#FridayFeeling

DEAR JERKASS:
What is the etiquette when eating at a restaurant where a piano player is performing? I don't mean the "bar scene"-type piano player who wants the crowd to sing along, but more of a mid- to upscale type of place.

There's a restaurant like this in my town -- the only one with a piano. On one special occasion when we were there, the piano player was playing "Misty" and a woman sitting nearby with her party wanted to make herself heard over him. She began talking very loudly to her group while he was playing the song. I thought it was tacky, and if I had been sitting near her, I would have shushed her up.
Isn't it polite to wait until the piano player is finished before talking loudly at your table? Whatever happened to behaving with a little class in restaurants?
-- DEANNA IN OKLAHOMA


DEAR NOT IN A MOVIE THEATER:
You go out to restaurants, mainly, to have a nice meal AND conversation.  Sure, sometimes you have to bring the kids along because you’re traveling or what-have-you, but the goal is to have someone else prepare a meal while you share it with another.
Is that too hard to understand?  It doesn’t matter if someone is playing your favorite song, it’s background to everyone else.  You want to listen to someone play piano, go to a rehearsal hall or public venue where the focal point is the player.
Otherwise you’re just an ass-hat whining about crap that doesn’t matter.  At best you could complain that she was interrupting YOUR conversation, but she wasn’t.  So why don’t you shut the shush up and pay attention to the person you’re with.
Never mind.  You probably don’t actually care about the person you’re with.  You just wrote this letter to get validation for your selfishness.