Taco Bell bum belligerence
Ben’s become so obsessed with this blogging thing, I needn’t bother blogging my own mundane life anymore; I can simply link his (and mine, by extension). Witness the case of the belligerent Taco Bell bum.
Friday night did not end up being an extraordinarily fun night, but our experience at the World’s Greatest Taco Bell™ (1743 Sherman Ave., Evanston, Illinois, 60201) made for a very blogworthy experience. I’ll let Ben introduce the scene…
As soon as we walked in, a bum named Lenny asked Tom for a quarter and Tom said no. Lenny crossed the restaurant, leaving his ratty backpack and pile of pennies and nickels on the counter just to get up in Tom?s face. Now, there were a number of young kids in the joint who looked like they had been sort of laughing at Lenny?s antics, and he probably enjoyed being the center of attention for once. His ego was a little too puffed up, however, because he immediately began hurling accusations of racism at Tom (for not giving him a quarter??) and asking if Tom had a problem.
Continuing the tale…
Erstwhile tough guy Lenny is in Tom?s face, asking him if he has a problem and calling him racist. Having interacted with Lenny enough in the past week or so for me to feel confident that he would recognize me as the guy he feels so free to do favors for, I chimed in, asking Lenny what was going on. He replied with “I?m not talking to you, yadda yadda yadda,” so I asked him if he had a problem. At this point he got in my face and began a shouting match. I was angry and did nothing to de-escalate the situation. What kind of lowlife flings accusations of racism and then tries to take on two guys at once who are doing nothing but standing in line for tacos? After a series of exchanges in which I proved my well-honed wit and my alpha male resolve not to back down from aggression, Lenny realized that I had 4 inches, 60 pounds and a friend over him and decided to shut his mouth.
What our dear friend Lenny found out, of course, is that few can match my boy Ben in the belligerence department. Read the rest of the Taco Bell bum tale for yourself at Ben’s blog.