I enjoy talking to random people in everyday situations, striking up a conversation and just bullshitting a little bit. Most of the time I'm gonna lead off with some kind of stupid joke. Sometimes a little friendly banter starts....sometimes I'm left with the shambles of a Lloyd Christmas conversation.
So yesterday I walked into the grocery store and the girl behind the counter at the satellite bank branch was reading a Harry Potter book. Assuming she was re-reading the books in anticipation of the last movie being released soon, and making a play on all the internet spoiler jokes regarding the Potter series, I gave her a smile and a "Reading Harry Potter huh? Hey, you know Dumbledore dies, right?"
Eeee boyeee. I knew I was in immediate trouble when her cohort behind the counter froze and almost dropped her water while giving me a wide-eyed look. And my fears were confirmed when the victim glared at me, slammed her book shut, and asked me if I was "being serious right now, dammit." Turns out she was reading the series for the first time. Whoops.
In my defense, the Harry Potter books have been done for four years now; Dumbledore dead for six. I'm sorry that this chick managed to live in a cave since 2005 and not heard about the death of ol' Albus. C'mon.
In her defense, there's no reason why she should expect a random stranger to stroll by and casually drop a bomb like that without any sort of provocation. None. Also, I'm the guy who stays a year behind on most TV shows I enjoy, so I can buy the DVDs and hammer out the entire series in a couple days. If a conversation about the current events of one of these shows breaks out, I either put my fingers in my ears and make noises until it stops, or I make the others immediately stop the conversation altogether. So I should know better when it comes to spoilers.
Turns out that when you act like a sarcastic dick to strangers, you're going to come across as, well...a sarcastic dick.
