Doin' my part for foreign relations

So last night I was on the patio of one of my favorite bars--just minding my own business and not bothering anyone--when I overheard one of the waitresses griping about a group inside that was getting obnoxious. Apparently a party bus had dropped off a group of German tourists for a bit and they were getting loud and annoying, particularly by monopolizing the Karaoke machine and singing the songs in German, which was kind of irksome to a lot of the other patrons, especially when they kept doing it.

Well some of you know me well enough to know that I'm kind of like a ASJW--an Anti-Social Justice Warrior. And it didn't help that I'd had a few drinks and was surrounded by friends who'd had a few drinks. So finally, I walked into the main bar, went over to the Karaoke screen, and picked a song that I'd seen in there but never bothered trying to sing on the stage, Karaoke really not being my thing. But the song is on my running music track and I know it well enough that I figured I could give it a shot once I'd elicited a pledge from my friends to back me up if the Germans didn't have a sense of humor and this went sideways.

So I knocked back the rest of my drink, got the microphone, and stepped up on stage to give this number my best shot in a room full of drunken Germans.



The room got real quiet when I started and people realized what the song was, but then the applause started, first from the regulars and then even from the folks who are now known as my new German friends. And I didn't have to buy another drink until after the Germans left. Turns out they did have a sense of humor.

Pity I couldn't do Basil Fawlty's "Don't mention the war".

And this morning, when I went in for my Saturday morning coffee, the bar manager, who'd been there last night too, shook his head and asked me what I'd have done if they'd all gotten pissed and wanted to fight. I just shrugged and told him "hey, I just start shit. Once it breaks bad, it's your problem."