"Excuse me, would you mind watching my computer for a minute while I use the restroom?"
I work in coffee shops five days a week and am asked this question no less than twice a day. "Sure," I shrug, and as the person skips to the loo I stare at their MacBook Pro for exactly three seconds before going right back to my own computer. I'm happy to keep it in my periph and all, but I'm not going to completely halt writing insightful mediocre FIPS articles or perusing Steve Guttenberg's IMDB page to stare protectively at your Macbook while NOTHING THE HELL HAPPENS TO IT. No one will notice it's been left alone, nor will it grow legs and crab walk out of the coffee shop.
Once two iced coffees have coursed their way through my body I too will ask someone sitting nearby to keep an eye on my belongings while I use the restroom. This will often be the same person whose laptop I just listlessly guarded, as the role of babysitter and babysitee are interchangeable. And most of the time when I get back from reading snippets of sage advice scribbled on the bathroom wall (see: "Love thy butt, for without it how would you poop?" -- Tea Lounge), I notice that not only is my laptop's babysitter completely engrossed in their own work, but when I sit back down and say, "Thanks!," they look up with furrowed eyebrows as if to say, "Wait, thanks for what?"
In four years of playing and witnessing this common trust game I've never seen a theft, nor has anyone ever stolen any of my possessions (knock, knock). I may be naive, but because I frequent the same coffee shops and regularly see the same faces, I feel a sense of comradery amongst my fellow Park Slope latte sippers and bagel munchers. We're all here to enjoy our caffeinated cups and exist in harmony. We've all got each other's backs, right?
Then we received this embittered email from a FIPS reader, and my life got flipped turned upside down:
Click to read more ...
Mike | 
Via easterniowagovernment.com
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