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Margaret Pilarski

editorial assistant

i'm a feminist, and if you're reading this then you are too, you just might not know it yet. i like to eat cheese and travel, but i'm usually broke and/or spending my money on shoes and cocktail rings. i love dogs, rain, and driving offensively (and putting the last comma in a listed series). i'm se...

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mad movies

this weekend i went to see “mad money” with a couple of girlfriends. of course we didn’t expect it to be some brilliant film, just something mind-numbing with lots of diane keaton pantsuits--which it was. problem was though, about an hour in, at a high point of latifah-keaton dialogue, the screen went blank and the sound cut off. 

um.....

as i was preparing to throw things at the projector window, cooler heads prevailed and some fellow movie-watchers went to let someone know that we were all sitting in the dark. for about 10 mintues, we all sat around nervously laughing and talking amongst ourselves without any explanation of what was going on. i figured maybe the manager was on his lunch break or something and he’d be waiting outside the theatre after the movie finished...

after a while, the movie gets going, minus some snippets of the latifah-keaton dialogue and we all have to mentally interject whatever we thought they had talked about.  blah blah we watch the rest of the movie, and we exit the theatre. where is the apologetic manager handing out free passes to us? nowhere to be found.

so i march over to the popcorn counter and ask where the manager is. popcorn boy goes to get him.

so, la ti da, the manager comes over and i say: “hi, we were in the movie that cut off and um, i didn’t see you in there apologizing or explaining the situation. all we got was a cut up scene and a ten minute wait.” and he says: “well the projection guy left the projection room so i was the one who had to go up there and fix it myself.” and i say: “well thanks, but where were you afterwards? this is pretty poor customer service – in any other theatre i would expect a free pass and an explanation.” he says: “well we don’t usually give out passes unless a customer asks for them.” i say: “i’m here, and i’m asking.” then he unceremoniously hands us three passes and we leave.

for all the people who left the theatre, and for all the people who go to the theatre, apparently you’re supposed to ASK for good service, not EXPECT it.

point being: next time you’re pissed off, you gotta tell them. and tell them i sent you. and tell them you want more than one free pass--one for the ruined movie, and one for their obtuseness.

ps - sabrina said obtuseness was a word... it may not be, although i bet you know what i mean.