Polite Society?
Sep. 20th, 2005 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianI have decided that public transport users are inveterate scum.
Look, I was waiting for the 17 to Archway yesterday -- just standing by the bus stop, near to the kerb, looking out for the bus and lost in thought. There were other people also waiting, mostly people my age in suits, but there was also this one older woman -- the tough skinny type, probable Italian descent, biiiiig sunglasses, sour expression -- hovering around the bus shelter, some distance away. The bus turned the corner and I flagged it as it made its approach; by some cockeyed miracle it stopped with the doors right in front of where I was standing. So I start to clamber on the bus at the usual "There are people behind me who want on the bus" speed. And then the old bat barges up, literally shoves me out of the way of the Oyster card reader and pays her fare, all the while shooting me evil looks and muttering at me. I think it was a foreign language but it was all under her breath so I couldn't tell.
Seriously. There was a need for that? She got to that bus door in a fraction of a second, took a seat upstairs and shoved like a veteran slam-dancer, so she couldn't really play the 'need a seat on account of being old and frail' card. In any case, is it really so important to get on the bus before anyone else? I didn't make an issue of it because, hell, I just wanted to get on the bus and get a seat. I knew there was more than one seat available on the bus so was fine with getting on second. Surely she was aware of that too, bus being a third full and all...
Manners have just entirely died, haven't they?![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dodgyhoodoo constantly points out about how pedestrians won't give an inch of pavement to their fellows. On Tubes and buses, people insist on opening their newspaper to their fullest extent -- even broadsheets, which they're thankfully phasing out -- and standing in front of the doors when there's a good clear foot of space in front of them. (These are usually the same people who will insist on shoving you into the nearest wall if you're even threatening to impede their exit from the train when you've moved as far in as you can and now only have a few millimetres to breathe in.) And don't get me started on the schoolkids who get their kicks by screaming at the top of their lungs on the back of double-deckers and, as I've seen lately, harrassing females who happen to be sitting alone. (They haven't done or said anything to me. I assume they're not that desperate.)
You can't go grocery shopping without some total fuckstick leaving their cart in the middle of an aisle, or standing in front of items you need while chatting on a cellphone, or letting their kids run around like they own the place, or barging in the queue, or some combination of the above. You can't go out on the pavement without having to dodge every other fucker on the street because they seem to believe they have sole rights to the pavement. The current feeling towards giving up bus and Tube seats for pregnant women, according to a recent set of reader letters in the Metro, is "Well, if they want to sit down, they shouldn't be leaving the house. Public transport is stressful and if they're risking it at all, they deserve what they get. Besides, if the woman in question is just fat, I don't want to risk the embarrassment any more than I really want to give up my seat in the first place. So pregnant women should stop expecting people to give up a seat for them".
In short, manners are an endangered species.
Oh, hell. Anyway. Courtesy ofmapp,
Look, I was waiting for the 17 to Archway yesterday -- just standing by the bus stop, near to the kerb, looking out for the bus and lost in thought. There were other people also waiting, mostly people my age in suits, but there was also this one older woman -- the tough skinny type, probable Italian descent, biiiiig sunglasses, sour expression -- hovering around the bus shelter, some distance away. The bus turned the corner and I flagged it as it made its approach; by some cockeyed miracle it stopped with the doors right in front of where I was standing. So I start to clamber on the bus at the usual "There are people behind me who want on the bus" speed. And then the old bat barges up, literally shoves me out of the way of the Oyster card reader and pays her fare, all the while shooting me evil looks and muttering at me. I think it was a foreign language but it was all under her breath so I couldn't tell.
Seriously. There was a need for that? She got to that bus door in a fraction of a second, took a seat upstairs and shoved like a veteran slam-dancer, so she couldn't really play the 'need a seat on account of being old and frail' card. In any case, is it really so important to get on the bus before anyone else? I didn't make an issue of it because, hell, I just wanted to get on the bus and get a seat. I knew there was more than one seat available on the bus so was fine with getting on second. Surely she was aware of that too, bus being a third full and all...
