Calling the guy “Mr. Lung Cancer” wasn’t the most sensitive thing to say. Neither was calling him a “fat fuck” or calling his wife “ugly”. Sticking to talking about the extreme self-absorbed selfishness of this couple would have sufficed.
However, when someone is being as selfish and obnoxious as this guy was being, I can’t dredge up a whole lot of sympathy for his (or his wife’s) delicate feelings. If pkbite’s kids were laughing at this extremely selfish man, that’s no big deal as far as I’m concerned. If this selfish man was offended by some kids laughing at him, boo frickin’ hoo.
Doesn’t that just make you wish you could fart on command? That way you could surround these rude jerks and gas them till they had to leave just to get some fresh air! Or how about dabbing deer scent on them–just a touch of that stuff would be enough to send them gasping for the outdoors!
I remember sitting in church once and hearing a man cough like that for about 10 minutes. I was preggers at the time and I thought I was going to ralph right there. Fortunately, he apparently got the junk up and we were left in peace for the rest of the service–but all the same, I wondered why in the world he felt we all had to share that. I mean, how much of the sermon could he have been hearing anyway–and the rest of us were being distracted and grossed out to boot! hijack alert–hijack alert! Since I mentioned my pregnancy in this post, I thought I could take a moment to announce the results–a fine, healthy girl, born March 12, 2002 at 10:06 AM. She weighed 10 lbs., 4 oz. and was 21" long. We named her Sheila Marie. Pix are available for viewing at www.westfloridahospital.com. Just click on Web Babies, enter March 12, and click on Sheila E. For all those who’ve seen this announcement in another forum–forgive me, I must needs brag all that I can! end hijack
So, you’d take away from this poor, dying man his last chance to see a movie about the period in his life when, through stress and fear of death, he first became addicted to that which is about to kill him? You laugh at dying people? How about children with cancer? Do you laugh at them? Do their bald heads offend your delicate sensibilities to the point that you wish they’d just stay home and die? Just what sort of heartless asshole are you?
In the future, why don’t you just rent movies and watch them at home? You could even send your kids to rent them so you don’t have to encounter any other sick or ugly people.
If you are going to go out in public and brag about how you are going to track this person down and would like to harass him because he “ruined” a perfectly lousy Mel Gibson movie for you you have some serious issues that are best handled by talking to a therapist about it, not us.
No one knows if this guy is dying. All we know is that he was extraordinarily inconsiderate. He ruined a movie for an ENTIRE theatre of movie-goers.
Hey, and since you’re being oh-so-melodramatic here, how do you know that several of the other move-goers didn’t also have life-threatening diseases, and all they wanted to do was watch this movie in peace? Maybe someone dragged Grandma from the Nursing Home, so she could see this movie, and they won’t be able to see a movie with her any time soon. Maybe someone’s son or daughter flew in from Japan to spend some “quality time” with mom and pop, and they were flying back to Japan the next day. All they wanted to do was watch this movie together. And this jerk ruined it all for them.
Hey, you don’t know that these scenarios didn’t happen, any more than you know that this inconsiderate asshole was, indeed, dying.
This coughing jerk didn’t give a damn about anyone else. Even when he heard all around him complain, even when he was specifically ASKED to leave by the management, he wouldn’t go. HE didn’t give a damn. So why the hell should the rest of us give a damn about his delicate feelings?
You have just got to be kidding. Please. Tell me that I’ve been “whooshed”.
Congratulations, Mayflower! Yipes! Ten and a quarter pounds! I hope you’re not petit. I like to think that I have a high pain threshold, but, as a guy, I can’t even imagine passing something that big through something (I hope) that small!
Good for you! Oh, I clicked on the link, but the page wouldn’t display. I always think babies are beautiful anyway.
No, I’m not kidding. I’m just sick of asswipes like pkbites and, I’m sorry to learn, YOU, bitching about their oh-so-precious, selfish selves and not giving a single fucking thought to the the why behind this fellow’s presence at the theater. I know no better than you whether he was actually dying. All I know is that pkbites assumes he is, was pissed off enough about the whole thing to get the guy’s license number, is incensed enough to claim he is going to track down the fellow’s phone number, and RUN A MOTHERFUCKING BACKGROUND CHECK ON HIM!!! I’m sorry to find YOU defending him because THAT IS SICK, STALKER BEHAVIOR!!! How would YOU like it if somebody stalked you like that because you pissed him off with your illness?
It is one thing to complain about somebody talking through the movie. It is something quite different to LAUGH about somebody’s illness AND ENCOURAGE HIS CHILDREN TO LAUGH, TOO! Would YOU do that? I don’t think so because you have always shown yourself to be a decent person. I hope I am not wrong about that.
This is a board where sick and handicapped people are encouraged to do what they can to maintain a “normal” life. It is not a place where people should wish that others would die so they would stop interupting the movie. That is childish and selfish beyond words.
