8. When Mike Tells You To Drink...
We all have ways of shutting others down. "Case closed." "Period, end of sentence." "I'm not listening." And even our second favorite Schrader's "End of story." (Marie liked that one a lot and always assumed it would work. It hardly ever did.) Mike Ehrmentraut was a hard case with a soft spot, mainly for his granddaughter and other innocents. He was street smart, as well as regular smart, and he did not suffer fools lightly. He was almost always polite and respectful to others, and he commonly manifested extraordinary patience when dealing with idiots, or Walter. But Mike did have his ways of signalling that the conversation was over, and it was an arrogant, dismissive command to "drink your drink," or "drink your hot water," or "drink your tea" or "drink your whatever." It sounded relatively innocuous when he said it, but on closer inspection, it was pretty obvious that it was rude and abrupt. But we never minded. Mike was Mike, and this verbal slapdown was a small price to pay for having him around. Until Walter unnecessarily killed him, of course.