I like his suggestions for peace-offerings that his neighbor might have sent him: brownies, tootsie rolls, chocolate-covered bananas, Baby Ruth bars, etc.

I would have sent out the video to all my other neighbors...before he moved away.

That's just weird. The guy is totally open about using the tree-well - that particular tree-well - as a trash can. There almost has to have been something personal about it.

Once he determined who was doing it, I would have collected a few days worth, put it in a paper back, and stuck it in his mailbox.

How low do you have to be to do this to a neighbor. I think Bradley13 is right. There's something more personal involved here. Wonder why he moved?

Hamster Dance for the win!!!!

I think he's little hysterical (in the screamy dramatic sense) about not confronting the neighbor on his shit flinging because he didn't want his family to come to harm.

I've lived in some pretty bad areas. And what this little girl-next-door type has learned from that experience is that people are basically chicken shit. The biggest scaredy cats of all? Middle aged white men like this doucher. Know what would have shamed him most? One of the guy's daughters going out and yelling at him over it. Even if the poo flinger was Mafia (doubtful) no grown man would declare Jihad on a neighbor based on a sound shaming by a little girl.

On the subject of society being too big for our brains--I was just saying to my mother the other day that I don't think that humans are meant to deal with hundreds of strange humans per week as per my retail job. It's exhausting to have to 'read' stranger after stranger and take any and all abuse because business is down. Used to be that we could kick abusive customers out. I think businesses need to be encouraged to not cater to angry/abusive customers and other customers need to speak up on behalf of the powerless clerk (as I do when I am a shopper). I think things would turn around right quick.

Once he determined who was doing it, I would have collected a few days worth, put it in a paper back, and stuck it in his mailbox

Or put in a paper bag, then put the bag on the guy's porch, light it, and ring the bell. Then watch him open the door and try to stamp it out! (We used to this to the mean old guy down the street; we'd hide behind a tree to watch, though. Once he started swearing, we'd take off, laughing! We were evil little shits. But he was evil too, he used to throw rotten apples at us kids when we rode by his house on our bikes. Asshole.)

o.O

Amy, a friend of mine wants to try this diet (probably insane), and she wants to know, how do you manage the induction phase. Virtually everything in the store, including items that are supposed to be meat, have at least some carbs.

Like frozen hamburger patties have around one gram each, even eggs have carbs. So, how do you eat no carbs?

I wrote about this five years ago, and finish my imaging technology presentations with it now, always telling the younger people in the audience, " my generation had more privacy than any other before it. Yours will not have any."

PRIVACY -- PAST TENSE
The ramifications of surveillance and image recognition are quite serious, and bode massive changes in society -- especially when coupled with image capture in ever-smaller devices, greater storage and computational capabilities, and wireless transmission.
A potential future we have long been discussing now appears to be quite possible -- and even probable:
In a few years, most public spaces will be under video surveillance. Within a decade it will just be accepted that if you are not in your private home, then you are on candid camera.
And what is even more important: all that video footage will be transmitted, stored, and analyzed -- and you will be identified.
That means that whatever you do, wherever you are -- will be a matter of record.

The above is a foregone conclusion, I believe: the combination of speeding technological capabilities and security fears all but guarantee it.

The only question is who will have access to this information:

Everyone, or just the government?

I believe it has to be "everyone," because anything less than that will translate, practically speaking, into "only those with power and money" having access.
[Or those with great hacking skills.]

But this will mean that everyone will be able to find out almost everything about the public behavior of anyone else:

Crowd in line at DisneyWorld? Everyone you know will see it.
Get in a bar fight last week [or ever]? Your job interviewer will know.
Where was your spouse last night -- really? Check and see.

To many people, this sounds like some nightmare scenario -- a complete elimination of "privacy."
But I put the quotes around that word for a reason: the notions we have today of what "privacy" means are not long-held values -- they are very recent developments.
After all, just a few hundred years ago everyone lived in small, close-knit areas from which they rarely traveled -- and so everything anybody did outside their homes was seen -- or at least, possibly discussed -- by almost everyone they knew.
Thus the importance of shame in curbing antisocial behavior in the past -- and the weakness of the social fabric today.
Our ancestors would be unable to comprehend the virtual anonymity we all take for granted now: we can do almost anything with the assurance that [unless, say, we are arrested] no one close to us will ever know our actions.
Many arguments against surveillance that hold "privacy" sacred can come off as merely protesting that one should be able to engage in any activity without embarrassment.
I would agree with that core notion -- but I’d add that it does not require one be able to act without identification, responsibility, admission, or acknowledgement.
Stand up for what you do.
Don’t do what you can’t stand up for.

I don’t want to beat the drum for increased surveillance, government control, and societal restrictions.
But I acknowledge that -- barring some unlikely social upheaval -- increased surveillance is going to happen.
And now is the time to debate and determine what else occurs.

I'm just curious as to what the particular group of people would recommend doing about a spiteful neighbors.

