LA Moment: Part 1 of Many

LA moment: I was at the library, and there was a gentleman who was dressed as Thomas Jefferson, going around to everyone, saying in a charming British accent, “My name is Thomas Jefferson and I will be doing a little talk upstairs if you would care to join me in a few minutes.”

Finally, he comes ‘round to a gentleman who is sitting at a table near me. He starts his schpeel, and as soon as he does, the man’s face turns livid. He says to Jefferson, “Get the f**k away from me.” Jefferson takes a step back while uttering a mild-mannered “Oh my.” The man then rises from his seat, aggressively going for Jefferson while saying, “stay away from me you [SOB]” He then totally decks Jefferson in the face (at which point other library patrons are staring in alarm).

A librarian arrives on scene, calms the man down, by saying, “It’s okay, he’s just a character.” The man replies, “keep that [SOB] away from me," as he sinks back into his chair.

Then everyone returned to their business.

The best part was, Thomas Jefferson remained in character the whole time. He said, (still with accent) “Dear sir, I meant no offence. I’m just a simple farmer” as the man was angrily going for a punch. (Also, I have no idea how hard he actually hit Jefferson. I realize I’ve only seen people get punched in movies, which is always accompanied by a sound affect). I was also a little surprised that, while I was reaching for my phone to call 9-1-1, nobody else seemed quite that concerned. It almost seemed like everyone experienced relief that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The man didn’t even get asked to leave. After punching JEFFERSON for crying out loud!

I’m sure I’ll see more sightings such as these. I’ll record them here for you. Stay tuned…