# Dumb girl missing bus makes me smile **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 17, 2003, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459 "2003-06-17T14:15:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/41 "2003-06-18T15:19:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qazzz \* > \*\* > > I smiled at a girl missing a bus. Small and mundane, sure, but at least I’m not hooraying someone’s capital punishment or Martha Stewart’s indictment. \*\* I don’t think anyone’s really annoyed that you laughed at a girl missing a bus. I think it’s the fact that you immediately made the conclusion that she’s a rich girl from the fact that she ran after a bus. She could have had a valid reason for wanting to catch the bus and make it to school a few minutes earlier. You made a stupid assumption and people are calling you on it. Ava ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/42 "2003-06-18T15:29:08Z")
I’m certainly not PROUD of it when I take enjoyment in another’s misfortune. It’s been known to happen once or twice, granted, but I usually only feel really satisfied when something rotten happens to someone I know personally. I do take a little guilty pleasure when I see someone trying to bypass all the traffic during rush hour by driving on the shoulder…and then getting ticketed by a cop. I’m not _proud_ of that fact, though. And I’m poor as hell, and I used to run to catch buses so I wouldn’t be late to work and get fired. O’course, it depends on whether the next bus is going to come in five minutes or so. But you can wait upwards of an hour in the blazing sun in my town for the next Number 19. I’ve done what this girl did, and I’m not saying it isn’t silly, but I don’t see how it’s making her out to be a rotten bitch who deserves to get laughed at. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/43 "2003-06-18T15:56:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Plastic Ninja \* > **I do take a little guilty pleasure when I see someone trying to bypass all the traffic during rush hour by driving on the shoulder…and then getting ticketed by a cop. I’m not _proud_ of that fact, though.** On a related note, I saw some guy backing up in a breakdown lane when I was waiting for the bus to go home yesterday. I hope some cop caught that fool before he caused any damage. ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/44 "2003-06-18T16:03:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff Olsen \* > \*\*On a related note, I saw some guy backing up in a breakdown lane when I was waiting for the bus to go home yesterday. I hope some cop caught that fool before he caused any damage. \*\* Pfft. I nearly ran into a guy backing up, at high speed, on an offramp, around a blind curve recently In my limitted experience, that’s par for the course in Boston. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/45 "2003-06-18T16:15:34Z")
Sooo, the fact that I don’t know all the ins and outs of the mass transit system means I’m a spoiled rich bitch? Woo-hoo! I’m rich, I’m rich! And here all this time I thought it was just that I grew up where our nearest neighbors lived a quarter-mile down the road and there **was no mass transit system for me to use**. Just shows you how stupid us rich people can be. I think I’ll call Mom and have her tell the deer how well-to-do we are. I’m sure they’ll all get a kick out of sneering at those down-trodden city-dwellers who have to use mass transit. ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/46 "2003-06-18T16:16:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff Olsen \* > \*\*On a related note, I saw some guy backing up in a breakdown lane when I was waiting for the bus to go home yesterday. I hope some cop caught that fool before he caused any damage. \*\* Pfft. I nearly ran into a guy backing up, at high speed, on an offramp, around a blind curve recently In my limitted experience, that’s par for the course in Boston. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/47 "2003-06-18T16:26:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Just out of curiosity - hijack approacheth - do the doors in your metro close automatically even if there’s something blocking the way? That’s how they work here, although people sometimes figure otherwise and shove a hand in, thinking it’ll stop. It doesn’t. \*\* Once the operator closes them, they close whether there’s something in the way or not. If they’re jammed, s/he usually opens them slightly again, allowing the user to disengage whatever was jammed, and then closes them. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/48 "2003-06-18T16:42:14Z")
Doesn’t it also depend on what the mass transit system is like where you’re from? It’s been a while since I had to take a bus in Brazil, but there, you get on in the back, pay for your ticket, and they proceed forward. You only exit from the front. Anyhow, knowing how mass transit works in your community doesn’t make you a virtous person or a wordly person, it just makes you somebody who knows how the mass transit system works in your area. ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/49 "2003-06-18T18:36:06Z")
Brazil is filled with sheltered, rich snobs. Rich snobs who aren’t much to look at, and run around in baggy, bland, overly modest clothing on those dreary beaches. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/50 "2003-06-18T19:19:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by even sven \* > \*\*So imagine what it must feel like as I sit across from a manicured and Gucci’d freshman who sits complaining to her friend about "I hate to take the bus so much. It’s full of such freaky people- like eww! \*\* Hey! This sounds just like me! Oh wait. My bag is a Fendi. Sorry, nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459/51 "2003-06-19T05:21:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Plastic Ninja \* > \*\* > I do take a little guilty pleasure when I see someone trying to bypass all the traffic during rush hour by driving on the shoulder…and then getting ticketed by a cop. I’m not _proud_ of that fact, though. > \*\* I enjoy it and I’m proud. When I see people who willfully endanger the lives of others\* get a little karmic punishment, I feel momentarily that all is right with the balance of the world. Of course, none of this relates to the OP, so let me add the OB-OP comment here: I grew up taking public transportation buses to school and my after-school jobs. I have run after buses, often with success. Also, when the bus was packed, the driver would sometimes say ‘screw the fares’ and let us kids pile on through the back door. I hope you folk would not laugh at me, but hell, I would have rather been laughed at than get fired from my job for being late. \*And yes, people have died from being hit while stopped in the breakdown lane/shoulder around here, and it has been well publicized. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-girl-missing-bus-makes-me-smile/182459.md?page=2)