In all of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's creativity and grandiose intentions, did they realize how Yoda would be such an impact on so many people? It's been, what, 25 or 30 years since the first Star Wars, and I still can recall the spirit, if not the words, of what he said about anger.

"Fear is the path to the dark side. ... Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

Am I the only one who thinks Yoda was partly patterned after Gandhi? What does Yoda have to do with bad service? I think anything that stirs anger needs to be iced down immediately just like a wound during a game. Unfortunately, we don't have personal trainers with us 24/7.

More than a week ago, I was en route to Waikoloa from Honolulu to cover the HIADA conference. I was late to the gate -- my fault. I misread my itinerary and instead spent time visiting my mom at her nursing home. I thought I had the right plan. Nope.

I get to Gate 55, Hawaiian Airlines. Honolulu-to-Kona, 1:42 p.m. route, Thursday, June 5. Most of the passengers on the flight had boarded, but the flight was still 15 minutes away. I handed the ticket agent -- there were two, and the younger one took my ticket. She immediately turned to her co-worker and said, "Didn't I just ask for all passengers?"

Of course, since I'd just gotten there in a rush, I missed her announcement. After she was done complaining to her co-worker as if I weren't there, I said to her that I'd just gotten there and I was really sorry. But she kept whining without looking me in the eye, turned to her co-worker and kept griping.

Now, she must've been only 20 or so, but this was unnecessary and unprofessional. I bit my tongue as she tapped away on the computer. I was halfway through the tunnel thing to the plane when the anger struck. I was stressed, tired, annoyed and now percolating. By the time I entered the plane, I immediately spoke to the flight attendant. She had a lot of common sense, and I explained what their ticket agent at the gate was saying and doing. The attendant probably didn't want to hear me complain, but she was top notch and assured me that they'd deal with it.

Now, if I were Yoda or Gandhi, I would've just deflected the bad spirit of that ticket agent. I wouldn't think thoughts like, Well, Hawaiian Air is the king of the airlines now (in Hawaii) and they can push around us little people anytime they want. But I never had bad service from Hawaiian Air before, and this ticket agent had left me with a lasting impression.

Later, during the flight, I was relaxed and cooled off. The flight attendant came to me and said that she'd spoken with their supervisor about this. I wasn't surprised that the folks at Hawaiian Air are well-meaning. I've been flying across the islands intermittently for much of my adult life, and their people have always been cool. So I let it go. Finally.

Two days ago (Saturday, June 14), on my way to my brother's house, I stopped at Bubbie's Ice Cream. Why not get the best ice cream in the area and take it to the get-together dinner on Father's Day? So I walked in. It was 6:25 p.m. There was only one other customer in line and a couple sitting down, enjoying their ono ice cream. The girl helping the customer took the order and started scooping away. I decided to get the vanilla. (I forget the formal title of the flavor. Might have been Awesome Vanilla.)

Well, the girl worked and worked, and the customer added a second choice, so I waited. And waited. Meanwhile, another employee kept walking back and forth, doing paperwork or something. She looked at me for a moment and kept working. This went on for two minutes.

Three minutes.

Four minutes.

Five minutes.

Six minutes.

I'm not kidding. It was the longest wait for the shortest line I've ever experienced. The poor girl scooping ice cream (Filipino-looking, wearing a green t-shirt) was loading up a few quarts one scoop at a time. Meanwhile, the other girl (Chinese-looking in a maroon shirt) kept ignoring me.

Finally, after seven minutes, a whole bunch of people poured into Bubbie's. The second worker, in the maroon shirt, eyeballed them and dropped her work. She said to me, "Argabetet?"

Totally indecipherable. "Excuse me," I replied.

She then said, "Are you set?"

I almost laughed. I wanted to say, "Uh, I've been set for the last seven minutes while you completely ignored me."

Instead, I said, "Yes, I am. Yeah. Can I have a quart of vanilla?"

She looked at me with no apology, no sense of understanding. This is customer service at Bubbie's now? I'd just been there last month and the service was great. What happened?

So, from that point, she was quick. But the problem I had with her was the inattention to the customer. Any and all other places that serve customers 1-to-1 will not have two employees ignoring two customers for that long. It's just impossible to be that foolish, ignorant and arrogant.

I went from being in a relaxed state, in no rush to get going -- a big fan of Bubbie's -- to hating the experience, pissed off as hell with this ignore-the-loyal-customer employee, and wondering if I should've just gone to Star Market and bought Hagen Daas. (I had that thought after five minutes.)

Thing is, if and when I walk into Bubbie's again, if this same employee is working, I'll probably avoid the trouble, turn around and drive one block to Star Market.

Now, where does Yoda fit into all this? Well, maybe I'm too upset with bad service. But the reality is that I did avoid conflict.

1. The Hawaiian Airlines ticket agent who ridiculed me without looking at me -- I didn't confront her. Some people might have gotten in her face and gave her a verbal assault. I walked away and handled it through wiser employees. I may still send the company a letter of complaint, not because the company is horrible, but because there's always the chance that they never really dealt with it. She was arrogant to me; she will probably be arrogant to a lot of other people.

2. The Bubbie's employee who ignored me could've gotten a line of questioning from me or any other customer who was made to wait for seven minutes in this circumstance. But I let it go. I left. And in this instance, I plan to inform the owners of Bubbie's that their superior product -- there's nothing better locally -- was instantly compromised by one very robotic employee.

I say instantly in the way that seven minutes can be instantaneous.

I'm no Yoda, but even he would prefer that I write rather than confront. Gandhi was a master of peaceful protest. He might also prefer that I write.

Bring on the e-mail addresses.

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