Several years ago, a rather haughty woman come in looking to have an 8 x 10 mat cut for a 5 x 7 postcard. After she picked out the color, I said to her, “So, you want an inch and a half border.” (I am quick and able to do complicated mathematic functions in my head.
)
“No, no, no!”, she said. She grabbed a sheet of scrap paper and wrote down 10 and 8 under which she wrote 7 and 5. Speaking to me like I was a slow, six year old, she carefully subtracted the numbers and circled the number 3 beneath the 10 and the 7. “I want a three inch border”, she proclaimed with great authority.
“Okay”, said I, and without another word proceeded to cut this 8 x 10 mat with a 2” x 4” opening.
I returned to this mat to the design counter and place it over her post card without saying a word. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
After a few seconds I said, “Most people would have chosen to have a bit more of their art exposed, but, I suppose, it’s a matter of taste.”
She stood their without a word.
I grabbed the scrap paper that she had used to try to humiliate me and said, “Since there are two sides to a mat, what
I would have done if this were
my post card, was to divide the three (elaborately circling the already circled “3”) by two and give myself an inch and a half border. But, that's just me.”
She still remained mute.
After a few seconds, I suggested, “Is that what you wanted?”
She simply nodded. I recut the mat, and she paid me.
Oddly enough, she has never returned. Go figure!
Don't you know it's wicked to mock the afflicted. 
