To my knowledge, the word “P’tahk” has never been formally defined. It originates, of course, from Star Trek, where it is used by the Klingons as an insult. As a word it is usually spat out with great wrath and venom, giving viewers the sense that a p’tahk must be something truly disgusting and utterly devoid of honour, but further than that we have no clue what the word means.

 I would therefore like to propose the following: as far as I am concerned, from now on a p’tahk is a person who is perfectly capable of climbing stairs, yet uses lifts out of sheer laziness. At the risk of getting hyperbolic, such people have really, really started to infuriate me. Whenever I go to cultural centres such as Stratford, the lifts are always occupied by people who are able to use stairs but don’t out of idleness and arrogance. I am often left waiting, or even worse the lift breaks due to over use. 

Needless to say, that is exactly what happened earlier this afternoon. I was prevented from entering Stratford station by a lift full of people too idle and entitled to use the short flight of stairs nearby. I tried asking them to get off, but they all refused, sneering back at me l was something dirty, or ignoring me like I had no right to make such a presumptive request. Things became heated, and some little shit of a boy tried dragging my chair backwards, tearing the bag on my back rest. Tempers instantly flared, some very heated words were exchanged, but fortunately things got no further than that,

The bag can be, and indeed already has been, replaced, yet that does not lessen the shock and rage I felt for some time after this happened; in fact I still feel quite shaken by it. I have no words for the kind of verminous child who assaulted me like that: who thought he had a right to shout at me, insult me and try to manhandle me. I can only resort to fictional insults coined on television programs, as I do not know how else to express my indignity. Apart from that, given that I have no way of identifying the kid and no idea where he was going, all that I can do is vent my frustrations here.