This happened today! Except it was on the commuter rail, which I think it more egregious since people are kind of stuck there.

It's barely 6:15 AM and a guy a few rows up is on his phone. I hear:

"Nah bro! I ain't neva touched your girl! ...dude I don't even know what she LOOKS like! I swear I'd neva do that. Wait what do you look like? Are you that big guy, tan? I think I know you."

So he's arguing with an apparent stranger about not screwing stranger's gf. He gets off the phone then gets up and goes to the end of the car. Then:

"Yo I don't think your boyfriend wants you doin that kinda shit no more...'Lose my numba?' Why would I want to lose your number? ...oh hey PETAH'S THEAH?? Yo PUT PETAH ON THE PHONE... Yo, Petah, BRO. It's cool. I ain't touched ha. Where you at? Let's meet up. I'm gettin off the train at Quincy Cennah in like one minute yo. Stay theah and we can talk bout dis."

All I wanted to do was close my eyes. I sat there, stewing inwardly, and actually thought to myself "What the fuck would Amy do? Would she REALLY go over to this schmuck and ask him to pipe down?!" And all the time wished I had the guts.

My across-the-street neighbor has a girlfriend who is, I guess, scared of his (extremely friendly and harmless) dogs or something. I have had to ask her politely and repeatedly not to honk her car's horn late at night (which she does in order to announce to the bf that she's outside waiting to be let in. Anyone ever heard of a cell phone??). I guess it has had some effect-- she doesn't honk at 11 pm anymore, and she doesn't do it more than once.

Where do these folks learn their manners, and what does it take to get through to them that other people are disturbed by their behavior?

I was treated to a half hour of loud, uninformed political diatribe by a pair of loudmouths at the gym.

Did you know Palin stole $175,000 worth of clothes from the Federal government? That Bush trapped Dan Rather into faking the Texas Air National Guard controversy? The economy is great, because it's tough to find a parking space at the mall. You already knew 9/11 was an inside job, Bush stole Florida, and Obama is a smart man.

The mystery was solved when both of them said they had government jobs.

I've never understood and always been irked by the people who honk outside someones house. Are they too freaking lazy to get out of their car?

I think a lot of rudeness is just people who are oblivious - it just never occurred to them that someone else wouldn't like their behavior, even when its behavior that THEY don't like.

Sorry, but I don't see anything wrong with speaking on a cellphone in the street, even in a loud voice. If it were nighttime, maybe, but in the afternoon? I don't see the problem.

So he's arguing with an apparent stranger about not screwing stranger's gf. He gets off the phone then gets up and goes to the end of the car.

The dude is a douchebag, and I would guess that his "bro" is one, too. I'm surprised either one was functional at 6:15am. Probably going home after, ummm, extracurricular activities with his "bro"'s girlfriend.

You should consider yourself lucky that you didn't get even more exposure.

We have a rude little actress who moved into the neighborhood -- one who's on a network TV show. She not only throws late, loud parties with her friends screaming and singing to guitar (all four of those bordering her house are upset by the noise), she goes into her backyard and bellows into her phone. One of the neighbors on one side of her told me she overheard the girl talking about sleeping with somebody else's boyfriend. Loudly! On her phone in her backyard. She's just lucky the lady doesn't work for TMZ.

When it's 7 a.m. and you're in your apartment kitchen sleepily pouring coffee and someone is standing right outside your kitchen window on the cellphone and speaking LOUDLY and the voice bounces off all hard cement surfaces and echoes through the courtyard; a woman with one of those hearty cigarettes-and-whiskey voices...gah.

Sorry, but I don't see anything wrong with speaking on a cellphone in the street, even in a loud voice. If it were nighttime, maybe, but in the afternoon? I don't see the problem.

So, my neighbors should have to be in our homes hearing somebody's loud argument for half an hour? Do you think it's okay if two people are shouting at each other directly across from houses? Your right to shout your phone conversation ends where my neighbors' ears begin. People shouldn't have to suffer listening to your business in their homes just because you decided to turn the area across the street from them into your mobile shouting area.

Sorry, but I don't see anything wrong with speaking on a cellphone in the street, even in a loud voice.

Quoth Amy: Wait, who's yelling?

Maybe I'll stand outside your home and start yelling into my cellphone for an extended period of time. I have a feeling you may change your mind.

Except of course, I don't feel the need to share my business with everyone within earshot.

But I've known people who seem tho think their phone (corded or cell) was voice powered. Let's face it: it is a long way across the country, and you have to make sure the sound gets there.

