There’s actually a bit of a real-life inspired story behind today’s comic.
My new gym has a smoothie bar and when you sign up for membership they give you a gift certificate to spend there. I have allergies so I’m usually pretty careful to check ingredients before ordering something I know nothing about, like the protein powder they put in the smoothies. There are a lot of whey-based protein powders and whey is a dairy byproduct which means lactose.
A couple of weeks ago I asked the girl behind the counter about the protein powder and she’s clearly a summer student or part-timer who’s just putting in the hours – not really interested in digging any deeper into her job than she really has to. (I really don’t begrudge that, we’ve all had those jobs. ) So, when I asked her about the whey content, she didn’t understand what I meant. There was a bit of a Who’s On First back and forth before I figured out that she thought I meant “way”. I’m a bit of an instigator by nature so I started messing with her, thinking she’d catch on and we’d have a laugh, but I ended up really frustrating the poor thing before I finally gave up and pointed to the “whey” on the label.
Oh wow, she was so disgusted. I got the full on stink-eye the way that only teenagers can give and I started to crack. In the end, I was trying so hard not to laugh I had to walk away without ordering.
