By Arthur Allen

This last weekend I needed to get some food before I worked, so I stopped by Stetson East for some pancakes. I got my tray, stood in the weekend pancake line, and told the server, “I’d like four pancakes, please.”

She put two pancakes on the plate. I reminded her I said four, and she hesitated and looked over at her supervisor who was standing right next to her. He stood there authoritatively, his arms folded, and shook his head.

“Well, can I have three pancakes?” I asked.

The supervisor replied, “You can come back after you’re done eating these pancakes.”

I’m really glad the supervisor man knew how much I could eat, because I know I sure didn’t. Seriously, is there a pancake shortage or something? This situation is truly comical — it’s the kind of thing I’d expect to read about in the Times New Roman, not write about for The Northeastern News. This is ridiculous.

I would not have been upset if there were a pancake shortage, though. Nor would I have been upset if he told me they were arbitrarily limiting everyone to two pancakes for the day; arbitrary rules I understand. But for him to look down his nose at me and condescendingly say, “You can come back after you’re done,” is simply outrageous. I have not been told how much I could eat in a cafeteria (that I was paying for) since I was in fifth grade. Grow up, sir. We’re not 10 years old any more.

Usually the point of a letter like this is to suggest some change to the system or a way to fix some sort of problem. I have no suggestions or solutions. Well, let me take that back, I do have one suggestion that would solve the problem: Hey cafeteria supervisor guys, get off your power trip. It’s really annoying.

– Arthur Allen is a sophomore political science major.