# Entirely Benign, Appropriate Things That Make You Seethe **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 28, 2021, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102 "2021-05-28T17:16:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/61 "2021-06-01T23:42:27Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Obviously the elderly or infirm get a pass. The able-bodied? Not a chance. My kingdom will not be as forgiving as yours. These elderly and infirmed were able to walk from their mode of transportation, through the line, through the revolving door, but they _chose_ to stop once immediately inside. They are included in my decree. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/62 "2021-06-01T23:46:25Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I suspect it’s being done with the same parts of the head that are used for, say, catching baseballs: - I highly recommend _not_ catching baseballs with any part of your head. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/63 "2021-06-02T01:11:19Z")
This is probably the thing that annoys me most when I ride my bike – people who wave for me to go first, even though they are the one who has the right of way. There are the people who arrive at a four way stop well before me, sit there and wait for me to get to the intersection. Then when I stop at the stop sign, because I follow the rules of the road when I’m on my bike, they look confused and wave me through. It’s like they expected me to just blow through the stop sign. Yes, I know there are some cyclists who do that, and they make the rest of us look bad. But when it becomes obvious that I actually am stopping, they should just go rather than holding up traffic and letting me go first. Then there are the times I’ll be riding on some minor street. Someone will drive past me, and then immediately signal a right turn. Except instead of turning, they come to a full stop and wait for me to pass them again. Except passing a vehicle that is signaling a turn is pretty much asking to get hit if they change their mind and decide to go. So I’ll stop behind them. And then we have this stalemate where I don’t want to go because I don’t want to get hit if they suddenly decide they’re going to go, but they’re stubbornly insisting that I should go first. And the thing is, if wanted to let me go first, they shouldn’t have passed me in the first place. They could have just slowed down, stayed behind me, and then turned after I passed the intersection. That would have taken exactly the same amount of time as passing me and then stopping and waiting for me to catch up to them. Actually less time, because it would avoid the standoff. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/64 "2021-06-02T02:14:17Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > > [@digs](#): > > > > Wow, you’re right. As someone who automatically maps out all the vectors involved\*, it never occurred to me that other drivers are challenged (I’d call it “blind”) in that regard. > > > > > \*In other words, I’m constantly watching a “film of the future movement of all the cars and bikes and people”. How sad that many people can’t do that. > > > On the bright side, now I feel special. > > It’s a matter of survival! I do this constantly. I find I’m driving towards what is going to happen. I think it’s a skill that developed more or less naturally after driving for many years and thousands of miles. But all those other drivers who’ve put in the years and miles aren’t able… it’s a gift, man, appreciate it. Speaking of which, another trick I can do on my bike (or driving) is think “Hmmm, I wonder if I’d get there faster by taking the main drag, or the road along the river? That’s the hypotenuse, but traffic’s slower…” So I head for the river, and mentally send a duplicate down the main road. There’s a spot five miles later where the two routes are close, and I check to see if I’m ahead or not. It’s not mental magic. I’m really just imagining taking the main road route in real time as I go the other way. And if I make all the lights I get ahead, and if I get held up by _overly-polite idiot drivers_ I fall behind. But hey, it’s fun. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/65 "2021-06-02T11:05:59Z")
In the “why are you always late” thread it becomes apparent that many people simply lack a sense of the passage of time unless they are actively paying attention to a clock. 1 minute or 10 passes exactly the same when they’re occupied. And by occupied I don’t mean “in the zone”, I just mean doing mundane things like getting dressed. I suppose people that lack that sense of time in the long may also lack it in the short. Nobody is doing the distance / time = speed calculations with numbers in their heads. But if you’re time-challenged, watching how you and another moving object are converging towards a spot may be easy to perceive as a series of still-frame observations, but you can’t/don’t see it as a movie of the immediate past. A movie that could be projected forward mentally to see how it ends. If only you had the ability to process time. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/66 "2021-06-02T14:35:05Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Upon entering a large building with several different purposes (especially through a revolving door) like a courthouse, an office building, an airport, or a train station, when someone with 37 people right behind them walks through the door and STOPS and just looks around bringing the line behind them to a screeching halt or causing people to bump into one another. It drives me nuts when people walk up to a subway turnstile (during rush hour) and then it suddenly occurs to them that they need to find some method of paying to enter. “Let me slowly look through my purse/wallet/pockets and see if there is anything useful in here…” ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/67 "2021-06-02T15:32:18Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > It drives me nuts when people walk up to a subway turnstile (during rush hour) and then it suddenly occurs to them that they need to find some method of paying to enter. > > “Let me slowly look through my purse/wallet/pockets and see if there is anything useful in here…” Haha! Try that on the London underground and you might get trampled. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/68 "2021-06-02T16:48:20Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > In the “why are you always late” thread it becomes apparent that many people simply lack a sense of the passage of time unless they are actively paying attention to a clock. 1 minute or 10 passes exactly the same when they’re occupied. And by occupied I don’t mean “in the zone”, I just mean doing mundane things like getting dressed. > > I suppose people that lack that sense of time in the long may also lack it in the short. Interesting, and I’d be willing to wager it’s likely to be true. I tend to be a punctual person. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/69 "2021-06-02T23:18:06Z")
