Stefan sharkansky: waitress slayer

I just get tired of rich people thinking that they can just do whatever they want, whenever they want. I just hope I don't lose my temp job. I know I will. This is just stupid and I don't know what to do.

It started as an waitress's amusing tale on a blog with few readers. It was about waiting table on dour Republican activist Stefan Sharkansky, his attorney/wife Irene and their 5-year old son at the Fremont Classic Pizzeria & Trattoria.

According to her, (and others who wait on them) the Sharkansky's 5-year-old was often "marginally attended," and permitted to be loud, obnoxious, and run annoyingly free in the dining room.

What's more, the Sharkanskys, she wrote, only tip 10%.

Sounds like trivial gotcha gossip well beneath the majesty of the likes of Sharkansky so often called an "influential Seattle Republican." Right?

Wrong.

Hell hath no fury like parenting scorned! And you don't know vindictive 'til you meet the Sharkanskys! Instead of letting this go and minimizing eyeballs to this trivia, the Sharks turned both barrels on the single mother of two who works two jobs and barely keeps her head afloat.

They did opp research, searched public records, got everything they could on her, like the trouble her kid got into; some profane old online rantings about boyfriends and husbands past, and posted everything on Sound Politics. They also found out she worked a 2nd job temping at Amazon.

At first, it was just a lark to her, griping online about a not uncommon server's plaint. So when the Sharks circled, she got her back up- who the hell are they to question my right to speak the truth?

A Shark relative went to the restaurant, raised hell, and she was fired.

"I guess I thought that if I backed down he would 'win,'" the waitress wrote in our threads, "I guess I thought they were empty threats. None of that matters now. I have already been physically threatened in person by one of his relatives. I have been defamed on the Internet. I could lose everything."

She and the original blogger Mercifurious then frantically took down the offending blog entries on both blogs, but that wasn't good enough for the Sharkanskys: they threatened to make trouble over at Amazon, if she didn't make a retraction! To call her own self a liar. 

The waitress was so terrified they might further ruin her life, she made a groveling statement found in our comments threads and posted on Sound Politics, Sharkansky's blog: 

My place it to smile and serve food. It is not to comment on what my customers are doing in the restaurant. I should have known better. I should also realize that sometimes people act differently in different situations and as a person who only has contact with someone for a short period of time, I have no right to say that is how they are. I was misguided and also mistaken, as has been pointed out to me. I was wrong and I do not intend to work in food service in the future so to avoid perhaps offending another unsuspecting family. I am sorry. Please, please forgive me. Please don't take it out on other food service workers.

The Sharkanskys put down the gun they had pointed at her head and magnanimously accepted her heartfelt mea culpa, and apology.

Power and intimidation not only beat her, but it beat her down.

(Shark's blog got famous after leading the legally frivolous, but politically monkey-wrenching post election fight after the tight 2005 gubernatorial election; and is inarguably the primary bloggly mouthpiece for the Seattle Republican minority).

We mentioned the kerfuffle in our oddems Friday and a shootin' war erupted in our comments threads.

Using language he'd never use in his straight-laced conservative blog, Stefan called us "a sick twisted fuck," which hurt our feelings but hey, we're political and hardened to such abuse. The waitress, however, is wholly apolitical; she had no idea who the hell Sharkansky was. She says she gets her news from E! online.

She didn't smear a 5-year old, as the Sharks tried to spin it, but called the lack of due parenting diligence for what it was: public rudeness, and inconsideration.

Was it not in her best interest for a waitress to spill that online? Yes. Was it worth 5 minutes of the Sharks' precious time and waning credibility to act so heavy handedly to intimidate her? The answer to that is no, as so many of his own readers wrote Friday.

It's a lesson how power, money, and entitlement can make economically vulnerable people crumble in on themselves. We'll not soon forget the words of her desperation: I'm just a waitress, well, I was just a waitress...

We admit it- we love to pull Stefan's tail because he's such a pompous and humorless jerk. but we're just grateful our livelihood doesn't depend on serving people like him and his female counterpart.

Stefan is often mentioned as a Republican break-through candidate for an urban Seattle office. This incident shows what an utter delusion that is.

Comments

[PugetSound]

wutitiz
and now we find out that the 'relative' who went over and 'threatened' ms. bell evidently was the 14 year old sister of the 5 year old boy. some threat...
i agree with you what sharkansky -and family- did was correct and proportional. in this day and age of DHS, do you really want it to be publicly out there that you are some kind of child beater? most parents would challange that allegation and i would be surprised at those that didn't.

