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Bad enough an exhausted iron worker fell asleep in a downtown bar, then he learns his server marked him as an "old guy" on his tab

A Chatham Street watering hole had to explain to the Boston Licensing Board today why a patron appeared to be drunk one September night: The bar said he wasn't drunk, he was just a hard-working local iron worker who had gotten off a double shift and dozed off while waiting for a ride home.

To add insult to injury, the waitress the Wild Rover who had served him four Bud Lights over a four-hour period on Sept. 14 - he only drank three of them - marked him as "old guy" on his tab to keep track of his cash payments. Aside from some gray in his beard, the man did not appear at all old at today's hearing.

The man, who said he had worked 16 hours straight at a local construction site that day, is a regular at the bar, and attended the board's hearing for a citation on "intoxicated patron passed out inside premise" to dispute that he was drunk or passed out. He and a bar manager said he was sitting at a high top in the bar's back room and had plugged in his phone to recharge it. With his head in his hand, he dozed off - just as a BPD licensing detective entered for an unscheduled inspection and spotted him.

"I didn't realize I had nodded off," the worker said, estimating he was out for maybe 15 minutes. The bar manager said that when the detective alerted him to the seemingly passed out man, he went to the back room and tapped the man and he woke right up and was able to walk out front. The man exhibited no signs of being drunk, he said.

The bar's attorney, Andrew Upton, noted how incredibly rare it is for somebody who has gotten a bar written up for a licensing citation to appear before the board. The construction worker said he agreed to testify because he felt badly that his tiredness got the bar into any sort of possible trouble.

The manager added that he's instructed his staff to no longer identify customers by their physical characteristics.

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Comments

"help, someone just robbed my bar"

"what did they look like?"

"well, it was a human, that's all I'm allowed to say"

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Seems like the detective could have done some basic detective work and gone over to talk with the sleeping gentleman before jumping to conclusions.

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To get drunk by drinking Bud Light?

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You would have to drink the entire case, not one per hour.

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Paraphrasing:

> A bar had to explain why a patron appeared to be drunk one evening

At this point, why do we even allow bars to exist at all? Can't have people getting drunk now!

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What would OSHA say ?

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Sorry to hear that an overtired construction worker fell asleep in the bar after working the double shift for 16 hours straight. Glad he was okay, and that he was not arrested, assaulted or anything, and he was able to walk out of the bar okay.

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If he was so tired, why didn't he go home after a beer or two?

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… if you led the lede graf, you'd see he was there waiting for a ride home.

Which is probably good, because I'd rather have him there than on the road.

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Great to know that the Boston Licensing Board is up to such useful work.

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Would this sort of incident require a hearing in any other state (except maybe Utah)? I doubt it.

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Writing "old guy" on his tab, be he old or not, is ageism. And the fact that the owner instructed the staff to "no longer" identify customers by physical characteristics means this has been going on for some time. Who knows what else they have written. "Fat lady"? "Gay guy"?

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Aren’t physical characteristics the only useful way to ID a patron on a kitchen slip? “Tall guy with red shirt” gets the food to the patron who ordered it. “Retired machinist who plays the oboe,” not so much.

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Writing "old guy" on his tab, be he old or not, is ageism

Isn’t ageism discriminating against someone on the basis of age? Where is the discrimination or stereotyping or disparagement in writing “old guy”?

If there are six patrons waiting for their food, and three look like college students, and two are thirty-something women, and one is a guy with gray hair, how is noting “old guy” on the order slip to cue the server where to deliver the food ageism?

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"Old guy" sounds derogatory, pure and simple. If a 70 year old woman approached you on the street and asked where the mailbox was, would you point and say "where that old guy is standing"? Would you? Or would you say "where that white haired gentleman is standing"?

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I have gray hair and wrinkles. I have no problem with anyone pointing me out as "that old guy over there."

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I'm willing to bet the commentary about what was written on the tab was a joking aside by the iron worker. And that everyone else is making it out to be a bigger deal. He's an iron worker for crying out loud, I'm 99% sure he's heard worse.

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Boomer

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