Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Optical Shops

Here’s our experience at this optical shop: We walk in, say good morning, are acknowledged by a middle-​aged woman behind a counter who nods, we tell her we’re interested in dark glasses, and she says, «You’ll have to find a frame.» Not that she offers to help us find one, mind you. Just a reminder that if we want glasses, we’d better get a frame for them. And her personality went downhill from there. «It’s a lovely day,» we said. «I’m at work,» she said. No matter how exaggerated our pleasantness became in an effort to evoke an agreeable response from her, we failed miserably. A dark cloud hovered over this woman, apparently, and she was determined to make the most of her unhappiness. We made two return visits and her cheerless personality never changed. Never did she smile. Never did she greet us with even a pleasant look. Anyhow, we’ve gone on way too long about this harridan-​like creature, except to say that in spite of a decent experience with getting lenses fitted into frames, we resolved not to return. Although — we are perverse enough to imagine going back just to taunt her by being as relentlessly, fiercely upbeat as humanly possible. We do believe, however, she could probably deflect it with just one steel-​eyed, utterly bored, highly practiced sneer.