When an entitled customer threw her drink in my face, humiliating me in front of everyone, she assumed I’d just take it quietly. Little did she know, she was in for a surprise—and a lesson she wouldn’t forget.
That morning, I stepped into the health food store, the familiar scent of fresh produce and herbal teas greeting me. It was the start of another day at work, where I’d been earning a living for the past year. As I tied my apron, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was different today.
“Hey, Grace! Ready for another thrilling day of juice-making?” my coworker Ally joked from behind the counter.
I laughed, shaking my head. “Yep, gotta keep those entitled customers happy, right?”
But the knot in my stomach told me otherwise. There was one customer who made our jobs miserable every time she came in.
We had dubbed her “Miss Pompous,” and it was a fitting name. She walked in like she owned the place, treating us like we were beneath her.
As I began my shift, I tried to put her out of my mind. I needed this job. It wasn’t just about me—it was about my family. My mom’s medical bills were piling up, and my younger sister was counting on me to help with college expenses. Quitting wasn’t an option.
A few minutes later, Ally leaned in close. “Heads up,” she whispered. “Miss Pompous just pulled into the parking lot.”
My stomach dropped. “Great,” I muttered. “Just what I needed to start my day.”
The bell above the door chimed, and in she walked, her designer heels clicking like a countdown to disaster. Without even acknowledging me, she strutted up to the counter and barked her order.
“Carrot juice. Now.”
I forced a smile. “Of course, ma’am. Coming right up.”
As I worked, I could feel her eyes on me, scrutinizing my every move. My hands began to shake under the pressure. Finally, I handed her the juice.
She took one sip and her face twisted in disgust. “What is this watered-down garbage?” she screeched. Before I could react, she hurled the entire drink at my face.
The cold juice splashed across my cheeks, dripping down my chin. I stood there, stunned, as she continued to rant. “Are you trying to poison me?” she demanded.
I blinked, wiping juice from my eyes. “It’s the same recipe we always use,” I stammered.
“Make it again,” she snapped. “And this time, use your brain.”
My face burned with humiliation as everyone in the store turned to watch. Tears threatened to spill, but I refused to let her see me cry.
Just then, my manager, Mr. Weatherbee, appeared. “Is there a problem here?” he asked, though his concern seemed more for the loss of a customer than for me.
Miss Pompous turned on him. “Your employee can’t even make a simple juice! I demand a refund and a replacement.”
To my disbelief, Mr. Weatherbee began apologizing profusely. “I’m so sorry, ma’am. We’ll remake your juice immediately, free of charge.” Then he turned to me. “Grace, be more careful next time.”
I stood there, dumbfounded. My jaw dropped. “But sir, I—”
“Just get the carrots, Grace,” he interrupted, “and remake the juice.”
Miss Pompous smirked at me, clearly enjoying my humiliation. I felt a surge of anger. For a split second, I wanted to throw my apron down and walk out. But then I thought of my mom and sister—I couldn’t afford to lose this job.
So, I took a deep breath and made a decision. I wasn’t going to let her win.
I met Miss Pompous’s gaze, refusing to be intimidated. She thought she could buy respect with her money, that she could trample over people without consequences. Well, not this time.
As Mr. Weatherbee walked away, I reached into the fridge, bypassing the usual carrots. Instead, I grabbed the biggest, gnarliest one I could find. It was tough and unwieldy, perfect for what I had in mind.
“Just a moment,” I said, sweetly, as I fed the oversized carrot into the juicer. The machine groaned in protest before spraying juice everywhere—across the counter, the floor, and best of all, onto Miss Pompous’s designer handbag.
She shrieked, snatching her bag and frantically trying to wipe off the bright orange juice. “My bag!” she cried. “You stupid girl! Look what you’ve done!”
“Oh no, I’m so sorry, ma’am,” I said, struggling to keep a straight face. “It was an accident, I swear.”
Her face turned beet red. “You ruined my three-thousand-dollar purse! I want your manager!”
Trying not to laugh, I gestured vaguely toward the store. “I think he’s helping a customer over there.”
As she stomped off in search of Mr. Weatherbee, I ducked into the stockroom to hide my smile. From my hiding spot, I watched as she stormed out, still clutching her dripping bag, leaving a trail of carrot juice in her wake.
I thought it was over, but I knew Miss Pompous wasn’t the type to let things go.
