Working on the hoity toity Upper East Side many of the more humble customers we have are someone else’s personal assistants. They are usually in a hurry, a little frazzled, and very funny. Many times it’s some young very cute twenty something who is very earnest. Think Anne Hathaway in Devil Wears Prada.

That said, we had an exception to the rule. An exasperated sixty-something woman was shopping for her boss. My former co-worker Jason (he’s a former coworker since he transferred to a fancy pants job at one of our other stores, good for him!) asked her to spell her boss’s last name for a delivery order. [For the purpose of anonymity I’ll use a famous author’s last name.]

Jason, “Could you spell the last name for me?”
Customer, “S as in Sarah, O as in Oswald, N as in Nancy, T as in Tetris, A as in Authoritative, and G as in Goddamn that’s a long name!”