One Way of Dealing with Harassment

My problem is:

1. I have a sharp wit, just not a quick wit.
2. When out and about, I'm usually off in my own world, and it takes a second or two to shift mental gears enough to respond to any kind of unexpected comments, whether positive or negative.

Same problems here, glad I'm not alone.

It's supposed to be a big deal, in the corporate world - when out walking around, one is supposedly "on display", and supposedly it's a free-for-all, anyone can act like anyone else in the company is their "good buddy". So I can be thinking out the algorithm I'll be coding when I get back to my desk, when some stranger I've never seen before in my life says a "heyhowreyadoing?" to me. And it's supposedly a mark against me if I can't manage a response before he/she walks past.

But I don't care, and I don't respond. That may be why I may not get promoted. I don't care.

As for the "sharp but not quick", I'm good at that. Once there was a joker who thought it was fun to wait until lunch, then wait til I had taken a bite of my sandwich, and then blurt out a question and race out the door while I was still chewing. I ignored him. .... Then he did the same thing the next day. I ignored him again, but now I realized I had 24 hours notice until he did it again. .... So on the third day he waited, then he blurted his question and raced for the door --

-- but I blew my bite of sandwich out onto my desk and answered his question. He whirled around in surprise and looked at me talking with food on my deak, and I got to see him turn pale. I don't recall ever seeing him again, ever.

So if I have a mere 48 hours to go through that process, I can come up with some good retorts.

I love that story, asshole got what he deserved. :-)