Prof Banned From Starbucks for Refusing to Use Chain's Lingo When Ordering

New York Post, Grammar Stickler: Starbucks Booted Me:

Starbucks' strange vernacular finally drove a customer nuts.

Lynne Rosenthal, a college English professor from Manhattan, said three cops forcibly ejected her from an Upper West Side Starbucks yesterday morning after she got into a dispute with a counterperson -- make that barista -- for refusing to place her order by the coffee chain's rules.

Rosenthal, who is in her early 60s, asked for a toasted multigrain bagel -- and became enraged when the barista at the franchise, on Columbus Avenue at 86th Street, followed up by inquiring, "Do you want butter or cheese?"

"I just wanted a multigrain bagel," Rosenthal told The Post. "I refused to say 'without butter or cheese.' When you go to Burger King, you don't have to list the six things you don't want. Linguistically, it's stupid, and I'm a stickler for correct English."

Rosenthal admitted she had run into trouble before for refusing to employ the chain's stilted lexicon -- balking at ordering a "tall" or a "venti" from the menu or specifying "no whip."

• Gothamist, Cops Eject Starbucks Customer Who Wouldn't Use Their Lingo
• Huffington Post, Lynne Rosenthal, Starbucks Protester, Vows To Never Go To 'Fascist' Chain Again
• NPR, Showdown At Starbucks!
• USA Today, English Professor a Poor Study in Starbucks Vernacular