Which network?

So what do I do about my neighbor across the street from me whose phone conversations I can hear while she is IN her own house? I can't imagine why anyone needs to speak that loudly. Didn't her parents ever tell her to "use your inside voice"?

"Why is it so hard for people to look at houses and think, "Wow, there might be people in them...people who might not want their afternoon punctuated with a stranger yelling at some other stranger on her mobile phone?""

Wow, I was thinking this exact same thing yesterday when some kids in the parking lot across the street from my apartment complex started honking their car horn every two seconds while yelling for their friends. My boyfriend was ready to call the cops on them when they finally left.

It's bad enough that, at least 3-4 times a week, kids deliberately and loudly burn rubber in that parking lot late at night. And sometimes during the day too.

It's a public street. It's the afternoon, not 1 AM. I don't think it's all that terrible.

Besides (I can only assume) whatever Krishka's going on about is so boring that s/he doesn't mind how many strangers have to put up with it.

Amy: maybe Harvey Levin rewards anonymous tipsters?

kishke, I personally think it is wrong to be heard from anyone from your home regardless. These f'ing idiots talking on cell phones are ridiculous, it is simply amazing how we go along all these years without cell phones. Jeebus this society is dumbing won quicker than idiocracy

I personally think it is wrong to be heard from anyone from your home regardless.

I don't agree, unless you live in a library, and even those have gotten kind of noisy in recent years.

In Asian countries such as Japan, China and the Philippines, such rude behavior would be considered scandalous and deserving a withering look from everybody, which would quickly shut up such a person. As Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People's Republic of China once said, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." But then here in the US, individuals acting anyway they damn well please trumps social responsibility.

"The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." It might be great for keeping people in line and following the same rules, but it doesn't help much for innovation, or does it?

People yelling into cell phones seems like one of the main reason people hate them so much, well, that and people ignoring friends because of cell phones.

"I don't agree, unless you live in a library ..." - kishke

I'm wondering why you think you should be able to determine what I should and should not have to put up listening to in my own effing home!

It's my house. It's my castle. I worked hard to get it. I work hard to keep paying for it, and paying taxes on it.

The least thing people like you could do is understand I don't want to hear your goddamn noise when I'm in it.

Whether it's horns honking, yelling into a cellphone - or gawd help you - your stereo, it's my house.

I don't want to hear it. Nor should I have to.

Are we clear on this?

jmg: No, we're not clear on it. I don't believe you're possession of a house gives you the right to be free of any and all noise. Also, others have a perfect right to speak and even to yell at someone on a public street in middle of the afternon. If it goes on for a while, it becomes a public nuisance, in which case I would agree they should be told to quiet down.

Amy: Blasting loud music outside the house for more than a moment or two I would consider a public nuisance. Same goes for fire engines, obviously. A screaming fight? I would and have tolerated a few minutes of it from passersby in front of my house more than once. It's not the end of the world. Same goes for a loud cellphone user (which I am not, by the way).

Most things, unless somebody's holding the on-off button to the nukes, aren't "the end of the world."

It's an expression, meaning "not so terrible."

I agree on the 5 AM shouter, obviously.

Loud cell talkers are annoying. I was in Target once and heard some woman going on and on about a horrific case of child abuse that she had some connection to. I really didn't want to hear that, but she was so loud, I couldn't get away from her. It was horrible and I felt bad for the family whose dirty laundry she was airing in public.

The guy who bought the house right behind us is a loud talker. He comes home from work, sits on his back porch and yammers for hours to God only knows who. It is annoying, but since it is still hot were I am, the windows are closed and I don't hear it. It does get to be a problem in the winter, however when I do open the windows. I haven't sent a note bc I don't want to start a war with him.

This is a little off topic, but I am the only one who caught this little gem from Tony earlier:

As Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People's Republic of China once said, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." But then here in the US, individuals acting anyway they damn well please trumps social responsibility....

I mean, wow! I am pretty sure that Deng was referring to free and open dissent and not rude behavior or a failure to recycle. You lefties are all the same. Behave in a way I don't agree with and off to the gulag for you!! We tolerate the obnoxious cell phone talker in this country bc when you give people the freedom to choose, sometimes they choose to do wrong... but to protect my freedom, I must protect his as well. It can be annoying, but you don't get one without the other.

Tony, if people acting independently bothers you so much, you should go live in China. See how all that orderly behavior works out for you. I just wouldn't plan on challenging the powers that be. You don't want to get hammered.