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The Internet Is Really Pissed That Cracker Barrel Fired Brad's Wife

More than 18,000 people really want to know why the restaurant let her go after 11 years of faithful service.

I found out about Brad's wife on Facebook. A high school friend had changed his avatar to a black ribbon with the text "Justice for Brad's wife" and an #AnswerUsCrackerBarrel hashtag. Several hours later, Brad's wife was everywhere—and so were literally thousands of social media posts, questioning the country-style restaurant on her behalf.

This all started when a Millville, Indiana man named Bradley Reid Byrd posted an innocuous-but-important question on the Cracker Barrel Facebook page: "Why did you fire my wife?" And those six words became the most important shot that has been fired since a Yugoslav nationalist saw Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the sight of his pistol. Cracker Barrel's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages are still being filled with comments, @-replies, and hashtags demanding that Cracker Barrel should explain why Byrd's wife, Nanette, was fired after 11 years of loyal service at the company's Corydon, Indiana restaurant.

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That's right. According to Byrd's own Facebook page, on February 27, Cracker Barrel unceremoniously let his wife go with the lamest of lame excuses. "To say I'm pissed off would be an understatement," he wrote. "Their half assed excuse was that she wasn't working out. After 11 YEARS? Come on." He said that he was considering legal action against the country's largest purveyor of cardiac arrest-inducing entrees and, like, birdhouses made of Lincoln Logs. Also, it was his birthday. Do you hear that, you hand-breaded bastards? YOU FIRED NANETTE ON BRAD'S BIRTHDAY.

On March 4, Byrd said that he had emailed the company every day, asking why Nanette was let go. "[There will] probably be a 'Road trip' to Lebanon, Tennessee to ask in person," he wrote, signing off with the #StillPissed hashtag. Less than three weeks later, with the power of The Internet behind him, Cracker Barrel will probably be sifting through its own inbox forever, or at least until someone figures out how to solve those always-sticky golf tee puzzles it puts on each of its tables.

A hero named Timothy McConnell even launched a Change.org petition demanding Justice for Brad's Wife and, as of this writing, it has over 18,000 signatures. "11 years, Cracker Barrel. 11 long, hard years," the petition states. "It is for this reason, we demand answers […] When we reach 10,000 signatures, this petition will be delivered to Cracker Barrel's corporate office."

Cracker Barrel's corporate office surely knows about it, unless its management team has buried their heads in a sack of sawmill gravy mix. But Cracker Barrel isn't saying a word. (Its media relations team did not respond to MUNCHIES' request for comment). It has continued to sway gently in its wooden rocking chair, pressing "Post" on a lot of unrelated social media content. Cracker Barrel doesn't have a care in this world, y'all.

But Brad still cares—and we're standing behind him. We won't forget you, Nanette. We will never forget you.