Death by Garlic?

I cannot get a certain stupid story out of my head that I read about yesterday on our local newspaper website. The title made it sound mildly humorous and piqued my interest. I might should add that I have a fairly large streak of enjoying sarcasm and irony. And I don't know if it's just society in general, or just the people in this area I am now living, but it seems like people never cease to amaze me with their idiotic behavior.

This story took place recently in an office in an upscale area of town. It was lunchtime and, for untold reasons, one co-worker had warmed up their lunch and was sitting in their cubicle to eat it. The story does not explain if their usual routine was to eat as they work or not, but for whatever reason, this person chose to eat at their desk. The story also does not say exactly what food or dish this person was about to enjoy. But, apparently, the aroma was offensive to a co-worker whose cubicle was nearby. They had apparently "discussed" their offended nose with this person before and this day's aroma was the hair that broke said nose, I suppose. They were "armed" with a can of aerosol disinfectant and came over, or around, the wall and proceeded to spray this disinfectant in the face of the offender. As I read this little fluff story and was shaking my head at some people's unreasonable intolerance, my eyes fell to some of the comments left by other readers. I was surprised to find that some people seem to feel extremely passionate about some food odors! Apparently, the unglued co-worker is not the only person to be easily angered by foods such as garlic. There were many battle-ready with other commenters on the subject. Interesting, too, that these same people had the time to sit on the website and have comebacks to everyones disapproval of their previous posts and convince everyone just how right they are in their intolerance of someone's lunch. It was their smackdown.

I can't help but wonder at the increase in people that seemingly need to take such vehement stands over such trivial matters as someone else's lunch because it offends them. Apparently, it doesn't take much to offend many these days. I think in some people's attempt to make all things fair and equal, it seems that many are more in it for the fairness as it affects themselves and not others.