Heat it up, will ya?

Last night my son Matty, his wife Terri and I were chatting and somehow the topic of "say what you mean" came up. It brought back a funny experience I had in a bar with some friends a few years ago. I'll set the stage for you...there were 4 couples, and it was our second or third round of drinks. A couple of the men were teasing the server mercilessly, as some middle aged men are wont to do. It was getting a bit much to listen to their "joking". The server, a cute 20 something, was taking the orders and one of the joking men (we'll call him Patrick) asked for a Caesar. As the server was leaving the table, he added, "Will ya heat it up for me too?"

Photo Credit: © Genesun Han

When she returned with the tray of drinks, there were seven in glassware and one in a mug. And the mug with the celery stalk sticking out of it went to Patrick. It looked like a mug of steaming hot soup. He said to her, not very kindly, "What the hell is this? It's hot!" The sweet young thing informed him he had wanted it heated, so she popped it into the microwave for him. He launched into a little tirade about her lack of intelligence and informed her that heating it up meant putting more tabasco in it. She was very professional, took away the mug, and soon returned with a spicy Caesar for him.

A couple of the men were poking fun at the server for not knowing what Patrick meant. Then we told him five out of eight of us didn't know what he meant. That's when one of the group quietly muttered, "Say what you mean, bro. Then there won't be any misunderstandings."

We haven't seen "Patrick" in a few years, but the incident was never mentioned again. About a year or so afterwards, I was reflecting on this little episode and realized the server probably knew what he meant, but was simply following his request to the letter. And probably chuckled all the way back to the bar when she was getting him his Caesar. Good for her!