Sure enough, the next morning, she burst into the store, demanding to see the owner. When Mr. Larson, the kind, older man who owned the store, came out, she launched into a tirade, insisting I be fired and demanding compensation for her ruined purse.
Calmly, Mr. Larson replied, “Let’s check the security footage.”
My heart skipped a beat. I had completely forgotten about the cameras.
We gathered around the monitor as the footage played, showing Miss Pompous throwing juice in my face and the “accident” with her purse. The room fell silent.
Mr. Larson turned to her. “I’m afraid I can’t offer you any compensation. What I see here is an assault on my employee. If anyone should be considering legal action, it’s us.”
Miss Pompous sputtered in disbelief. “But… my purse!”
“I suggest you leave,” Mr. Larson said firmly. “And don’t come back.”
With one final glare, Miss Pompous stormed out.
Once she was gone, Mr. Larson turned to me, his eyes twinkling. “That was just an accident, right, Grace?”
“Of course, sir,” I said with a grin. “Why would I intentionally ruin a customer’s belongings?”
He chuckled and walked away. Ally gave me a high five. “You stood up to her, Grace! You showed her who’s boss.”
That night, as I shared the story with my mom and sister, I realized something important: standing up for myself hadn’t just put Miss Pompous in her place—it reminded me of my own worth.
Have you ever had to deal with someone like Miss Pompous? Share your stories in the comments. Together, we can take on the “Karens” of the world!
Carly Simon finally says who “You’re So Vain” is written about, confirms what we knew all along
With two successful albums in the span of only nine months, Simon soon found herself solidified as a famous and immensely popular singer/songwriter. In 1971, she received a Grammy Award for Best New Artist of the Year, and additionally one nomination in the “Best Pop Female Vocalist” category.
Carly Simon – “You’re So Vain”
In November of 1972, Carly Simon released her third album, and it was intended to be her big commercial breakthrough. No Secrets spent five weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart and quickly achieved gold status.
It was a great album that spread all over the world, spending weeks and weeks on the top of the charts in countries like Norway, Australia and Canada. But it was one song in particular – the third on the album – that would change her life forever.
You’re So Vain was the song that most people reference when talking of Carly Simon. It was a smash-hit right away, and throughout the years, it’s grown even bigger and bigger.
The song is currently ranked at No. 92 on Billboard‘s Greatest Songs of All-Time list. In 2014, it was voted as number as no 216 when Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) asked the question of the best songs of the century. That same year, it was crowned as the ultimate song of the 1970’s by the UK Official Charts Company.
The album was recorded at the famous Trident Studios in London, England, where bands like The Beatles recorded The White Album and David Bowie made Space Oddity.
You’re So Vain – recording
You’re So Vain also held plenty of secrets when it was released, and for many years it was the subject of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest mysteries. But we’ll get to that soon.
Firstly, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is uncredited on the song, even though he sings on the chorus.
At the time of the recording, several other famous artists were at the Trident Studios, and the likes of Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, legendary record producer George Martin, and Harry Nilsson watched her record. Actually, McCartney himself pitched in to guest star with background vocals.
And then there was Mick Jagger. Carly Simon wrote in her memoir that he actually invited himself to the recording. Jagger had pursued her in London and called Trident Studios once he understood she was there.
“It was shortly after midnight. Mick and I, we were close together – the same height, same coloring, same lips,” Simon writes.
“I felt as if I was trying to stay within a pink gravity that was starting to loosen its silky grip on me. I was thrilled by the proximity, remembering all the times I had spent imitating him in front of my closet mirror.”
As mentioned, You’re So Vain was a rock ‘n’ roll mystery. It’s always fun to know the background story of a song, wether its about a certain event, a person, or if that one line is a reference for something special.
You’re So Vain – who is it about?
In Carly Simon’s case, no one knew who You’re So Vain was about.
Some guessed – and had conspiracy theories – that the song was about Mick Jagger. Sure, there was a pretty clear connection between the two, especially since he actually sang on the record.
But no, it turns out the rumours were wrong. The truth is that You’re So Vain – at least the second verse – is about one-time Hollywood lothario Warren Beatty, whom she dated briefly in the early 1970’s.
“You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive.
Well you said that we made such a pretty pair.
And that you would never leave.
But you gave away the things you loved and one of them was me.
I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee.
Clouds in my coffee”.