She's on the city council so any and all complaints she makes are considered valuable. And every month she complains about me at this meeting, even when there are things much more important to discuss. I'm not going to detail every complaint made, but I will say she's done several things to disrupt my life. I'm eighty percent sure, because of a nasty comment she made, that she reported to the Humane Society that I was abusing my parrots. (I wasn't, of course) She's banged on my door to begin yelling at me, when asked to leave she did not. My other neighbor broke up that argument before I called the police on her. I even think she's went through my trash before.

I just received a complaint this past week about the leaves on my property. And threatened with another ticket if I don't get them cleaned up (tickets are chargeable at about fifteen hundred dollars a piece) The local cop is the best we've had since I moved in. He offered to help rake leaves on his day off, before he was supposed to write a ticket.

I'm at the end of my rope. Lawyers are too expensive. I've hired ones in the past to take care of things and I'm still getting harassed by that woman. It's ridiculous that a woman in her sixties is harassing a girl in her early twenties, especially when I haven't done anything bad toward her.

I'm just curious if the smart people in this forum have any suggestions.

You what is about the stupidest asshole of all in the world, MissFancy? A wowman telling man how to be a man, or judging his manliness. It makes you sound like that superstitious, bigoted old sow, Sharron Angle, or that sad old church rat, Christine O'Donnell, with their hypocrtitcal "man up" bullshit.

This shows how stupid and gutless you are:

"The biggest scaredy cats of all? Middle aged white men like this doucher. Know what would have shamed him most? One of the guy's daughters going out and yelling at him over it."

That's right folks - her answer is to send a little girl out to do the job. Because there'd be nothing "scaredy cat" about the dad doing that at all. Anyway that's what a big, strong, independent.... cringing, whiny, hide-behind-a-man-if-she-can't-find-a-little-gril-first PUSSY like MissFancy would do in the same situation.

Amy,

Can I get copied on that email to patrick? Or would you prefer a seperate email. I would like that answer myself.

@flynne,

Nowadays, I'd be worried about being charged with Attempted arson. There seems to be more going on here (some kind of personal animosity).

Hate to tell you, Steve, but vandalizing a mailbox is a federal offense. Even putting anything in it that isn't mail is against the law.

And with cameras everywhere these days, chances are you'd get caught.

Cat, that's a tough one. First, I have to say this: what have you done to earn her wrath? Even if it's something stupidly trivial, there must be some reason she has singled you out.

If you can figure out what it is, and it is something you could make amends for (again, regardless of how silly you think this is), grit your teeth and do it. Principle is all well and good, but most likely you just want to get on with your life. It's worth a brief grovel to save a ton of aggravation.

Second option: you don't say what meeting you are referring to. However, can I assume it is a public meeting that you can attend? Are you allowed to speak? If so, the next time she makes an unsubstantiated claim, call her on it. Say it's bullshit, you're tired of the abuse, and you want it to stop. Embarrass her in public, and get on the official record that you consider her to be harassing you.

The nuclear option: a lawyer. First, collect objective evidence of her harassment. You don't say what all she has done, so I cannot guess what this might be. Things like the leaf example are difficult, since you were technically violating some local regulation (unless every house on your block looked just the same, and you can prove she singled you out). Take the evidence to a lawyer. Pay the lawyer to write a letter - he/she will know what to threaten. Send the letter by (registered post) wit a registered copy to the chair of the city council. This will cost money, but it shouldn't really be more than maybe $200 or so.

Just my ideas...

Cat I assume you are a woman, as such you can get a restaining oder against jut about everyone. Also get a pellet gun and shhot her the next time shes in your garbage, claim you thought it was a racoon

Offtopic—

For all the time spent here, I'm not an advice-y kind of guy. Most girly interpersonal dramas are intensely boring, because they so obviously spring from some mix of cowardice and arrogance.

But this is a pretty good one: Whether to, or how best to, defuse a small hazard in a social circle?

We have someone in our neighborhood who leaves dog crap on the street. By the size of the pile we've narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities, but haven't caught anyone in the act yet. Why do some people think they have every right to dirty up the streets? There are three of us in the neighborhood who clean up the mess because it's unsightly and little kids may ride their bikes through it. Three people to take care of one irresponsible dog owner's mess;the homeowner who lives on the corner where the dog relieves itself, and two others who take care of it when walking by. The pet owner could take care of this in 10-15 seconds...

Switching to Father Time mode for a moment...

When I was a child, the idea that every urban dog owner would follow their pet around with a plastic bag two or three times a day to collect their shit would have been laughable. Absolutely laughable. Why Hell, you might as well insist that sober drivers put on their seat belts every time they get in the car.

Rude people are rude, but lets try and remember how far we've come.

Cat,I knew a guy who got a constant neighborhood complainer to shut up by hiring a private detective and getting photos of him visiting women who were not his wife. Just saying.