And where they have the decency not to make all those surrounding them miserable. We don’t encourage the blind to drive, or diabetics to inject themselves in a conspicuous manner. Just being sick doesn’t give one free reign to be a damn nuissance.
Oh, I get it. So the reason why all the other people were present at the theatre has no meaning to you. Their stories are nothing. No one counts but this guy. Only his needs and preferences count. Is that it?
What about the (hypothetical) group of nuns who saved up their pennies to see the movie, and won’t be able to get into town again for several more months? I guess their movie experience was screwed totally, wasn’t it? But, hell, who gives a shit about them? And, I guess the group of orphans that were looking forward to seeing the film were just shit out of luck too, huh? But, screw the damned orphans. Who gives a shit about orphans? And the same goes for grandma from the nursing home, or the terminally ill mom who just wants to spend a nice evening at the movies with her son, who she hasn’t seen in 5 years. For all you know (or any of us knows) all these people were present at the theatre, and ALL of them had their evening ruined.
But, screw them. Who gives a damn about them, huh? ONLY THE COUGHING GUY COUNTS!!! Okey-dokey. As long as we’re perfectly clear on that.
pkbites was making a melodramatic rant, I see no reason to believe that he actually was convinced that this guy was dying.
Please copy and paste where I defended him in that. I thought that issue had been discussed and resolved, others had already taken him to task for it.
Just so it’s perfectly clear, pkbites (and all the other people at the theatre, including the managment) were not pissed at him for his illness, they were pissed at him for his SELFISHNESS. He was creating a major disturbance, and he WOULD NOT DO ANYTHING to alieviate it (like leave). If he had been barking like a dog, stomping his foot uncontrollably, or was doing anything else that was extraordinarily disruptive to the rest of the theatre, they’d be equally disgusted with him.
For instance: My sister is visually impaired. When we go to the theatre, I sometimes try to describe what is going on. (She can see some things, but not all.) Whenever there are subtitles on the screen, I softly read them aloud to her. If someone “shushes” me, I try to keep it down. I speak as softly as I can, and if she misses something, she misses it. Often, she won’t ask for details, because she’s afraid we’ll make a disturbance.
But, I guess according to your standards, I should SHOUT out all descriptions to my sister. Who the hell cares if anyone else is disturbed? Screw them! All that matters is HER, and HER illness. No one else matters.
(Yes, I know that some theatres have devices to help out the blind, and we need to look into them. But this is the technique we use when we know of no such aids for the blind.)
If someone had behaved as thoroughly callous and insensitive as this guy was acting (refusing to leave after specifically being requested by management to do so) I’ll probably hurl bottles. (No, I wouldn’t really do that.) He forfeited any consideration for his delicate feelings when he behaved that way. Franky, though, I figured that pkbites’ kids were laughing at the absurdity of the whole situation. After all the fuss being made, the guy still won’t go, still keeps coughing. They probably were laughing each time he coughed, saying “There he goes AGAIN! Do you believe it?” Yeah, they were calling him names, but that’s what kids do. (And no, I don’t think it’s nice, as I already mentioned in a previous post.)
Why should any of us feel SORRY for this asshole’s delicate feelings after the way he’d behaved? Why do his feelings and needs over-ride the rest of the damned world?
Well, thank you for the compliment. No, I probably wouldn’t mock any percieved illness. But I would tell him that he needed to LEAVE. And I’d keep on telling him to LEAVE.
Not in my world - not to this extent. Just because you are ill or handicapped, it doesn’t mean you have free reign to do anything you wish. You may remember, I am employed to help and assist the developmentally disabled in their everyday lives. Nowhere in our training are we advised to ruin the theatre-going experience for the rest of the public. For instance, one of our “clients” will masturbate at any pretty woman he sees on TV or on the movie screen. By your logic, we should take him to movies, and allow him to whack away. After all, he’s ill, and he can’t help it. And his desire to see the movie is as valid as anyone else’s, so why shouldn’t he go to see the movie? So, the rest of the people in the theatre out to just sit back and tolerate his beating off during the movie, shouldn’t they? It would be cruel and insensitive to do anything else, I guess.
We have quite a few clients that will make loud sounds, behaviors, or outbursts that are (I daresay) only a fraction as disruptive as what this coughing guy was doing. ***AT NO TIME ARE WE ENCOURAGED TO LET THEM CONTINUE TO DO THAT IN A THEATRE. *** Got it?
I must have missed where pkbites said that. If so, that was out of line. Certain portions of his rant was out of line, and others have already addressed it. But, being irate at this asshole waas not out of line.
Oh, dropzone, mellow the fuck out. pk was bitching about a rude fuck at the movies. Sure he used some politically incorrect language. So fucking what.
The fact remains that a shitload of patrons agreed apparently. Come on drop, you have never said “hey, you fat fuck, or hey you skinny fuck, I hope you die!” Bullshit. Hypersensitive much?
