We've got lots of regulars at work. They all have their own reasons for hanging out at the library all day, everyday. We don't ask, some tell us anyway. Some we enjoy, some we hate. But whatever their reasons, whether we like it or not, there they are. Day after day. The constant and more memorable regs get their own nicknames. Not that we ever tell them, but we know them all.
They're all fairly obvious nicknames, so we all know who we're talking about. Like Mr. Balls (the guy who carries around a duffel full of various kind of balls. He likes to fondle them. No, I'm not making that up. He used to be stink-and-stare, but Mr. Balls is so much better.), Bling-bling (the guy who's always wearing more gold chains than Mr. T.), Mr. Beefeater Gin (the creepy old guy who used to drink in the back corner and thought no one knew.), Paper Friend (the guy who used to come in and take twenty papers at a time and leave us with a huge mess), Mr. Magoo (the guy with the big thick glasses, who knows everything about everything... don't get him started.), Wig Lady and Albert (a brother and sister team, old as the hills and cranky as hell. I've never heard Albert speak, he just gives everyone dirty looks. One of my coworkers once thought Wig Lady was dead.), Little Ming Pao (an ancient and very tiny asian man who doesn't speak a word of english, who come in just to read the Ming Pao. He's one of many "Ming Pao" regs, but certainly our favourite.) and Nazi Guy or the Broad Street Brawler (Severely racist and schizophrenic. It's a bad combination. As much as I know a lot of his problems aren't his fault, it doesn't make me any more willing to put up with a bigot.)
Today one of our regs (as tends to happen every once in a while) went apeshit.
Creepy eyebrow guy, aside from the obvious creepiness of the looks he gives people, is just generally creepy and no one like him. He was having trouble with his card and accessing the internet. I could hear him talking to someone about it clear across the library. He was getting angrier and angrier as he went along. I finally had to see who he was yelling at (hoping it would be The Asshole), so I poked my head out of the isle I was in. To my surprise it was our library head, who wasn't budging.
C.E.G. decided to up the ante. He went from being on the verge of yelling to full on hollering. I don't think anyone in the library missed it. He also decided to play the race card. He was loosing the argument and he figured it was the ace up his sleeve.
Guess again.
Yelling at the top of your lungs that the library is racist and then yelling "Fuck you!" at the top of your lungs at the library head is not the best move to make. Especially when there are people of a number of different races all using the computers without incident. Also the library, to my knowledge, hasn't yet implemented any policies to fuck with you and you alone. And just to clairify, when the library follows it policies in regards to replacing a card and you don't like how it works, that doesn't make us racist (the same rules apply to everyone), that does not mean we're discriminating against you (It's the same procedure for everyone) and we're not depriving you of your rights (I'm pretty sure there's nothing stating it's your right to act like an asshole and disrupt everyone's day).
Besides all that, screaming obscenities in a public place, to my knowledge, has never gotten anyone what they want. People tend to take back any of the offers they may have made to try and rectify your problem as soon as you resort to this tactic.
So our C.E.G. has been banned. We're all glad to see him go, really. I can only hope it's permanent. He's been more trouble than he's worth since the first day he set foot in the library.
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