One evening, I was in a posh restaurant in Georgetown district, in Washington DC. This restaurant actually had an unlistred number, it was so exclusive. Excellent fare, I msut say.
Well, this lulu on the sidewalk graphically mooned my companion and myself--we could see him through a plate glass window. You could clearly see his hairy butthole.
That was rude.

:eye roll:

Perhaps off-point vis-a-vis the book, but the Georgetown story remnds me of this one: A friend's son was managing a restaurant in a major city; the restaurant sat down in a half-basement. He went outside to address a man (apparently homeless) who was relieveing himself on the side of the building. The man in so many words asked what the big deal was; the manager advised the man - who turned out to be blind - that he was rinsing off one of the front windows of the restaurant, and the young family sitting down below the window had a front-row seat.

Wow, Mr. Teflon.

PS Please post these over at the link. There will be more categories posted in the next few days.

Just from the few comments that are there now, I have a few good things I can use.

Funny you just asked for our rude stories. I have a post scheduled for Wednesday in which one of my stories involved the apology, "I'm Sorry, BITCH!" You might enjoy that.

Yeah, and how about people who fart on a crowded elevator?

I started working as a crossing guard at the kids school last week. WOW. Parents honking at me when I stop them to let kids cross. Parents blowing right past me and my stopsign, nearly hitting me and a kid who was on the crosswalk. Parents blithly hauling their kid across the street when I'm NOT stopping traffic. Parents ignoring me when I smile and say "good morning".

This has potential to be my favourite part of your site.

People leading their kids across the crosswalk AFTER the "don't walk" sign has clearly started blinking. What an awful thing to teach a child. "Oh, just ignore that don't-walk sign, the cars will always stop and wait for you."

Cell phones ANYWHERE IN INDOOR PUBLIC PLACES. Particularly in queues, or doctors' waiting rooms, or restaurants -- anywhere you can't easily get away from them.

People who mistake the fast (left) traffic lane for the dawdle-and-talk-on-phone lane.

Grrr.

Riding the Denver light rail recently, going home after a long day's work, at a time when the train is usually packed...had to stand next to two twenty-something punk-ass emo douchebags who thought they were aspiring rappers (and OH SO FUCKING CLEVER)...giggling at their own inane 'rhymes' to shitty music on their cell phones. Absolutely no consideration for the rest of the passengers, quietly reading and hoping for these two assholes, in desperate need of a painful lesson in life, to disappear.

When my aging parents and I were through lunching at the local Panera (my mother's choice) and I was helping my mother out of her seat and a teenage girl plunked herself down in one of our just-vacated seats while we were still brushing off the crumbs and grabbing our purses. Instead of just giving us a chance to get out of the way, she zoomed in there and started texting.

@Steve H: How about people who drive slowly in front of you while leaning toward the passenger seat to talk to a kid? Makes my head wanna splode!

How about driving down the highway on cruise control at a steady 67-68 MPH. You come up on someone doing 63. You move out with your turn signal and keep moving. As you pass them they accelerate and stay in your passenger side blind spot for the next 10 miles.

The only way to brush them off is going at excessive speed or wait until they "run into" the next vehicle you pass.

It would be interesting to see what kind of stories you would gather if you had an anti-rude people category. I went mountain biking Sunday and before I headed back down, I sat by the side of the trail for a few minutes to rest and enjoy the view. About five cyclists passed me and every single one took the time to ask if I was alright or if I needed anything. I was impressed.

Speaking of cell phones, why do people speak so loudly into them? And why do people doing sales or support calls in the office suddenly start speaking real loud so that the whole place can hear them?

Doesn't the phone have a little pickup thingy in it that makes a normal-volume voice audible on the other end?

What's interesting in the "rude" categories - there's nothing for active rudeness, like hostile banter, street harassment, catcalling, or deliberate personal insults. I guess the whole point of Amy's take on rudeness is to focus her crusade on quality of life issues and passive rudeness - crimes of anonymity.

I wonder if it's because passively rude people are safer targets for ire? If someone harasses me on the street and I snap their photo like a good vigilante-citizen, I might get physically challenged. I'd have to back up my words.

Even chastising all these "bad parents" in coffeehouses is relatively low-risk. It won't get you punched. At least not in white middle class neighborhoods.

How about when guys get on the subway, in a muscle shirt, hang onto the straps and show you their armpits? Or when women don't shave their armpits---that's rude right there.
Or shave their nether-regions--you would think women would get a clue, and strip off the bush.
People are soooooooooooooooo rude. I call it a "baditude."

Is it a cultural imperative for urban black youth and young adults to never use a sidewalk? In my old neighborhood in Philly, there are often people walking in the street three- or four-abreast, which in Philly means making the street impassable. They won't move for cars until they're damned good and ready - and honk at your own risk. The cops actually started handing out jaywalking tickets, which of course are never paid, so there's no impact. I now live in Phoenix, and have noticed the same phenomenon here. The difference is that residential streets are so wide that one can normally drive around the herd.

Astra, your comment reminded me of something that happened to me a few months ago. I was walking my dog and stopped about halfway back (a mile and a half in) to let her rest for a few minutes because it was (and is again) hotter than Hades in middle Tennessee. We sat down in a clearing between two neighborhoods, near a stop sign. Several people walking and no fewer than four people in cars stopped to ask if we were all right and needed to call someone or get a ride somewhere. Now, it could have been because my face was all red and I was sweating like Nixon at the debate and they all thought I was in dire need of medical services, but I choose to think it's that my area is populated with nice people.

Beth said: Is it a cultural imperative for urban black youth and young adults to never use a sidewalk? In my old neighborhood in Philly, there are often people walking in the street three- or four-abreast, which in Philly means making the street impassable.
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I have to say, I've never seen that here in MA. In the street, that is. What I DO see is young people of all colors - but usually white - walking abreast on the SIDEWALK as if there were nothing wrong with implying that you (walking in the opposite direction) should get off the sidewalk to avoid making them walk in single file. It's one of life's little joys to stop walking, with a slight stamping gesture, so they can't fail to notice you before they run into you. To their credit, they always break rank and do not get unpleasant about it.

A college professor wrote to Miss Manners about this problem (probably in the 1980s), how he was sick of young people on campus and in the malls who do this, and how he much preferred simply to knock such cretins over when they don't look where they're going. (Source book: "Miss Manners' guide for the turn-of-the-millennium," pages 163-164.) You can see it here:
http : // tinyurl . com / 22tb5en

She has a very good answer, as always.

I second the Miss Manners love, lenona. I just adore her. I've always hated when people do that on sidewalks and any place (like at the mall, where it tends to be teenage girls walking six abreast) where people are walking in both directions. I've been noticing it more since I went back to college this summer. Just Tuesday, I was walking along the very narrow sidewalk to get to my class when two fairly large male students were walking side-by-side in my direction. The one nearest me was making no move to get behind his friend even though they both saw me coming at them. Now, I'm a small person, but I couldn't have fit in the three inches of sidewalk space they were going to leave me, and the other option was to walk in the road, where there is no shoulder. Not happening. I looked them in the eyes so they knew I knew they saw me and just kept right on my path. The guy sort of sidestepped me at the last second, but not without a dirty look as I went past. Like it was such a hardship for him to get out of the way for two seconds so I could get by without potentially being hit by a car driven by some student late for class because he was madly searching for a parking space (seriously, there are 21,000 student parking decals issued a year and only 11,000 parking spaces--it's dog-eat-dog out there).