Say you hear them in a library or while on line at the bank. Do these folks give you a warm feeling, like, ah look at that. What a happy lady. So . . . refreshingly unpretentious!
Or do you give them a wide berth.
And if you stopped to think about it, would you find humming in public more lovable/annoying in a man or a woman?
I tend to find it less distracting in, say, a male in his seventies than I would a woman in her forties. Don’t know why, exactly. An instinctual (possibly chauvinistic) reaction.
I can’t stand people who whistle or hum. I place them in the same category of people who sing or beat along with their headphones. Both oblivious to their surroundings and inconsiderate to those around them.
I know this is a wee bit off topic… not much of a hijack- but you know what get on my nerves…I dont like winkers or high-fivers. Oh man… there is a guy that I work with that conistently winks and highfives me EVERY time I see him! He is SO nice… but it gets a bit old!
Humming seems a little weirder to me than whistling but I can usually ignore it without a hitch.
See, for me, it totally depends on the song. I can’t handle “Zippidy Doo-Da” without violence, but the idea of a person sitting along humming heavy metal or the theme to a movie amuses me enough that I enjoy it.
A while back a guy got on the bus with headphones on and begins humming then starts singing along with whatever he was listening to. I am trying to read and relax before work and am not interested into listening to someone sing some song I have no interest in hearing.
I don’t want to hear hummers, I don’t want to hear other peoples music blaring from their walkmens and I do not want to hear some freaks rendition of whatever song be it Sinatra or Emenem (sp?).
Now if people are having normal conversations in their quiet voices, it is fine. It’s when they feel they must share it with as many people as possible that I hate it.
I don’t like it when people hum in public. It makes me think they’re kind of weird. It’s not as bad as when people make random noises, however. Thats just odd.
As you might guess, I’m posting to speak up for the unpopular side in this thread. I have been known to sing in public, e.g., “Ode to Joy” in department store aisles, “The Times They Are A-Changing” in locker rooms, “Morning Has Broken” after leaving the gym from an early-morning workout, and the finale from the musical “Les Miserables” when walking along the streets at night. I never wear headphones when I’m on the go, sharing the same attitude towards portable music as the author of the Onion editorial “I Have An iPod – In My Mind”, so it’s not as if I’m oblivious to my surroundings. I’ll readily admit there’s a time and place for silence, but too much of it can be oppressive – witness the cold, impersonal atmosphere of the Von Trapp household as depicted in “The Sound of Music” before Maria took the job of governess.
I agree, that kind of silence is the worst kind and unnatural. If it is outside in the open, I can deal with it or move. However if it is in an enclosed area like a bus, library, bank where I am trying to get things done and cannot readily move, I find it is inconsiderate and rude and annoying. Just to echo your comment, there is a time and place if one must do that.
I can’t stand people singing, whistling, or humming loudly in public. I also can’t stand it when people who have no musical talent sing, whistle, hum, etc. It’s just noise pollution, it’s NOT adding anything attractive to the atmosphere. Same goes for people who talk too loudly.
Now, if someone is quietly humming or singing to himself, and can do so without making me wince, that’s one thing. Unfortunately, many people who cannot carry a tune insist on trying to do so in public.
I particularly don’t enjoy children singing the commercial jingle of the restaurant that they happen to be in, at top volume, repeatedly.
Basically, I’m usually trying to think when I’m in public, even if it’s only making up a mental shopping list. I don’t want to be jarred out of my train of thought because someone wishes to indulge himself. I feel that people in public should try not to intrude unnecessarily upon other people in public. This applies mostly to sounds and smells. A hint of one’s presence is acceptable. If I notice you from across the room because you are so loud or odorous, then you need to tone it down or take a bath or quit drenching yourself in scent.
Ah, then Lynn, you should stop by my office when FreakLady (not her real name) is in. She hums one note. Continuously (and I mean that – I rarely notice her inhaling, the hum seems uninterrupted).
People who whistle in public make me crazy! I can’t stand it. Do the people think, hey, it’s my responsibility to spread some sort of imaginary sunshine? Do they think, hey, everyone just loves to hear whistling? Well, I don’t. Shut up. Go away. Go whistle at home, by yourself, alone. Today in fact I was in a bookstore where some annoying hippie was whistling away, so I had to cross the store to avoid them.
I also have an irritation with people singing in public. There’s some sort of plague of young black women who break out into song in Chicago all over the city. I don’t know why this is. I’ve always thought that maybe they are hoping to get discovered at any minute. On a bus. Or on the train. Or on a street corner.
At least when people talk to themselves in public, loudly, freakishly, sometimes you can hear some interesting things.
Generally I find it a little annoying. I like music, but it’s unlikely that the song I’m singing in my head is the same as the one you’ll be humming or whistling. Also, I like total silence, rare as it is.
But I had a dentist once, years ago. Around 45, I’d guess, from the salt-and-pepper beard. Did a root canal on me while humming, no, furiously humming, various obscure classical tunes. His voice was deep and growly, but he hit the high notes okay too, and had an amazingly agile voice. He seemed totally unaware that he was doing it, and he was actually pretty good at it. He somehow managed to blend his humming with the whine of the drill, giving a kind of horror-movie effect to the experience. I lay there wide-eyed and unblinking throughout my appointments with him. I’ll admit that I felt a certain amount of anxiety at having an apparent madman working with his hands and machinery in my mouth, thinking that I might black out and wake up some kind of cyborg, but I also felt strangely exhilarated later.
or high-fivers. Oh man… there is a guy that I work with that conistently winks and highfives me EVERY time I see him! He is SO nice… but it gets a bit old!