In her memoir, Carly revealed that the song was also about two other people, but she won’t reveal who they were.
“I don’t think so,” she told People. “At least until they know it’s about them.”
“Probably, if we were sitting over at dinner and I said: ‘remember that time you walked into the party and…’ I don’t know if I’ll do it. I never thought I would admit that it was more than one person.”
Simon dated Warren Beatty for a short while in the ’70s, and described him as a “glorious specimen” who put all other men “to shame, if looks and charm were what you were after.”
Carly Simon – James Taylor
So what about Carly Simon’s love life besides Warren? Well, she’s been married once, to singer/songwriter James Taylor.
They had met briefly as children, and then again in her dressing room in 1971. She described the latter meeting in her book. Taylor was there together with his then-girlfriend Joni Mitchell.
“He was barefoot, long-legged, long-footed – and is knees were bent,” she wrote in her memoir.
”He wore dark red, loose, wide-wale corduroys and a long-sleeved Henley with one button open, his right hand clutching a self-rule cigarette. His hair, simultaneously shiny and disheveled, fell evenly on both sides of his head, and he wore a scruffy, understated mustache, the kind so fashionable back in the yearly 1970s. He seemed both kempt and unkempt. Even sprawled out on the floor, everything about him communicated that he was, in fact, the center of something – the core of an apple, the center of a note.”
Carly Simon and James Taylor started dating later the same year and tied the knot in November of 1972. 11 years later, the couple divorced, but it wasn’t just because they didn’t have the same love for each other anymore.
Carly Simon – children
Simon explained that it mostly had to do with drugs. They had two children, now grown up and working in the music business. Daughter Sally Taylor is 46 years old and Ben Taylor’s 43.
Her memoir Boys in the Trees pretty much ends with her marriage to James Taylor. Her son hasn’t read the book. But her daughter has.
“I think he would feel more conflicted than Sally did,” Simon told ABC in 2016. “I had told her almost everything, but when she read it all together, she was just so amazed. She said, ‘I’m so proud of you for being able to tell it like it is for you.’”
Carly Simon was later engaged to musician Russ Kunkel in 1985. She married writer James Hart in December 1987, but the couple divorced in 2007.
Carly Simon, now 75 years of age, continued making music for many years to come. And, as a by-product, continued to win several awards for her trophy cabinet.
Her 1977 worldwide hit Nobody Does It Better was the theme song of the Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me. It’s considered by many to be one of the greatest Bond anthems of all time.
Hall of Fame entry
In 1988, she released the song Let The River Run, first featured in the 1988 movie Working Girl. With the song, she became the first singer ever to win three major awards for a single track: an Academy Award, a Grammy and a Golden Globe.
Six years later, in 1994, Carly was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Carly Simon lived a happy life during the 1960s and 1970s. She sure is a legendary singer with a legacy that will live on forever.
Thank you for all the wonderful music, Carly, and we hope to hear more in the future.
Please, share this story with friends and family!
When Carly Simon wrote the song You’re So Vain, her career changed forever, and yet the song remains one of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest mysteries. Who is the person Simon is singing about?
Well, Carly herself has revealed who the classic song is about.
The 1970’s sure was a time for great music. During the 1960’s, bands like The Beatles had conquered the world, and now it was time for the likes of Bob Dylan and others to take over.
Carly Simon – singer/songwriter
One of those who did just that was Carly Simon. The wonderful singer/songwriter became one of the most popular artists when her career began to grow in the early 1970’s.
We’ve all heard You’re so Vain and various other classics from the New Yorker. But what about her life? And who was You’re so Vain actually about? This is the story of the wonderful Carly Simon.
Carly Simon was born on June 25, 1945, in New York City, the youngest daughter of an upper-class New York family. Her father Richard Simon was the co-founder of the Simon & Schuster publishing company.
Carly Simon – childhood
Now, Carly’s childhood wasn’t exactly perfect. As a third daughter, she often felt inadequate. Did her parents really want her?
“After two daughters he’d been counting on a son, a male successor to be named Carl. When I was born, he and Mommy simply added a y to the word, like an accusing chromosome: Carly,” she said.
When she was just 7 or 8 years old, Carly experienced a string of disturbing sexual encounters with a teenage boy.
“I didn’t realize that I was being used,” she said in an interview with USA Today. “I thought of myself as being in love with him. I’m sure a lot of girls go through the same thing.”
