It's the a-hole standoff of the week! In this corner, a college English professor who has nothing better to do with her time than act like a total doucher to a part-time Starbucks employee. In the opposite corner, a barista who refused to get over the fact that the customer was being a butthole and wouldn't back down.

Never Back Down: Double Tall with Room Edition

The customer alleged that she got kicked out of a Starbucks after she refused to "place her order by the coffee chain's rules." In addition to her oh-so original grumbling about how stupid it is to order talls, ventis and grandes instead of smalls, mediums, and larges (she probably also wonders what the deal is with airplane food, despite the fact that few airlines actually serve any nowadays), Professor Grammar von Nazi also refuses to order her bagel according to the Starbucks norm. She ordered a multigrain bagel and wouldn't humor the barista's follow-up question of "Do you want butter or cheese?" From the article: 

I don't really see how clarifying your order compromises "correct English," but then again, I don't make it a point to try and ruin a part-time service employee's day by being a jerkface. Instead of answering the barista's question, Ms. Rosenthal just stubbornly reiterated that she wanted her multigrain bagel. The employee then got sucked into the ordering equivalent of "I know you are but what am I" and said he wasn't going to serve the customer until the order was clarified. They continued to argue back and forth, and eventually the store manager called the cops and Ms. Rosenthal was thrown out of the place. She alleged that it was "very humiliating to be thrown out," but I'd argue that the following are even more embarrassing:

1. boasting that you're a scholarly woman who holds a PhD from Columbia, yet acting like a petulant child when placing your order
2. living in Manhattan and choosing to get a bagel at Starbucks (seriously, there are countless better places in NYC to get your bagel fix)

Admittedly, the Starbucks employee sounded like he was being a venti-sized dickhead too -- he could have dropped the question once he realized that Ms. Rosenthal was acting like a moron and just handed her a plain bagel, but it seems like stubbornness and the desire to act like an epic troll trumped other rational decisions. Still, the customer's allegations that he refused to help her until she said "butter or cheese" seems pretty questionable. I've never been to a Starbucks and gotten refused service for saying "small" instead of "tall" or ordering other goodies improperly -- this isn't the Soup Nazi here, for crying out loud, it's a gigantic national chain who aims to satisfy their customers.

Who do you think was the bigger jerk, the Starbucks employee or Ms. Rosenthal? Drop your vote and comments!

Who was acting like a bigger jerk?