Close Encounters of the Asshole Kind

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

True, but also true is that not everyone gets bin space on a flight.

Two bags. Just for the record.

I don’t believe they were both the old guy’s. He probably just said that because he didn’t want his briefcase being molested.

I’m not going to bubble wrap and tape my laptop just so you can stuff your mammoth roller bag on board so you aren’t inconvenienced by the luggage carousel.

Why should my leg space be compromised just so you can have your luggage within arm’s reach. Or perhaps I already have a bag under my seat and I was already forced to put it there because a stewardess had to make room for someone else. Don’t like, get on board sooner, pack lighter, or pay for space in the luggage hold

Yes, but I wouldn’t think you were an asshole - just someone with an awful sense of entitlement. So it’s you, and the poster to whom I am referring, that are reading “asshole” into an event where there really isn’t any assholishness on display.

42

corkboard was being kind by even asking… most people would have shoved the briefcases whichever way needed to make more space. That’s what the flight attendants do.

An overhead bin isn’t a private first-come, first-get situation. It’s designed for all of the travelers to share, regardless of whether they get on first or last. Unless there’s some algorithm that makes it impossible to store all of the bags, the one thing I would expect as an advantage to boarding earlier is that your bag is in a place of your choice. Later arrivals would have to put their bags wherever there’s room.

If your bag is so precious that it can’t be moved or stacked, you need to hold in on your lap. Or put it inside another bag and have it checked.

43

Well, while I do agree with you for the most part, it didn’t sound from the description like the kid was concealing anything. It sounded like he did it right in front of the guy.

All I’m saying is that you (the editorial “you”) don’t have a right to act like an asshole just because everything doesn’t go exactly the way you want it to. And if you do, then you’d better be open to the fact that the person you’re doing it to (or somebody else nearby) might just be a bigger asshole and give you a taste of your own medicine.

No, it’s not right. But it happens. And to some extent I can condone it, because if most of the world are milquetoasts who let the assholes get away with it, then they’re just going to keep on thinking they’re the baddest little snowflakes in the yard.

44

And no one was planning on molesting it. They were just going to move it to make room for more luggage.

Fine by me. For one thing, I don’t know of any laptops that are so delicate that they can’t be touched by another item without being destroyed. For another, it’s your laptop. If you’re not worried enough about it to keep it with you, I’m certainly not going to be. And I’ll be happy to move your briefcase over so that I can put my luggage in the bin with it. FTR, I will agree with you about the people trying to bring ridiculously sized luggage as carry-on.

I rarely worry about having my carry-on within arm’s reach. That’s what my briefcase is for. My briefcase (including my laptop and any other items I don’t want going into the overhead bin) goes under my seat or in my lap. Those passengers who put everything into the overhead and then spend the flight climbing/leaning over people to get things out of it? Highly annoying, with an awful sense of entitlement - but not assholes.

When someone, purely as a courtesy, politely asks if it’s OK for them to do something that is already perfectly acceptable for them to do, then the proper response is either to ignore the question as rhetorical, or give an appropriate polite response that essentially conveys “sure you can”. To respond rudely because you think you’re entitled to special treatment makes you an asshole.

There was no problem with the other passenger(s) putting their briefcases in a bin, although it would have been more courteous to place them in a manner that obviously left room for other luggage. Nor was there anything wrong with corkboard wanting to put his luggage in the same bin. When the other passenger acted like an asshole was when he reacted negatively to a polite enquiry. And if the plane was full, I’d bet his stuff got moved when the stewardesses were helping the last passengers with luggage.

45

Thank you for the best laugh I’ve had all day. Please let me know when the next show begins.

46

The funny thing about the airplane overhead encounter is the guy whose briefcases you wanted to move probably stewed the whole flight about it too!

“Who does that guy think he is wanting me to move my briefcases…he thinks he 's so entitled…grumble grumble grumble” :mad:

47

Hell, Rumor thinks he’s entitled for wanting to move it, and he’s not even that guy as far as we know.

48

At the big box store yesterday.
Me and mrs beerman are looking at dog food.
Supercool dude walks up behind us and says EXCUSE ME while on the phone
I of course move the cart over(not sure whether it was really in the way) but making sure as MR. entitlement goes by so I said fairly loudly “oh so thats what an important asshole looks like.” Really pissed me off for about 30 seconds then I thought why let this guy ruin my really nice Sunday. So I just let it slide, I had to put up with him for a few seconds he has to deal with himself for the rest of his life.

49

Oh, God – it wasn’t Rahm Emanuel, was it?

50

Nah that guy wasn’t nearly so eloquent.

51

:rolleyes: OMG, someone said “excuse me” to you so you’d move your shopping cart out of the way! The horror! How rude of them! And he even had the gall to be using a cell phone in public!

52

I see that one thing I didn’t make clear was that the man was watching as D. jammed the eggs into the bag and all the rest of the groceries that followed. He had every opportunity to complain to the management about it. But I agree with you, Devon was probably over the line. However, he didn’t have the benefit of hindsight; he just reacted at the scene and lost his cool. He’s a 16-yr-old kid who was standing up for someone else. The guy got what he deserved, but I had a talk with D. about other ways he could have handled it. I also talked with him about how fucked up that man’s childhood and life must have been to be able to treat perceived underlings that way. But the longer I thought about it, I really don’t know if any other approach would have been any better with the guy. And I hope his kid saw that what his dad did was wrong, and that it affected other people around them.

