# Is my reading disturbing your yammering? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 24, 2005, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678 "2005-02-24T11:15:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/41 "2005-02-25T00:01:06Z")
Why would we assume that? > [@](#): > > The only exception I’m provisionally willing to make to my rule of Mandatory Capital Punishment for a First-time Offense of Opening Your Stupid Mouth while on Public Transit would be for people begging for change, and food, on the subway, mainly because their situation is dire enough to warrant the risk of bothering me, and my fellow nappers, readers, workers, etc. with their problems. For them, I’d allow an intermediate penalty of Starvation While Trapped in a Cell with Whiny Nonsense Spoken Incessently at Top Volume, out of sheer compassion for their self-destructive lifetime of behavior, but for everyone else it’s the lethal injection. When he actually says he would like to give the death penalty to anyone who opened their stupid mouth around him. The extra penalties are for those talking loudly. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/42 "2005-02-25T00:21:11Z")
ahem **Earplugs** that is all. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/43 "2005-02-25T00:21:23Z")
ahem **Earplugs!** that is all. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/44 "2005-02-25T00:24:02Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Why would we assume that? > > When he actually says he would like to give the death penalty to anyone who opened their stupid mouth around him. The extra penalties are for those talking loudly. I don’t want to speak for him, but I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and say that may have been meant tongue-in-cheek. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/45 "2005-02-25T03:27:15Z")
Oh, no! It’s --SARCASM!!! Ooooh, that’s so scary!!! LET’S RUN! **5YL** : Excellent reading of tone. **Biggirl** : literal interpretation of figurative language, five yard penalty. Repeat the down. All’s I’m trying to say here is that you need to try to keep your private conversations somewhat private, even if they’re held in public. Talking loud enough to be barely audible to your intended listener is fine; talking so loud you can be heard by your intended listener as well everyone else in the subway car and possibly by those in outlying suburbs of Cleveland, is kinda rude, doubly so when you’re not very entertaining, witty or perceptive, and triply so when you’re offensive, boorish, boring, repetitious, obnoxious, provincial, ethnocentric or droning. What part of that do we still have a problem with? ---
**Author:** ![Rhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/59ef9b/32.png) [@Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhubarb)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/46 "2005-02-25T05:10:08Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > ahem > > **Earplugs!** > > that is all. Damn it, I came too late to the thread! To elucidate on **Neuroman** ’s excellent suggestion… Nothing quite says STFU as eloquently as pulling a set of earplugs out and inserting them. Even if they don’t take the hint, it turns the volume way down. Also, it’s not a bad idea in general, considering the noise level on most trains. I saw a strewardess, obviously dead-heading to Ft. Lauderdale, put in a pair of foam earplugs at the beginning of the flight and then read her book in complete peace. I tried it on my return flight and now won’t fly without. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/47 "2005-02-26T06:58:37Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > ahem > > **Earplugs!** > > that is all. I just tell 'em I don’t speak English. I speak several foreign languages well enough to convince monolingual Anglos that I’m a furriner. “Não falo inglês” or “对不起，我不能说英文。” repeated a couple of times is enough to make 'em give up. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/48 "2005-02-26T07:25:52Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > One solution might be to broadcast a signal throughout the whole train, a tone so loud and piercing that no one can hear anything else. That way, people who think their phone calls are as important as other people’s books and crossword puzzels will have no advantage. Ah, a fellow Vonnegut fan, I take it. 😃 Stranger ---
**Author:** ![kimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/49 "2005-02-26T07:49:17Z")
I wish I could take something other than public transportation. Trust me, if I had the money, I would! I ride a bus to school for a painful hour and a half. It is especially painful to me because the school is only 7 minutes away by car and the bus system here is almost non-existent in addition to being run by idiots. In order to use the time constructively, I like to read the required reading from the texts on the way into school and then do the problems at the end of the sections on the way back. There is this really annoying born again Christian on the bus who talks in the loudest possible voice about the most annoying stuff. He knows nothing and is very confrontational about his way of talking. Something that made me feel bad though… There is a mentally handicapped boy that rides the bus and normally he talks to Loud Mouth. Last time I rode, he came back and sat down next to me and nearly put his arm around me. It made me feel very uncomfortable since he is bigger than me and I hate being touched by strangers. In addition, he had very bad breath. I wanted to scoot away but since he was mentally challenged, I assumed that he couldn’t tell he was making me very uncomfortable. I am just going to avoid having an open seat next to me in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/50 "2005-02-26T10:27:33Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Ah, a fellow Vonnegut fan, I take it. 😃 > > Stranger In with water, out with piss. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/51 "2005-02-26T11:37:06Z")
I find witnessing and other lunacy mildly entertaining. What utterly makes me froth is when a couple of slicked up business pigs yammer on and on about business. Fuck you! I try not to think about work as much as possible when I’m not at work, because I hate work or effort of any kind (except for sex). It drives me up the wall to hear some wannabes running their mouth about work. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678/52 "2005-02-26T16:45:31Z")
Yah, sometimes you’ll see suits trying to run a business meeting on the subway. I feel like asking them, “Guys, if you think this is appropriate here, can I come up to your boardroom sometime and read my book and eat my apple and all the stuff I’m doing now? No? Then could you STFU?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-reading-disturbing-your-yammering/291678.md?page=2)