Now You Really Got Her Squark-ing

My coworker is a woman working behind the bar. Our dress code is pretty relaxed. A guy has been looking at her shirt the entire time she has been serving him a drink.

Customer: “So, do you know who that is on your shirt?”

Coworker: “You mean Iron Man?”

Customer: “Yeah, that’s the name of the superhero, but do you know who he is?”

Coworker: “Tony Stark, AKA, Iron Man, from the Marvel comics.”

Customer: “Did, like, your boyfriend buy it for you?”

Coworker: “C’mon, dude, it’s 2024. Women like me shouldn’t have to be defending our love for something that you think should be men only.”

Customer: “Oh, I don’t. I just don’t think a girl at a bar would fully understand the character, is all. He’s a science guy and girls don’t do science.”

Coworker: “I work this bar to pay my rent while I am busy writing my PhD thesis about how the Higgs boson is the only particle in the standard model of particle physics with a spin of zero, which causes issues with the model of supersymmetry as it is also its own anti-particle and therefore throws certain predictions of modern physics into uncertainty.”

Customer: *Uncomfortable.* “…that’s… uh… cool?”

Coworker: “It really is! Because if certain experiments can be conducted then we have to conclude that the Higgs boson shouldn’t really exist, unless you adhere to the anthropic principle, which alludes that a multiverse could…”

The customer nods, takes his drinks, and slinks away. I laugh and slide over.

Me: “You actually solved that problem with science!”

Coworker: “Too bad he left. I was about to REALLY get started. Hey, did you know the name of the supersymmetry partners to quarks are called squarks?”

My coworker… always fun to have around the bar! She scares off the creeps and I learn new things!