Same Siders

You've all seen them, maybe you know some personally, heck maybe you one of them! I sure hope not. You head out to a restaurant, it could be Applebees, it could be a high end steak house. You sit down to enjoy a meal and blamo, two people sitting on the same side of the table, with outlook not so good for others to join them. SAME SIDERS. Best case scenario they're far far away, facing the other way and it's someone else's problem for the most part, but still annoying. Worst case, they're sitting at the table directly in front of you!

If you happen to notice that you're about to be seated across from one of these travesties of restaurant etiquette, you could steer the hostess towards another table. Whew, dodged a bullet there. However, the worst is when you're seated, enjoying the ambiance and BAM, they're seated in front of you with no way out! Now you feel like you're on stage and guess what, you're the host, guest and solo star of the show! Lucky you, didn't get the memo? Bummer...

There are a few reasons why someone might do that, most completely and utterly idoitic and just plain wrong in their own special way. But I will include also include one valid, fully acceptable reason!



1) They're co-dependent and can't keep their hands off each other. Let's call that the Schmoopy Syndrome, a reference to the classic Soup Nazi Seinfeld episode. You're Schmoopy, no you're Schmoopy. When Jerry is faced with the difficult task of choosing between schmoopy and a cup of soup, the soup wins.







2) Sharing a meal. Do you share a meal at home? I agree that some places do supersize their meals and prices, but chances are you know that going in. Take the rest home, meals for a week! Or if you must, share away, tip better than you normally would for shortchanging the wait staff, but sit on opposite sides of the table!




3) Drum roll.......Perfectly acceptable, we've done it before, would do it again...Watching a sporting event at a sports bar facing a large screen TV! If you're going to a venue to watch a specific event and that's what the place is there for, by all means same side it. If they happen to have multiple screens on each side of the table showing the same game, you can call an audible and same side it, opposite side it or switch it up mid game.


I must say that we've been very lucky, haven't noticed a single case of same siders in at least the last 6-8 months. Probably just by writing this post I'll re-awaken the demons and won't be able to avoid it, but I'm willing to sacrifice myself for the enjoyment of my faithful blog readers. It's been a long post holidays week, congrats on making it to Friday in one piece. Enjoy the weekend SAME SIDER free! If you happen to spot some same siders in the wild, snap a quick pic and send em to me and I'll do a wall of shame post at a later date.


One quick update, as expected, I posted this today at 5pm and we went out to dinner and for the first time in over 6 months, SAME SIDERS! Not in front of us, but directly next to us. I just started laughing and luckily snapped a quick covert shot just before they left. I need to add this to my acceptable side. If you are old and probably cannot hear each other from across the table, that's cool too. And in their defense, they were in a booth facing a wall closest to the door, so no worries there either. Too funny.

Any situations I'm overlooking either pro or con? Agree or disagree?

Posted in: Humor,People,Same Siders