After my dubious CS3254 exam, I strolled into Sans Bookstore (Tampines Mall), one of my favourite book haunts. The salesgirl was chatting with a friend. That's nothing special in itself you understand, because even though this particular salesgirl was surrounded by a veritable library of wisdom and entertainment, she just has to chat and/or gossip with another female. Happened all those times I'm there, so it's not an isolated gossip session. She's the most antithetical bookstore salesperson I've met (she doesn't even know who Steinbeck and Ha Jin are!) and gossips even when customers are making payments (to a third person no less), and I'm guessing the pressure in her brain will build up to dangerous levels unless she relieves herself by gossiping.

What was hilarious and maddening at the same time however, was the Gossip Topic of the Hour, which I'm guessing is "Verbal Bashing of University-Educated Arseholes". Among other heinous crimes, University students (that's right, ALL of them) are charged with having "shit for brains" and therefore"cannot think", while being "inhumane" and "uncompassionate".

Really.

I'm sure some university-educated people fit the bill, but surely not all? I wonder who or what has gotten their goats. Short of hurling The Grapes of Wrath (Ha Jin's novels are too thin) at their heads, thereby adding "abusive" and "violent" to their already mile-long litany of faults, I could only exit the store. Perhaps I have stayed on to defend the honour of University-educated people, but my nerves were not up to the task. Faced with two 1000-words-a-minute women, discretion is the better part of valour.

This education divide is worrisome. Already, there is a strong distinction between University graduates and non-graduates. The fact that University graduates are often lumped together as the "elite" (which is so not true) makes matters worse. The fact that there are different classes of graduates doesn't help either. Asking graduates to mingle with non-graduates may mitigate the problem somewhat, but as long as such misconceptions of superiority exist, this reverse-snobbery will never be eradicated. How sad.

This reminds me of the one time I was buying some Christmas presents in Crabtree Evelyn (Ngee Ann City branch). While I was making my payment, the two salesgirls tittered excitedly at the sight of a man who had just entered the store and both almost swooned at his sex appeal while telling each other that he's her type. And there I was: invisible, geeky and deaf to boot.

Maybe we should just ban salesgirls from gossiping and all our social problems will go away. There's a thought.