YOUR AD HERE »

Summit Up

SUMMIT UP

Good morning and welcome to Summit Up, the world’s only daily column that’s always overjoyed at the good nature of people – especially when they have every right to be as ticked as a hound dog in the woods.If you’re like us, you regularly expect some yahoo to start raging for no good reason and ruin your day. It’s the guy in traffic whose hurry is much bigger than everyone else’s (probably because other things aren’t bigger) and cuts people off while flipping the bird. Or it’s the rascal in line at Taco Bell making a scene and everybody around him embarrassed because his fiesta cheesy potatoes weren’t cheesy nor festive enough. Pick your scenario: There’s plenty of jerks, cranks and crabs to go around.This situation normally spirals out of control so that everyone touched by it, witnessing it or even just hearing about it from a friend gets sour. And then we all spend the rest of our day doing deep breathing exercises, waiting for a spiritually uplifting moment or, like us, kicking the dog. (Just kidding; we use the wiffle-ball bat.)Then there are some people – some strange breed of people who somehow have managed to accumulate a decent set of values, a moderate temper and patience and cheer normally reserved for saints like Mr. Rogers – who surprise you, if only because they don’t get angry in these circumstances. Take this one we witnessed the other night:A dear friend (which we’ll continue calling him until he pays us the money he owes us) picks up the phone to order Chinese food. After looking over the menu, he dials the number to place an order. Much to his surprise, however, the gentleman that answered was not Chinese (or more accurately, had no accent to indicate he might be of Asian origin). “Isn’t this a Chinese restaurant?,” our friend asks when the man says you’ve got the wrong number.The man explains that, yes, his number is listed in the yellow pages under this particular restaurant, but, no, it’s a mistake. And, yes, he gets numerous calls – sometimes several in a night – from people making the same mistake.This is the point where we were expecting, from our seat across the room, to be able to hear the man yelling obscenities about the restaurant, the phone company, the phone book people, etc., all of it piping out of the receiver our friend would soon be holding at arm’s length from his head.Wrong. This gentlemen went on to say, you know, if you want really good Chinese food, you should call this place, but if you want Italian, I always order from such and such a place, and then there’s this other place, they deliver really fast … and so on and so on, to the point where our friend was looking for excuses to get off the line so he could order his much-needed nourishment.We don’t know about you, but we think that restaurant should be sending this guy dinner once a week just for being a good sport.We guess the moral to this tale, meanwhile, is that it’s probably not a good sign of the times or the society you live in when you’re surprised that people react to adverse conditions with nobility and charity. And, the twist at the end of the story (which we have to throw in, since we just saw “Million Dollar Baby”) is that, when the Chinese food came, it came with tortillas. Explain that one.***Rock on wit’ yo’ Wednesday, y’all. And if it don’t roll, let us know at summitup@summitdaily.com, fax at (970) 668-0755 or just tell us all about yer bad self on the voicemail at (970) 668-3998, ext. 237.We’re out in the kitchen, fixing up some egg foo yong burritos …


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.