<Rant> Where has courtesy gone?

[Aeolius]

You guess which is which.

Me, I try not to confront the person. I just call the cops. Getting a $250 ticket is usually more memorable than having some complete stranger cuss you out.

 

[sniffles]

Yesterday during my lunch break I was reminded of this thread and of one of my pet peeves in the common courtesy department: spitting in public. There are few things more disgusting to me than seeing blobs of spittle on the pavement. There used to be anti-spitting laws in many towns, which were actually in place for health reasons, primarily to cut down on tuberculosis. Today, with TB on the rise again and other communicable diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis always in the news (not to mention flu and colds), one would hope people would think twice before hawking a loogie on the sidewalk. And what is it in our (American) culture that makes it okay for men to spit all the time? I've very rarely seen a woman spitting, but almost every man I know will spit occasionally.

Please, guys, next time you feel it necessary to spit, take a moment and think about the people who may have to walk there. Just because they have shoes on doesn't mean they won't come into contact with your dribble.

(rant over)

 

[Tewligan]

I lost my wallet (dropped it on the subway train) a few months ago. It contained my ID, money, and various cards. I figured it was gone, and had the cards canceled and all that. Well, a few days later I get a call from the police station. Someone found my wallet, and turned it in the same day. They had been holding it for my, waiting for me to contact them. Of course, everything was in the wallet when I got it back.

The lesson is that if I had had a little faith in humans and checked if anyone had turned it in I wouldn’t have had to go to all the trouble of canceling my cards.

No, you still should have cancelled them. Someone could have taken down your card info and gone on an ordering spree while you thought you were safe since you had your cards back. I work in the claims department of a bank, and I see this all the time.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

No, you still should have cancelled them. Someone could have taken down your card info and gone on an ordering spree while you thought you were safe since you had your cards back. I work in the claims department of a bank, and I see this all the time.

Yeah. Make sure there's not any frivolous charges to your credit cards. If all else fails, have them cancelled and get new ones: the safer bet.

 

[Harmon]

I know this thread is old, but something happened last night at our hotel and I am very annoyed.

My wife had to attend a seminar for CEU (Continuing Education Units) as part of her licensing. I worked on Friday, and got laid off (was expecting it) after a 48 hr week, exhausted we- well I drove, up to Sacramento.

Hotel.

Asked for "a quiet room," not near the elevators, stairs, ice machine, or any parties. Noise wasn't to bad Friday.

Saturday the neighbors started to party about 9 pm, then they took off for a strip club. At 0130 they returned and continued to party in the room. Instead of my usual- "shut the &*#$ up," fist slam on the wall we called the front desk and complained. Security came and asked them to quiet down- which they did not.

Now the problem I am having here is that the party, during the next two times that security showed did not remain to shut the party down, nor did they make any attempt to protect my pregnent wife and I. A number of open threats were made by the partiers. Enough so that I felt I was going to have to do some "partying" of my own (I haven't hit anyone in years so I don't recall how much it hurts to hit someone).

Mind you I have said nothing, not a word to the partiers, no lights are on, and the threats are flying from these people. My wife is nearing tears and I am starting to really think about just kicking in the door and ask them if they want to "shut this complainer up in person."

Upset, my wife asks- "do you think you can get us home?"

Sure, I have had six hours of sleep in the last forty six hours.

The hotel will be getting a nice letter from me about their lack of security, and the lack of their stance on keeping the peace. I did the Security Guard thing for a year or so way back before construction, and I never left a scene when there were partiers that had complaints against them, I know how drunks are, how violent they can get.

So we pack, move everything out to the truck, and I drive us home.

 

[LogicsFate]

Horrible, I'd like to think that I don't know anybody like that but I probly have some friends like that, cares about no one other than themselves. Gets pleasure outa jerky things

 

[Harmon]

Horrible, I'd like to think that I don't know anybody like that but I probly have some friends like that, cares about no one other than themselves. Gets pleasure outa jerky things

Actually its more about the security people then anything else. They should have stayedin the area of the party until it was quieter or shut down. It took them like fifteen to thirty minutes to respond and they did nothing about the noise.

FWIW- the rooms above, and beside the partiers all had lights on. I assumed by the number of rings we had to wait to get our calls answered that the Front Desk was getting lots of complaints.

 

[LogicsFate]

Hehehe I probly wouldn't have wanted to deal with it either, sitting in the security room drinking coffee is so much nicer

 

[BlackSilver]

Your wife is okay now I take it?

Was there anyone watching you leave?

And yes, it hurts when you hit someone :\ just not until after the fight is done. Last year I broke a knuckle and in the after math I realized it was on some guys nose or forehead. Course back then I had no clue because of the amount of hits I was taking.

Write a letter, explain your complaint and your concerns. And let EN World know which hotel it was so that we know what to expect when we go there.

Did you have to pay for the room on Saturday night? If you did you could make some noise about that, but I doubt you would get your money back for it now.

 

[The Sigil]

As far as common courtesy, I think a part of it is people being afraid to voice their opinions about other folks' behavior.

I was in church about a month ago and my four-year-old son was crawling all over the pews (I was busy with our two-year-old daughter, and my wife was busy with our infant). He hurled a hymnal before I could stop him and the father behind us (who has several teenagers) gave his hand a little smack and forcibly sat him down.

After the meeting, he apologized to us for striking our son. I told him, "hey, you did what I couldn't, and I appreciate it."

The problem IMO is a lot of parents don't want anyone else telling junior he's doing wrong. Every parent thinks s/he is right, even though most of us would freely admit we have no CLUE what we're doing and are just trying our best.

My kids are actually pretty doggone polite (they regularly get compliments in public, so I hope this isn't through "parent goggles"); but I think that's because they've never known any different. Even when my oldest was a newborn and I was strapping him in the carseat, it was, "okay, give me an arm please. Thank you. Okay, other arm, please. Thank you... watch out for your legs... thank you." Even when they're being punished, it's "give the toy to daddy, please... thank you. Now go to the naughty corner for two minutes, please."

*shrugs*

I once heard someone say that respect and love are interesting animals in that you can only control how much respect and love you give others. You can't control how much respect and love you receive... you can't FORCE someone to respect you. Somehow our culture seems to have become, "you must respect me, but I won't respect you" and that leads to a fundamental breakdown in civility, because you're too busy waiting for others to defer to you to defer to them first.

If you just give them the respect right of the bat, and don't worry about "getting your respect" it tends to make things go a lot easier.

--The Sigil