Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Social Tip #113 - LET PEOPLE IN

I recently tried to re-enter the US at the Canadian border, and was confronted by the smarmiest border guard. He studied my passport, looked at me, and asked, "What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a writer," I said.

He looked at me doubtfully, "Does that pay the bills?"

Who the hell does this guy think he is? He's a glorified tollbooth worker! It was like I was being inspected by my dad. This is how it should have gone instead:

"What do you do for a living?"

"I am also a border guard."

"Where? I don't have any record of that."

"Between New York and New Jersey. Its the same thing as what you do. People pull up, I tell them they can come in, but they can't bring their eight dollars in with them."

3 comments:

BrianAlt said...

#112 was so much fun you had to do it again? Or just freaked out by 13?

You should have said, "I'm a blog writer". Then he may have had a point.

Ant said...

O_o

jon said...

One time when I was crossing the border I got asked that. I said "software engineeer" and he said "cool!" It stuck in my mind because I thought it was weird too for him to comment on people's careers--it is even weirder now to think that they actually dis people with 'lesser' ones!