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Do you mind if I borrow your pen?

Do you mind if I borrow your pen?

Old Sep 26, 2018, 3:42 pm
  #166  
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Originally Posted by darthbimmer
Ooh, that gives me an evil idea! Next time my pen explodes in flight, instead of throwing it out I will put the cap back on and store it in my bag. When someone presumes to ask to borrow a pen, I'll give them the busted pen. Then, not only will they not be able to fill out their form, they'll have ink all over their fingers and possibly clothes, too!
Sheesh! At least be fair and wear a sign around your neck
I DO NOT WISH TO BE DISTURBED. ASK ME AT YOUR OWN PERIL!
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Old Sep 26, 2018, 4:19 pm
  #167  
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Originally Posted by rickg523
Sheesh! At least be fair and wear a sign around your neck
I DO NOT WISH TO BE DISTURBED. ASK ME AT YOUR OWN PERIL!
Why is it fair for him to wear a sign? He isn't the one with the problem. Fair would be not disturbing people to solve your own petty problems or wearing a sign around your neck.

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Old Sep 26, 2018, 4:25 pm
  #168  
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Originally Posted by Badenoch
Why is it fair for him to wear a sign? He isn't the one with the problem. Fair would be not disturbing people to solve your own petty problems or wearing a sign around your neck.

CAUTION: AMATEUR TRAVELER. MAY NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE AT ANY TIME.
I guess it's the difference in our viewpoints. I don't feel that interacting with fellow travelers is the outlier. I think being so self absorbed that you take a simple question as an affront worthy of punishment is the outlier. Thank goodness.
And I really wasn't addressing the one who asks to borrow a pen. I was addressing the guy who says he wants to essentially throw ink all over someone for having the temerity, the gall to address his highness.
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Old Sep 26, 2018, 4:44 pm
  #169  
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Originally Posted by darthbimmer
Ooh, that gives me an evil idea! Next time my pen explodes in flight, instead of throwing it out I will put the cap back on and store it in my bag. When someone presumes to ask to borrow a pen, I'll give them the busted pen. Then, not only will they not be able to fill out their form, they'll have ink all over their fingers and possibly clothes, too!
Or give an embarrassing pen like from your favourite booty swingers club.
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Old Sep 26, 2018, 5:12 pm
  #170  
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Hand them a pen, and then add: "Do you want me to fill it out for you too??"
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Old Sep 26, 2018, 11:15 pm
  #171  
 
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Originally Posted by Annalisa12
Or give an embarrassing pen like from your favourite booty swingers club.
Why not both? The pen can be both embarrassing and spill ink all over. Bonus points if the ink is an unusual color.
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Old Sep 27, 2018, 7:09 pm
  #172  
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Originally Posted by jinkssick
]Maybe someone here will label me as acting 'entitled' but I can assure I maybe many things but not that.
Ding, ding, ding. You essentially are expecting to be able to tell him, "Give me your pen." People are free to answer you no. Given your reaction and that of your spouse, perhaps the guy learned to not like you over the course of the flight and didn't care to help you in any way.
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Old Sep 28, 2018, 5:14 am
  #173  
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Originally Posted by samwise6222
I usually travel with four other guys, and I usually carry about a dozen pen in my purse.
I also keep a half dozen so I am never asking others for a pen or pencil.
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Old Sep 29, 2018, 12:03 am
  #174  
 
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Originally Posted by Badenoch
Why is it fair for him to wear a sign? He isn't the one with the problem. Fair would be not disturbing people to solve your own petty problems or wearing a sign around your neck.

CAUTION: AMATEUR TRAVELER. MAY NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE AT ANY TIME.
Fair is polite. Fair is accepting that each gentleman (and gentlewoman) owes a duty of assistance to every single person in the world if they ask for something so minor.
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Old Sep 29, 2018, 12:04 am
  #175  
 
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Originally Posted by ou81two
Ding, ding, ding. You essentially are expecting to be able to tell him, "Give me your pen." People are free to answer you no. Given your reaction and that of your spouse, perhaps the guy learned to not like you over the course of the flight and didn't care to help you in any way.
"I can't believe the queen expected me to lay my cape over this muddy puddle!"
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Old Sep 29, 2018, 9:44 am
  #176  
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Originally Posted by akl_traveller
Fair is polite. Fair is accepting that each gentleman (and gentlewoman) owes a duty of assistance to every single person in the world if they ask for something so minor.
The asker doesn't get to determine what is "minor". The askee does. And the askee is allowed to say no, and is not rude for doing so.

Besides, a true gentleman carries his own pen.
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Old Sep 29, 2018, 12:00 pm
  #177  
 
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I was once asked by a young lady if I could loan her a pen,
I offered her the choice of two, a ball point or a roller-ball and she responded by saying "you're well equipped"
I can think of all sorts of witty rejoinders now, but at the time my only response was a weak smile.
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Old Sep 29, 2018, 12:15 pm
  #178  
 
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Originally Posted by Proudelitist
The asker doesn't get to determine what is "minor". The askee does. And the askee is allowed to say no, and is not rude for doing so.

Besides, a true gentleman carries his own pen.
As a factual matter, and not subject to determination by you or anyone else, a request by a fellow traveler to borrow a pen for a few minutes, to fill out travel forms, is hardly more than "minor." You, sir, are not a gentleman in my view.
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Old Sep 29, 2018, 11:28 pm
  #179  
 
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Filling out immigration forms by hand is pretty old fashioned anyway. Some countries have done away with them as an archaic waste of time and paper. I mean, does anybody really read them, other than the immigration officer who may or may not give it a perfunctory glance while scanning your passport? Customs should be you either declare your stuff at the red channel or take your chances being spot checked going through the green lane or whatever the local equivalent is.

A better way to do it is to offer an online version, kind of like an ETA but without making visitors pay for filling out the form like an e-visa. Or hand out the cards at the check in desk or at the gate so people can fill them out before they board.

I will probably have a pen with me in the overhead bin, but it is a pain sometimes to get up and get it, fit out the form, then get back up and replace it in my bag. Even more so if I'm not in the aisle seat and I have to make someone stand up twice so I can get it.
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Old Sep 30, 2018, 12:34 pm
  #180  
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Originally Posted by catcher1
As a factual matter, and not subject to determination by you or anyone else, a request by a fellow traveler to borrow a pen for a few minutes, to fill out travel forms, is hardly more than "minor." You, sir, are not a gentleman in my view.
You are grossly wrong, and should be embarrassed.

I am such a gentleman that I travel with a Montblanc given to me by my great grandfather who died on the beaches at Normandy, and I shall not be hand it out to an amateur traveler, who is allegedly an adult and who lacks the foresight to have a writing implement on their person when traveling.

You may think a pen is a minor thing, but to many it is not.
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