At Kinko's, I was helped by an employee who was simultaneously holding a conversation with a couple of customers who seemed to also be his friends. I had no problem with this, since he was perfectly capable of printing my document and talking to them at the same time, but I couldn't help overhearing their conversation. The friends were female, and looked to be about nineteen or twenty years old. The conversation went something like this, beginning at the point when I became aware of it:
Employee: Was she Hispanic?
Friend 1: Yeah. And she had this HUGE wad of gum in her mouth.
Employee: That's Circe.
Friend 1: She didn't help me at all. Can I complain?
Employee: Not to me. You can complain to my manager.
Friend 1: Can I write a complaint?
Employee: You want to make a written complaint?
Friend 1: [responding to a question from Friend 2] Her name's CeeCee.
Friend 2: Who's CeeCee?
Employee: No, her name's Circe.
Friend 1: What?
At this point I (foolishly) thought I could help clear up the misunderstanding, even though I knew none of the people involved.
Me: Circe. Like the witch.
Employee: ...
Friends: ...
Me: From Greek mythology? Ancient Greece?
Employee: ...
Friends: ...
Me: From the Odyssey, Circe, she's the witch who turns Odysseus' men into pigs.
Employee: Oh, yeah. She's the one on the island. The witch.
Me: Yes, exactly.
Friend 1: Is that on Lost?
I took my document and went home.
4 comments:
And that makes me think of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZhJlGV2s_k
Heh. I love the Tick.
Wow. I mean, wow.
So there's this series of books for teens called Percy Jackson & the Olympians. They do a more modern rehash of some of the old Greek stories. Anyway, Circe turns the hero into a guinea pig. Love it.
look at you, all helpful. :)
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