# An Apostrophe to the Gum-Chewing Siren at My Left **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 29, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725 "2005-07-29T12:43:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/61 "2005-07-30T02:50:10Z")
> [@UrbanChic](#): > > Wow, Go You Big Red Fire Engine. And I thought I was a flaming cunt. I bow to your superior cuntositude, my liege. I am but a wee bitch before you. > > I mean, pissing in a thread that, yes, should have been in MPSIMS was one thing. Who among us hasn’t wanted to do that? But bringing up transvestites? Bravissimo. Now, that’s **Big Red Flaming Cunt** to you. What can I say? Must be my time of the month or something. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/62 "2005-07-30T03:05:49Z")
> [@Go You Big Red Fire Engine](#): > > What exactly was stopping **eve** from moving exactly? Was it a chartered train? Were there absoloutely no seats left that she couldn’t move? > Somehow this is not really pit material. It’s a girl chewing gum fer’chris’sakes. And don’t get all PC on my ass, because there are certainly people who would find transvestites not too agreeable to look at, although I am not one. It’s just an opinion. > Fuck, find some better pit material next time, **Eve.** > > OH NO someone was chewing gum on the train. I am so outraged. :rolleyes: What the hell are you getting at, Red ? You seem to be upset, the salient point being looking at transexuals, covertly brought up, even though you are “not one”. So why bring it up in context of Eve’s post…it has absolutely no bearing on the annoyance of a gum smacking person on public space, as she’s posted it. You brought that to the fore, otherwise, it was not at all germain to Eve’s post. Parse it out, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/63 "2005-07-30T03:08:05Z")
(Ignoring the bit that’s too jaw-droppingly stupid to respond to, even in the pit.) > [@Go You Big Red Fire Engine](#): > > OH NO someone was chewing gum on the train. I am so outraged. :rolleyes: Well… yeah. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not above occasionally chewing a stick of gum, especially if there has been a potentially stinky vice such as tobacco or nicotine consumed at some point previously. However, people who chew gum in an obtrusive way should be caned. Further, people who chew gum in an obtrusive way in an enclosed space which other people are obliged to share with them ought to be flayed alive. Beyond that, people who chew nauseatingly-scented gum in an obtrusive way in an enclosed space which other people are obliged to share with them ought to be flayed alive, _pureed_, fixed in a graminaceous emulsion of gum arabic, and fed to feral cows. Or possibly made the object of scorn on a public message board. Whatever works for you. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/64 "2005-07-30T03:10:58Z")
This is too easy, but okay. Okay, **Pup** (and let’s lengthen it to the more appropriate **Poop** ): You have nothing to say about the ettiquette of chewing gum, and you have no knowledge (though, amazingly, much to say) about the ettiquette of **Eve** , our Opening Poster. All you have is cluelessness and an admirable though pathetically immature determination to see your ignorance plunge flaming though the atmosphere to its charred conclusion. You seem to think, **Poop** , that your bias against transsexuals (hey, _you_ dragged in the fact that you find them unattractive, when there’s nothing in this bias that any part of this thread would trigger) is somehow normal. It’s not, and despite what your buddies tell you when you yell slurs from a safe distance, neither are you. “Big Red Flaming Cunt?” God, _your_ birth trauma must have been something horrific. Thank the Lord your brain’s too small to remember any of it. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/65 "2005-07-30T03:19:35Z")
**Go You Big Red Fire Engine** , do not hijack a thread to drag someone’s personal issues (race, religion, sexual, whatever) into it, in hopes of getting a trainwreck. And if you think that a thread is too mundane or pointless, then report it or ignore it, as you prefer. Lynn For the Straight Dope ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/66 "2005-07-30T03:25:22Z")
That’s alright, **Lyn** , I eat little boys like him for breakfast. And the other posters here are far too well-mannered to let his opinions–common and sad as they may be–derail this into an actual wreck. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/67 "2005-07-30T03:27:49Z")
> [@Lynn Bodoni](#): > > **Go You Big Red Fire Engine** , do not hijack a thread to drag someone’s personal issues (race, religion, sexual, whatever) into it, in hopes of getting a trainwreck. And if you think that a thread is too mundane or pointless, then report it or ignore it, as you prefer. > > Lynn > For the Straight Dope Understood. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/68 "2005-07-30T03:30:07Z")
> [@Go You Big Red Fire Engine](#): > > It’s a lame pit thread. Exceedingly. She could’ve moved. She could not have pitted such a lame topic. > But since she seems to find someone else’s activities in public so disgusting, then perhaps her own presence in public should be examined. Of course, if you pitted trans-sexuals you’d be hacked down immediately by the eve brigade. > She is pitting chewing gum. The OP is lame. OK, still not getting what that has to do with you deciding that I am “getting all PC on your ass”. Really, all that I was getting at is that your post seemed random and as if there was some context or history that you were bringing to the thread that I was not privy to. Not sure how me asking what the hell you are on about make me some sort of PC beast, but I am starting to think that you don’t have a whole lot of rational thought going on right now. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/69 "2005-07-30T03:31:47Z")
