assuming incorrectly I thought they were an idiot. I mean, they were, but that’s not why I was repeating what they’d requested. 
That’s a lot better than my first thought…
“Did you try checking your local forest?”
I imagine the lady knew the drink as a Tiger Woods and assumed YOU were being racist by calling it an Arnold Palmer. That would explain the wagging finger. Is she wrong if she pits you somewhere?
I’ve never heard of an “Arnold Palmer” as a drink and would be upset if you “corrected” me.
What’s a “Black and White”? A “Murder Burger”? A “regular coffee”? Pie?
What’s a “hero”?
Being unaware of regional names for a beverage, a food or whatever doesn’t make one racist or dumb. ASSUMING that the whole world’s definition of anything is the same as yours is.
These are NYC definitions:
Black & White - large cookie with chocolate and vanilla frosting.
Murder Burger - White Castle burger.
Regular coffee - cream, 2 sugars
Pie - Pizza
Hero - sandwich on long Italian roll (AKA :sub, hogie, grinder, 'po boy)
“It’s called a douche for a reason, Arnold Palmer.”
Well, sure, give the punch line without the rest of the joke. :mad:
The lady in the restaurant wasn’t being abusive by any stretch of the imagination. Had rigamarole simply shut up and served her the drink she very clearly requested, instead of arguing with her about the correct nickname, we wouldn’t be discussing this alleged affront.
Customers whose heads you make explode are less likely to leave you a nice tip.
No, we solve that with an easy quiz:
- Do you like coffee?
- Are you loud?
Susan