Like clockwork, a customer walked into a Starbucks without a mask and loudly refused the barista’s request that she wear one (on order of county officials). A more authoritarian overreach, the customer had never seen, so this principled, in-the-right customer—who was denied service—took a photo of the barista, posted it on Facebook, and wrote, with exquisite moral clarity: “Meet lenen from Starbucks who refused to serve me cause I’m not wearing a mask. Next time I will wait for cops…”
Also like clockwork, Facebook users realized that the customer is not always right, masks can save lives, and this barista was unfairly maligned. The customer’s post backfired. Tens of thousands of people defended the worker, and a virtual tip jar was started on GoFundMe. More than $32,000 in tips rolled in.
Clocks are these mechanisms with springs and toothed gearwheels, and sometimes a dial. A working one measures time. It can be a synchronizing device, producing pulses at regular intervals. It can also tell you precisely when a maskless customer will call a barista “lenen.”
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