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See What a ‘Bitter’ Coffee Shop Worker Wrote on His Blog that Got Him Fired

Feb. 13, 2013 8:10am Erica Ritz

(TheBlaze/AP) — A Seattle barista says it was all satire, but his popular anonymous blog that made snarky comments about his boss and the customers he didn’t like has gotten him fired.

Matt Watson was exposed as the author of the blog “Bitter Barista” this week by another coffee site called Sprudge.com, which led his boss at All City Coffee in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood to fire him, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday.

In the blog, the 30-year-old wrote that his vocabulary is too complex for his boss to understand. He also wrote about not serving customers what they ordered.

Bitter Barista Blogger Matt Watson Fired From All City Coffee in Seattle Fired After Identity Revealed

(Photo: Bitter Barista)

For example:

- “If you remind me four times that you’ve ordered decaf, guess what you won’t be getting … ”

- “What a coincidence! You have a gluten allergy, and I don’t care that you have a gluten allergy!”

- “‘Oh my G0d, I don’t care’ – me, during every conversation with every customer ever.”

-”Anyone that can’t put coffee in their own sugar should be publicly euthanized.”

- “I like to use a lot of big words when I tweet, that way if my boss ever finds my Twitter account, he won’t understand any of it.”

Watson claims his blog was satire and that he was just accentuating the “5 percent who I guess make our job more difficult and don’t treat us as human beings.”

“I had a good personal relationship with 95 percent of customers,” he said, adding that he thought very highly of his boss, Seth Levy.

Matt Watson describes why he wrote the blog. (Photo: KIRO 7)

But it might’ve also been that Watson’s condescension was too much to handle. He wrote that the average barista is, “probably an artist, overqualified, people with pretty much college education across the board.”

The New Jersey native has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and moved to Seattle “following a girl.”

He has worked at All City Coffee for the past 2.5 years to make ends meet while pursuing a career as a hip hop artist under the moniker “Spekulation.” On his site, Watson has released several songs in which he raps.

Watson only started his Bitter Barista blog about two weeks ago, but it was getting a couple of thousand hits a day. He made no mention of All City Coffee or his real name on the site. But the operators of Sprudge.com put it together after Watson said what he was doing in his Spekulation tweets, The Seattle Times reported.

KIRO 7 has more on the story, including an interview with the “bitter” blogger:

Sprudge.com ousted Watson on Thursday: “There’s a lot of anger in this blog, and while we love the well-worn barista cliché, it should be the stuff of mild parody, not an all-out assault on whomever walks through the door of your cafe.”

According to the Times, Watson tried to convince Levy in an email: “This isn’t bad press, it’s actually really good press … especially given your customer base and the type of neighborhood that Georgetown has become … I’m just saying … it could turn out to be a fun something that gives the place a little spike in publicity.”

But Levy didn’t quite see it that way.

“He was writing about his boss during business hours,” Levy told the newspaper. “I represent the business, the customers and the staff. I can’t endorse what he was saying, whether humorous or not. It puts me in a difficult position, where if I don’t respond that means I endorse what he’s saying.”

But Watson’s already on to his next task, it seems. He hopes to put together a Bitter Barista coffee-table book.

“My ex-boss thinks the website’s gonna stop because I don’t work there anymore,” he wrote on his blog. “Man, I didn’t even work there when I worked there!”

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Comments (72)

blackcatrun
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 12:26pm
Satire? Maybe I missed something in the satire, seemed more like insults than satire. Then in the interview gave a 12 year olds point of view of his actions with a vocabulairy to match. THAT IS what a loser looks and sounds like.

Shops serving foods or drinks have to be very careful in public perceptions. His former boss now has to do some serouse damage control. People wondering if the guy spit in the coffee was sure to hit the minds of patrons. I know people freek because of horror storys and some posted on the net of workers doing stuff to food and drinks they serve the public.

That guy may want to back off or find he has a court date to give some satire too.

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- DIgnified
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 1:56pm
  Definition 1: the use of irony or ridicule in exposing vice, folly, etc.
  
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- Fubared
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 2:13pm
  Crap sammich all around, extra kernels and hold the mayo. Wanker, wanker blog, wanker life, 2 min wasted on wanker story and dingyfried wanker retort. Word for the day: wanker.
  
