A few weeks ago, but I’m a public librarian and you never know what you’re gonna get. This was two homeless guys arguing over a prostitute, I heard. It was kind of a sorry fight, though. They’re more entertaining when the women get into it.
No kidding. Any idiot knows you’re supposed to run for the door BEFORE you scream the racial slur at the huge black guy.
I lived in a fraternity house with about 20 other guys, all of whom were rugby players, gym rats, muscle heads, or some combination of all three. Fist fights were an extremely regular happening and it wasn’t uncommon to find a couple teeth on the floor on Sunday afternoon when cleaning up.
Last one I saw was a few years ago at the Strawberry Hill Races - a huge, drunken party held here every spring under the pretext of a steeplechase event. Three of my former fraternity brothers (one a former Marine, one a current police officer, and one a former SEAL) took umbrage at the comments made by a group of loudmouths who had just enough liquor in them to be courageous. Luckily, a minimal amount of blood was spilled.
You have to wonder at the sheer stupidity of some people. “Hmmm…here’s a group of very large guys - none of whom have necks and all of whom look like they have cantaloupes where their biceps should be - I think I’ll insult them and throw beeer on their wives/girlfriends. Yeah, that should make for a good time.”
You’re kinda tough for a librarian. I’ll bet you watch the Military Channel and the Cage Fights. 
It was last St. Patrick’s Day – or really the morning after at 2 AM – and I was trying to exit the Irish bar (in a fairly grungy city in New Jersey) where I had just played five sets. As I am walking toward the door with my instruments in my hands and a bunch of crumpled 100s and 20s in my pockets, I see, in rapid succession: a woman kick a man as hard as she can in the testicles, the man slap the woman, the woman’s companion try and fail to land a punch on slapper/kickee, slapper/kickee punch the guy in the face and knock him back, the initial couple stumble for exit with s/k following, and s/k’s drinking companion pull a 9 mm out of his waistband and follow them all out. Something tells me that alcohol was involved in this situation. No shots were fired and after the police came and put the principal actors in the back of segregated squad cars, I felt it was safe enough to leave. But I was reminded of why I’d been avoiding Irish bars on St Paddy’s for 20 years.
I didn’t see it, but my step-sister saw two women at Wal-Mart slugging it out and rolling around on the floor over some guy, apparently. I personally haven’t seen a fist fight in…well, damn, probably since elementary school.
You gotta be tough to go into the public bathrooms here. Takes a certain frame of mind. 
Two weeks ago, in the ER at the local trauma hospital.
A woman of poor reputation, so high on something that she was in orbit out near Neptune, took a swing and a miss at an orderly who was trying to get her back to her room. She then managed to rip his scrub shirt.
Having just finished the unit in my EMT class, I helped put her in restraints. 
One day, I think it was about seven or eight years ago, while I was volunteering at Out of the Cold (a local charity that helps feed and house homeless people) with my class.
It was lunch hour, and all the men and women were crowded around the tables eating, and we were stacking up plates in the kitchen when suddenly we heard shouts and screams. People were rising to their feet in a huge wave as cutlery and glasses crashed everywhere, and two guys were slamming each other into the tables, pounding each other with fists.
Everyone in my class dove for cover into the next room and banged the door shut as security rushed them. Easily one of the scariest things that’s ever happened to me.
Probably middle school. I don’t think I’ve ever seen adults get in a fist fight (that wasn’t a planned boxing match). Perhaps I should start hanging out with rougher crowds.
I’ve not seen a fight since college (drunk college guys in a bar; typical). The most interesting one I ever heard about though was at my workplace just after college; it occurred between the managing editor and a sports reporter, no alcohol involved. I was at the other office at the time - needless to say, that news spread to the whole organization, complete with (har) blow-by-blow accounts, within minutes. Sadly, the person to sustain the most damage was the assistant city editor, who broke it up. I don’t know if he was brave or foolish to get between two guys who were quite a bit larger than him and really pissed off at each other.
The reporter had gone in to announce that he was quitting. Some years later they both ended up at the same paper again …
Anyone been to the Boston Pops lately? Sounds exciting: http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/05/10/odd.bostonpopsfight.ap/index.html
I can’t remember the last public fistfight, as such, that I’ve seen. I was on a London street on New Year’s Eve 1988 and saw a guy whaling on his girlfriend; a bunch of other passersby and I ran up, grabbed him and held him until a police van came for him. And a few years ago, I think I may have stopped two women from fighting in a playground near my house. I said “Hey!” very sharply, just as one was going to slap the other; they both glared at me but split up.
If you said “Hey!” very sharply to me, Elendil’s Heir, I’d have thrown myself to the ground and peed in my pants. Or worse. :eek:
If you said ‘“Hey!” very sharply to’ me, Elendil’s Heir, I’d have thrown myself to the ground and peed in my pants. :eek:
Sorry sorry sorry for the DP. (See what happens when you scare me?)
Sorry. I’ll try to keep my voice down.
::spit take::
I saw a fight last night. These guys asked me if I wanted to join them for a game of Texas Hold 'Em. At the bar. Legal? I’m thinking no. Anyway, I said I’d pass, so they played as a threesome. About an hour later two of them attacked each other, chips, cards and beers go flying. They got several punches in each before the bouncers showed up. The third guy had to gather the cards and chips together before leaving, giving us the “slow shaking head ‘no’” sign as he walked out. Fun friends!
I was certain there’d be a fight outside my apartment way back when I was in grad school in Idaho. There was a loud commotion on the street one summer night and I glanced outside to see two groups, about a dozen in each, facing off in the middle of the street. The two main characters were up front, shirts off, and bouncing on the balls of their feet. I thought blows were coming, but instead, they had the following conversation, full volume:
“Fuck you!”
“No, fuck YOU!”
“No, FUCK you!”
“No, FUCK YOU!!”
And so on, for a short while, until a neighbor must have called the cops to quell this engaging dialog because they all suddenly scattered like dandelion seeds in a strong wind.
It was Oktoberfest in Munich, 2001. Lots of extremely drunk people wandering around. One guy bumps into another guy, and one of them goes batshit insane. He goes all Chuck Norris on the other guy with 3 straight roundhouse kicks, fortunately none landing with much force. The other put his arm up to deflect the blows. For a drunk asshole, the psycho kung fu guy was pretty impressive, there was plenty of velocity behind his kick. The attackee took off so there wasn’t much damage done.
I was playing mixed doubles at the local rec. center one evening. On the other court were four men playing doubles as well. We saw a bunch of teenage kids coming out of the rec. center and heading for the back parking lot. Heard lots of yelling and swearing. We were pretty sure something had started inside the center and moved to the parking lot. The other woman playing and I ran out to the parking lot. We saw one guy on the ground and about five guys punching, hitting and kicking him. I started yelling at them to knock it off and rushed over to break up the fight. The other woman was right behind me. They gave us some lip, but broke up the fight and headed back inside the rec. center. It was only then that I realized that not one of the six men that had been playing tennis even stepped off the courts to help. They just stood back and let a couple of 40 year old women break up a fight. Thanks guys!