Sue in Eureka, California, was working at the grocery store during Senior Day when she reminded an elderly customer that the woman might be eligible for a discount. The shopper responded, “Thanks for the tap on the shoulder.” Did that mean Sue had said something offensive? No. A tap on the shoulder is simply a way of alerting a stranger to something, since the shoulder is an appropriate body part to touch on someone you don’t know. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Tap on the Shoulder”
Hi, you have Way With Words.
Hi, how are you?
Good, who’s this?
My name is Sue. How are you?
Great, welcome to the show.
Hi Sue, where are you calling from?
I’m calling from Eureka in the real Northern California.
I was working one day and I work in a grocery store. And we have Senior Day every Tuesday. And a woman came through my line. And it’s always, you know, really, you don’t want to offend anybody, but you want to remind them, and, you know, they get a discount.
So she came to my line, and the way I say it is, oh, today’s their senior discount day. Are you eligible? And she looks at me, and she says, yes. And, you know, I’m checking out her groceries, and she says, thanks for the cap on the shoulder. And I kind of, I couldn’t tell if she was offended or if it was, you know, she was glad I reminded her.
So, Sue, she did take the discount when you offered it?
Sure, she did.
Okay.
Oh, yeah, of course she did.
All right, so she couldn’t have been that unhappy.
No, no, I don’t think she wasn’t happy, but I just was like a little worried, you know, because I don’t want to offend people.
Yeah, I don’t think there’s any problem with it at all. I think it’s just a matter of, you know, thanks for calling my attention to it. I’ve never seen it used sarcastically, really. And I don’t think it’s some greater, grander intimation of mortality, you know, death with the scythe and, you know, the hood sort of tapping. It is your time. It’s coming soon.
Yeah. No, I think it’s just a matter of calling attention. Grant, you haven’t run into that.
No, no. I’ve seen it pop up in religious books. People talk about getting the tap on the shoulder from God, which calls them to their mission or calls them to service, that sort of thing.
Right.
But that’s the only non-literal tap on the shoulder I can think of. But you’ll find zillions of people talking about taps on the shoulder where they actually meant, oh, I’m tapping on the shoulder because it’s a really polite way to touch you and get your attention so that you’ll do a thing that you might not have been aware of.
Yeah.
It’s interesting how much that has to do with where it’s appropriate to touch people on their body if you don’t know them. The shoulder is a pretty safe place.
Yeah, come to think of it.
So you’re good to go, Sue. You’re cool.
All right, great.
Well, thanks for explaining that to me.
Cheers.
Take care.
All right.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
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