Phooey!

[Nathan Flowers]

Or else peace, harmony, and comportment will be restored to the universe, with cocktails all around! lol I have to get to NYC one of these days, no question about it.

It's that urge to stand on a street corner and rail against the slobbery and poor manners of Americans that I must fight, for I must remain dignified, even in defeat.

Brad

Whenever you do, you're in for a real treat! Jack is a consumate gentleman, and one of the finest folks I've ever met.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Maybe it's time for all of us here to move en masse to Chile.

.

 

[otterhound]

Senator, you are in a tough spot living in NYC. The nature of the city forces you to be elbow to elbow with the riff raff on the streets, taxis and public transport.

Down here in the sunbelt we can be much more discriminating about those with whom we come in contact. We get from place to place in the privacy of our cars, and (except for those who face the public in retail or law enforcement) we can, for the most part, avoid those we choose to avoid.

Plus, with my Netflix and Rhapsody subscriptions, my movies and music come to me in the comfort of my living room. I haven't been in a movie theater in years. When I go to live theater or dance performances, everyone seems to behave pretty well here.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I get the feeling there is a "rage" starting to boil here ( I don't mean here, our esteemed FL), I mean (thinks), anarchy!, chaos theory! Are there too many of us to let us all exist without having to shimmy up against people we would avoid. In nature animals don't cohabit with other animals they can't stand. Are we overpopulating and what we're expressing here is the subtle beginnings of a special (that should read like species with ial at the end) dynamic that will eventually explode, or implode, one or t'other. There's still a lot of room on the planet, but we push ourselves into cities and towns (the rural population is still low enough not to be affected - third world dynamics aside for another discussion) until we can't move for bumping into people, and yet we're all more alone than we've ever been. Community is disintegrating, we've got to deliberately use words like "engage", "inclusion". It's going to pot my friends!

I think you're right. I have seen the area I live in,(suburbia) grow from a semi-rural and not very crowded area to overflowing! One can not drive from one end of town to the other on any given day between the hours of about 8 AM and 10 PM without encountering masses of maddening traffic.
And yet sometimes I feel like I am maybe the last unicorn.
I think the mass rudeness and overall dimwittedness of our present "society", is mostly due to fear and insecurity. People I think are being, and indeed, have always been, conditioned to be the same as everyone else. To fit in or else be ostracized, and therefore made to feel alone and unloved. And paradoxically, the "values" and "morals" that people are so zealously coerced to embrace, have absolutely nothing to do with real love, friendship, and conviviality.
In short, it's all about money. People must conform and buy into everything they are told to in order to be accepted.
But there are still a few of us that refuse to conform.
Santiago, Chile is starting to sound awfully inviting to me about now.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the old saying "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" really applies here. While there isn't much we can do about other people's behavior, we can certainly resolve to treat those other people the way we ourselves would like to be treated.

When someone cuts us off in traffic, or shoves us aside on the sidewalk or kicks the back of our seat at the movies, responding like for like isn't going to make the world any better a place. But responding to the everyday idiocies of the world with as much kindness as we're capable of under the circumstances can at least give us the satisfaction of knowing we're not the unsuspecting focus of someone else's "loutish jerk" complaint....

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

You are a true lady and quite right of course.

I think the old saying "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" really applies here. While there isn't much we can do about other people's behavior, we can certainly resolve to treat those other people the way we ourselves would like to be treated.

When someone cuts us off in traffic, or shoves us aside on the sidewalk or kicks the back of our seat at the movies, responding like for like isn't going to make the world any better a place. But responding to the everyday idiocies of the world with as much kindness as we're capable of under the circumstances can at least give us the satisfaction of knowing we're not the unsuspecting focus of someone else's "loutish jerk" complaint....

I have the perfect technique for dealing with numbskulls such as drunks and other negative types.
If they dare to hurl some random insult at me, (drunks with zero self esteem are known for using this tactic, whenever they have imbibed enough liquid confidence) I merely smile, and ask a question.
For instance, a drunk loser at a party once said to me,...
"You're an @55*%#$! "
My reply was simply,..."Why?"
He was absolutely speechless from that point on and soon ran into the house to sulk. lol

 

[Feraud]

I think the old saying "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" really applies here. While there isn't much we can do about other people's behavior, we can certainly resolve to treat those other people the way we ourselves would like to be treated.

