Foot in Mouth Disease

So let me tell you how the story goes...

The bar now has a really kewl setup where they jacked a cellphone into a laptop which runs custom software so that when you text their number it is displayed on a flatpanel TV (/end run-on-sentence). Now this TV is over a large booth. So last night I was first to post - go me! A little later it got a bit more crowded (i.e. we weren't the only ones there) and a group sat in that booth.

Oh, come on... a group of people sitting under a giant electronic billboard that is at my command?! How could I resist? I am amused at the thought of the TV being alive and talking with the crowd - so I text "Dood - can you believe the guys below me?"... and chuckled to myself. It was meant in the best of humor, but when they noticed it, they seemed a bit concerned. Reflecting on it from their perspective, I could see that they might have taken it as an insult. They didn't know what tone it was intended to be in.

Now I hate to be an asshole - especially to a bunch of folks I don't even know if they deserve it. And even more-so when I don't mean it. So I think, and decide to resolve it with another message... but everything is best delivered with a bit of humor. I retake the tone of a TV looking down on the group and text "Just kidding - but that one guy is balding". Funny, because the table is packed with college age girls and a few guys.

Satisfied that I have made all right in the world I go to use the restroom. On the way back I realize a slight mistake... the guy standing up at the end of the table with the group facing the TV is collegeish age and has a crew-cut... but that's because his hairline has made a very severe march north.

Ooops...

Needless to say, I stopped trying to make ammends, because how could I? "Hey, sorry - I was trying to apologize for before and be funny, but I didn't realize there really was a bald guy with you"? It was best to stop digging.