House is Right

House Diagnoses Starbucks’ “Pay It Forward”

by Lynn on December 30th, 2007

Recently, fellow b5media blogger, Jonathan Ramsey and I were in a meeting at our day job (yes, folks, we work together away from blogging too) when one of our co-workers told us that he had heard of a Starbucks that had made the evening news recently.

The story was that a person was at the drive through window of the local Starbucks and had ordered a number of specialty coffee drinks, so it was taking the order a while to be completed. The man in the car behind was impatient and started to honk the horn to try to hurry the person up. The first person went to pay for the large order and said to the cashier to include whatever the man in the car following had ordered in his payment as well.

As the story goes, the man finally got to the window and found out that the car before him had paid for his coffee, which made him feel guilty. So he said that he would pay for the order of the person behind him. And the story went on to say that the trend continued on all that day of each person paying for the order for the car behind them.

Jonathan, being who he is, left the meeting and proceeded to look the story up online, only to find that it had not happened at all. It turned out to be an urban legend.

But it got me to thinking, what would happen if each of the characters on House had approached the Starbucks drive-through window and was told that the person in front of them in line had already paid for their order? Let’s see if we can think through this theoretical scenario…

First, and most obvious, I’m thinking that House would immediately laugh and say to himself, “What a sucker!! So can I have a couple of extra scones too?” Then he would drive away with his free drink.

Cameron would probably feel gratitude and would pay for the car behind her, then notice the second car behind her had small kids and that it was an old car, so she would pay for theirs too, since they would probably need it more.

I’m thinking that Cuddy would appreciate the fun of the situation and would continue the trend by paying for the person behind her.
(follow the jump for the rest)

Wilson would assume that it was a practical joke set up by House and that it was sure to cost him a lot more than he expected, but would cautiously pay for the person in line behind him. He would then head to hospital and wait for the other shoe to drop.

Chase would think about what House would do in the situation, so he would take the free drink and move on. But unlike the teacher, Chase wouldn’t think to ask for the extra scones.

Foreman, might apply total logic to the situation and take his free drink, but not continue the trend because he noticed that there were four people in the car behind him. So, unwittingly, he would act like House, even though he would think he was above House’s behavior.

Thirteen would, of course, pay for her drink and that of the person behind her with cash, so as to not give away her identity to anyone involved.

But when it comes to Taub & Kutner, I’m stumped. I really don’t know for sure how they would react to the situation.

What do you think? Would they keep the trend going? Would they break the trend? And what of the others? Do you think they would react the way I imagine them reacting, or another way entirely? Leave a comment to share your thoughts!!

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