Shut your fucking trap already!!

The BBQ Pit
1

This is a library. Shut your fucking cakehole! Today I went to the public library to do some studying. It is a brand new facility with comfy chairs and a place to plug my laptop in. Since there is no TV, phone, or easy Internet access I figured I could study in peace. Not to be.

First off, when did talking right out loud like you’re hollering through a crowded bar start? “Hey Lisa! Have you seen this movie yet?” (yelled from two aisles over). Sheesh, don’t mind all the people sitting around you OBVIOUSLY READING/STUDYING. Then some ladies walk in the front door, just yapping away to beat the band. “SO I SAID BLAH FUCKING BLAH, YOU PIGFUCKER…” then she trails off when she sees everyone looking at her. Duh.

Then, in comes the lady with the demon spawn. He is about 2 1/2, and he wants OUT of his stroller. Naturally, demon spawn screams, shouts, grunts, and wails in his attempts at escape. What does mom do? Takes a long, leisurely stroll through the movie section to decide what she wants, alternating completely ignoring him and yelling “NO! SIT STILL!”, etc. Completely oblivious to anyone aroun her.

So am I an old fart or are these people are fucking RUDE?? Also, don’t library workers shush people anymore? Why aren’t there any signs up:
“Hello, please SHUT THE FUCK UP IN THE LIBRARY!!!”

One worker walked right by the lady and her demon and just smiled at them, happy as a pig in shit. Hello?? How about a “we have a lovely childrens area when you could leave the little demon while you peruse the movies.” (which they do have).

So, if it doesn’t bother the workers (who also are very loud), should it bother me? Should I be expecting this behavior in the library? For what it’s worth, I was about ready to blow a gasket after the fifth talking moron when I remembered the ear plugs I have in my purse (for when my husband plays out in bars). I popped those in and was in heaven. Amazingly, even with the plugs in, I could still hear demon spawn hollering.

Zette

2

I humbly beg that you change my thread title to “your” instead of “you”. Thank you!

3

Uh, no. I don’t see you as an ‘old fart’, Zette.

As a member of the baby-boomer generation, I was raised to be quiet and respectful in libraries. They are hallowed institutions. A sacred cow of peace and quiet, which is so lacking in our current culture. A visit to the local library should be the epitome of good behaviour.

Any self-respecting librarian would adopt the motto;
“If you can’t keep it low, then out you go!”

Your OP made me very uncomfortable. If librarians don’t shush, and nuns no longer rap our knuckles, is it a sign of the ‘end of days’? Dammit, don’t mess with the sacred rules of library silence!!! That would be shredding the last fiber of the moral cloth that binds our great nation together!!

Tell those librarians to get back on the ‘shush’ wagon before you are forced to smack the decibel-challenged with a copy of War & Peace. (Trust me, if they are ignorant enough to break all the rules of visting a library, they won’t know what hit them)

As for me, I shall stakeout my library, armed with a can of SillyString to reprimand the louts that invade with their bad (loud) manners. Didn’t God create WalMarts to accomadate their braying?

4

It’s not just the library. It’s all over.

I saw ‘Stomp’ in LA over the weekend. $45 buck a seat in the nose-bleed section. Someone had brought an infant to the show. An Infant!!! You’d think that the title ‘Stomp’ would be enough to let people know there might be some loud noises.(sound-wise, it was an hour and a half drum solo) Quite naturally, the little tike was disturbed by the loud noise and screamed. And screamed. And screamed. And screamed. All the ‘parent’ did was ‘shoosh’ the child instead of taking the child out of the theatre.

How do these people live with themselves???

5

As a library patron, I can understand Zette’s frustration totally. And sadly I report my findings after observing reality in Libraries across the U.S. from 1972 to present. I see that the noise problem has increased proportionately with the homeless population.
I find this tragic.

You may slam me for generalizing and having no statistics to back it up, but I have visited the libraries in cities across the country, and in my observation, I have found this to be true.

And spooje It was horrible of those parents to bring a child to such an event allow the child to disturb others’ enjoyment. I can just imagine how pissed I would have been. Some people simply lack common sense as well as manners.

6

Zette—go over and ask them to shut the hell up; it occasionally works. I have become notorious on the 5:45 train as “That Woman Who Tells People On Cell Phones to Shut Up.”

If they are talking in a normal, conversational tone of voice, I leave 'em alone. But when some moron is shrieking at the top of his lungs, "YEAH, I’M ON THE TRAIN—WHAT MOVIE DO YOU WANNA SEE TONIGHT AND ARE SAM AND JANET COMING OVER FOR DINNER AND . . . " I will get up, tap him on the shoulder and nicely ask him to please pipe down.

