Say Please, Dammit

I think that if you are old enough to form sentences, you are old enough to say please and thank you. All. The. Time. I also think that if you tend to ask for things and not use those oh-so-easy to get out words, then you are a jerk. If you are a four year old, you get a pass and can be reminded. If you are a full-fledged adult, you have no excuse, so either be polite or shut up. Does that make me judgmental?

Um, if you’ve read the blog before you already know that I am judgmental. If you haven’t, well, stick around… I’m bound to offend someone sooner or later, but at least I will be polite about it. What has set me off on this rant today? Well, this past weekend we had dinner one night at Azur. (It was, as usual amazing – house cured salmon, gnocchi with mushrooms and asparagus, grouper over sauteed-in-loads-of-butter cauliflower… you’ve heard me rave about the food and service before.) We were seated shortly after a foursome of Tommy-Bahama-wearing men with capri-and-fancy-shoe wearing women, likely in their seventies, and right across the aisle outside. At first, I just assumed orange-shirt guy (from here on, Mr. Entitled) was deaf, as everything he said was loud enough so that I could easily have answered back. It was so loud, that it was actually difficult to have our own conversation in between their discussing the legal limits for catching a yellowtail (they need to be 12 inches long, Mr. E.) and trying to figure out what to order. When the other three at the table were enjoying a bottle of Pelligrino, Mr. E. says to their server, Ray, (who happens to not only be great at his job, but a lovely person to chat with, too)  “Get me regular water. Now.” I could not help but answer, equally loud, “PLEASE.” I didn’t actually mean to be that loud… it just came out. Needless to say, Mr. E. did not get the hint. Then it came time for them to actually order food. Oy. I counted at least three times that Mr. E. asked Ray about the seafood risotto. Not different questions, mind you, but the same one. Three times. Within a span of two minutes. What did he want to know? “Is it enough?” Well, it is an entree, and unless you are in the habit of needing to eat more than one entree after your appetizer, yes, it is a large portion. “But, is it enough? For $29, it should be…” Oh, for heaven’s sake, the restaurant serves large portions of food. I think we have safely established that already. At long last, they got their food, ate, and managed to get a bit quieter. It was the miracle of the seafood risotto. So, please, when you go out to eat, or anywhere in public, or frankly, in your own home, and you ask someone for something, don’t forget to say “please“. When they bring you said item, a “thank you” would be nice. While we are all being so polite, please feel free to share this blog with your friends, neighbors and even the people you only marginally know on Facebook. If they are polite, they will thank you.