Tuesday, July 05, 2016

People Who Sit Behind Me

Yesterday evening we went to see the Sonoma Stompers play baseball.  We sat in front of a some young people, including a woman who talked almost nonstop.  She also used the word "like" a lot.  At one point she was telling one of her friends about the movie version of The Bird Cage, which starred like Nathan Lane and Robin Williams, who were like these two gay guys who pretended to be like straight because one of them had like a son who was getting married . . . and you get the idea.  I found this annoying, but it wasn't intended to annoy me.  It was just a private conversation that I couldn't help overhearing.

After the game there was a spectacular fireworks show, and the people who'd been at the game were allowed to watch from center field, the best seats in town.  This time there was a guy behind us with his family.  Like the young woman, he talked nonstop, but the difference was that he wanted everyone to  hear him.  He was certain that he was entertaining the entire crowd with his cleverness and charm.  One of his more brilliant witticisms was to yell "Boom!" when the fireworks exploded, just in case we couldn't hear the fireworks themselves.  He did this about 100 times.  He also liked to yell, "Make it happen!" as the rockets shot upward.  He encouraged his kids to join in, and sometimes they did.  Good training, so they could grow up to be obnoxious cretins just like their old man.

18 comments:

Rick Robinson said...

And yet, had you said something, YOU'D be the bad guy. I really, really hate inconsiderate people, especially when they have no idea they are disturbing others.

Tom Johnson said...

It's getting just as bad in movie theaters. So welcome to today's generation.

Mike Stamm said...

I admire your self-restraint in not (for example) kicking the second loudmouth where it might prevent him from fathering any more offspring...

Deb said...

It is for this very reason that I rarely go to the movie theater anymore: people seem to have completely lost their ability to understand how their actions are affecting others. And, unsurprisingly, it's always the most boorish, empty-headed, vapid, vacuous ones who are the loudest!

/Other than me, of course. I'm loud AND well- informed.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

I rarely have problems at a movie theater. Guess I'm just lucky.

The use of the word like is almost as annoying as the overuse of awesome. The worst is the use of: You know what I'm saying?

Jeff Meyerson said...

Too bad you didn't have Marshall McLuhan with you.

The worst movie experience, Deb, was when we went to see The Dark Knight and there was a young woman a couple of rows in front of us in a nearly empty theater who, rather than paying a babysitter, brought her 3 year old son with her. Naturally, he asked her incessant questions - loudly. We tried to get her - politely - to do something and then suggested it was not a movie for a 3 year old, upon which she opened her very foul mouth.

The management (sic) was unwilling to do anything but give us a refund.

Anonymous said...

There are many reasons that I have become more and more reluctant to even leave my house. Having to deal with thoughtless, inconsiderate, stupid people is probably the main one. Sorry that you had to put up with those idiots, Bill, but, given my own recent encounters with the same type of boors, it doesn't appear that things are on the road to improving anytime soon. I hope you are having a great trip in spite of idiots.

sas

Bud said...

I gave up on most public arena entertainments some time ago, due to the increasing decay of general public consideration and civility. I suppose it would be a public service for us old codgers to turn on our "Get off my lawn" switch more often in public, but who wants to spend the rest of our lives doing that 8-)

Kevin R. Tipple said...

Apparently the brother of this moron lives here. last night, while we were watching the nearby fireworks show, our resident idiot came done to the lawn next to our building and proceeded to do the "boom" and more. In the middle of the twenty minute show, he pulled out his cell phone, called up songs such as "America The Beautiful" and the deal by Lee Greenwood and others and attempted to sing along with his cell phone. All in front of his four kids and his very pregnant wife.

At the end of the show when the noise subsided another neighbor screamed from across the way, "Hey, lady, birth control is your fiend!" I laughed out loud and the idiot below wanted to come up and fight me. Fortunately, his wife said it was not me who said and it was time to go home. I had stood up at that point and he saw my cane and then said, "You don't know how lucky you are, jack*ss." I kept my mouth shut and he wandered off muttering curses into the night.

August West said...

Next time eat three big plates of baked beans before you go to another event.

Dan said...

This is so culture-shock weird for me right now. Just came back from a week at Chautauqua where my fellow audience members were invariably friendly and considerate, and the guy siting behind me was Steven Spielberg.

George said...

Rudeness and doltish behavior is on the rise. Politeness seems to be a lost art. We live in Dark Times.

Tom Johnson said...

The "you know" bothers me, too. I won't even mention fireworks.

Seepy Benton said...

Never trust anyone under sixty. Like, you know, ... ;-)

Kevin R. Tipple said...

at 54 and a half I guess I am out....

Gerard said...

My ten-year-old jabbered non-stop during the fireworks. He just cannot be quiet and was rating all the air bursts.

Vince said...

Not to change the subject, but the recent book about the Sonoma Stompers - THE ONLY RULE IS IT HAS TO WORK, by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller, the sabermetricians who took over the team for a year - is pretty great.

Unknown said...

I have a library hold on it.