Geniuses And Construction Workers

I live about a mile, more or less, from CalTech. This is the place where my hero Richard Feynman spent most of his academic career, and it's the place where the guys from Big Bang Theory are supposed to work. And the math guy from NUMB3RS too. It's a big-brain kind of place, where researchers ask all sorts of important questions about the way the world works, from economics to cosmology.
   It's also a place where people appreciate a good, cheap carne asada taco, and they're not afraid to rub elbows with construction workers to get one.
   Just on the outskirts of CalTech there's a small, independent convenience store, Papa George's. It's crammed with the regular convenience store stuff, but they have a kitchen too, where they make fast, cheap Mexican food and the staff's first language is Spanish. It's the kind of place where the local gardeners stop in for lunch, crowding the parking lot with work trucks. So you know it's good.
   The other day I was there to buy a Lotto ticket - you can't win if you don't play - and I witnessed an amazing confluence of different social strata. The regular guys were there for lunch, construction workers covered with dust, fresh from their work putting up a new building for CalTech; they were speaking Spanish and joking around as blue-collar guys do. Right beside them were two guys who had quite obviously never worked with their hands in their entire lives, and with their crazy hair and neglected wardrobe, they were also quite obviously CalTech professors; they were talking mathematics, and joking around as nerdy math guys do.
   Both sets of men were waiting for exactly the same thing, three carne asada tacos to go. When the cook put the bag on the counter and announced 'tres tacos, carne asada,' one construction worker went for it, and one of the professors did too. I thought for sure there was going to be trouble, by which I mean I thought I'd see a construction worker punch a nerd.
   Turned out the professor also spoke Spanish - not very well, I could tell - and conflict was avoided when they consulted their numbered receipts. But I was just amazed that two men who would otherwise certainly never have met - ever - shared a brief laugh together over the fact they ate exactly the same thing.
   Makes me wish more people went to Papa George's for lunch, we might have less trouble in the world.