And since, sadly, my original apostrophe to the gum-cracking fishwife (and **Bricker** ’s charming invitation to a night out in 1908) have been sunk into the morass, woud you please close–or, if you can, eliminate–this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/70 "2005-07-30T03:34:21Z")
Larry Mudd, wow. I liked your suggestions better than mine for the ice-chewers. May I borrow them? ---
**Author:** ![Farmwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@Farmwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmwoman)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/71 "2005-07-30T03:39:37Z")
_Sigh_ Too bad you didn’t see a drag queen named Scarlett Jomahnson chewing tobacco on the train. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/72 "2005-07-30T03:42:58Z")
I don’t have a problem with **Eve** being a transsexual. I do, however, have a problem with her being a snob, a racist, mean to children, and generally narrow-minded and intolerant, while having a very thin skin for slights against herself. (NOT slights having to do with her gender status; just people who don’t get or care for her shtick.) ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/73 "2005-07-30T03:44:56Z")
Racist? Did I miss something? That’s a pretty serious charge there, my friend. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/74 "2005-07-30T03:49:05Z")
Well, she’s made some remarks about African-Americans that I don’t particularly care for, to the effect of, “Why do they DO that? That’s so ODD!” Then, when cultural differences are explained, she continues on with, “Well, I don’t care; I just think it’s odd.” In fact, that’s the main thrust of my dislike for Eve. She doesn’t seem anywhere near as eager to learn from others as she is willing to share her **not inconsiderable, I admit** knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/75 "2005-07-30T03:53:52Z")
> [@UrbanChic](#): > > Wow, Go You Big Red Fire Engine. And I thought I was a flaming cunt. I bow to your superior cuntositude, my liege. I am but a wee bitch before you. Gum’s not one of my hot button topics but I’m glad I read this thread anyway. Because I’m going to be bowing to lieges all day tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/76 "2005-07-30T04:02:47Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > And since, sadly, my original apostrophe to the gum-cracking fishwife (and **Bricker** ’s charming invitation to a night out in 1908) have been sunk into the morass, woud you please close–or, if you can, eliminate–this thread? Closing, as requested. Lynn For the Straight Dope ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/77 "2005-07-30T06:10:58Z")
And re-opened per OP’s emailed request. Lynn ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/78 "2005-07-30T06:28:50Z")
If there were such a thing as **The Eve Brigade** I’d be a charter member, but I suppose you folks know that. Whether this thread is in MPSIMS or The Pit, **Big Red** is acting like a dork and **Rilchiam** , well, she’s just expressing her opinion. Sometimes there’s not a lot of difference but there _is_ some. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/79 "2005-07-30T07:08:25Z")
Damn. I was reading this thread and getting my finger all ready to click the “Report Post” button so I could alert our increasingly on-the-ball mods to a fairly lame rant that, like many of its ilk, belongs in MPSIMS. And then **Go** just _had_ to ruin the chance of this thread getting moved by unleashing some apparently long-withheld resentment towards **Eve** – more specifically, by doing so with an utterly gratuitous dig at **Eve** ’s personal life. No one knows me from Adam (or Eve, heh) and I’m certainly not a brigade member, if such brigade exists. But **Go** took a dainty (dare I say “twee”) thread that was just _begging_ to float its way over into rainbow-and-puppy-land … and strapped it to an anchor. Now it’s stuck in the Pit. Thanks, **Go**. Thanks a fucking bunch. Well, as long as we’re here, I’d be curious for a cite or two on **Rilchiam** ’s comments. Personally I’m ambivalent here – I’ve found the lady **Eve** \* alternately informative and dull, funny and affected, charming and annoying. But racist? Not that I’ve ever seen. Since that’s an extraordinarily harsh label to plaster on anyone – one of the worst, AFAIC-- I think **Rilchiam** oughtta come up with more evidence than the mere vague recollections she’s offered so far. If it’s true? Hell, string her up; I’ve got no truck with bigots. But if not, **Rilchiam** , you owe an apology for being so careless with your words. (Make no mistake, I think **Go** owes an apology too. Just doesn’t look like it’s forthcoming.) - No, not the Barbara Stanwyck version! ---
**Author:** ![Liz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/liz/32/17737_2.png) [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725/80 "2005-07-30T07:20:32Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Well, she’s made some remarks about African-Americans that I don’t particularly care for, to the effect of, “Why do they DO that? That’s so ODD!” Then, when cultural differences are explained, she continues on with, “Well, I don’t care; I just think it’s odd.” Got a cite? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-apostrophe-to-the-gum-chewing-siren-at-my-left/314725.md?page=5)