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🕑 Added 2024-01-12 13:00:09 +0000 UTC
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Local punk, Joel Locke, reportedly mistook a waitress’s inherent kindness as an invitation to make her watch a 2008 YouTube video of Davey Havok performing “Straight Edge Revenge” with Ceremony at the famous Berkeley punk venue 924 Gilman, embarrassed sources confirmed.
“Lydia is the best! She kept my coffee filled, brought me extra jam for my toast, and even complimented me on my ‘All Hallow’s’ E.P. t-shirt. She said she liked the art,” said the absolutely clueless Locke. “I started telling her about the East Bay hardcore and punk scene and she was really interested! I said she absolutely NEEDED to see this video of Davey Havok doing ‘Straight Edge Revenge’ with Ceremony at Gilman. She was so stoked. I had queued it up for a third rewatch before she apologized and said she needed to go check on her other tables.”
Lydia Daly, the waitress who waited on Joel at the Denny’s on College Town Drive, says that unfortunately many patrons mistake her kindness for interest.
“It’s kind of an ongoing problem. My manager Cara Jean says I have to practice putting my foot down in these situations and stop being so nice to the nerds and obsessives who come into the restaurant,” said the painfully empathetic and compassionate Daly. “Look, my grandma always said the greatest gift you could give to someone is your attention and I believe it. That Joel fellow was passionate about something. I think the world would be a better place if more people showed that kind of passion.”
Cheyenne Hale, a sociologist at the University of California, San Francisco, says these types of interactions most often impact lovely, tenderhearted workers who regularly interact with the public.
“There are so many wonderful, kind, and gentle individuals working in service industries, especially as waitstaff and bartenders. That kindness can often be mistaken for interest in the customer or their hobbies and interests,” said Hale. “These workers are captive audiences. When the goodwill of these individuals clashes with the brutality of endemic loneliness, situations can arise where susceptible service workers get stuck in boundaryless conversations.”
At press time, Locke was paying his bill at the front counter and explaining to the unlucky hostess how Project X was one of the many bands that branched off from Youth of Today
Article by Ryan Dondero.
Comments
Alex Marianyi
I'm so scared of being Joel that I don't even tell my own family about my interests.
