"WHO TOLD YOU TO PUT THE CHEESE ON!?! DID I TELL YOU TO PUT THE CHEESE ON!?! I DIDN'T TELL YOU TO PUT THE CHEESE ON!!! YOU PEOPLE WITH THE CHEESE - IT NEVER ENDS!!!

 

As a civilian I would say 100% you might freeze the first time bad sh-t happens, God willing that makes you much better prepared and alert if it happens again (it has for me). Training is only designed to make any initial engagement more successful. Military or civilian it sucks that we still need to think in defensive terms from fellow humans, considering the deep unanswered questions of life, the universe and everything.

 

I did home tv and computer installs in Bridgeport 15 years ago. I felt mostly safe but I was in some very sketchy situations.

 

I spent about 3 weeks in Farmington about 15 years ago…I think people were locking their car doors when I walked by! Had to be the most white-bread place on earth.

 

Was that the Jersey barrier days. The feds and state took over for a while as the Latin kings had taken over the city. They installed Jersey barriers in the open air drug market areas to “curtail” traffic off east main and Fairfield Ave to disrupt the drug trade but the Latin kings ended up sitting on the barriers to deal to cars coming by or use them to hide behind when 5-0 rolled up. It was crazy times but it may predate 15 years I’m bad with dates. That is the city I got held up in but refused to give up my two tone bulova quartz. I don’t know what possessed me to fight that day I did not plan it.

 

I was going to school in New Haven when I was working in Bridgeport. The job would either land me in Greenwich installing wireless so a Pepsi exec could connect to their VPN or in Bridgeport installing tvs for some less than reputable people. One of which fled the state a few months later, was caught in PA, and was facing 30+ years… he was nice to me though.. tipped well.

The sketchiest install was trying to fix a guys stereo setup while he chain smoked and screamed about buying all of this stuff from our store less than 5 years ago while standing over me while I lay behind a massive entertainment system trying to make sense of his mess of wires.

I did what I could and then told him we could swap out a sub and just to come into the store and we’d take care of it. I got out of there because he just seemed a bit, off. About 2 hours later he came into the store screaming that no one showed up to the appointment. Had apparently completely forgotten I’d just been there. We sorted it out and I carried the sub in it to his car where his wife started to scream at me. I just went back into the store and told my boss I’d never help that guy again.

There’s a lot I don’t miss about that job. I do miss some of the great food options though. Merritt Canteen was always a good lunch option.

 

Some of the best chili dogs one can acquire

 

Dude. While they still leave their homes unlocked in smaller towns (I love that), for snow-white paranoia try rural Alberta or Saskatchewan. I was once at a wedding and some snooping granny asked my last name. I instinctively knew the gist having fielded similar inquiries growing up out there. I came this close to saying Weinberg just to see the look on her face.

 

Ooh, ooh, ooh, I know that one. 42 ! !

 

In Connecticut, there’s a lot of competition for that title. Diversity in some of those towns means that you actually know a person of color. I lived in a small town in Litchfield County for 17 years. It was a wonderful place to live with great public schools for my daughter, but diversity? Nope.

 

They have diversity…they have the people who run the dry cleaners and Chinese restaurant.

 

You owe me a cup of coffee to replace the one I just laughed onto the table.

 

I think that’s reading a bit too much into the comments. Nobody is blaming Caucasians (of which I am one) for lack of diversity in small town Connecticut (or small town anywhere, for that matter). It was simply a fact where I lived and, in my opinion, an unfortunate one. I was pleased that my daughter went from that environment to a large university where she had more exposure to diversity. I think that it’s a valuable form of education that benefits all of us.

 

I’ve lived both parts of that. I lived in Bridgeport where I was the only “white dude” (that’s what my neighbors called me) I never had an issue with the people in the area. My car was broken into more times than I care to mention but I wasn’t targeted whoever did it hit all the cars parked along the street. I just treated everyone with respect, said hello, held the door for others and all was good.

Now I’m in a predominantly white town, an African American family moved in a few months ago. No one broke out burning crosses we just asked if he wanted to join the neighborhood watch and brought over baked goods.

It seems to me if your just living everybody just busy trying to get by, put things together and live a decent life. That’s on the ground anyway. If I read the paper or internet you would think we are all at war.

Litchfeild area pretty cool by the way. Great parks and hiking.

 

Yawn. There's always one in the crowd.

 

It’s not a bias, it’s a reality. And the comments were made in jest- thus=humor. As humans we all have bias and we are all a little racists- it’s part of the human experience, me/us vs other. As long as we can all acknowledge that and hopefully laugh at it, we can work to diffuse the stigma around bias and realize that we are all human and we all do stupid shit and we all have to laugh at that.

 

I take offense and am insulted by your “Chinese restaurant staff” comment.

Seriously though my wife’s friends own a place nearby called “Peking Tokyo” they do a hell of a business. They won’t admit it to me but I think much of their cooking staff is brought in from Chinatown NYC and I think they take advantage of certain people maybe who have green cards and are willing to do anything to stay in the US. I hope I’m wrong but they way they dodge any softball questions I ask makes me suspicious I was just honestly curious about the skills of the chefs.

 

They're probably dodging the Q as there are no chefs there. Unless we're talking a big outfit willing to pay $$$, don't expect anyone with any professional skills to accept a job there.

 

We still own rental property on the Ct shoreline and one of the rather tired houses is rented to the owner of a bunch of Chinese take outs. He has at least a dozen of his workers living in the house at any one time, mattresses spread out all over the place. The only thing we put a stop to was the constant washing of the restaurant uniforms/linens. None of the workers speak a speck of English. At least 3 maybe 4 nights per week the entire crew piles into two junk cars and heads to the i95 rest area where a big bus picks them up to go to the casinos. The owner, who is actually a fun guy to hang out with, told me they blow every cent of their pay at the casinos. I seriously doubt any of them are professional chefs.