I am a vegetarian by principle -- meaning that I will eat meat if it prevents the product from going to waste.

Today was one of those rare exceptions where I was persuaded to share two bagels with egg, cheese, and sausage for $5 with somebody.

Since this person will not eat red meat, and I did not want to give the meat industry free profits, I decided that I would eat both sausage patties instead. (There are no discounts for having the sandwiches without the sausages.)

Aside from the fact that the service was obnoxiously slow -- it took them nearly ten minutes to serve a single customer -- the woman at the counter kept arrogantly dismissing and waving off my verbal instructions by saying "I got what you are saying".

Suffice to say, she clearly did not understand a single word, because she tried ringing it in as one breakfast bagel with no sausage, and another with a single patty, instead of two.

When I tried clarifying with her, she suddenly says "we can't do that!"

I asked her what difference it would make if they placed two of the sausage patties on one and left the other with egg and cheese, and she began chuckling as though I had asked her to turn water into wine.

Since I had no intention in giving them any of my money, I abruptly left in complete disgust.

A little while later, I went to the Tim Hortons at the Quickie location nearby on Woodroffe, and apparently their staff are much smarter and more intelligent than the ones at this location, because they eventually understood what I wanted, and they had no issues making such simple amends.

This is a convenient bonus, because not only are the line-ups at this location shorter and faster, it is also physically closer to my house.