So far, every single one of them HAS piped down, and in an abashed, apologetic way. I have also been applauded by other passengers.

7

I sadly second Eve’s suggestion. Too many people fail to pick up the white courtesy clue phone when you give them “the look” that communicates the “shut your pie hole” message. Whether it’s the movies, libraries or trains, you have to politely but firmly tell them the message.

8

When I was a child, the library was a nice, safe haven. Now, I’m almost afraid to go there alone. People try to get into your car while you’re in the parking lot. Once, there was a lady at the front of the library, repeatedly yelling at an embarassed man “YES I DO DO IT DOGGY STYLE!” The library’s getting not only loud, but unbearably weird.

9

Haven’t noticed it at the Carnegie yet, but I want to pull my hair out when people do this.

10

Zette!

You swore!

I’m shocked.

Really.

Wow.

Like.

Woah.

:wink: And no, you’re not off the deep end.

E.

11

shudders

Now I have happy library memories and I have bad library memories. I used to spend Saturday’s at the local library (about once a month) I read all sorts of cool stuff (transcripts of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, Sci-fi, fantasy mmmm…) And generaly had a nice quiet day to myself. With all the books I could ever want.

Then I moved and tried to use the local library for research for school. I discovered how this local library kept it quiet. They didn’t let people touch books. 80 member Model UN class? 6 people in the library at a time. Don’t care if you have to research China’s poition on topic for the Women’s Committee. Sucks to be you. (And hence, Flint’s Anti Public Library)

So yea, its pretty quiet in there. But people might actually read and learn if you let them in.

(Not to say I don’t understand loud people complaints. I just have first hand experiance of a place that swings hard the other way.)

12

Shit, Kathryn, you live right near the Carnegie. I love it there…curl up in one of those big leather chairs with old books…

13

And Scylla talks about his penis! What is this world coming to?

14

Zette, no, you are not. And yes, yes, they are. I can’t remember ever witnessing scenes like the ones you have described in a library this side of the water. I don’t know exactly when it was instilled in me but if I have to speak to someone in a library I whisper, and most other people seem to also. My theory is that if libraries ditched the video rental service the problem might go away, but I guess they need the revenue. <sigh>.
I think they should be beheaded with a blunt hacksaw, and their heads mounted on a spike next to the ones who write in library books.
Eve, you have my undying admiration.

15

I have wonderful, beautiful memories of my favorite library growing up: it’s the main Enoch Pratt Branch on Cathedral Street in Mt. Vernon, Baltimore. Locals call it the Cathedral Street. I even wrote a poem about it that got published.

Sadly, it has deteriorated badly. Last time I went, I wondered over to the children’s section and endured yelling, laughing, screaming, crying children out the wazoo. Had that been me (all of ten years ago), my grandmother would have shushed me or made me leave. But the parents (those who don’t just abandon their children while they look around) let them run wild. It’s really irritating. Luckly, I can slip away to the Poe Room or one of the other (less interesting) readings rooms on the second floor for peace and quiet.

My university library is awesome, but get this: they have a coffee shop on the ground floor. A coffee shop! It is so loud in there that the librarian could not hear me when I asked for my reserved readings. The second floor was just as bad. I finally found solace on the fourth floor (it goes up to seven). I asked a librarian which floor was the Quiet Floor, and she said there wasn’t on! The horror!

And don’t get me started on movies. Just shut the fuck up when you’re at a movie, okay? That’s all I’m asking. I went to see Rent (a $50 ticket) and listened to the interpretation of the woman sitting behind me. Apparantly she thought it sounded better in the wrong fucking key.

People are so goddamn rude! Argh!

16

Hi. I’m a librarian. I hate to say this, but I think the rude people have won. Why don’t I spend my days shushing people? A few reasons. One,if I told every ignorant bastard yapping away to shut up in this place, I’d never have any time for actually doing reference work. I’m outnumbered. Two, if more people want quiet, it would be quiet. This is just a theory of mine, but if libraries were quiet way back when, it was because other patrons made being a noisy asshole socially unacceptable. I try to quiet people when I can and as politely as I can, but often I’m looked on as the stuffy librarian shushing the poor taxpayer. Or the poor taxpayers bratty kid. So I’m ignored or told off. Which brings me to point three. I’m sick of being told to go fuck myself all the time by rude people. I don’t want to spend my life as the etiquette police and getting yelled at all day. Who would?