# I've been working here for fifteen years! I have benefits! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 24, 2010, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546 "2010-05-24T07:08:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/121 "2010-05-25T16:05:52Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > And finally, how bad an insult is coon? Really, really, really bad. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/122 "2010-05-25T16:11:42Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > And finally, how bad an insult is coon? You know those words that African Americans call each other that others _really_ shouldn’t use? This usually isn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/123 "2010-05-25T16:16:05Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Really, really, really bad. On a scale of Nigger to Negro/Negress how bad? Sometimes it’s hard for me to tell on this board whats really bad and what people are just sensitive about. EDIT: It’s like the fried chicken and watermelons thing. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/124 "2010-05-25T17:14:05Z")
It is at least as bad as the N word. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/125 "2010-05-25T17:18:15Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > On a scale of Nigger to Negro/Negress how bad? > > Sometimes it’s hard for me to tell on this board whats really bad and what people are just sensitive about. > > EDIT: It’s like the fried chicken and watermelons thing. Worse. ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/126 "2010-05-25T17:19:54Z")
> [@julius blaze](#): > > It is at least as bad as the N word. I thought nothing was as bad as nigger. I thought that was the grand-daddy. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/127 "2010-05-25T17:26:08Z")
Put it this way: it’s not something you would say to someone who you don’t want to punch you in the face. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/128 "2010-05-25T17:56:53Z")
Heh. Some African-Americans use the “N” word on each other. But none use the “Coon” word on others. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/129 "2010-05-25T18:21:56Z")
Edit: Never mind, I appear to be blind, issue addressed upthread ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/130 "2010-05-25T21:06:26Z")
It’s **Stan Schmenge**. He’s a retarded anal fissure on the board. He leaks onto his keyboard on occasion, and thinks it’s worth posting. He is a troll of the highest order. You know that 4Chan thing, where they will post a big diatribe that someone must have done originally talking about how he’s gonna leave the board 'cause it’s all losers and he is so much better than them, and he’s gonna go bang some girls and drive his camaro 'cause he’s so much better than everyone? That’s **Stan**. He’s smarter than cops, and smarter than you, he’s a better driver drunk than you are sober, and cops and authority figures are scared of him because they know he won’t put up with their shit. He’s hard core like that. The shit I took this morning has more class, brains, and wit. And he won’t be back, because he is a coward of the first order, and this didn’t go the way he thought it would. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/131 "2010-05-25T21:10:22Z")
_::cue mysterious music::_ Or . . . it . . . . did. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/132 "2010-05-26T06:21:08Z")
I also think the lady’s response was very weird. But it makes sense: if she’s been working there for 15 years, she obviously isn’t the loser the OP claims she is. It implies the transaction they had with her was atypical, and that the OP was being rude using that as a basis of judging the whole person. Still, it sounds silly. Better would have been “Well this loser has had a job here for 15 years.” And even that could have backfired if the OP had been better employed. But I think it would have been worth the risk. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/133 "2010-05-26T06:55:52Z")
I love guys like Stan. It’s funny because they think their opinions matter. It’s like watching a guy high-fiving himself as he walks away, a big long streamer of toilet paper stuck to his heel. I mean, I’m sure my opinion doesn’t matter to him, and I’m good with that! I love getting phone calls from guys like Stan, because once they pull that crap out even my perpetually ancestral-guilt-ridden ass no longer has to feel bad for not giving them what they want. I love how they think they’re ruining my day by calling me a minimum-wage-earning high school dropout when they’d cut off their own dicks and eat them to work for my company. Sometimes they even ask if we’re hiring. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/134 "2010-05-26T09:13:12Z")
My wife works at half pice books (used book store chain). She gets Health, Eye, and dental, profit sharing, great discounts on books (and she can check out any book or movie in the store, like it was a library). At home, if she’s not reading a book she’s organizing things. She was genetically programmed from birth to work in a book store, and she loves it. On the application where it asked “why do you want to work in a book store” she replied “They’re full of BOOKS!” We’ll never get wealthy off of it (it pays ok, but it’s still retail), but she’s happy and that’s infinately more important. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/135 "2010-05-26T09:25:49Z")
[Half Price Books](http://www.halfpricebooks.com/our_story.html) started in Texas & is a fine chain. Publishers’s excess books can be found, along with the second-hand ones. I’ve often thought I wouldn’t mind working there after I retire. A bit of extra money wouldn’t hurt & I’d get to be surrounded by all those _book_s. ---
**Author:** ![ColdPhoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@ColdPhoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdPhoenix)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/136 "2010-05-26T09:39:54Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > I don’t think (my Irish is very poor) that there is a direct translation of cunt, but that is how Cork people say it. And some Dublin knackers. > > They are trying to speak English, their accents just mangle it 😃 I did mean they were speaking english with an accent! 😉 (I’m from ireland) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/137 "2010-05-26T09:53:00Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Really, really, really bad. And what does the word “coon” refers to? ---
**Author:** ![Radegast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@Radegast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Radegast)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/138 "2010-05-26T10:12:40Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > What else would you shoot yourself in the head with? A tree? A boat? > > You are every bit as dumb as you think her to be. You’re not even smart enough to shut the hell up about it. Come on, Doors! He could use a crossbow, maybe a small cannon, or that cattle-killing compressed air gizmo from No Country for Old Men… ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/139 "2010-05-26T10:26:43Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > And what does the word “coon” refers to? “Coon” is a horribly offensive way to refer to black people. It drips with insult, the assumed superiority of the speaker and an subtext of implied threat. It is in the same category as nigger, and “boy” (when directed at black men by white people to) to reinforce the open and socially acceptable contempt that was endemic in white culture towards blacks. I have no idea where the phrase comes from or why it is so bad, but it really, really is. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546/140 "2010-05-26T10:52:28Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > “Coon” is a horribly offensive way to refer to black people. > > I have no idea where the phrase comes from or why it is so bad, but it really, really is. I am loathe to mention that in Australia we have a packaged cheese branded as COON cheese, and has been since at least I was a wee lassie. :eek: Mind you, ‘coon’ here is also an offensive way of referring to the black, indigenous owners of our land. I dunno how Kraft have gotten away with their marketing strategy over the years, but most people seem to have not made the connection, or if they HAVE, have then waved it away as a quirky oddity of our culture of denial! 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-working-here-for-fifteen-years-i-have-benefits/540546.md?page=8)