There are so many insanely intelligent people out there, but most tend to be social disasters. Put them behind a book or computer and they are brilliant. Yet they can't seem to navigate their way through day-to-day life. It's like they have blinders on.
Here are some examples that have been weig
- We live in
- Please, for the love of God, don’t litter. PLEASE.
- Have a sense of self-awareness. In other words, know how your presence affects others. When pushing a buggy in the grocery store, don’t keep it in the middle of the aisle so that someone has to say: “Excuse me. Excuse me. EXCUSE ME!” Other examples? Paying attention to others. If you are walking with friends on the sidewalk and people are approaching, get into single file when passing them. Have your money ready when you are going to pay for something. Have your wallet out and your bank card ready before you get to the ATM. Such simple, simple practices.
When on public transit:
- If you are sitting down and you have a bag, put it on the floor. Or on your lap. Do not put it on the seat beside you when the bus is crowded. I find this one of the most appalling acts on the bus. Are you really that full of gall, or desperate for the need of control, that you will make someone ask you to move it before they will attempt to sit beside you? Unbelievable. Move. Your. Fucking. Bag.
- There are people on the bus with you. You are not home; you are not alone. So when you are picking your nose, or rolling the wax with your fingers that you have just pulled out of your ears, remember this: you are on the bus. We CAN SEE YOU.
- There IS someone driving the bus and streetcar. You ARE allowed to acknowledge them, instead of treating them like they don't exist (doesn't apply to the subway as they are locked away).
- Please cover your mouth when you cough. Especially if you have tuberculosis.
- If you are standing and you have a backpack on, take the mothereffer off and place it between your legs, on the floor. If you look like this:
Then it’s pretty safe to say that NO ONE CAN GET PAST YOU to either move to the back of the bus or to exit. If a seat comes available, and you decide to sit down, you know what not to do. If you need a refresher, see five bullet points above.
- If an elderly person, a visibly pregnant woman or a disabled person enters the bus, anyone under the age of 50 should be standing up to give them their seat. Of those people, I expect the people under 20 to get up first. You’d be surprised how many times this doesn’t happen. You’d also be surprised how many times I point at these bastard kids and instruct them to stand up and give their seat to these people. No patience. One evening on my way home from job #2, the subway pulled into Union Station. An elderly couple stepped onto the subway car and it was packed full of Blue Jay fans. No one got up for them. The lady took one stray middle seat and I got up and tapped the man’s shoulder to sit down. He looked at me and said: “I could never take the seat of a lovely lady. I refuse. Please sit back down.” (If I EVER meet a man my age that does something like that I will kidnap him and make him marry me.)
- Take your garbage with you when you leave. Don’t peel an orange and then leave the peels on your seat. You. Lazy. Son. Of. A. Gun.
- If you know that you are going to be sharing the air and space of 100 strangers please do us all a favour and shower. I’m not asking much, just please wash your hair once or twice a week. Otherwise my hound-nose can smell you even if I am in the front of the bus and you are in the back.
- When the doors open, I don’t know…how about letting people exit the vehicle before you plough past them?
I feel like most of these points are just common sense, but apparently it's not so common anymore.
Does anyone have any of their own examples of big city stupidity? Please comment.
4 comments:
Merdypops, you are on a killer roll with these epic posts! Well done! As for this particular one, I absolutely agree with everything you said! There are a lot of twits out walking around this fine city who need a swift kick in the hind quarters and, some days, I feel like I'm the one to do it! Exclamation point!
James in Calgary here:
Meredith, you should be a carpenter as you have nailed this one on the head. I would also add that people using public transit (ahem - that's right, PUBLIC transit) should turn the volume down on their mp3's, PSP's, Blackberry's, etc., etc. I don't need to hear that you just reached level 5 on 'Return of the Jedi' while I am on the bus mentally preparing for a termination meeting with one of my employees. Hearing what your dinner plans are two weeks from now, or how much you hate your co-worker Francine, or "...like - what, like, I'm gonna DOO when I, like, get to school to, like, piss off my teacher...". GAAD!
I agree, on every point, agree!
I have one...Although, I am not sure if this would fall into the courtesy rules or city rules...s'anyhow it bugs me nonetheless, so I will 'splain:
I am standing at the bus stop, sitting on the bus, or just walking down the street...
Someone makes eye contact with me and stares at me a little longer than normal. I give them a smile, expecting to get a smile back, but they just continue to stare...with their stone cold face!
Smile people! If you don't want to smile, bow your head slightly in acknowledgment of receiving my smile. If you don't want to do either, then quit looking at me!
Otherwise, one day, I will confront you about your staring problem!
~Nat
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