The Nerds Are In Line In LA......

...which can mean only one thing. Another Goddamn Star Wars movie is coming out sometime this year. I wonder when I hear about these losers how big and devoted a following George Lucas could have if the last movie he made that didn't suck was more recent than when I was in 6th grade, but I digress. Whenever I see another Star Wars marketing wave on the horizon I'm reminded of an exception to one of my cardinal rules of pharmacy.

Don't ever try to make a joke with your pharmacist while they're working. Just please don't. You see, more than likely there are several gaps between the typical pill pusher and the typical customer. A generation gap. An education gap (readers of this blog excepted I'm sure), a prudishness gap (I'm the exception here, more than likely that person behind the counter has morals that would make the Christian Coalition the height of progressiveness), an income gap. I could go on and on. DID I MENTION THE GENERATION GAP? So when you try to make a joke that your pharmacist will inevitably find not funny, you give them 2 choices, fake a laugh and try to be nice (very painful on our part) or react as a normal person would and let your "joke" have the success of a lead balloon. Although it tends to be bad for business. I usually choose the later course, in the hope it will discourage you from trying again. Please, please, please just take your pills and go home.

Having said that, let me take you back to the absolute, over the top, disgusting, complete corporate whoring period that preceded the release of the first modern Star Wars flick. The one with that god awful Jar Jar thing. I'm sure anyone who lived through it won't forget it. I worked in the pharmacy department at a big box discount retailer at the time, surrounded by Star Wars soda, potato chips, cheap imitation light sabers, dolls, a friggin life size cutout of one of the characters, (fortunately I forget which one.) And a guy comes up to the counter at random and says "Excuse me, where can I find the Star Wars Tylenol?"

His delivery and timing was perfect, and I let out a small chuckle. That's it. The only time ever a customer made me laugh the slightest bit while intending to. And the guy was lucky he said it to me, as anyone else in the pharmacy would have gone out there and tried to help him find some. The only nerds bigger than those found outside the Chinese theater in Los Angeles this month are probably found behind the nearest drugstore counter.