Seriously though, I don’t want to overstate things. This isn’t the worst thing, but this response reminds me of people who insist I should want to hug people, and that there’s something wrong with me if I don’t enjoy hugging strangers. I would just as soon not be placed in an awkward social situation when trying to get some fast food as well. “What is the correct response to this thing, how should I respond, am I being an asshole if I do X, and how should I react so the people who can actually see me don’t think I’m being weird?” is not a series of questions I want to deal with at the drive-through. Some people don’t deal with situations that way, and so sure, I’m sure they’re quite pleased. For me, I’d happily pay the cost of my own meal if it means I can smile and give my polite, socially mandated lines to the cashier and the person giving me my food, they can give the company mandated polite lines back, and we can all go along with our day. The whole point of the exercise is, supposedly, to brighten my day. I don’t see why it’s such a terrible thing to point out “Actually, I, and other people like me, are different from you, and thus wouldn’t enjoy this very much.”
Besides that, I feel like there is something a bit… off here. The original act here was a very nice lady noticing that someone behind her looked like they could really get some good out of a little gift, and doing something nice. What everyone else does is then perform their own act of kindness on literally the next available human. If someone does something nice for you, by all means, pay it on. But don’t pay it on that second like it’s a hot potato you want to offload as soon as possible. Wait until you see someone who looks like they could use something nice. Be that person who bakes a bunch of lasagna for the homeless person down the street, or just wait until you see a stranger who looks like they’re having a bad day, or something. It doesn’t make for an inspiring internet story, but it does more good, it means more, and it makes you have to think about how to actually be useful, instead of getting rid of a feeling of obligation as soon as you’re humanly able to.
Heh, one of my favorite things about the bbs here is the opportunity to try to figure out what someone might possibly mean by what they’ve posted—whether it’s typos, regionalisms I’ve never encountered, technical jargon I have to look up, or very often just people writing the way they speak rather than in complete sentences with proper punctuation as in formal writing.
This reminds me of a short mystery story I read long ago in some magazine that was in the lunchroom at my workplace. The gist of the story as I recall it was that someone was found dead at their workplace, at their desk, having been stabbed in the back. No obvious clues. The last words that the dead person had typed were just gibberish…until the investigator figured out that their hands were just one letter over on the keyboard, from normal placement…they had typed out the name of the murderer before they died! (I think it was a co-worker! ) Somehow that story made an impression on me and I’ve never forgotten it.
There sure are some head-scratchers here on the bbs, aren’t there? I love every one of ‘em, weird or not.
[End of off-topic musing. Thanks for indulging me, to anyone who actually read this ]
You’re not alone in this pastime; long ago, well before I joined the BBS, I came up with a guessing game to amuse myself whenever someone engages me with a comment that seems unintelligible; “Not Sane, Not Sober or Not Serious?” based solely on the content posted and behavior exhibited.
For instance, in this particular example my guess is a cross between ‘Not Sober’ and ‘Not Serious.’
I might be tempted if they still offered their orange sherbet-vanilla swirled cone; but those were discontinued so long ago that I can’t even find an image easily.
) Somehow that story made an impression on me and I’ve never forgotten it.
I love every one of ‘em, weird or not. 
