My window was frosty and I was late for work. Guess it's winter again...

Discussion topic of the morning: If you were sitting at your desk, and heard other coworkers having a discussion, and heard one of the people say something that, to you, might be construed as being offensive (though wasn't intended as such in the course of the conversation), would you go up and inject yourself in the conversation, and then report the person to your HR department because you were "offended on behalf of the other people"?

Ailleann, it would depend on how offensive it was and what the nature of the comment was.

By the way--it wasn't only the Big Wazoo that changed formats. 103.9 Ted FM has changed to talk radio--with GLEN BECK on the air. *gag* I just need to reset all my radio presets. How do you go from fairly decent middle of the road rock to craptacular hate-mongering talk radio?

Yeah, Crazy!Neocon is so sad that she can't get the station to come in.

What I wonder is how 107.1 could go from decent alternative/rock to "new country, and only new country"?!? I can't even fill up the six presets on my car radio anymore.

Crazy!Neocon, who is white, was making a comment about the black community and used the word "you people." The other three people, who were black, did not take offense.

(Do I need to capitalize black in this context?)

Hell, I'm still scarred by various and sundry radio stations abruptly changing format over the course of my life. ::shows off psychic scars::

I should really not stay up late. But it is so easy! It's just that getting up in the morning is a bitch.

Our garage is undergoing various forms of construction. This means the traffic patterns have changed, in addition to losing spaces. Watching people get utterly and completely flummoxed by having to come at a parking space from the usually "wrong" direction would be entertaining, if it didn't result in a traffic backup. It's not hard, people! These aren't angled spaces! It's just like the other side! Really!

Allie -- I'd leave it up to the actual people in the conversation to decide whether to take offense, as I'd trust they have a good idea what battles they want to fight. Though, depending on how kindly I felt towards Ms. Neo-Con, I might take her aside and point out that she might be inadvertantly giving offense -- phrasing it as a matter of Politeness might get her to evaluate how she speaks. Quite a few prejudiced people in my experience have little conscious bias towards those whom they are personally acquainted with -- it's the great faceless (brown, white, pink, yellow) masses that they lump together.

When I woke up this morning, I wasn't sure if it was AM or PM because I'd managed to turn off the alarm in my sleep. I'm only a third of the way through my coffee, and I'm already panicking about how it's almost gone. But I suppose if the god damn freezing wind didn't wake me up this morning, more coffee doesn't have a chance.

That's the thing, Theo... after the matter was brought to HR, they spoke with the other people in the conversation, all of whom said that they didn't take offense and that what she was saying made sense in the context of the conversation. C!N-C wasn't written up, but she did have to sign something that will go in her file.

The offended person also made a big deal of injecting herself in the conversation and showing how offended she was.

The offended person also made a big deal of injecting herself in the conversation and showing how offended she was.

The offended person is white? It seems like much ado over nothing to me. But then (as an example of the opposite thing), I'm pretty likely to say things that might sound offensive on the face of them, but which I trust the people I'm talking to to take as a joke.

No, the offended person was black.