Cur Interrupted
Yes, it was yet another hike down the No Manners Trail, Wednesday afternoon at Starbucks:
"It's a public place," said the snippy student who'd been shouting into her cell phone at Starbucks -- this being her attempt to justify why she had no intention of piping down. Exactly right. If you're home in a sound-proofed room, you can shout as loudly as you'd like. When you're in public, you might occasionally lift your glazed eyes from your regularly scheduled self-absorption and note that there are other people around who are bored shitless by your loud, dull life.
When I later tried to explain that "public" means the space is shared with other people, and it would be a highly civil thing if she showed some concern for somebody but herself, she said, apropos of nothing, "I'm studying to be an M.D." Scary. Both because somebody with her level of aggressive disinterest in anybody but herself might actually become one, and because the extent of her ability to make a logical argument was "You're rude!" and "You're disturbing me!"
Most hilariously, at some point, she went up to the counter to ask whether it was okay to talk on cell phones in Starbucks (loudly, so I would be sure to hear, which was her real motivation, of course). When your public behavior is based on whether Starbucks employees are going to do a monologue on the decline of manners in the cellularly connected age...well, give me your mother's home number, because I'd love to talk to her about all the ways in which she went wrong with you. In fact, I think that's my goal. The next time somebody's being a rude jerk, if I can get their name and track down their parents, I think I'll have a word with them. Heh heh.
What, was this person 5 years old? "Nyah, nyah, the person RUNNING the counter at STARBUCKS said I could!" Oh, in that case it's all right then.
I also read Miss Manners (she knows how to tell someone they're a moron with gusto as well) and the last column was about how a woman was furious that someone gave her expensive china for a wedding present because she didn't register for gifts and she thinks that china selection is "personal". I can just imagine the reprimand she was hoping to be authorized to give. "How dare you buy me a present! I didn't ask for anything, let alone a beautiful, costly set of totally appropriate china! What kind of idiot are you?!! Don't you know you can't give wedding gifts unless it's off a "Me, me, me" list of greed?!!
Ah, and these are the ones reproducing.
Christina at December 15, 2005 1:04 PM
Hold on now-- Some of us who have reproduced care DEEPLY about the impact our offspring make in public.
My husband and I didn't create any "Gimmie" lists when we married either.
Deirdre B. at December 15, 2005 2:08 PM
Yes, but Deirdre, your quiet, well-behaved children aren't the ones everyone notices, are they! ;-) Really, when I experience badly-behaved children in public, like at a restaurant, I pretty much just blow it off. I can go home to a quiet house and escape it. It's the parents who went to the trouble to get a sitter and wanted to enjoy some peace and quiet who I feel most sorry for. They shelled out bucks for a sitter and a dinner, only to have to listen to someone ELSE's screechlings. Big bag 'o downers!
Pirate Jo at December 15, 2005 4:34 PM
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