As a young girl, Carly got to see what the music industry was all about. But it would be some time before she would become the sensation she was.
Simon split her time between her family’s townhouse in Greenwich Village, New York and a wonderful estate in Stamford, Connecticut. The estate in Stamford saw the young girl surrounded by celebrities like Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt.
The Simon family were also good friends of legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson, who soon would take Carly under his wing. Jackie Robinson and his family lived in the Stamford house while their own home was under construction.
Befriended Jackie Robinson
She got to sit in the dugout at the old Ebbets Field in Brooklyn – home of the then-Brooklyn Dodgers. Soon, she became the unofficial mascot of the team.
“Jackie even taught me how to bat lefty, though it never took”, Simon wrote in her memoir Boys in the Trees (2015).
“He always had the cutest look around the side of his mouth, as if he were thinking about what he was about to say before he said it.”
However, the family would go through a tragedy. Simon’s father was strong-armed out of his own company, and died in 1960, just before his daughter’s 16th birthday.
For her part, Carly showed an early interest in music. She started singing together with brother Joey – who later became a successful writer, writing the music for the Broadway show The Secret Garden – but later, it was her and her sister who would go on to pursue a career in the business.
As Carly wrote on her website, she and sister Lucy taught themselves three chords on the guitar and hitch-hiked up to Provincetown, MA in the summer of 1964.
The Simon Sisters – as they called themselves – sang at a local bar called The Moors, with a repertoar consisting of folk music, as well as some of their own songs.
Touring with sister Lucy
Carly Simon and Lucy were eventually signed to Kapp Records and played a couple of clubs in Greenwich Village, opening for early comedians Woody Allen and Dick Cavett, among others, and even played in the UK.
In her memoir, Simon recalls the boat trip across the Atlantic heading home.
They were on the same boat as Sean Connery, and Carly and her sister ended up spending the trip with the actor. At that point, of course, no one could realize or even imagine that Carly would write a Bond theme song 12 years later.
The sister duo released three albums in the 1960s before Lucy left to get married.
Carly Simon was on her own, but still determined to forge a career in the music industry. However, her career had a slow start. She started working as a summer-camp counselor and as a secretary on a TV show.
Carly’s career
In February of 1971, Simon released her debut album Carly Simon. The song That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be – an anti-marriage-song – became her first hit, reaching No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 list.
In October, later the same year, Simon released her second album, Anticipation. By now, things had really started to blow up. Her album went gold in two years and contained the smash hit Anticipation, which peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard pop singles chart and also at No. 3 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in the United States.
According to herself, Simon wrote the song in just 15 minutes while waiting for Cat Stevens at her place, whom she was dating at the time and had made dinner for. When he arrived, the song was ready, but the date only lasted a short while.
“He gave me whispers and drawings of Blake poems,” Carly Simon said. “He told me about his childhood, his mixed Greek and Swedish parents, and we made a connection that has lasted.”
With two successful albums in the span of only nine months, Simon soon found herself solidified as a famous and immensely popular singer/songwriter. In 1971, she received a Grammy Award for Best New Artist of the Year, and additionally one nomination in the “Best Pop Female Vocalist” category.
Carly Simon – “You’re So Vain”
In November of 1972, Carly Simon released her third album, and it was intended to be her big commercial breakthrough. No Secrets spent five weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart and quickly achieved gold status.
It was a great album that spread all over the world, spending weeks and weeks on the top of the charts in countries like Norway, Australia and Canada. But it was one song in particular – the third on the album – that would change her life forever.
You’re So Vain was the song that most people reference when talking of Carly Simon. It was a smash-hit right away, and throughout the years, it’s grown even bigger and bigger.
The song is currently ranked at No. 92 on Billboard‘s Greatest Songs of All-Time list. In 2014, it was voted as number as no 216 when Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) asked the question of the best songs of the century. That same year, it was crowned as the ultimate song of the 1970’s by the UK Official Charts Company.
The album was recorded at the famous Trident Studios in London, England, where bands like The Beatles recorded The White Album and David Bowie made Space Oddity.
You’re So Vain – recording
You’re So Vain also held plenty of secrets when it was released, and for many years it was the subject of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest mysteries. But we’ll get to that soon.
Firstly, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is uncredited on the song, even though he sings on the chorus.
