Do You See Rude People?
Michael Schlesinger does. He e-mailed me:
File it under Instant Karma. I was walking down Hollywood Blvd. one afternoon and arrived at Highland; the light was red. Two motorcycle cops were in front of the vehicles facing me. Shockingly, there was no traffic on Highland. While I'm waiting for the light to change, some punk kid (death metal T-shirt, ripped jeans, lotsa tats and piercings; you know, a walking cliche) comes up, looks, then steps off the curb and starts to jaywalk. Being a Good Samaritan, I pointed to the officers and said, "Dude, there're cops there." (I don't normally call people "Dude," but I felt it was necessary to speak his lingo.) To my utter amazement, he spat back, "Go fuck yourself," and proceeded to cross. Not to my utter amazement, one of the cops pulled out and nailed him, and the little ringworm ended up with a ticket because he couldn't wait four seconds for the light to change.. By this time, I was in the crosswalk myself, careful not to make eye contact with him as I laughed to myself. Aah, good times.
Comments
'the little ringworm', LOL.
Posted by: crella at February 3, 2010 5:06 AM
I am still surprised by the fact that you get tickets for jaywalking...and actually have to stand there waiting for the WALK sign even if it's perfectly safe to cross.
My friend from LA was out a few weeks ago, a Boston ex-pat. I had to convince her it was okay to cross because the street was dead-empty, and, since it was about 15 degrees out, it made more sense health-wise to make keep moving than to stand on the Summer St. bridge waiting for the geedee light.
Posted by: Gretchen at February 3, 2010 5:26 AM
I LONG time ago, in an undergraduate lifetime far, far away . . . I left the computer lab quite late at night. Almost early morning, in fact.
Along the way, I encountered a gentleman of uncouth demeanor, who chose to make commentary upon my ancestry, clothing, and presumed sexuality, and then made a challenge regarding horsepower.
Foolish, on his part, really. I was on a motorcycle. While he had a boatload of horsepower on me, I was lighter than he by a substantial margin. Sure enough, when the light turned green, I leaped off the line and left him behind me. Over two blocks he caught up, so I dropped a gear, accelerated, and left him behind again. I did this a second time, and ended up ahead of him, accelerating through downtown Charleston at around 3 AM, doing about eighty.
When he started catching up again, I realized that, should somebody break a light ahead of me, his car would be wrecked, and I would die. Not interested. So I said to myself, "I give up. You are, in fact, dumber than I am," and killed my throttle.
He shot past me in victory, and less than a block later, a police car shot out of a cross street and pulled him over. I waved as I went by, under the speed limit.
Good times, indeed.
Posted by: Bill McNutt at February 3, 2010 7:40 AM
There's never a little cartoon punk pointing his finger and saying "hah hah!" when you need one.
Posted by: Pricklypear at February 3, 2010 9:02 AM
http://www.tantraman.net/smilies_files/haha_simpsons.jpg
Posted by: MeganNJ at February 3, 2010 9:08 AM
I realized that, should somebody break a light ahead of me, his car would be wrecked, and I would die.
My mother-in-law was recently involved in an accident along those lines. The motorcyclist roared around a truck, clipping the passenger-side rearview mirror with his helmet on his way, and plowed straight into a car that was turning across that lane into a side street. She was a backseat passenger in that car. The car rolled several times. The front-seat passenger in the car was killed. The motorcyclist was killed.
Had the motorcyclist not been tailgating the truck and had he given himself more room in getting around the truck, he would have seen the car and probably avoided the accident (or at least avoided killing another human being with his foolishness).
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian at February 3, 2010 9:47 AM
Instant Karma. Gotta love it.
Posted by: Sabrina at February 3, 2010 11:19 AM
Your post inspired me to write 13 Violations of Public Etiquette.
Posted by: bernie at February 4, 2010 1:13 PM
I was shopping at WINNERS in North Vancouver,Lynn Valley, Canada yesterday, I tried to exchange an item. I am a woman. The store manager(men)came to help me,(I thought), he looked and looked at the item for a long time, so I,being concerned nicely asked him if there was a problem with it? Just a question. He right away, waved his hand at me and said loudly..do not get defensive here, i have to check it. I said, I am not being defensive, I am simply asking a question. At that point, he become very angry, waving his hand at me, raising his voice and telling me he is finnished talkig with me and I should go. I said, that maybe he had a bad day and he is taking his anger on me, he replies..very loudly..My day is great!!
Wait a minute, he is a manager, he was not proffessional at all,he was raising his voice at me, he was disrecpecting me over nothing in a very degrading manner. I was attacked. If he can not handle a simple question, perhaps he should not be in customer service. I have been shopping at WINNERS for years, and never had such a bad experience.
HAS ANYONE HAD A BAD CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, OR IT IS JUST ME, BECOUSE I FEEL SO LONELY RIGHT NOW. THANK YOU FOR READING. Should I do something about it, or just let go?
Posted by: Agatha lex at February 24, 2010 11:40 AM
The store manager has a manager as well, and you should contact that person. It sounded like you tried to diffuse it -- saying maybe he was having a bad day. You're probably not the only one who's been the brunt of his bad day and bad days.
Posted by: Amy Alkon 
at February 24, 2010 11:50 AM
Thank you Amy :)
Posted by: agatha lex at February 24, 2010 1:26 PM
