Despite anyones tolerance, there will always be people who annoy you. If you want to travel, you must be willing to put up with them.

Their ignorance will catch up with them eventually.

As for the arrogant guys, people like me have the unique ability to put a end to this antisocial behavior.

Best Regards
Jason

The thought of having King William I, Newt, et. al. for neighbors would be enough to drive me to a trailer park in Nevada. Live with scorpions - no problem. Downwind from the nuclear test range - where do I sign?


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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

Ok..Ok... I agree there are alot of annoying things on Airplanes.. and it is not "tolerance" but "forced temporary acceptance". I think if something is wrong, it is wrong. The thing that bothers me is if someone is being rude or obnoxious the whole flight, then they start a conversation with you and you act so polite and never say anything.... gee we may hurt someone's feelings.

I have gotten to the point when flying to basically ask the person "Excuse me, I am trying to sleep or relax. I am sure you two can talk a little quieter, please, as a favor to another traveler." or " I am sorry, but you do not need to yell and berate the FA, we do not really want to hear your acting rude."

I think alot of this arrogance comes from, "Let me see what I can get away with" or "Hey, I better get whatever I can get from this airline/flight, before someone else beats me."

Ok.. off my soap box... just had an annoying flight last night and I was ripe for this conversation... (FYI for united passengers, watch out for the IAH-LAX flights on Thursday... crazy, and too many of us 1K's).. LOL!

LAX 1K:

The legions of the self-obsessed are everywhere. Check out the God-forsaken wasteland of Shopping Malls around this time. Does anybody smile at anybody anymore, or has Madison Avenue successfully converted these holy seasons into a gameshow?

I was in a store picking up something for my wife. Most had the glazed-over look ("Must shop! Must shop! Spend money!"). A few had the "Is-it-Christmas-again-already?" scowl, and I spotted a couple, "I'll-teach-him-I'll-buy-this!" looks. Not a single smile.

Regardless of your faith, this time of year is celebrated by countless millions of people. I sure don't see it.



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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

OMNI for Jon TOner, it is that exact "Stepford" syndrome in malls around holiday time that this year I have done more than 70 percent of my shopping on-line or through catalogs.

When I HAD to go to a store, it was to get gift cards (Barnes & Noble, Bed & Bath) or to the Mall at Short HIlls where I tried to limit my shopping to stores where I would get quality service (Nordstrom's, Coach, Tiffany.)

The holiday ATTITUDE is also seen in some stores like "the world's biggest department store" where sales help is only concerned about talking and waiting for the shift to end.

It's inexcusable.

But inspite of this, sorry Jon, this is my favorite time of the year. Where I show my friends how much I care.

Continuing on the theme of the "Stepford syndrome"...

So I was in Wausau, WI last week, a town of about 50,000 people. I decided to venture into downtown Wausau one night to see if there was anything there. There was a pretty little shopping street, all lit up and Christmasey. I was walking down the street when to my surprise, a woman walking in the opposite direction smiled at me, a total stranger, and wished me "Merry Christmas" very cheerfully.

What a wonderful greeting. I haven't had anything like that happen to me during the holiday season in years.

What a gift. It made my week.

[This message has been edited by dgolds (edited 12-18-1999).]

Tolerance of another's annoying habit and tolerance of rudeness are two different things, in my book.

For example, I personally think it's impolite to use finger nail clippers in public. I rarely saw it growing up, but I see it quite a lot now, including on planes. I'm not saying it's wrong, but it's just the way I was brought up. I've also seen it mentioned in two modern etiquette books. Still, it really is just an annoyance and I feel I have to tolerate it. But the two hours on the cell phone incident described above is just rude. In that case, I would have said something.

I think part of practicing good manners is being willing to speak up about it, whether on your own behalf or the behalf of others when it's appropriate to do so. I'm not saying I have the most impeccable manners in the world (Lord knows I've shot my mouth off a few times on these boards when I really shouldn't have), but it's something I continue to work on.

I had to smile at dgolds post. That's something a Portlander would do, only they do that sort of thing year round. Just taking a stroll through the neighborhood chances are nearly everyone I pass will say hello.