At the time of the recording, several other famous artists were at the Trident Studios, and the likes of Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, legendary record producer George Martin, and Harry Nilsson watched her record. Actually, McCartney himself pitched in to guest star with background vocals.
And then there was Mick Jagger. Carly Simon wrote in her memoir that he actually invited himself to the recording. Jagger had pursued her in London and called Trident Studios once he understood she was there.
“It was shortly after midnight. Mick and I, we were close together – the same height, same coloring, same lips,” Simon writes.
“I felt as if I was trying to stay within a pink gravity that was starting to loosen its silky grip on me. I was thrilled by the proximity, remembering all the times I had spent imitating him in front of my closet mirror.”
As mentioned, You’re So Vain was a rock ‘n’ roll mystery. It’s always fun to know the background story of a song, wether its about a certain event, a person, or if that one line is a reference for something special.
You’re So Vain – who is it about?
In Carly Simon’s case, no one knew who You’re So Vain was about.
Some guessed – and had conspiracy theories – that the song was about Mick Jagger. Sure, there was a pretty clear connection between the two, especially since he actually sang on the record.
But no, it turns out the rumours were wrong. The truth is that You’re So Vain – at least the second verse – is about one-time Hollywood lothario Warren Beatty, whom she dated briefly in the early 1970’s.
“You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive.
Well you said that we made such a pretty pair.
And that you would never leave.
But you gave away the things you loved and one of them was me.
I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee.
Clouds in my coffee”.
In her memoir, Carly revealed that the song was also about two other people, but she won’t reveal who they were.
“I don’t think so,” she told People. “At least until they know it’s about them.”
“Probably, if we were sitting over at dinner and I said: ‘remember that time you walked into the party and…’ I don’t know if I’ll do it. I never thought I would admit that it was more than one person.”
Simon dated Warren Beatty for a short while in the ’70s, and described him as a “glorious specimen” who put all other men “to shame, if looks and charm were what you were after.”
Carly Simon – James Taylor
So what about Carly Simon’s love life besides Warren? Well, she’s been married once, to singer/songwriter James Taylor.
They had met briefly as children, and then again in her dressing room in 1971. She described the latter meeting in her book. Taylor was there together with his then-girlfriend Joni Mitchell.
“He was barefoot, long-legged, long-footed – and is knees were bent,” she wrote in her memoir.
”He wore dark red, loose, wide-wale corduroys and a long-sleeved Henley with one button open, his right hand clutching a self-rule cigarette. His hair, simultaneously shiny and disheveled, fell evenly on both sides of his head, and he wore a scruffy, understated mustache, the kind so fashionable back in the yearly 1970s. He seemed both kempt and unkempt. Even sprawled out on the floor, everything about him communicated that he was, in fact, the center of something – the core of an apple, the center of a note.”
Carly Simon and James Taylor started dating later the same year and tied the knot in November of 1972. 11 years later, the couple divorced, but it wasn’t just because they didn’t have the same love for each other anymore.
Carly Simon – children
Simon explained that it mostly had to do with drugs. They had two children, now grown up and working in the music business. Daughter Sally Taylor is 46 years old and Ben Taylor’s 43.
Her memoir Boys in the Trees pretty much ends with her marriage to James Taylor. Her son hasn’t read the book. But her daughter has.
“I think he would feel more conflicted than Sally did,” Simon told ABC in 2016. “I had told her almost everything, but when she read it all together, she was just so amazed. She said, ‘I’m so proud of you for being able to tell it like it is for you.’”
Carly Simon was later engaged to musician Russ Kunkel in 1985. She married writer James Hart in December 1987, but the couple divorced in 2007.
Carly Simon, now 75 years of age, continued making music for many years to come. And, as a by-product, continued to win several awards for her trophy cabinet.
Her 1977 worldwide hit Nobody Does It Better was the theme song of the Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me. It’s considered by many to be one of the greatest Bond anthems of all time.
Hall of Fame entry
In 1988, she released the song Let The River Run, first featured in the 1988 movie Working Girl. With the song, she became the first singer ever to win three major awards for a single track: an Academy Award, a Grammy and a Golden Globe.
Six years later, in 1994, Carly was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Carly Simon lived a happy life during the 1960s and 1970s. She sure is a legendary singer with a legacy that will live on forever.
Thank you for all the wonderful music, Carly, and we hope to hear more in the future.
Please, share this story with friends and family!
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