B., one of my favorite fellow servers, mysteriously lost her voice last Friday night. She had a touch of a cough earlier in the week, but otherwise she didn’t feel bad at all.

Later that night I heard her greeting a new table. “Hi. Sorry about not having a voice. Not sure how that happened. I’ll try to speak up.”

A condescending woman at that table asked right away, “Are you contagious?”

B. said, “No. Why? Do you know someone who needs to be quiet?”