Anyone remember that ad campaign?

A group of my friends met for Ethiopian eats in Cincinnati last night. We get together fairly regularly to laugh and rag on each other, usually along with mass amounts of alcohol. It's a good time.

Of course the SBC Global letter (see previous post) provided a lot of laughs. My friends imitated me -- putting their hands on their hips, and saying in their queeniest voices:

"I am appalled at the shoddy customer service..."
"I will take my telephone business needs elsewhere!" etc. etc.

ha ha ha! Not at all like me, of course!

But my friend B had one better.

B lives in a section of the city where crack houses mix with rehab projects. One morning, she was out front as the junior high kids were on their way to the school a block from her home. A girl was finishing a bag of Cheet-Ohs and tossed it onto the sidewalk in front of B's house.

"Hey, I live here! Pick that up!" said B.
"Fuck you, c*nt, pickit up yourself!" said the girl, and she ran on down the block.

Incensed, B snatched up the bag and strode down to the school. Meeting with the principal, she shook the empty bag before his desk: "I won't make comments about parents who allow children to eat Cheet-ohs for breakfast; but I live in this neighborhood, and as a taxpayer I'm trying to make a difference!" (By this point of the story, we're already practically falling off our chairs with laughter.) "This behavior is intolerable!" Accompanied by the Assistant Principal, B then went through every single classroom until the girl -- a 6th grader -- was found. The little girl was given detention.

Ha ha ha! Take a bite out of crime!

(That poor girl! I just hope B doesn't get her house fire-bombed.)

When the crew gets together, we get loud and raunchy. We sometimes catch people listening in on the conversation -- which isn't too difficult to do. Maybe we've curled a few hairs.

We're all about the same age, most of us are fixing up old buildings, wear thrift clothes, listen to weird bands, and are, uh ... a bit loose when it comes to sexual expression. Most of us are single. Any correlations, here? I don't know.

We stayed well after the other customers. The Ethiopian proprietor, so mild-mannered, apologetically approached to tell us they wanted to sleep.