I love it!
While not universal, a couple of gestures do seem to be understood by a good number of people:
You put your hands to their respective sides, palms up at shoulder level, with a look of regret on your face.
The other one that is well known by many sports fans is the open-palmed double-tap on your upper chest, sometimes accompanied by a head dip for emphasis.
Brits wait ON line. Or on queue.
Some Midwesterners say ‘*BAIG’. *
Makes me wanna *gaig…*like those people who say 'melk’.
The people who should really be put up against the wall are the ones that, in a supermarket with a trolley, stop, walk towards the opposite aisle to look at something while still holding the trolley with one hand, which makes it pivot until it’s positioned perpendicularly and right up to the opposite aisle, and there they stand, arm outstretched, peering at products in a state of absolute obliviousness of the world outside completely blocking a path that could accommodate five or six people walking shoulder to shoulder.
Makes one wonder why axes ever went out of fashion,
That happened to me once. I said, “Excuse me,” and the lady did not respond.
I said “Excuse me,” a bit louder. She ignored me.
So I grabbed the end of the cart that she wasn’t holding, lifted it, and moved it out of my way. She looked at me with a shocked expression. I smiled at her and walked through the now open aisle.
“Well, you COULD have WAITED!” she snapped.
There’s also the snowflake who is too special to exit the bus through the exit door like the common herd and insists on blocking the line of people trying to get in the entrance door, usually while it’s raining/snowing/hot/cold outside.
People who leave their cats at the check out line and go to get “one more thing” should be banned from shopping. I’ve actually been called out for moving their damn cart and taking the next person on line. “Well, I only left it there for two minutes.” No, it was ten minutes and YOU have to be present on the line to get checked out.
That goes double for parents who leave their cart and children on line all by their lonesome so they can get “on more thing.” I can’t check out the items and I’m not watching your children.
(“One more thing” usually translates to at least three items, and often more).
This happened to me several years ago at a butcher shop. They had one of those dispensers where you take a number and wait to be called on for service.
I don’t remember what number I had, but let’s say it was 74. I waited several minutes until one of the butchers called that number. As I stepped up, a guy behind me yelled out something like “27!” (again, I don’t remember the exact number, but it was much lower). I turned to look at him, and again he yelled, “27!” while holding up his number. I asked, “Where were you when they called your number?” He replied, “I was out shopping. You don’t expect me to wait here, do you?”
I told him that if you’re not there when they call your number, you lose your turn. I stepped up to the counter, got served, then went to the register to pay. I don’t know what happened with Mr. 27 after that.
I’d have been happy to let him go ahead of me if his number was, say, 72 or 73. I’d have figured he didn’t hear it when they called him, or they’d accidentally skipped over him, or something like that. But this guy thought he could pull a number, leave for some indefinite period, and then come back later and get immediate service, unlike average sucker who actually waits in line with the other suckers. Where’s the limit? Why not pull a number one day and come back another? Why not carry around your own roll of numbers, from 00 to 99, so you can get immediate service at any time?
I don’t think they should be allowed to adopt any more pets, either! :eek:
CARTS, not cats. Damn bad hand.
Though I’m no fan or people who bring pets into the store either.
The “I’m walkin’ here” guy had the right idea. I’ve been less than polite to assholes too. But I’m more direct. I glare at them and yell “MOVE!”
It works. Entitled assholes need to be put in their place more often. Then they might take a hint and stop it. If its in front of their unholy spawn, then it becomes a “teaching moment” too. Win win.
I once had a friend who was a cop. When people didn’t move out of his way, he would how them his badge and ask for their personal information to “run a search.”
That got quite a few people moving, sometimes right out the door, very quickly.
I’ve done that myself. Sure I could wait ALL FUCKING DAY… but I’m not going to. And I don’t smile.
To OP:
You mean you actually STOP when some idjit block your way?
Just try this. Stop 1 foot after walking through them. Then complain bitterly that they walked into you.
It works wonders for clearing your way.
Sorry, but I have low tolerance for suicides, and stopping at the foot of an elevator where the other people will be unable to avoid collision with you is… suicidal behavior.
I post here using my cell phone. I type using one hand and use the other to cradle the phone steady (despite being chastised by my offspring for not typing with 2 thumbs), as do many or most of us who use our phones to post.
The trick is to actually read your own post before submitting (but even then mistakes slip through).
In my opinion that’s partially on you for turning too early. You should have waited until the fellow had left room for you on the other side of the traffic lane.
This was an important lesson when I learned how to drive, because we have a lot of elderly Sunday drivers here. It’s similar to the other rule, don’t cross an intersection in heavy traffic until you know there’s enough room on the other side. Unless you are in light traffic with a left turn signal, don’t cross the oncoming lane to enter a parking lot until you know there’s room for your car on the other side.
~Max
This whole thread is giving me Costco flashbacks. Every damn time I go there, I’m trapped behind some 40-something jackass who’s draped over his cart like he simply is too exhausted to walk upright (which I guess is possible; maybe I’m the asshole?) and slow-walking his way, slack-jawed, through the main aisle. Bonus if he stops in the middle of the aisle, leaves the cart and stands there between the cart and the object of their fascination just…staring. It’s like combining all my pet peeves into one trip.
If it were just one person who did this, it’d block just half the aisle and you could just shoot around them, but Costco seems to attract EVERYONE who does that. All at once. Usually on a Sunday because for some reason that’s what people do here after church.
Oh but this really grinds my gears. I’m not a tiny lady, so small that you can’t see me, but neither am I so big that I take up more room than is fair or a burden on others. So if I’m doing my laps and you’re going the opposite way (the wrong way!) and encroach upon my side (and this being 'Murica, I walk on the right), I loudly say “I’m not moving.” The bluntness and no-nonsense tone I give, really emoting how there are no fucks left to give, gets my point across really well in the moment. I get a lot of shocked looks, but no one argues and they all move.
If I’m walking with someone, I do go single file when other people are coming and we’re taking up too much room. There’s one paved trail I like with a line painted down the center and I will not budge an inch for people on that path.
And I hate escalator stoppers too. I think if it happens to me again, I’ll change up my “I’m not moving” to “I can’t stop moving” as I plow into them.
Amazing how many people don’t know this.
Walk on the right, pass on the left.* Rules to live by.
*Except sometimes at the mall.
I guess you might have a point, but it flat never occurred to me that someone would just STOP in the middle of an otherwise empty parking lot entrance due to … mental overload, or whatever their malfunction was.
At least part of the problem was that Grandpa was puttering along in no particular hurry, and I was following. Traffic wasn’t heavy, and there wasn’t anything in his way, either in the street or in the parking lot into which he was turning. There was literally no reason for him to stop.
So naturally, he stopped. For no reason that I could see.