You should try that technique in NYC and see what happens.
The city atmosphere lends itself to a push and shove attitude. I know many polite New Yorkers who think they need to raise a "shield" to protect themself from whatever is looking to take advantage of them. There are a lot of people in NYC and we are all on our way somewhere. This is not a "stop to smell the roses" kind of town.
Maybe this is what used to give New Yorkers their charm. [huh]

 

[LizzieMaine]

Tell me about it. Last fall I was in NYC, and was crossing 57th Street on a rainy night when I slipped and fell on a wet manhole cover or something -- landed hard, hit my head, stunned myself -- and *people were stepping over me* rather than anyone offering to help me get up. And then some loudmouth cabbie screamed at me to "gettouta tha (bleepin') way" as I tried to get back on my feet. Chivalry is not only dead in The City, it's been packed up in a cheap wooden coffin and buried unceremoniously in Potter's Field.

Brrr. Give me my small town any day. Up here the only thing I have to worry about is SUV-driving tourists running me over. But that's a whole nother thread.

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

Tell me about it. Last fall I was in NYC, and was crossing 57th Street on a rainy night when I slipped and fell on a wet manhole cover or something -- landed hard, hit my head, stunned myself -- and *people were stepping over me* rather than anyone offering to help me get up

Awww, maaan, thats just... Aughhh! :rage: :rage: :rage:

You're a much better person than me, Lizzie... I'm normally a real quiet laid back "nice guy", But when I see someone who looks like they're really literally "stepping all over me" or any other Really Good Folks, that's the one thing in this world that can really make me see red & "get stupid"... Guess it's the low-income-housing upbringing in me I'm sure I would've grabbed the leg of the next person stepping over me, and when they hit the pavement - "Hey BUDDY, mind giving me a HAND!" Wouldn't be part of the solution, but might teach them not to to "walk all over people", since their parents obviously didn't, so I'd say, that IS part of the solution :eusa_clap

THE BUDDY SYSTEM - always heard, Never go around NYC alone if you're new / just visiting, always use the buddy system, preferrably with someone who knows the place. (That's my plan when I do get some free time to see the "jazz capitol" where many of my favorite remaining legends still play clubs...)

Swing High,
- Cousin Hepcat

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Guess it's the low-income-housing upbringing in me

It does come in handy at times.

 

[Braxton36]

I'm still laughing about Lizzie's desciption: "the usual mall trollop attire" - I'm getting a very clear mental picture.

 

[scotrace]

The latest Reader's Digest has an article about rudeness. Turns out NYC wins worldwide for most-polite City!

 

[otterhound]

How about the Aussies?

I've heard that the Australians are some of the politest people around. Never been there though. Is it true?

 

[Feraud]

The latest Reader's Digest has an article about rudeness. Turns out NYC wins worldwide for most-polite City!

I must not see the forest for the trees. [huh]

 

[jamespowers]

The latest Reader's Digest has an article about rudeness. Turns out NYC wins worldwide for most-polite City!

Who did the poll a group of blind idiots? I would hate to see the least polite city then.

Regards,

J

 

[Senator Jack]

Native New Yorkers ARE polite. It's the transplants that are rude.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Nathan Flowers]

.

I completely agree. I didn't run into one single rude person in New York at all. Most were more polite than many places I've been here in the south.

 

[Lincsong]

Who did the poll a group of blind idiots? I would hate to see the least polite city then.

Regards,

J

You were there on Thursday.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

LizzieMaine's comment about falling down in NYC reminded me of an incident of a year and a half ago. I fainted on the sidewalk in downtown Denver. When I opened my eyes, there was a man at my feet on a cell phone talking to the paramedics, a woman next to me saying she wouldn't leave me, and a man saying that I'd be taken care of.

Has she left yet?

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Sounds good to me!

I'm beginning to think that all the loungers should move to Denver, or at least have a vacatio here. I spent the past week on vacation here in town. I've recently attended two plays, one movie, two dances, about four restaurants, and went to the race track. This is in addition to the usual shopping and errands I do. Tally of rude incidents: zero.

LizzieMaine's comment about falling down in NYC reminded me of an incident of a year and a half ago. I fainted on the sidewalk in downtown Denver. When I opened my eyes, there was a man at my feet on a cell phone talking to the paramedics, a woman next to me saying she wouldn't leave me, and a man saying that I'd be taken care of.

That's not to say that strange things never happen here. Last night I found a guy going to sleep on my front porch. I told him to get going; he really did seem to think he lived at my house. Even so, neither of us raised our voice, used four-letter words or hurled insults. In fact, he kept calling me "dear."[huh]

I live near beautiful Cleveland Ohio. If one were to faint on most streets in this town, they would probably never be heard from again.