When I was in college I ate subs.  LOTS of subs.  I always got the same thing: Mayo, mustard, turkey, American cheese, and lettuce.  When I would go to the Union snack bar and the person behind the counter would ask me what kind of sub I wanted I would rattle those 5 ingredients off.  I quickly learned to stop wasting my breath, as the person invariably suffered from some short-term memory disorder and couldn’t remember 5 simple ingredients for a period of time exceeding 5 seconds.  So when asked what kind of sub I wanted I simply replied "mayonnaise" and waited.  If I fed them my ingredients one at a time, they seemed able to handle it.

I am continually dismayed and disappointed at just how prevalent this continues to be.  Just this morning at Dunkin’ Donuts I walked in and ordered their #2 combo (coffee and a muffin).  I very clearly stated, "I would like a #2 combo, EXTRA LARGE, with a banana-walnut muffin, French vanilla coffee with cream and sugar."  I even paused and emphasized the "EXTRA LARGE".  What’d I get?  "Normal".  I said to the girl who brought my coffee, "that’s EXTRA large".  She brought me back an extra large and then I informed the cashier that she hadn’t charged me enough because I had asked for an extra large.

What the hell is it with these people?  It’s like they get one tiny piece of information in their brain and then a WALL goes up and any subsequent pieces fly into it and drop on the floor instead of getting processed.  There ought to be red and green lights on their caps or name badges so that we customers know when to stop and start talking and thus avoid frustration.