They're Going to Kill Us!!!!

Did that catch your eye? -

Obviously, it is a little out of context, but that is a direct quote, made by the lady directly in front of me at the Aiken, SC, Kroger this past Monday morning. 3/9/09, to be exact.

And just what prompted this outburst? And yes, it was an outburst -

Not masked men in guns, bursting through the front doors of the Kroger, I assure you.

Here's the entire context:

The checker has finished scanning all of this lady's items, so the woman asked the Kroger employee "has that cigarette tax increase gone into effect yet?"

To which the employee responded, "Yes", and the woman then scoffed loudly, and asked for a carton of Marlboros.

As the checker was handing the woman her Marlboros, the customer yells, to no one in particular, but to everyone within a 50 foot radius: "They're going to kill us!!!!!"

So obviously, since I was right behind her, I had been able to hear the entire exchange, but I wasn't really watching - I was innocently loading my items onto the conveyor belt.

But when she makes this outlandishly bizarre statement at the top of her lungs, I turned to look at her, and calmly stated: "I assume you're talking about those cigarettes."

She looked at me like I had grown a second head - and starts to explain to me that the government was trying to kill her with this cigarette tax.

So now the irony is just slapping me in the face, and I just had to point out that the cigarettes would likely kill her before any cigarette tax increase did, but irony was evidently not on the menu for her that day, as she just took her stuff and grumpily moved on out of the Kroger.

Peace.