Supermarket Trip Yesterday - Met an Anti-Masker

[MineralMan]

Masks are reappearing at local supermarkets where I live. I've been wearing mine all along, just as an example.

So, I got in the checkout line. Ahead of me was a large man unloading his cart onto the belt. He looked at me, made an ugly expression with his face and said, "Don't be a sheep, dude."

I said, "Sheep may safely graze."

I don't think he got the allusion, though.

[marble falls]

1. A Covid-free sheep, dude!

[lagomorph777]

58. They're the ones being fleeced and led to slaughter.

[Turbineguy]

2. From the cantata: The lively hunt is all my heart's desire

"Sheep may safely graze and pasture
In a watchful Shepherd's sight.

Those who rule with wisdom guiding
Bring to hearts a peace abiding
Bless a land with joy made bright."

That guy didn't even feel a slight draft over his head.

[MineralMan]

3. Well, I admit that it was a rather obscure reference.

I doubt that guy was familiar with Bach. Still, the line should work OK in that circumstance, even if you don't know the background of it.

[FalloutShelter]

4. HAHAHAH... no, he did not.

[Tumbulu]

5. It is one of my favorites from Bach

Thanks- that was a good way to deal with it.

[MineralMan]

6. Oddly enough, I have played it many times

at weddings. I always found that usage in weddings odd, somehow, considering the words. Still, whatever the happy couple wants, I suppose.

[Tumbulu]

8. At weddings? Yes, seems odd to me too

But I keep a few hundred sheep and I play that sometimes while sitting with them trying to keep the coyotes from attacking them.

There are a few places on my farm that I have to stay with them as my livestock guardian dog won’t stay in those areas without me.

It is the grazing soundtrack.

I turn pieces of Vivaldi and Kreisler on when I want them to go back to the barn.

[MineralMan]

10. Excellent choices.

I like sheep. I like goats. Together, they are my favorite domestic livestock, although I'm also fond of dairy cows.

[3catwoman3]

24. You might enjoy this thread in which an anti-vaxxer...

...very righteously justifies her stance with a bible (intentional lower case "b" ) reference without realizing that she has it backwards.

Be sure to read post #12.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=676499

[MineralMan]

30. LOL! She has no idea what she is saying, really.

She is the goat, leading people to the slaughter. How ironic.

[Texin]

29. A man after my own heart. I love goats especially.

[plimsoll]

11. Because Wagner at a wedding makes sense?

[MineralMan]

14. Yes, well, there are many contradictions with weddings.

I also never understood the use of Pachelbel's Canon in weddings. When you consider the movie for which it was the background theme, it doesn't make much sense.

However, as a musician, I always left the choice of music to the couple. The woodwind quintet I played with, though, offered some excellent alternatives to the standard wedding music. Some couples chose those.

My favorite wedding, however, was one where the recessional music was our arrangement of "When I'm 64." Now, that was a happy wedding. Quite a party afterward, too.

[Scruffy1]

18. I remember a conversation at a Minneapolis bar among some keyboard players.

The topic was "What is the most inappropriate piece you ever played at a wedding?" It was hilarious, but I can't remember the songs. Anyway, I feel really lucky here in El Paso. we don't seem to have any maskholes. Every place I've gone to is 100% masked. Stay safe.

[MineralMan]

23. We had several Scott Joplin pieces in our book.

Never used any of those in a wedding ceremony, but frequently at receptions, along with a bunch of Gershwin tunes. We mixed things up broadly, from Bach to The Beatles. We even had some dance pieces in the book for receptions.

[fierywoman]

48. Since the wedding ceremony is all metaphor, I've never understood using the wedding

march from Lohengrin -- since the bride is not allowed to ask the groom's name, where he comes from, and in the end, the marriage is not consummated (the bride drops dead, the groom floats away on a swan ...) Nor have I understood using the wedding march from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's dream: the queen marries an ass.

Personally, I like the Pachelbel Canon because it's rather like the many ways a rabbi will explain the breaking of the glass at the end of a Jewish wedding.

The strangest thing ever played at a wedding I played (they used the Pavarotti recording) was "Caruso" (if you understand the words, it's about the death of the tenor Caruso by cancer.) (It was a trophy wife wedding, high on a cliff above Malibu ...)

At the last minute once a bride asked us to play the Hallelujah Chorus for the recessional.

