the express check out line episode

something very unsavory is going on in the express checkout lines.
i count every item and if i'm over, i take myself out, the way it should be.
but not every one self manages, and that's a very big problem.

why just this morning this rather testy older woman, probably four years my junior, had at least 21 items that i could count in the "12 or less" express check-out line.
so i shot her one of my looks that one can't help but know means, "you're way over the allowed item count miss i-don't-care-what-you-think-of me-and-i-cut-in-line-too."
so she flipped me a quick "ten cans of the same soup count as one. so don't be giving me the stink eye mister who-died and-made-you-the-official-express-checkout-monitor" look back.
so i gave her the old "you've got to be kidding me" stare, to which she just smugly smiled.

i mean ... really!
since when do ten cans of the same thing count as one?
i'll tell you ... some people man.

so i waited for her to get out of earshot and eyesight, and then asked the checkout clerk, since when do ten cans of the same thing count as one.
she said, i don't know.
i said, you don't know? isn't there a policy? i mean a count is a count.
she said, i suppose but the number is just a general rule, give or take a few things.
i said, but she had 21 items. that's not a give or a take. that's against the law.
she said, sir, no it's not.
i said, well it should be for cryin' out loud.
then i heard this sigh from the person behind me in line.
so i discreetly checked out his purchases and he had at least two dozen pizzas stacked up.
and i thought, this is exactly the sort of chaos that brought rome down. doesn't anyone see what is going on?

then i told the clerk to have a good day, even though society, as we know it, is certain to collapse by nightfall.