> [@chela](#): > > Then the first thing they say is “what are you doing?” I like to give these a suitable lie for an answer. “Having a baby.” or “Getting laid, can I call you back in two minutes?” It usually stops them dead in their tracks so I’ll have a moment to get it together. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/70 "2021-06-03T07:32:42Z")
When people put their groceries on the supermarket conveyor, and orient their bottles orthogonally to its direction of travel, instead of parallelly to it, such that the bottles, being, y’know, round, start rolling all over the belt, clanking into each other, getting stuck to the side if they were placed a bit askew, and whatnot. Worse if they put them at the end of their heap of groceries, such that they have to keep scooting them forward to keep up. I’ve seen people go to astonishing lengths to try and mitigate this—build little heaps of groceries to separate bottles or act as a stop, balance bottles precariously on other groceries, using the dividers as a wedge… The one thing I hardly ever see: _just rotate them by 90 degrees, and they will not roll._ How the fuck is that so hard to grasp? ---
**Author:** ![Lavender\_Pebble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lavender_pebble/32/6290_2.png) [@Lavender\_Pebble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lavender_Pebble)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/71 "2021-06-03T12:46:15Z")
I think mothers have a special way of making every telephone conversation miserable. My mom is also a big fan of the “Well, I know you’re just SOO busy” when she calls me in the middle of the workday and gets my voicemail, at my totally normal 8-5 office job where I cannot in fact answer the phone because I am exchanging labor for pay, and when I talk to her almost every day by text anyway. Even though we talk on the phone at least once a week, maybe more, she guilt trips me every time about I haven’t called in a while even if we’ve texted earlier in the day. From bitching with my friends, it seems like all moms do this. I wish they’d realize it poisons the conversation immediately. My life is very boring, I don’t have that much to share. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/72 "2021-06-03T14:13:09Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > Has anyone else been irritated by someone else’s entirely rational and appropriate behavior? This thread has more or less devolved into a list of pet peeves involving ill-considered/inappropriate behavior, rather than entirely rational and appropriate behavior that just happens to be annoying to others. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/73 "2021-06-03T15:55:39Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Upon entering a large building with several different purposes (especially through a revolving door) like a courthouse, an office building, an airport, or a train station, when someone with 37 people right behind them walks through the door and STOPS and just looks around bringing the line behind them to a screeching halt or causing people to bump into one another. > > You just walked through this line. You know a bunch of people are behind you. Walk past the entrance way, over to the side out of the way and then determine your next plan of attack. It should be legal to shove these people in the small of their backs. This type of behavior is not “benign and appropriate,” but rather rude and inconsiderate, not to mention dangerous, especially when debarking escalators. I deliberately shove stupid people who do this. Maybe it helps. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2021, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/74 "2021-06-03T23:59:46Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > This thread has more or less devolved into a list of pet peeves involving ill-considered/inappropriate behavior, rather than entirely rational and appropriate behavior that just happens to be annoying to others. The second post was about an inherently inconsiderate behavior. So the rot started early. Many of which inherently inconsiderate behaviors our society just shrugs and accepts as inevitable, despite completely reasonable alternatives being available if we weren’t collectively so damn selfish, cheap, and/or lazy. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/75 "2021-06-04T01:09:43Z")
How so? The second post was about neighbors using power tools during the day. Nothing inconsiderate about that, and the poster wasn’t saying they were wrong to do so, just that it bothered them. Using tools in your own yard, during normal waking hours is pretty benign behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/76 "2021-06-04T01:14:41Z")
> [@Dark\_Sponge](#): > > People who arrive first at a 4-way stop and then wait & wave the other 3 cars through first. I suppose they think they’re being nice, or perhaps they don’t know how intersections work. Such a waste of time. Add to that the person in front of me that lets all of the cars from the merging lane in front of them. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/77 "2021-06-04T01:17:51Z")
Not an exact recreation of what I see at the stores, but lately I’m reminded of [this scene from Easy Money](https://youtu.be/6BJKEeoorSc?t=66) a lot. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/78 "2021-06-04T05:23:20Z")
I live in the middle of Arizona. Its hot most of the time. When the temps have cooled to mid 80’s, I like to sit on our porch. The mom who rents the place behind ours lets her kids out when it gets cool enough. Happy, playing children who like to shout and have fun. The entire time they are out there I am thinking bad things and wishing it would get dark. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/79 "2021-06-04T11:47:16Z")
> [@Dark\_Sponge](#): > > People who arrive first at a 4-way stop and then wait & wave the other 3 cars through first. Neither benign nor appropriate - seethe away, I certainly do. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2021, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102/80 "2021-06-04T17:44:26Z")
> [@JaneDoe42](#): > > The entire time they are out there I am thinking bad things and wishing it would get dark. This. I have new neighbors to the south of me. When it’s a nice day / evening out, I’ll putter around the yard or kick back on the patio and read a book. Every other weekend and at least once per week it’s party time. Usually not raucous, but always noisy enough to intrude. Good on y’all for being social. Please go away now. Don’t any of your 40 people in your small yard have homes you could go to? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entirely-benign-appropriate-things-that-make-you-seethe/943102.md?page=5)