Well, AS a “fat fuck,” I tend to be more sensitive to these things than you skinny fucks are.
As for telling the guy to go cough someplace else, that’s what a polite person would do. And a polite sick person would go. I’m not saying that the guy wasn’t rude. I was merely pissed by the whole tone of “I don’t want to be exposed to old, sick, dying, fat, or ugly people.” With luck and a good driving record we will all live to be old, sick, dying, and ugly and some will also be fat.
QUOTE]*Originally posted by yosemitebabe *
**Please copy and paste where I defended him in that. I thought that issue had been discussed and resolved, others had already taken him to task for it.
**
[/QUOTE]
Yes, you took him to task for the phone harassment. No, it had not been resolved because he revised his plans to:
QUOTE]*Originally posted by pkbites *
**But I am going to find out who he is and run a background check on him. Just in case I ever run into the jerk again I’ll know who I’m dealing with. Though calling him up once or twice and hacking into the phone is really no more harassment then when I called up my neighbor at 2 a.m. and barked into the phone because of his dog.
**
[/QUOTE]
I reiterate, this is sick, stalker behavior considering the guy’s “crime” was to cough during a movie.
This post has just won the crazy post of the day! Congrats! It takes a lot of concentrated insanity to win this award, and although it isn’t a tangible prize, you have the honor of including the quote below in your sig. line!!!
“I am the first annual winner of the Crazy Post award!”
For the record, my grandfather died of emphysema. He coughed for hours on end. Unlike the annoying asshole in the theater, he was considerate of those around him. In the instances where he had a coughing fit in a public place (which did happen at the theater) he would excuse himself and go somewhere else until the fit passed. If he missed the movie then he missed the movie. He realized that his personal rights and freedoms did not supercede anyone else’s.
As for the tracking someone down comment, while it may be extreme, this is the Pit and I’ve seen much worse retaliation described. Since when did the Pit become a warm and fuzzy place???
Hey! Everything I say is half serious and half sarcastic. So the serious stuff doesn’t get too heavy I like to take it a bit over the edge. You must remember that the first time I heard the phrase “drama queen” it was about me, and I knew exactly what she was talking about when she said it. And I think I used relative restraint by not coming up with a fuller backstory, with name and medals won in Vietnam and the times he tried to quit smoking and how he had finally done it except it was too late because the cancer had spread and this was his last night out before going to the hospice. Then I could have started on Poor Timmy, the Cancer Boy whose beautiful towheaded curls had ended up on his pillow after chemo. You folks haven’t SEEN melodrama!
But I still think pkbites is creepy with the background check stuff. That’s just too stalkerish to not be creepy. Really, imagine he ran a background check on YOU because you offended him. And the “Take your disease home and DIE rude fucker!” title is more teenager than I expect out of an adult.
No. You will note that I was genuinely creeped out by some of pkbites’ statements. Taking things to a nearly melodramatic point for the sake of making a point is not “trolling.” He has made assumptions about the person’s “emphasema/lung cancer caughing” and, while he has given thought to the other side of the story to the extent that he realizes that the fellow has a problem, he is offended that a sick person would be in his presence AND would even make his presence known rather than slinking off to his home to die.
“The fucker gasps ‘I can’t stop. leave me alone.’” Is this rudeness? Maybe. On the other hand, I am asthmatic and have times when all I can do is cough and gasp. Standing up and walking are beyond my abilities for a time. Maybe that’s what he meant. (Also, lack of oxygen doesn’t improve anybody’s personality, until he passes out.)
The cliche is to “walk a mile in the other guy’s shoes.” If we all did that the Pit would be a more boring place, but the SDMB’s reputation for the immaturity, even psychoticness, of too many of its posters would be improved. In addition, where is it said that we are supposed to all be supportive of the OP when we are in the Pit? This isn’t some dark, alternate-universe version of MPSIMS.
pkbites, as melodramatic and un-“PC” as he was, was most annoyed at this guy’s RUDENESS. If this guy had been barking like a dog, pk would have been ranting about canine impersonators. Allow me to repeat, so there is no mistake. It was the inconsiderate rudeness, not the illness that was pissing everyone off.
Nope. Not buying it.
If he can utter “I can’t stop, leave me alone.” he can just as easily utter “I can’t stop, get me my medication”. Or, “I can’t stop, call 911.” Or, “I can’t stop, please help me get outside.” “I can’t stop, please get a wheelchair, I can’t move.” But he didn’t do that. He just wanted to be left alone, IN THE DAMNED THEATRE, knowing that he was disrupting the movie for EVERYONE else.
The problem is, you are putting yourself only in this jerk’s shoes, instead of the shoes of pkbites, the rest of the theatre goers (including the nuns and orphans ) and the theatre management. What about them?
Did this coughing guy spend one milisecond putting himself in their shoes? Obviously not. So, screw him. I don’t wish him ill (as in further illness or misfortune) but why should his needs and wants supercede the rest of the damned planet?