Manners have just entirely died, haven't they?
dodgyhoodoo constantly points out about how pedestrians won't give an inch of pavement to their fellows. On Tubes and buses, people insist on opening their newspaper to their fullest extent -- even broadsheets, which they're thankfully phasing out -- and standing in front of the doors when there's a good clear foot of space in front of them. (These are usually the same people who will insist on shoving you into the nearest wall if you're even threatening to impede their exit from the train when you've moved as far in as you can and now only have a few millimetres to breathe in.) And don't get me started on the schoolkids who get their kicks by screaming at the top of their lungs on the back of double-deckers and, as I've seen lately, harrassing females who happen to be sitting alone. (They haven't done or said anything to me. I assume they're not that desperate.) You can't go grocery shopping without some total fuckstick leaving their cart in the middle of an aisle, or standing in front of items you need while chatting on a cellphone, or letting their kids run around like they own the place, or barging in the queue, or some combination of the above. You can't go out on the pavement without having to dodge every other fucker on the street because they seem to believe they have sole rights to the pavement. The current feeling towards giving up bus and Tube seats for pregnant women, according to a recent set of reader letters in the Metro, is "Well, if they want to sit down, they shouldn't be leaving the house. Public transport is stressful and if they're risking it at all, they deserve what they get. Besides, if the woman in question is just fat, I don't want to risk the embarrassment any more than I really want to give up my seat in the first place. So pregnant women should stop expecting people to give up a seat for them".
In short, manners are an endangered species.
Oh, hell. Anyway. Courtesy of
mapp, LJ Interests meme results
- caustic wit:
In a world where the most common comeback to someone pissing you off is "shove off", "fuck you" or "your mom", caustic wit is a rare and dying breed. Come back, Oscar Wilde, your planet needs you. - dvds:
More what's on 'em, really. Since I don't go to the cinema anymore, and most of what's on TV is what a friend of mine calls "a steaming pile of pants", DVD is the only way I get any kind of AV entertainment. - goth:
I'm not one. I'm not sure I know anyone who is one in the classical sense. Half the time, I'm not sure that 'goth' exists. But 'goth' as a concept is interesting. It's like turning 'teenage angst-whore' into a lifestyle choice. - hockey:
Ahhhhh, hockey. My favourite sport. The only sport I will devote any time to, actually. I think it's part of being Canadian -- hockey love can be fought, but it's there ... waiting... - manga:
I like manga. Most of them are read backwards, which I've always thought was funky. Besides, it's getting your Japanese cartoon fix in portable format, which is always good. And the mangas are usually more detailed than the anime anyway. - neil gaiman:
He is a strange man, but fun. I like his books, though I don't read his blog. I like to keep him at proper 'author/reader distance', y'see. I won't pretend I know him just because I read him. - roleplaying games:
I've been playing them for two years, I'm running a couple, I'm writing one ... nuff said. - serial experiments lain:
My favourite anime, heavy on the head-fucky and with some really interesting ideas coming out. I like it because not only has it got that cyberpunk feel going, but it brings up some interesting ideas about the nature of reality only tentatively explored by the Matrix movies. - strangers in paradise:
This comic has EVERYTHING. Romance, friendship, crime, guns, sex, comedy ... I mean it. EVERYTHING. - webcomics:
People put all that time and effort into webcomics, and it's always well-spent. I have my favourites, of course, but the fact that people can keep doing this despite the crap that having fans can bring and are actually making money out of it all (Megatokyo sells in Forbidden Planet, for example, and Randy Millholland of Something Positive got a year's salary out of his readers) is intriguing.
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 11:20 am (UTC)It was not only rather annoying, but also somewhat dangerous (would've been moreso if I'd been carrying anything large, and slowed them down too.
i have two words for you...
Date: 2005-09-20 12:00 pm (UTC)having logged 500+ miles for work in the last week, i know whereof i speak. :P
no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 07:08 am (UTC)Incidentally, I meant to ask about that. If this goes well, would you be interested in doing art for the supplements? More art is always good.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-21 06:21 pm (UTC)And no problem. :) You answered my question in as much detail as I was looking for. Print on Demand is becoming very popular lately. I hope it works out splendidly!