53

I am a daily rider for almost 45 years. I get tailgated frequently, and I will let people know, if only with a look and a polite ‘back off’ hand signal. Spitting was wrong! Hitting a biker because of that, even more wrong. If it had been me that was hit, you’d better hope I’m incapacitated, because I’ll be coming after you with ill intent. Your vehicle constitutes a deadly weapon. It’s not just a fender bender when a bike is involved.

And wishing ‘Good Luck’ in court to someone who uses a vehicle as a weapon? You need to spend some time on a motorcycle to realize how dangerous it is on the road from just inattentive drivers, much less the deliberate ones!

later, Tom.

54

This happened to me yesterday on public transportation at 3:30 in the afternoon (I have pasted it here from the MMP):

To the skeevy dude on the EL this afternoon. I really didn’t appreciate you sitting next to me, when there were lots of empty seats, and the proceeding to dart looks at me, as I read my book, and all the while you were “adjusting” yourself through your nasty, dirty sweatpants (on a 90 degree day). Oh, and you kept accidently bumping my arm/side with your elbow as you “scratched” or “adjusted” yourself for 10 minutes. It was gross as hell.

I got up and off that train car, and ran to a forward car and hopped on again. I then rode the rest of the long ride in peace.

Fucking asshole on the EL.

55

Just for the record, I got on the plane as soon as the gate agent allowed me. The guy’s seat was a couple rows behind mine, so he was ahead of me in line. You know the drill, “rows 18-23 are boarding now”… he was in the group before me. I always get in line as early as I can, but I don’t elbow people out of my way, or anything.

And while I agree that I don’t have a godforsaken right to overhead bin space, neither does he. Anyone who’s flown in the past decade knows that overhead bin space is limited. Most people understand that as part of living in society, you don’t just stake out more space than is reasonably necessary just because you don’t want your briefcase to remain unmolested.

When I asked if I could move his case, it was essentially a rhetorical question. No, I didn’t have to ask; I could have just moved it and put my bag in place. But I try to be a nice guy instead of just taking what I want, other guy be damned.

56

Well…the last person who was an asshole to me got himself a nice shove (and it could have just as easily been a punch in the face) and a hearty “go fuck yourself”. I actually started a Pit thread about it (and also dovetailed in a part afterwards where some girl started hitting on me at the bar and I politely rejected her because I have a girlfriend). It’s going on about about 6 pages now of people mostly who wouldn’t dare say “boo” to someone in real life telling me I’m either a) lying, b) a lunatic for getting into a fight c) a douchebag for bragging about it d) or a pussy because I didn’t completely smash the guy’s head open with a bottle and double team his “girlfriend” and the other girl in the story.

But these “some guy yelled at me and I did nothing” stories are pretty interesting too.

57

Wow. That’s something, right there. Almost like the Dahmer cops letting the Laotian kid go back to his torture apartment. Fuck!

Joe

58

All the driving stories reminded me of this one, from many years ago.

I was riding in a friend’s car, on the way to a convenience store. We were talking, which meant that of course my hands were waving around. Yes, I’m one of those. We were both in our late teens.

A car passed us going the other direction. We really only noticed when they made a screeching U-turn about a block later, and came back up behind us. OK, maybe they forgot something.

They proceeded to follow us through a couple of turns, to the convenience store. By then we’d figured out they were upset about something, although we had no idea what. At any rate, we decided not to stop at the store, because these guys seemed to be looking for a fight and we were definitely not interested.

So we pulled out again and continued to drive around town. This was in the middle of the day and there were plenty of people out and about, so we didn’t think they’d try anything too stupid. (Remember, this was before the days of “road rage” and highway shootings.) They followed us for about 15 or 20 minutes as we drove 4 or 5 miles in circles, staying on busy streets.

We finally ended up on a multi-lane street, and they immediately raced up beside us and started screaming. I rolled down the window and politely asked “is there some problem?” They repeated the phrase back mockingly, evidently thinking this would be enough to raise our ire or something. I don’t remember the entire conversation, but it consisted of me saying something to them and them repeating it back with attitude. After a few minutes of this, they gave up in frustration and drove off.

To this day I don’t know what they were pissed off about. My best guess is that they thought I flipped them off or something. But really, after 15 minutes, you don’t even have any insults ready and can only repeat whatever I say? WTF is wrong with you?

It was rather frightening at the time, but I still snicker when I remember it.

59

So what do you suggest we should have done? The two men behind us were both young, strong, and probably around six feet tall. One of them was screaming that he isn’t afraid to go to jail for pulling my husband out of the car and beating the shit out of him. Let’s get real here. Sr. Olives is 5’7’’ tall and weighs 135 pounds soaking wet. I had a better shot of taking on these guys than he did.

I don’t know your situation or whether you were shoving that guy in self-defense, so I refrained from comment about your experience in that thread. But for you to come in here and try to shame those of us who don’t get caught up in violent altercations with random strangers is ridiculous. Just because you shoved some asshat at a bar doesn’t mean you possess some admirable quality that I lack.

In the world I come from, violence has real implications. People go to the hospital and die and become permanently disabled. What you mistake for passivity in my case is actually the wisdom that stems from years of experience living with people who believe violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Maybe if you’d grown up surrounded by violent behavior you’d be less inclined to aggressively engage random people you don’t know. Retaliation is not the panacea it’s made out to be.

60

When I was 12-13 my older brothers hung out with bikers and reservation Indians and other assorted wild types. A lot of nasty shit would come up out of nowhere like lightning. One thing I learned was that a guy “getting his ass kicked” is just a figure of speech. A truer description is “getting his head kicked.”

Mickey Spillane is OK to read while taking a shit, but I wouldn’t want to try and live my life by it.