Move over Steven Slater: New York has a new folk hero. Lynne Rosenthal stood up for grammarians and contrarians everywhere on Sunday morning when the linguistic indignities of ordering at Starbucks pushed her over the edge. Following a shouting match with a barista over syntax and diction, three police officers kicked Rosenthal out of a store on the Upper West Side.

“Linguistically, it’s stupid, and I’m a stickler for correct English,” she told the New York Post.

We’re all for usage and style outlaws, those fine citizens who refuse to lower their discourse simply to participate in modern commerce. If each morning you bristle at “Krispy Kreme,” abhor a “Dunkin’ Donut,” or scoff at a “Frappé,” then you’ve got our full support. Unfortunately, Rosenthal wasn’t irate about the absurd faux-Continental size designations (tall, grande, venti) that Starbucks foists upon its customers. Instead, the dustup was over a bagel. The Post breaks down the scene:

Rosenthal, who is in her early 60s, asked for a toasted multigrain bagel—and became enraged when the barista at the franchise, on Columbus Avenue at 86th Street, followed up by inquiring, “Do you want butter or cheese?” “I just wanted a multigrain bagel,” Rosenthal told The Post. “I refused to say ‘without butter or cheese.’ When you go to Burger King, you don’t have to list the six things you don’t want.

Calling a large coffee a “venti” is silly, and we hate to side with the man, but, in this case, a server asking what spread a customer wants on her bagel is entirely reasonable. Correct usage is important, but so is civility.

Via the New York Post.

(Photograph: TerryJohnston, Flickr CC.)