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- Salamander
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:18pm
  I feel sorry for anyone who would dare snark an oyster in my morning java! Their oyster frother would need a Band-Aid Grande! I don’t get it–if you hate serving people so much, go find somthing else to do! It’s not like your Obamajob is the only thing in town! Hey, GREAT THOUGHT! Every business that has to cut hours should co-ordinate with a complementary business with the same problem! Then, they could just have everyone work a half shift at one joint and another half-shift at the other! It doesn’t solve the ‘free’ company-provided healthcare problem, but it dosn’t aggravate it by not only cutting out the healthcare, but cutting their employees’ hours to avoid the fines! Workers need to get used to a-la-carte jobs! 20 hours here, 20 hours there! And, they ought to petition their congressmen to set a tax-threshold floor at, say $15,000, below which NO INCOME TAXES AREDUE! Then, with two jobs paying 18,000 each, they’d have a reportable income of $6,000! I say ‘Bite them back where it hurts!’ MAKE YOUR CONGRESSMEN BE RESPONSIVE TO YOUR NEEDS!!!! DON’T LOOK FOR HANDOUTS, BUT DO DEMAND TAX CONCESSIONS THAT MUST COME WITH SHORTENED WORK OPPORTUNITIEIS!
  
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LakeHartwellSailor
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 12:25pm
Looks, sounds, and acts like the typical Liberal to me.

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The Third Archon
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 12:11pm
““He was writing about his boss during business hours,” Levy told the newspaper. “I represent the business, the customers and the staff. I can’t endorse what he was saying, whether humorous or not. It puts me in a difficult position, where if I don’t respond that means I endorse what he’s saying.””
Blah, blah, blah, worry, worry, worry, serious frown, business, professionalism blah, business, tradition blah-blah, business, look at my profit margins, capitalism, blah. That’s basically all I hear when drivel like this starts up.

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- naughtycal
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 12:38pm
  Actually its Political correctness not all the crap you bla bla bla about. God forbid someone should say anything that could offended anyone….PC is actual more about control than correctness.
  
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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 1:34pm
  Blah, Blah, Blah, I hate all my customers because they are sooo not as intelligent and smart as me I am such a brainiac with a rap name like “Spekulation” and everyone should just be killed if they order a soy latte and I am so like disdainful of my customers who make it possible to have a job in the first place and I left NJ to follow a girl to Seattle and blah, blah, blah, I am so going to get a Sony music career out of this and blah, blah, blah, NOT!
  
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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 2:12pm
  @Third Archie:
  
  Do you “hear” it from your mother’s basement in Seattle as you contemplate your rap career over your Starbucks perfectly steamed 2% half calf double tall latte and your newly legalized Seattle weed and look at your big bill from your college education at the U of W in philosophy that you can’t pay because you cannot in this “capitalist” society under Obama find a job to pay it off ever? Hmm. Me thinks thou doth protest too much as you “use” this capitalistic tool called a computer for which someone had to borrow some “capital”, (money) to invent this computer you type on and borrow some more “capital” (yup, still money) to get Microsoft up and running. What do YOU use when you go buy groceries these days? shells? rocks?
  
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thelongversion
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 12:11pm
So he’s a budding “Hip Hop” artist who looks like my tax guy at H&R Block. Good luck with that.

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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 1:44pm
  He is actually a **** ing doesn’t know his A$$ from a hole in the ground bunny hop waitress drag queen wannabe on roller skates at a Burger Master in North Seattle trying out for a part in the ****** Monologues with a new handle named “Spekulom” in which he pretends to be a talking woman’s papse smear instrument and ends up dying himself from a soy latte laced STD. Ironic ain’t it?
  
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woodyee
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 11:47am
Jiminy Crickets! Why make so much mention of his extensive vocabulary, without giving a few examples? I was hoping to pick up a word or two, hence, here’s a question –

A person with a vocabulary well above the average for their level of education* is a ?

and, NO, words like ‘nerd’, ‘smart’ and ‘smurf’ are invalid! I’d really like to know!

(elementary-middle, middle-high, high-college, know what I mean?)

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- canadianlady
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 12:03pm
  “usually an arrogant ass.”
  
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- Owudoin
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 12:25pm
  Pedantic :)
  
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- hapvalpsu
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 2:10am
  Shallow and pedantic.
  
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Longbow
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 11:16am
This is what an idiot looks like. Philosophy degree? Did you really think that one through before you signed up?

Too stupid to keep a freakin’ coffee house job!

All you have to do is show up, serve coffee, and not insult people. Not much to it.

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Ar-shooter
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 11:03am
This is exactly why I do not have a stupid twithead account, obviously on Twithead or facepalm your First Amendment rights are out the window!

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jungle J
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 11:02am
The perfect example of a highly trained progressive.

