Between grammar and a coffee place
Lynne Rosenthal, an English professor from Manhattan, was forcibly ejected from a Starbucks after a lexicon dispute with a barista:
According to the New York Post, Lynne Rosenthal ordered a “toasted multigrain bagel” and was outraged that a barista had the nerve to ask her “butter or cheese?” “I refused to say ‘without butter or cheese.’ When you go to Burger King, you don’t have to list the six things you don’t want.”
This incident was not the first:
Rosenthal admitted she had run into trouble before for refusing to employ the chain’s stilted lexicon — balking at ordering a “tall” or a “venti” from the menu or specifying “no whip.”
Rachel Larimore points out, if you don’t like it, don’t go there:
Rosenthal is an English professor and insists that she is a “stickler for correct English.” Two points: There is correct English and there is PRECISE English. She placed a perfectly “correct” order for a bagel, but her barista wanted to be “precise” and followed up with a question, for which she could have given the correct answer of “Neither, please.” …. Secondly, you don’t have to have a Ph.D. to learn courtesy. That’s something that is usually covered in kindergarten.
