(I’m a student in an all-girls high school. One day, we get a university student who is supposed to teach us chemistry as part of his degree. After his lecture, he realises that most of us don’t understand the concept and tries to explain it better.)
Teacher: “Okay, so, the difference in covalent and dative bonding is basically this. For example, let’s say that you dated a classmate and the two of you went out for dinner. The two of you probably have the same amount of money, so you will split the cost equally. That’s covalent bonding. You get that?”
Class: “Uh-huh.”
(As he speaks, he draws a diagram of two atoms contributing one electron each to a covalent bond. He then draws another diagram where one low-electron atom receives two elections from a high-electron atom to form a dative bond.)
Teacher: “However, you could date a rich sugar daddy, instead, and he’ll pay the full cost of dinner for you. That’s dative bonding. You get that?”
(After we stopped laughing, we got the concept. He got chewed out by our regular chemistry teacher for his “inappropriate analogy,” but he certainly made our day.)
I had popped into my local burger restaurant for a drink when I heard this conversation.
Man: I want the third one down and could you do it rare?
Server: Err…that’s a chicken burger, Sir, if it’s rare it could make you seriously ill
Man: Yeah I know, I need an excuse to get out of work!
(As I wait for a bus home, I notice a man going up to other people waiting and quickly moving on to the next person. I have only been at the bus stop for a few seconds when he approaches me.)
Man: “Have you got any change? I haven’t eaten in days.”
Me: “No, sorry. I haven’t got any change.”
Man: “So you don’t care. What a horrible person you are.”
(The man starts pacing back and forth, shooting me dirty looks each time he passes me and shouting abuse.)
Man: “Scumbag! Tramp! Evil! Scumbag, scumbag, scumbag!”
(Two minutes pass and, thankfully, my bus pulls up. As I hurriedly get on, the man gets right in my face for one last comment.)
Man: “I hope your bus crashes.”
(I work in a bookstore, and I swear people think people who work in said stores are like Google. Here is one example.)
Me: *answering the phone* “Thank you for calling [Store]; how can I help you?”
Customer: “Hi, I’m looking for a book by an author.”
Me: “Who is the author?”
Customer: “I don’t know. She’s from Alaska. Can you tell me?”
Me: “No… Uh, what books has she written?”
Customer: “I don’t remember.”
Me: “Um, is there anything else you can tell me?”
Customer: “She’s from Alaska. Don’t you know her?”
Me: *bangs head on desk*
In my store, at Christmas, each sales assistant is allowed to give out a Random Act of Kindness — basically a free product we slip into someone’s purchase as a little gesture if we’ve had a good consultation. I had a wonderful chat with a mother and daughter and helped the daughter pick out a face mask and a cleanser.
She also tried out a toner water and a moisturizer but decided they could come back another day for those. Because they were both so polite and lovely, I decided to give them the toner as a random act, put it behind the till, and went back to serving other customers.
A little later one of my coworkers approached and told me that the mother had found the act of kindness and asked my colleague if she could swap her — free! — toner water for the moisturizer, at nearly three times the price!
