Not Cool, Man

Jodi, who I haven't seen since 2004 despite living 30 minutes from her, came up to New Brunswick today. It was a long overdue reunion, and we had a blast.

We saw Zipperface. Rather, we saw Zipperface!!?! It was amazing. Unfortunately, tonight was the final performance at Rutgers, so my recommendations will be useless to you. This is my second time seeing a College Avenue Players production, and this is my second glowing review.

After the play, Jodi and I walked to Harvest Moon, where we imbibed the delicious beers. We waxed nostalgic, trading stories of parties in the Phi Psi lounge and so on. The name Hack was used more than a few times. It's good that we've both grown since our time in Cleveland, but it's equally nice to look back fondly.

Jodi went into the crowd of dancers, to partake of the bump-and-grind dancing that the kids love so much. I made my way to the bar, to buy another round.

As I set the beers down on our table, I looked over at Jodi. The man with whom she was dancing, her back to his front, had reached around and placed his hand on her throat. As if to choke her.

Jodi later informed me that he wasn't applying pressure. She also told me that she was mouthing the word "help" to me. I wasn't aware of either of these things, because they were both secondary to the fact that some guy had his hand at my friend's throat.

Your humble scribe put himself between Jodi and the guy (let's call him Random Douchebag) and looked him in the eye.

YHS: Don't grab her throat
RD: What?
YHS: Don't grab my friend's throat. Not cool, man.
RD: She likes it.
YHS: No she doesn't.
RD: She likes it!
YHS: She clearly doesn't. Don't touch her.
RD: You want to talk about this outside?

Okay, decision time. Jodi, having retreated to a few yards behind me, was no longer in harm's way. I had nothing to gain from "talking" outside, except that it would feel really good to land a few punches on this sleazebag.

YHS: I'm going to finish my beer.

The Random Douchebag tried to goad me a few more times, then eventually left. A few minutes later, he returned... to apologize.

Crisis averted, I guess.

Question: In what universe is it acceptable to grab the throat of a girl you just met, or any girl for that matter? How can that possibly be okay?