Often has this hoary-bearded twerp bemoaned the passing of fatherly qualities from our race, our heads bowed and our knees bent to the rampant goddess America. But, it occurred yesterday, as I took a beer siesta from ditching with The Brick Mouse, with Big Ron at Terry's Shamrock Pub in Hamilton Baltimore, that the passing of fatherly qualities from society is mirrored by the diminishment of its opposite...

Having regaled Big Ron about the hours-long quest with Mister Grey to find a place to eat a few nights ago, Ron recalled:

“The Wife is still managing that bar for the Hindus, and she can't find no help. It's the same thing with construction. People don't want to work anymore. I was keeping an eye on her when she went to clean up the lot. Some Dindu, a regular who never gave her no trouble, had left his bag and bottle from the carryout on the lot. She stopped to pick it up, and here comes this Dindu in a fuss about he wasn't done with that bottle and there was still liquor in it.

“I was measuring him for a body shot and a push over the curb where I could stomp his ass. But it didn't come to that. She's got the knack with men, as any good barmaid—any woman really—should have, to let a dumb-ass know what's up without inflaming the situation. Just as I'm about to drop this Dindu she says, in that nice calming tone, 'Look, you know you can't drink out here, that I can get in trouble, that we could get cited for people drinking carryout on the lot. You leave it here again and I'll have to trash it—so please, help me out here.'

“And now he was all 'sorry ma'am, yes ma'am, it won't happen again ma'am,' no body shot and curb stomp required. The guy really isn't a bad sort, hasn't got in no fights or had to have been put out of the bar. She handled it.

“I've noticed that this is a quality that is totally lacking in the young women of today. She had this quality when she was young, to put a man at ease, to keep from fanning the flames. But the young women of today—just as much as their men are skinny-legged sissies—are too bitchy to pull this off. There is a shrillness to their voices like some old witch even though they might be young as morning.

“Here's an example of the kind of shit The Wife has to put up with. She has a barmaid that is drinking on the job, not only drunk at work, but essentially stealing behind the bar. But she can't get rid of her because there is no one else to cover the shift.

“Then, the other night, the good barmaid calls her up and tells her that the waitress is laid out on the food prep table in the kitchen. After the cook done died of an overdose in the bathroom last year, I figure maybe this is another such case. But no.

“It turns out that the waitress was done her shift and got drunk, and the food prep guy was done his shift and had the table cleaned off. So she lays up on the table and he pulls down her pants and eats her pussy. The Wife goes in the next day and reviews the video—there is a camera right in the kitchen—and sure enough—they're both white mind you—there he is, licking away. They were off the clock, had both done their work and were otherwise good employees. So she makes sure the morning shift sterilizes the food prep title and will ask them to get it on elsewhere.

“Maybe she could offer to marry them in the kitchen—like a company perk? It's so hard find help, let alone good help, that I think it's a good time to be a working man. Things still need to be built and repaired while the rest of these fuckers collect their money and parade around behind their masks.”