The Slice: A snob – just like it sounds

There’s no snob quite like a twentysomething cashier at a natural living grocery store.

At least that has been my experience.

Not long ago, I was purchasing a can of leek and potato soup. The cashier, apparently noticing that this was a Heinz product, scrunched up her face and asked me, “Did you get this here?”

I assumed the absurdity of her question negated the need for an answer.

Clearly, she thought it was beneath her store to sell such a mainstream brand’s products. What she had failed to notice was that the soup in question was imported from Great Britain. But in that moment, I wished it had been canned in New Jersey.

Then, just last weekend, I was buying a brisket. The butcher, a guy I like, prepared it while I did some other shopping in the store. He wrote the name of the cut of meat on the package in big black letters so, when I came back to the service counter, I would know it was mine.

So then, a few minutes later in the checkout aisle, the young woman ringing up my purchases looked at the meat package and smiled.

“Brisket,” she said, noting the butcher’s handwriting. “Spelled phonetically.”

Now this girl might be a fine person. Maybe she does volunteer work. Perhaps she cares about her carbon footprint and Haiti.

But in that moment, she was being a superior know-it-all twit who apparently assumed you spell it “brisquet” or some such.

I wish I had come to the butcher’s defense. Sadly, I am plagued by a paralyzing need to check my facts.

Well, I have done so. “Brisket” is correct.

I’ll have to look for that cashier next time. Maybe there are a few other words she can spell.

Today’s Slice question: So are the falls downtown going to seem puny this spring?