The Vine: April 24, 2001
In regards to the letter from Manny Ramirez:
Whoa, whoa, whoa…
No, they weren’t in a law library, but all too often I and my friends find ourselves the unwitting “participants” of other people’s conversations. Who is the asshole here? Perhaps the man sitting in front of Manny and his friend couldn’t hear over their conversation, perhaps he wanted to RELAX and enjoy the game, not listen to a constant stream of chit-chat, perhaps he found their conversation so intrusive he decided to ask them to put a sock in it. There are many of us out there who are quite comfortable with silence, and indeed CRAVE it in today’s continual audio assault. It becomes quite irritating to have to put up with those that are so insecure that they have to fill every minute with a barrage of meaningless conversation. Kudos to that man for asking them to stop talking. Manny needs to get over the fact that his HAT made such an impact, and stuff it into his mouth.
Signed,
Earplugs
Dear Plugs,
You’ve gotta be kidding me. It’s a major-league baseball game, honey. There’s a crowd of fifty thousand people there — eating, talking, yelling at their kids, cheering, shuffling their feet, sneezing, belching, what have you. There’s the Diamondvision. There’s the stadium announcer. There’s planes flying overhead. There’s fights breaking out in the right-field tier seats. All that going on, and you endorse turning around and telling a guy who isn’t drunk, isn’t screaming any louder than anyone else, and isn’t even talking to you to stop talking? Do you also plan to go seat-to-seat and ask everyone else in the stadium to speak in hushed tones too? How about on the bus? At the grocery store? In bars? Shall we all just stop talking, to please…you?
You might enjoy life more fully if you didn’t have to lug that gargantuan sense of entitlement around with you everywhere. Don’t want to hear other people’s conversations “unwittingly”? Stay home and enjoy the blessed silence of your own self-absorption.
Sarah,
I will be moving from Chicago to Seattle in a couple of months and I don’t know a soul there. I am in my very early thirties and would like to find that “special someone.” How should I go about it being in a new city and all?
Binks
Dear Binks,
You’ll most likely meet a few people at work that you’ll get friendly with, so you can start there. Beyond that, go out and do the things you like to do — read in the park, go to museums or poetry readings or concerts, browse at flea markets. Join a book club. Get together with friends of friends who have friends in the city. It takes time, but you’ll meet people.
I would caution you just to meet the people, though; don’t have so much of an eye for landing “that special someone.” Just make friends and see where it leads.
Tags: boys (and girls) etiquette