At a Cal Tech wedding, I played the Triumphal March from Aida (as always, I was in a string quartet) for the bride's processional and The Ride of the Valkyries for the outro. I pitied the groom at the time. Years later a Cal Tech alum explained the joke among the students about the Wagner.

[luvtheGWN]

13. You've just given me an earworm, MM!

That piece will be going round and round in my head all day!

I've never played it at weddings but certainly in church services. Beautiful music.

[MineralMan]

16. Well, I think its use in weddings is based on the concept

of protective leadership. It always seemed a bit misogynistic to me, somehow, but weddings in general often seem that way to me.

Where I lived in California, our woodwind quintet was a popular choice for weddings, both for the ceremonies and receptions. We played at a lot of home weddings and weddings in various chapels that had no organ or even a piano. At our peak, we could offer up to four hours of music with no repetitions of pieces. As long as the champagne kept flowing, we kept playing. A few times, we even traveled to do weddings far away from where we lived, usually because someone had attended one of the weddings we played.

[3catwoman3]

21. No more odd than yellow ribbons around trees to welcome home...

...military folks. Most people must not realize that the song that seems to have given rise to this ritual was about someone getting out of jail.

[packman]

7. Too subtile

"Jesus watches over his flock" might have gotten to him (maybe)

[Wounded Bear]

9. The Lord helps those who help themselves...

One of my dad's favorites, although it can have several different meanings, and not all of them positive.

[MineralMan]

12. I don't think the supermarket guy is probably much for nuances.

[Wounded Bear]

15. From your description, I have to agree...nt

[Lonestarblue]

32. I would have been tempted to respond to supermarket guy with "Don't be a fool, man."

You response was much more creative!

[hlthe2b]

17. the response: "Sheep don't get COVID-19"

(and so far, they don't)

[TNNurse]

19. I think it is clear that most of us here understood your reference

and he probably did not. We live in a divided world.

It was a great comment. Doubt I will have a chance to use it. Also, since I am a little old white haired lady, I do not expect comments like his. But I will ignore because I suspect someone like that is armed.

[PatSeg]

20. I'll never understand people

who feel it is necessary or appropriate to publicly pass judgment on total strangers. Has this become more commonplace or have we become more aware of it? Unless someone is doing something that affects you or others, it is generally considered rude to criticize or advise people you don't know.

Perhaps people have gotten so use to breaching social etiquette online with total strangers, that the behavior has leaked into their non-cyber world. Anything beyond "Hello", "Excuse me", or "I love your shoes" has always been considered rude and unacceptable. They are intentionally crossing civilized boundaries and I think they know that.

[MineralMan]

25. Indeed. Whatever happened to MYOB?

[PatSeg]

33. Seriously

Most of us learned that at a very young age, along with it is rude to stare or point at people. You have to wonder who on earth raised some of these fools. I'd say they must have been raised by wolves, but damn, I think even wolves know when to mind their own business.

[Niagara]

31. Tucker Carlson gave his viewers permission to bully anyone wearing a mask.

So really, they're being the sheep since they can't think for themselves and are doing what they're told to do.

[PatSeg]

34. There certainly is a whole lot of

projecting with these people. They have become so programmed, it is terrifying.

[Niagara]

38. Exactly.

I would like to clarify that Carlson used the confront, but I'm calling it what it is, which is bullying.

[PatSeg]

51. Yes and all performance

He will do or say whatever helps his ratings and boosts his ego.

[Pacifist Patriot]

22. Great response!

[Niagara]

26. Excellent retort!

We never took our masks off after being fully vaccinated and go to the supermarket about once a week.


So far, no one had made a sniveling comment to either one of us, although we've received a few stink eyes. I'm all prepared with the simple response of "Mind your own business."

[NoMoreRepugs]

27. Good one MM. Maybe next time try - "Sheep graze safely when protected from the wolves."

[IronLionZion]

28. Be a goat

jump around and butt heads with random strangers who get in the way. Baaaa

[Ray Bruns]

35. Started wearing my mask indoors, too.

Especially at the grocery store. Too many people in an enclosed environment.

[ejbr]

37. No, too dumb, I'm sure

I just tell people it's not their fucking face and should shut their fucking mouth. Feels good.

[SWBTATTReg]

39. You're too nice, probably the thing to do. If it were me, I would have said two words to ...

the covidiot, the first word beginning w/ 'F', and the second word beginning w/ 'O'.

Like some others said in the trend, what right does a total stranger have in saying anything about your attire, what you chose to wear, etc. Does anyone ever remark on one's glasses when they wear them, or their hearing aids, or their shirt, their pants, dress, or whatever?

