Occasionally I observe stuff that irritates me, even in my retail heaven:
On January 24 I notice the You Can Run But You Cannot Hide jerks have a table set up outside the store--where two aggressive hucksters ply their rancid trade.
Finished shopping, I exit the store--where the two holy men continue to shake down the geriatric and the deluded.
They at first voice neutrality--almost immediately morphing into extreme personal hatred. For me.
The portly one very menacingly requests my name.
I immediately blurt Gavin, like a dolt--and walk toward my car.
The minister orbits me as I speedwalk--threatening legal or police action against me for having photographed the pair.
At my car, he writes down my plate--and informs me he will call the Eden Prairie Police.
I felt shaken.
I complain to Wal-Mart--who verify the You Can Run creeps are authorized to be there.
So I ask Wal-Mart if non-insane people--atheists, say--are also allowed to set up tables in front of their store.
The HQ respondent directs me to my local store for an answer; I pursue the matter no further.
A month later, at a rest stop off I35 in Farmington, my son and I happen upon the YCRBYCH pilgrims jingling the tin cup.
I gently say hullo; portly replies civilly--and then tells me the Eden Prairie Police told him, 'We know Gavin Sullivan well'--but they will not launch an APB based on my having snapped a few photos in a parking lot. (My cop mind-reading proves accurate, Allah-be-praised.)
The police volunteer 'Gavin pulls that kind of crap all the time.'
