Thursday, February 14, 2008
No, I Am Not Rerunning a "Best of" Episode
It's just that crazy people seem to follow me everywhere.
This morning I was once again treated to a 20-minute monologue as I rode the train downtown. This time it was a wild-eyed lady rather than a ginormously fat man, but her views were no less irritating or loudly shared. The thrust of her argument was that people these days are very rude and have no consideration from others, though I don't think she meant to serve as a visual aid in support of her own point.
"Why do they have to listen to their music so loud?" she shouted, wholly unironically, as she gestured at the hapless gentleman in headphones beside her. "It's so rude. The whole train doesn't have to hear you!"
Then she broadened her point.
"I tell you, everything's changed. There's no manners, no politeness these days. It didn't use to be that way."
And by way of example:
"When I was a kid if an adult told you to do something, you did it. But just the other day, I told this girl on the train to be quiet and you know what she said? She said, 'You're not my mother.' Can you imagine?"
Then turning to arts and entertainment:
"It's all those shows on the TV these days with their bad language and violence that do it. I tell you, I can't watch any of it. That's why I have to watch my Perry Mason. Channel 27. Nine o clock. I never miss it."
And to politics:
"I mean, you can't even watch the news these days. Always people shouting about this war or that election. And that Hillary Clinton is just so aggressive. In my day, that wasn't considered ladylike."
This is why I really need some headphones of my own.
It's just that crazy people seem to follow me everywhere.
This morning I was once again treated to a 20-minute monologue as I rode the train downtown. This time it was a wild-eyed lady rather than a ginormously fat man, but her views were no less irritating or loudly shared. The thrust of her argument was that people these days are very rude and have no consideration from others, though I don't think she meant to serve as a visual aid in support of her own point.
"Why do they have to listen to their music so loud?" she shouted, wholly unironically, as she gestured at the hapless gentleman in headphones beside her. "It's so rude. The whole train doesn't have to hear you!"
Then she broadened her point.
"I tell you, everything's changed. There's no manners, no politeness these days. It didn't use to be that way."
And by way of example:
"When I was a kid if an adult told you to do something, you did it. But just the other day, I told this girl on the train to be quiet and you know what she said? She said, 'You're not my mother.' Can you imagine?"
Then turning to arts and entertainment:
"It's all those shows on the TV these days with their bad language and violence that do it. I tell you, I can't watch any of it. That's why I have to watch my Perry Mason. Channel 27. Nine o clock. I never miss it."
And to politics:
"I mean, you can't even watch the news these days. Always people shouting about this war or that election. And that Hillary Clinton is just so aggressive. In my day, that wasn't considered ladylike."
This is why I really need some headphones of my own.
