# I cannot believe you are actually making a 37 year old man on a business trip kick your ass. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 16, 2010, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625 "2010-05-16T09:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/81 "2010-05-17T04:29:34Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > 1. “Decorum dictates”? :dubious: There was nothing decorous about any of this. I suspect the word choice of “decorum” was a little tongue-in-cheek, but there is a legitimate point there. If you _are_ going to put your hands on someone, you _should_ be willing to take what comes. Punch-and-run is contemptible. > [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > This is assuming that profanity is a sign of immaturity. Excessive use of profanity is. It illustrates that the young’n hasn’t learned that the more you _say_ “fuck,” the less it means to the people hearing it. You’re disarming yourself by using it all the time. Save it for when it counts, and the effect is much more gratifying. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/82 "2010-05-17T04:47:42Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Excessive use of profanity is. It illustrates that the young’n hasn’t learned that the more you _say_ “fuck,” the less it means to the people hearing it. You’re disarming yourself by using it all the time. Save it for when it counts, and the effect is much more gratifying. I disagree completely with you on this. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/83 "2010-05-17T07:53:40Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Meh. Guess you guys missed this part of the OP: > Something unusual and exciting happened and he wanted to vent. You guys are pissed at him because he didn’t act like the milquetoast spineless losers you undoubtedly would have acted like in the same situation. Unusual and exciting it may have been, but do these things really happen in hotel bars? I can’t blame the OP for have wanting to engage the opposition if he had decided to continued directly antagonizing him, but the repercussions might have been incalculable. Don’t employers generally frown on their employees going on the road and getting in fistfights? Not to mention that even if you’re traveling on your own time and dime, what seems like a fair fight may look like aggravated assault to the locals, including the twelve men and women who will sit in judgment on your behavior. I’m not exaggerating, this happened to a friend of mine. ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/84 "2010-05-17T08:22:44Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > I only wish I could have heard the bartender’s POV. I’m sure both sides would have come off sounding studly. > > And at the risk of sounding age-ist, the OP is 37 years old, in a committed relationship, & representing his company’s image on business in that town, right? > Doesn’t anyone else think he ought to grow up and stop hanging around in bars brawling on his off time? > > Oh, hell, this whole thread is probably a whoosh anyway. nm. Nope, apart from the brawling part. If you’re on your own and not at home then a few beers is a good way to ensure a good nights sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/85 "2010-05-17T08:49:38Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I disagree completely with you on this. No doubt, but–no offense–do you have any basis for knowing the difference? You [made clear](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=560291) that your cultural background involves liberal use of profanity, and that nobody thinks much of it. So I’d say you Aussies _are_ disarmed in the sense I meant. Other Aussies will hardly notice, and you may startle or offend some Americans by your casual profanity without intending to. Either way, your ability to make specific emphasis is reduced. ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/86 "2010-05-17T08:56:14Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > In far too many cases, Asshole would have followed you and continued to try to get you to fight. Perhaps to the point of starting it himself. Far better to establish yourself as someone not to be messed with from the beginning. That’s a completely different scenario. Were that to happen, all bets would be off and an ass-kicking would be justified. OP, on the other hand, didn’t even try to be the bigger man, just the tough guy. Sure, he said he only wanted to get a drink at the bar, but he only extricated himself from the situation _after_ he impressed everybody with his hardassness. I don’t blame him, though, I guess. “I told him to knock it off, he didn’t, I walked away with my integrity intact, and didn’t sink the level of a dumbass bar brawler” doesn’t make a good Pit thread. He also wouldn’t have had the chance to tell us how much chicks dig a guy like him who “kicks ass.” \*It is not “spineless” to protect ones self, nor to insist that at least a small amount of respect be displayed. \* Nor is it “spineless,” as **Rand Rover** insinuated, to get up and walk away. Who gives a fuck if some retard brags to his friends about how he “punked some guy” who “didn’t even do shit?” Big fucking deal. Who listens to dumbass bar braggarts anyway? _The more people like you allow Asshole to act anyway he likes, the worse he gets_ There’s no better way to defuse a guy itching for a fight than to laugh in his face, walk away, and not give him what he wants. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/87 "2010-05-17T09:36:41Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > OK. And that’s a good thing for you because, as it turns out, I do indeed think you are a dumbass. What a shocking turn of events. Rand Rover develops a less than effusively gushing opinion of another poster. To what is the world coming? ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/88 "2010-05-17T09:59:06Z")
[Killed in 16 seconds.](http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/killed-out-of-a-few-moments-of-stupidity-20100517-v8ja.html) Perhaps trying to start a bar fight is something you should have grown out of by now. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/89 "2010-05-17T12:15:18Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > I’ll show you how big my dick is as soon as I can manage to extricate it from your mom’s dick-hungry stinkflower. Well, since she’s been dead and in the ground for a year and a half, that pretty much says more about what you’re willing to fuck then about her lack of ability to turn you down. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/90 "2010-05-17T13:22:11Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > That line made my day. Thank you for clarifying who Mac was 😛 You gotta be careful. It might be the one that carries a knife. I think they wrote a song about him awhile back. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/91 "2010-05-17T13:27:42Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Excessive use of profanity is. It illustrates that the young’n hasn’t learned that the more you _say_ “fuck,” the less it means to the people hearing it. You’re disarming yourself by using it all the time. Save it for when it counts, and the effect is much more gratifying. Believing that profanity has any special power compared to normal words (superstitious BS) is immature. I’m not disarming myself when I say “fuck” because I don’t consider myself armed by it to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![heatmiserfl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@heatmiserfl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heatmiserfl)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/92 "2010-05-17T14:02:15Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > This, exactly. I have no problem with defending yourself, standing up to a shit-talking punk, or defending the honor of someone else, but this OP just reeks of self-aggrandizing attention-seeking hyperbole. Not only did he shove the guy, but he singlehandedly shoved him “across the room” with a glass of Scotch in the other hand. No, he didn’t want to hit on the girls present, they hit on him! And their fires were stoked even harder _after_ he shoved some guy across the room. Then! After that! You know what happened? OP actually STUCK AROUND FOR A FEW MINUTES in case the douche in question wanted to start something, because he had both fists ready and was going to throwdown on this young punk. Of course, young douchebag was too scared to do anything and he backed off! But, dude, the coolness doesn’t end there. Nope, afterwards OP went to another bar where his fucking "tough guy"aura was so strong it snagged another piece of ass and…dude…get this…he FUCKING TURNED IT DOWN! And why? Because he’s in a relationship. AwWwWwWWwww. He’s strong enough to push somebody across a room with one hand, hot enough to attract gaggles of random chicks just by sitting at a bar, and he’s a sweetheart who wouldn’t even think about cheating. High FIVE! YOU DA MAN! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Eggggsactly! I think the OP was imagining himself to be a sort of Clint Eastwood when he was writing this. Unfortunately, he sounds more like an aging Steven Seagal in one of his pathetic, and sadly ubiquitous, pool hall fight scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/93 "2010-05-17T14:04:59Z")
Good job. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/94 "2010-05-17T14:19:35Z")
> [@Turek](#): > > Well, since she’s been dead and in the ground for a year and a half, that pretty much says more about what you’re willing to fuck then about her lack of ability to turn you down. He seems to be [quite fond of necrophilia](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12408722#post12408722), actually. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/95 "2010-05-17T14:50:31Z")
Recent events have made me change my mind on this. I know longer care if the guy was violent. You act like an asshole, you risk having that ass kicked. It’s precisely the fact that this is not the case on the Internet that creates the Internet Toughguy, and allows assholes to roam free. Even on this very message board. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/96 "2010-05-17T15:00:30Z")
**BigT** , could you pass that through a translator, and run that last post by me again? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/97 "2010-05-17T17:18:29Z")
I can’t be the only one who keeps reading **msmith537** ’s username as **“Ms. Mith”** , and since he’s picking fights I can’t help but picture him like [this](http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Random/angry_old_lady.jpg). But judging from his apparent maturity level, perhaps it should be more like [this](http://4410.syr.edu/iStock_000006937624XSmall.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/98 "2010-05-17T17:22:11Z")
It’s the second link, FTW. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/99 "2010-05-17T17:31:24Z")
Both are wrong. According to the OP, smith looks something like [this](http://www.scene-stealers.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/quantum-of-solace-20080404022655207_640w.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625/100 "2010-05-17T18:26:17Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Both are wrong. According to the OP, smith looks something like [this](http://www.scene-stealers.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/quantum-of-solace-20080404022655207_640w.jpg). That’s how I picture everyone on the boards. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-cannot-believe-you-are-actually-making-a-37-year-old-man-on-a-business-trip-kick-your-ass/539625.md?page=6)