Page 15 - COBH EDITION 1st OCTOBER DIGITAL VERSION

In the old days, gentlemen escorted their partner on their left arm and walked on the outside
of the footpath to protect her from the dust, mud and sewage that could splash up from pass-
ing horse carriages. Nowadays they’d use her as a shield.

Women wore long dresses then and they had to use both hands to keep them off the dirty
ground, so the gentlemen opened doors for them. The gentleman also pulled out a chair for a
lady and always offered their seat if there were none available.

Now it’s every man and woman for themselves but some people are fighting back.
A guy went into a coffee shop in Paris one day and took a seat. He worked as an information
security consultant, so he was well used to modern technology. He was sitting there, minding
his own business, but there was a group of people sitting next to him and they were being
loud and obnoxious.
They were annoying everyone else in the place and it was obvious that they didn’t care. They
refused to quieten down even when staff asked them to. He could see that the waiters were
really stressed but there wasn’t much they could do without putting their jobs on the line.

This group was discussing a new company they were starting up. When they started shouting
and high-fiving themselves about the perfect name they had come up with for the business,
he heard it and it gave him an idea.

While they were celebrating and congratulating each other, he went online, and he quietly
bought the domain name. This meant that when they would eventually get around to regis-
tering their new company and setting up their website, they would be in for a shock. Their
new name wouldn’t be available because he now owned it.

He wanted to teach them a lesson about how being rude to staff, being overly loud in public
spaces and not having respect for others might have negative consequences.
I love that guy and I thank him on behalf of the rest of us.

Read more from Trevor on his blg at www.trevorlaffan.com
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