Culture: Social Niceties Gone Bad

From the October 2016 issue of The Rotarian

I was having breakfast in my local diner the morning after the Oscars when I happened to mention how surprised I was that Spotlight …

I did not get to finish the sentence.

“Don’t tell me who won,” said a regular at the table, frantically waving his hands. “I recorded it, but I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet.”

The response was immediate.

“Too bad!” said one of the other members of the breakfast club.

“Tough break,” said another.

“Nice try,” chimed in a third.

“Spoiler alerts don’t apply to the Oscars,” said a fourth. “If you didn’t see the show in real time, too bad.”

“As I was saying,” I continued, “I was pleasantly surprised to see Spotlight win the Oscar for best picture.”

And the conversation went on from there.

Similarly, no one has the right to say, “Don’t tell me how the Super Bowl ended!” or “Don’t wreck the World Series for me; I still haven’t seen game three.” If you haven’t seen the Super Bowl or the World Series in real time, that’s your problem.