Huh? She started the thread and asked for opinions and has the (gasp!) nerve to respond to people (good and bad) about the contents of the thread she started to get opinions? That whore! Seriously, this thread has over 1000 replies at you think she’s desperate for attention for participating with the people giving the opinions she asked for? Giraffe, that’s nuts.
Is there some medication you were supposed to take today which is rendering you hysterical and hypersensitive to this difference of opinion on a (possible) mild social faux paus? You really seem completely unhinged about something that is so laughably minor that it’s bewildering.
As far as the OP: Honestly, I’d have just moved over. It’s not like moving a seat or two to the left or right is truly going to ruin my movie experience. I’d chalk the latecomer up to being an asshole who arrives late but wants the primo seats and go on with my night.
It is odd the amount of vitriol that’s being thrown around regarding something so mild. I can remember reading a thread here where someone was talking about not letting people merge into traffic ahead of them. In that thread people were siding with the OP with the feeling that those people trying to merge in ahead of people who are waiting were thinking they were too good to wait like everyone else. I’ve also seen other threads with people defending other weird borderline road rage issues and we’re talking about using a two ton vehicle as a weapon to “school” folks on manners. This is a thread where someone simply didn’t want to move their seat and people are acting like she’s some kind of sociopath. It must be a scary place in the head of some of y’all.
Here’s what I think at this point for mademoiselle’s case:
The couple that came and asked mademoiselle to move was borderline rude. What I mean by that is it wasn’t exactly rude, but it takes a lot of guts to disturb someone’s movie experience just so they can sit together in the seats they want. However, it’s still a reasonable request, but barely. There were five reasonable rows to sit in. Like I said, these rows weren’t in the absolute front where it’s uncomfortable to view to movie. The open seats were absolutely fine.
The OP’s best move was to move. At this point when you’re asked to move, most people would have obliged. I think it was slightly rude for the OP to decline because when you’re asked in public to perform a courteous move, you usually do it. I actually, cannot imagine decline myself. But I don’t think the OP’s move was that bad. It was fine for to decline given that there were five fine rows. But it would have been better for her to oblige.
After this, the couple went insane. No question about this.
Shayna… It looks like we have a clone of MeanOldLady… There are 21 pages of replies…perhaps you could read them?
I’ve already said, I’m the sort of person who shows up to a movie early, takes a seat, then offers to scootch over if a pair want to sit down and the crowd has created odd gaps in the row I’m in. Twenty inches to the left or right won’t kill me … no matter what time those people show up.
And it wouldn’t have killed you, either, but you just had to show your superiority over people who were OMG late. How DARE they?
See, this is what I’m talking about. You don’t know those people. You don’t know what prevented them from arriving earlier. Why on earth do you think it’s acceptable public social behavior to treat them as if they’re assholes just because they got there in the first 3 minutes of the movie?
Maybe it would have been nicer had they simply snuck in and taken a seat in the first 5 rows. But they didn’t. They wanted to sit higher up. They saw two empty seats, asked if they were taken, were told they were not, then asked the people in the middle of them if they’d mind moving over. That does not make them horrible people just because it’s not what you would have done.
What the hell ever happened to making the best of a situation, even if you think the other people are out of line, and thereby not ruining the event for everyone around you?
We’ve stopped being decent in this country. It’s obnoxious.
Actually, if the only place a couple could sit together was too far forward, if one has neck issues, that WOULD be a problem. Certainly would for me (I’ve had a couple of whiplashes).
OTOH, if a couple wants to sit together and have a better selection of seats, on-time arrival is the thing to do.
That particular situation honestly never came up. Our manager was pretty accomodating to any individual request, so I don’t know which particular idiosyncrasy he would have sided with.
I admit I’m dubious of the details offered by the OP, however.
Our box office would warn people when only x% of seats remained, noting they would probably have to sit in the less desirable seats down front.
Ah. I had misunderstood and thought the five rows in question were the five frontmost (I admit to not having read all twenty-two pages of this thread). Thanks for clearing that up.
No, what makes them horrible people was pitching a juvenile fit when they were told no, instead of simply sucking it up and taking a pair of less desirable seats (or splitting up and sitting apart in the good seats, which was also an option - but one they didn’t want to take). You can ASK for a favor, but they person you are asking is not obligated to accommodate you.
Why don’t you ask the rude couple that? They had that option, after all. The theater was not sold out, and they were a couple, not Siamese twins - they COULD sit apart if necessary.
Decent people don’t take for granted that they can impose on others, which is what the couple the OP was talking about most definitely did.
Maybe instead of circumstances beyond their control, those people were late because they were serving a societal need - helping little old ladies across the street, doing CPR on someone who coded in the lobby, donating money to Obama’s Second Inaugural Fund.
Well, if they were saving orphans from a burning bus…
But my cat mittens died, my Great Aunt Mabel had the mumps, my apartment burned done, and my car got broken into. I also was so exhausted from bottle feeding homeless kittens all day!
And I just wanted to enjoy the movie, without the film being interrupted, and having someone ask me to give up my seat!
It’s a two way street. They know nothing about me, either.
And I doubt the type of people who cuss others out when they don’t get their way, and text throughout a movie were the types to serve some great societal need, then go see a movie.
Yes, indeed. You’re like a damn 2nd-grader. “It’s mine, I called it and I got here first, so there.”
Some of us let go of that behavior sometime after grade school. You’ve obviously suffered some sort of stunted mental growth. I should probably cut you some slack for that reason alone.
Revolution? Must you blow *everything *way the hell out of proportion? Man, you’re a real piece of work.
I see ushers in the multiplex, but never in the theatre itself when a film is playing. I was pretty young in 1989, so who knows…maybe it was different then, and I don’t remember.
