Earlier today, I was at my neighborhood coffee shop — not an uncommon phenomenon as caffeine is my lifeblood.  Some clown in front of me wearing a Yankees hat and an oversized royal blue tracksuit with an unfortunate sheen to it walked up to the counter blabbing away on his cell phone.

He took a break from his conversation for just long enough to tell the girl behind the counter, Heather, “Yeah, get me a cappuccino,” before quickly returning to whatever important business he had to attend.  (Presumably involving another person with a shiny tracksuit who was on the other end of the line.)

After taking his order and ringing him up, Heather politely interrupted his conversation to tell him, “Just so you know, for the future, we have a policy where we don’t like people to talk on their phone while they’re at the counter.”

To which he responded by continuing to talk on the phone while he waited for his cappuccino.  After he had finished with his call, apparently intrigued by whatever crazy thing Heather had just said to him, he inquired, “What was that you told me about my cell phone?”

“Oh, well, I just said that we have a policy where we prefer people not to talk on their cell phones at the counter.”

“Why?”

“Well, first of all, it can make it hard for us to take their orders.  Also, we’re providing you with a service.  We think you should have enough respect for us to not be having an interaction with someone else while we’re trying to have an interaction with you.”

He paused, reflected, and then having come to a conclusion, responded, “That’s selfish.”

“How is it selfish?”

“You want to keep me from my call so that you can talk to me.”

“That’s not exactly what I was saying. I was actually just saying that it’s disrespectful not to get off your call while I’m trying to take your order and ring you up.”

“That’s selfish.”

“Well, if you think so, you’re under no obligation to come back here.”

“OK.  I won’t.”

After he had walked out of the shop, Carter, the other guy behind the counter, looked at me with an accusatory glance and said, “See, Melanie. He was a Yankees fan.”

A note to fellow Bombers fans: If you’re going to act like a jerk, be sure to take your hat off first.  (Same applies if you’re going to wear an oversized tracksuit with an unfortunate sheen.)

And just like that, another Principle was born.