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AnotherLiberalDouche
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 10:53am
The New Jersey native has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and moved to Seattle “following a girl.”

Or to rephrase – The New Jersey native wasted tens of thousands of his parents dollars on a useless degree before moving out of their basement to head out west with a girl who dumped him shortly after he took a job serving coffee.

Maybe?

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- TIME_THE_AVENGER
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 1:00pm
  Bingo!
  
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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 2:04pm
  Double Bingo!
  
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- Revelation1.8
  Posted on February 14, 2013 at 12:49am
  Triple Bingo! LOL
  
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grimjack3791
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 10:23am
Dude, you are a college-educated coffee server.Time to re-evaluate your life and the $$ you spent for your “degree”.

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- zorro
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 10:52am
  Thirty years old and serves coffee for a living. College degree or not, he’s a useless human being.
  
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OpenTheDoor
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 10:05am
Heh, back in the early seventies I worked with a guy with a philosophy degree, he pushed batteries into the drying tunnel. I told him how fast[engineer] to do it.
Not much has changed, eh?

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joeslick
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 9:11am
Typical of today’s generation….it’s all about him and nothing about doing what he was hired to do. Sickening.

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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 1:39pm
  Yup. Lazy little turds like this are a dime a dozen. We have to fire these useless idiots all the time who think they are SOOOOO much smarter than the customers who pay their salaries. I LMAO when I heard that his rap name was SPEKULATION? How about this rap:
  
  “I opened my big fat trap and insulted my boss and customers”
  “Now I’m on the unemployment line trying to busta move”
  “Got no money, lost my job, girl I moved for, thinks I’m a nob!”
  
  Put that in your pipe and smoke it pot head! Good luck on your lame @SS rap career you fool! I would so LOVE to see this guy audition for American Idol and be put in the blooper reel. This article is so fantastic and made my day! thanks Blaze!
  
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Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:47am
The guy from Under Cover Boss that USE TO WORK for ‘Boston Market’ learned that attitude is everything.
Guess he can use that bachelor’s degree in philosophy when he joins Occupy Seattle to complain about not having a job where he can use his useless degree?

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- justsayin456
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 9:58am
  Easy to knock on others when you’re anonymous, huh?
  
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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 1:56pm
  YEs he did! I loved that video. Without customers we get nothing. i stand at a counter for 8 hours and I LOVe my customers. The old curmudgeons are my favorite! I got all kinds of people with hurting legs and backs and elderly and canes. They are the BEST! When you respect yourself and your boss and your customers you have a FUN day! Which I always do! I am LUCKY to be employed! We run through employees like this at our store like drip coffee! They have NEGATIVE attitudes toward everyone and think they are above every little dirty job and above the customers who make their jobs and salaries possible. They have NO Gratitude in life. Arrogant beyond belief! Glad this tool got fired! He deserved it! I LOVE my BOSS!
  
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denkat56
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:44am
Another useless college graduate with a useless degree, in philosophy. That degree only shows why he’s working in a coffee house trying to be a white rapper. Leave the rap to the blacks, let your degree get you a job as a college professor, then you can teach. Use the positions a base for white rappers anonymous. Then write a couple of books about working in a coffee shop for the man. You’ll make millions.

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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 2:05pm
  Awesome Post.
  
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DougHuffman
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:41am
Y’all best be looking for coffee substitutes. Coffee beans for home use range from 50¢/ounce to $1.50/ounce. The impact of coffee fungus blight

http://investorplace.com/2013/02/coffee-fungus-forces-guatemala-to-declare-state-of-emergency/

The days of fellatrix barista are short.

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Landon410
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:40am
I really never understood how a school of higher learning, that is supposed to prep young people for the real world would graduate someone with a degree in philosophy……

i can only picture the family guy episode where Peters great great…. whatever Thomas Griffin was a “deep thinker” “WHY……..?” he’d say as his family lived in a shack with no food… but he was an “elite” because of his edumakation

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- JIMC5499
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 11:28am
  “I really never understood how a school of higher learning, that is supposed to prep young people for the real world would graduate someone with a degree in philosophy…… ”
  
  Simple, his checks cleared the bank. This helped to keep some other stupid schmuck who got what would otherwise be a useless degree employed creating people with worthless degrees.
  
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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 1:48pm
  “Philosophy Degree” is code for I wasn’t smart enough to get into law or med school. It is as useless a degree as Liberal Arts. I am sure this tool was never let on the cash register. You would need to know how to count back change for that. Pretty sure he wasn’t up to that task either. Laziest bum I have heard of lately except for the last guy where I work who slept in the back and took off his shoes to reveal foot odor. Not to mention the cig and coffee breath and b.o. Yup. These guys still a dime a dozen.
  