Common courtesy has seemed to gone out the door w/ these loudmouths in this 'after trump' era...

[MineralMan]

40. The thing is that such people want you to come back at them

with an insult. It gives them an excuse to escalate the issue. I don't do that, as a rule.

Idiots blurt out idiotic things. The best comebacks are said in a way that just confuses them and gives them no room to increase the animus of the conversation.

If you can make them wonder what you meant by what you said, that's ideal. It tends to shut them up, which is the goal, really.

I draw the line, though, when some moron starts berating someone else, like the cashier at the checkout counter. Then, I pull myself up to my full height and tell the moron to knock it off in no uncertain terms. I'd rather divert the animus toward me than let some poor employee take their abuse.

[SWBTATTReg]

44. Well, you're exactly right, but these people aren't listening to anyone else but themselves anyways,

so anything said/done/etc. will go by them unnoticed. And like you said, if they get really abusive w/ the clerks/other workers, then the store mgmt should be there, and if they get to a really abusive point, to perhaps step in and say something, or simply just call the police/private security if they have anything like that.

[MineralMan]

47. My father taught me how to stop bullies in their tracks by his own example.

He showed me how to put my cold-eyed game face on and how to use a very cold, clear, emphatic voice to put a stop to other people's bullying of people who can't react as they might want to. It literally always works. I've never seen it fail.

It's one of the best lessons I learned from him. I rarely have to use it, though.

[SWBTATTReg]

53. A nice memory of good ol' dad, eh! That's a nice thing to have of your dad...

[SWBTATTReg]

55. I loved this story, this lesson your dad taught you. I can see why you remember it. My dad too,

bless his heart, he is gone now, told me a story too, when I asked him when I was wondering what field to go into, when I was in College (auditing, accounting, economics AND data processing (which in 1975, was very basic then).

My dad told me that he used to be an accountant and one of his jobs was to go count eggs to ensure that what they were being told, numbers-wise, 20,000 dozen, was in fact, true. He said that Son, if you want to count 20,000 dozen eggs for the rest of your life, or do something else, then go do it. I chose to be in IT/Data Processing (which back then, was fairly unknown and scary at the time)...I never looked back and my degrees ended up helping me in many ways while I was building many IT systems. My dad hit the nail on the head and this story of his has stuck w/ me forever.

Have a nice day and enjoy yourself. Again, thanks for sharing your story.

[MineralMan]

56. Thanks! Sounds like your father was a great influence on you, too.

I didn't realize all the things he was teaching me when I was a young fellow. Later, I understood those lessons better.

Parents in his generation never heard of "modeling," but he did that again and again as part of being a father. He never said that he wanted me to learn something. He just was himself, and I learned from him by example.

[geardaddy]

45. In my perfect self, I would follow your rule

I tend to say nothing, because whatever I would say, it would come out as an angry insult.

[Sogo]

41. Little old gray-haired lady here....

I always wear my mask and don't give a damn what others think or say, although no one has said anything yet. I'd probably just have some choice words for them if they did....not so erudite as you...!!

[geardaddy]

42. I've noticed the grocery stores in my area of MPLS

have more people wearing masks again, too.

[MineralMan]

43. Yes. My suburb trends a little to the right, politically.

So, there are fewer masks than in my previous area.

[geardaddy]

46. Oh, I didn't know you'd moved.

Downsizing?

[MineralMan]

49. Yeah. We moved from an urban neighborhood to a townhome

across town in a suburb. Downsizing and getting rid of landscape maintenance chores. I'm too old for all of that now.

We moved to the western Twin Cities metro area from St. Paul. Very different environment, to be sure.

However, I'm happy to be here now. I retired and am shifting my daily activities to something other than what I've been doing for so many years. I have an HOA for the first time. But, I don't see any rules that don't seem sensible in our development. So, there it is.

[dflprincess]

50. That is also true in my area of the 'burbs

I'd say most people are masked & the kids of all ages are too.

[ZonkerHarris]

52. My instinctive response would've been "mind your own business and shut the fuck up."

[lagomorph777]

54. "I've -cough- got a touch of -cough- COVID"

"But hey, if -cough- you're OK with that, I'll take the mask off..."

[forthemiddle]

57. We are traveling to Minneapolis this weekend

Are there any mask mandates in place right now?
We are vaccinated, but may do a restaurant while there, so I’m just wondering what to expect. We will be donning ours.