[PugetSound]

hey duff
"297 Posts?...I dunno; that's a lot!"

are you really gonna give andrew full credit for his posts?

[LeeAnn]

when did she say Stefan was a child beater? She said they let the kid run around the restaurant rather than making him sit down and mind.

[coiler]

Yes, I did not read that either. Sounds like bad parenting, however.

[PugetSound]

here is what she put out:
" Quite simply, the kid is Damian from the Omen. Might as well be a monkey. The kid did everything except reach in his pants and throw feces on the wall. His parents just allowed it, which said to me:
A.) Parents allow it all the time
B.) Parents beat him all the time (except in public)"

Sounds more like a hatchet job there ph(J)...err, Coiler.

[wutitiz]

Joanie, also I question the protrayal of this as a powerful guy crushing a little waitress. Sometimes the little guy has the edge. Look what then-little-known Drudge did to Clinton by posting the blue dress story. Look what Burkett (Rather's fake document source) almost did to Bush. Look what Oswald did to Kennedy. Sometimes a big man makes a big target.

[coiler]

Well, if you say the Sharkansky's beat their kid, then so be it. Plus he sounds like a vindictive prick.

[wutitiz]

oops didn't mean to post the same thing twice...sorry

[PugetSound]

ph(J)...err coiler
wrong again. no one stands by the statement. ms. bell has recanted -meaning she takes it back and that it never ever happened. just a lie. a lie that backfired. kind of sad actually.

[nevets]

Lying, something Sparky has been trying out a lot lately. Could she be getting tips from the Dragon Meister himself, D&D?

[LeeAnn]

Puget Sound is saying Steffan beats his children? Now Steffan will be back to threaten Puget Sound. Will this never end?

[PugetSound]

lee-ann
"here is what she put out:
" Quite simply, the kid is Damian from the Omen. Might as well be a monkey. The kid did everything except reach in his pants and throw feces on the wall. His parents just allowed it, which said to me:
A.) Parents allow it all the time
B.) Parents beat him all the time (except in public)"

you really do have a short attention span, Lee-ann.

[jeeramya]

A little-noted post by 'Micheal' at 9:45, August 27 may hold the key. He notes that it is 'surreal' that the incident involved 'Stephan' getting 'Stephany' fired. What are the chances that the unusual spelling would be replicated in both names? Based on data from Intellius.com, I calculate it at 1 chance in 3^18 (three to the 18th power). This vitually proves that it was a set-up from the get-go, just like I said.

[Jesurgislac]

Sometimes a big man makes a big target.

Sometimes a stupid man shoots himself in the foot.

Stefan Sharkansky's reputation as a bad parent, a poor tipper, and a vicious bully has reached the news pages of The Stranger: his response was to post another Hello, I'm Stefan Sharkansky, waitress slayer, and you are? post on Sound Politics. A regular reader ventured that perhaps they'd heard enough about the waitress: Stefan deleted a dissenting comment and self-righteously said that this is now all about the publicity his poor behavior is receiving...

[Justin Atheropinion]

Duffman wrote:
"So 'Justin' by your post, am I to read that one shouldn't take a physically/mentally-challenged person into a restaurant if they are likely to 'act up'? Are they to be banned from public eating places if they can't be 'totally controlled'? Children are a part of our society - should they be taught to behave ABSOLUTELY; do they sometimes go beyond CERTAINLY. You sound like such a tolerant person, much like Mother Teresa -NOT!"

Duff:

Huh?(!)

Better read what I wrote again--at no point do I say that, and your misinterpretation is, frankly, obfuscation.

And a little hysterical.

Way to get off track, bud'.

[moderate]

Andrew--
You seem very immature in your approach to this whole issue. Your lack of real life experience is evident.
It's a simple matter of actions & consequences.
The waitress was probably yucking it up pretty good when this first came out. You losers from the far-left used her like a pawn to attack Stefan & Irene.
None of you apparently thought of the potential consequences....which is typical of the fringe lunatic Left.
You are incapable of thinking about consequences....and will use & sacrifice some misguided waitress as long as it serves your agenda.
PATHETIC!!
How old are you Andrew? Under 21??
I'll bet you go to Evergreen...or are in some other program where they teach you the end justifies any means.
Grow up Andrew.