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Trance
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:33am
My philosophy tells me that a degree in philosophy doesn’t qualify a person for any job. Except maybe to teach philosophy to other people who will be in low paying jobs.

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- justsayin456
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 9:59am
  Yeah, nurturing the mind and diversity of thought is obviously stupid.
  
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- fullmetal
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 11:41am
  Nurturing the mind has nothing to do with it. Producing something worth buying has everything to do with it. The only way to be ‘productive’ in philosophy is getting a doctorate and teaching other philosophers. Any philosophy books on the NYT best seller list lately? Any other use of philosophy? None comes to mind.
  
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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 2:01pm
  Nurturing the “mind of diversity” (excuse me while I gag with a fork) is for stuck up rich kids with plenty of daddy and mommy’s money to spend who have no real intention of getting their hands dirty. Most of us “real people” have to “work” for a living. You do remember “work” don’t you? You got cash? I can get you anything in the store. The people down on Skid Row will take your A## and Grass. And this idiot “Spakulation” or “Womans’ Spekulomation” or whatever the hell the loser’s name is supposed to be.
  
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000degrees
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:32am
In the blog, the 30-year-old wrote that his vocabulary is too complex for his boss to understand. He also wrote about not serving customers what they ordered.

Can you comprehend “you’re fired?”……..

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gauge
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:31am
In the blog, the 30-year-old wrote that his vocabulary is too complex for his boss to understand.

And yet, his boss owned the business, and this brainiac worked for him.

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- fingerprintguy
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 9:06am
  The Late Great Jerry Clower had a term for that “Educated BEYOND their intelligence”
  
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grimmster
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:30am
Next time he thinks about “waxing philosophically”,he would do better waxing his bikini lines……This idiot has “dumbass liberal” stamped all over his face……

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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 1:49pm
  LMAO! Especially the bikini wax part! Dude looks like a lady!
  
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term limits for congress
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:28am
Nancy Pelosi must be so proud. He’s now “free” to be an artist with the government’s assistance.

Unfortunately, the repayment of his $100k student loan is going to be delayed.

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- shorelineliz
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 2:02pm
  Isn’t a Philosophy Degree so cost effective? :-)
  
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00gabooga
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:26am
He looks exactly like I figured he would. HE LOOKS LIKE A GUY I HAVE TO REPEAT MY ORDER TO FOUR TIMES.

Look jerk, I can make my own coffee at home for pennies. If I’m gonna go to your place of business and pay $4.00 then I better damn well get the coffee I want. If I want you to put the sugar in for me then do it. Earn your paycheck. Good luck on the next job.

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SamIamTwo
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:23am
“The New Jersey native has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and moved to Seattle “following a girl.””

Man, a two time loser, eh?

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- SamIamTwo
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:27am
  And you can’t run away from this remark…”“My ex-boss thinks the website’s gonna stop because I don’t work there anymore,” he wrote on his blog. “Man, I didn’t even work there when I worked there!””
  
  Kiss of death for the next application…
  
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- SamIamTwo
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:32am
  To the clowns out there…if you are going to do this…give the boss a heads up…invite the boss in on it…let him or her have a say before going to print….
  
  You young punks don’t have a clue as how one should try to climb out of the ditch…you don’t step on the heads of others as you try to climb out…you’ll never get out of the ditch that way. A 12 year old could get out of the ditch quicker than this guy.
  
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- SocialistSlayer
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:36am
  “”"”"”"”"”"”"Kiss of death for the next application…”"”"”"”"”"”"”"
  
  It doesn’t matter – communist obama will simply take your money to provide him everything he needs !
  
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tommyr
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:20am
Philosophy, LOL.

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- CatB
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:35am
  Yes .. get a useless degree and you may have to serve coffee .. at least he wasn’t having to ask if “you want fries with that” … only now he probably couldn’t get that job either. ;-)
  
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biohazard23
Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:16am
Nice to see how well that philosophy degree is working out for ya. Let me guess: the girl dumped you. Or were you just stalking her?

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- redfish52
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:25am
  Well I for one love a creative smarta$$ but sometimes it does come with consequence. The trick is to do it with a smile directly in to the person and not like a little coward in a blog…Mr. Watson….I’d like a coffee, black with nothing in it. Much like that philosophy degree you have.
  
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- biohazard23
  Posted on February 13, 2013 at 8:35am
  “…black with nothing in it. Much like that philosophy degree you have.” LOL!!
  
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