I can understand eating with gusto when you’re not out in public, but table manners are intended to be a fairly standard way of making sure you’re not being gross according to your cultural circle. I don’t mind people eating certain foods with their hands (ribs, fried chicken, egg rolls, most appetizers, etc.), but there really is no excuse to do the whole “sucking of fingers” thing. Lots of restaurants have bread that’s served with the meal, and it’s perfectly acceptable to sop up the sauce remainders with the bread and eat it, but just don’t do this with your fingers. Yecch.
I don’t have a problem with people writing in books, but since I grew up sharing books with other people, I generally made a habit of using index cards and similar bits of resilient paper as bookmarks. The one I’m currently using has a list of the books I’ve been reading (I track through aNobii), comments that I found were funny/interesting, quotes, and “back of the envelope” math scrawled all over it. It’s just more convenient for me to have the bookmark with notes than the book having notes scrawled in it.
Mainly, I get murderous intent when I hear somebody quote a line from a rap song/South Park episode/Monty Python skit OVER and OVER and OVER again, thinking that the repetitious activity makes them appear culturally innovative and cool. No it doesn’t. It makes you an insipid asshole who’s never had an original thought in your life.
The Mideast practice of chopping off the offending appendage (your mouth) for the crime of personally annoying me should be used on you.
Many years ago I dined with some friends at a “Southern food” restaurant that served biscuits with side bowls of gravy. At the end of the meal, one of my friends proceeded to eat an entire leftover bowl of gravy. He did use a spoon and not his fingers, but the memory still nauseates me, decades later.
I’m not exactly sure why; I’d eaten some of it myself on a biscuit. It just seemed horribly wrong, like eating a soup bowl full of mayonnaise.
One of my cousins in Utah - probably 11 or 12 years old - was once eating a packet of Fun Dip…you know, the Kool-Aid mix in a packet that you eat with the little paddle? Well, she finished the powder part of it and still had 75% of the paddle left, so she grabbed the sugar bowl from the middle of the dinner table and started eating sugar straight from the bowl, using the rest of the paddle. :eek:
She then washed it down with a tall glass of root beer. :eek: :eek:
This was 7 or 8 years ago. Yes, she is overweight these days. Why do you ask?
auntie em I have a love of vanilla icing that surpasses everything, including good manners. If I am at a function where vanilla icing is served on top of a cake, I will not only use a spoon to eat what’s left on my plate, I will take the leftovers from other people’s plates.
Possibly. As I’ve said, I don’t care if others write in their books. I will not write in my own. My textbooks were in beautiful shape. My books are well-loved, and worn, but pen or pencil has never touched their surface. And I do dog-ear my books, which is anathema to some people here! So it’s not like I revere them so much…but goddamn, writing in them?!
I was reading a really good self-help book a few years ago, (Toxic Parents by Susan Forward if anyone’s curious). The book had all of these questions and I had a hard time making myself write in pencil the answers to these questions, even though the book had lines for it and specifically made space.
See, I’d find that acceptable when around those who don’t mind because you’re using a spoon. A little kooky (we all have our own quirks), but acceptable. If you were using your fingers, it’d be completely different.
This thread has now brought back the horrible memory of the morbidly obese gas station attendant I encounterd one sweltering day who was eating a stick of butter like a candy bar.
Yesterday we ordered Thai food in the office. Two people decided to share a couple of dishes, one of which was shrimps wrapped in a sort of breading (won tons?), with a dipping sauce. They each got two. The woman pretty much commandeered the sauce. She dipped, took a bite, then dipped again.
Actually, I would very much appreciate it if my grandparents and mother could refrain from explaining their tummy troubles to me. You weirdos have a (grand)daughter-in-law who’s a(your) doctor, go talk dirty to her!
People who have a “visitor’s” living room so full of Lladrós, Swarowskis and other megaexpensive tschotkes (sp?) that said visitors can’t find a spot to leave their handbag. They usually have plastic covers on the chairs too. If that’s your idea of how to make visitors comfortable, I’ll be happy to stay in my no-Lladró world.
Oh, and one of these days Mom is going to find me in a particularly foul mood when she grabs food from my plate or dips her bread in without asking beforehand, and I’ll slap her from here to New Orleans instead of just saying “MOM!” and pushing the plate away in disgust. With my apologies to Louisiana.
The only time I write anything on books is when there’s a typo. And I’m working on not doing it then either. In my case, it’s because my schoolbooks would get inherited by a string of about 8 other kids, so if we’d all written on them, by the time the last one got a book it would be unreadable.
For that, I’ve stolen a line from the Harry Potter books ( :rolleyes: I know):
“Yes, but sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often. Best not to say anything.”
For full effect, you must interupt them as they’re saying “but” and say it with the utmost sincerity.
Most of mine have been covered, but since it happened again last night I’ll add- parking in a marked space you have no business being in, whether it’s for busses, handicapped people, or just private parties.
I live in a quadplex. We have 4 spaces out from, each marked “Apartment X parking ONLY.” Do not park in my space, even if you’re just dropping by for a minute. That’s my space. If it is occupied I will either have to (illegally) park in the vacant lot next door, or park a block and a half away, or take one of my neighbor’s spaces so they can be pissed off too.
I’ve been leaving polite little notes alerting them to the sign that they must have missed ( :rolleyes: ) clearly marking it as my space. Now I think I might explain how my $700 a month pays for the privilege of my own space, and if they continue to park there I’ll have to charge them for their use of my space. Or have their vehicle towed. Or park behind them.
Parking somewhere that is clearly intended for someone other than yourself shows you have no concern for other people. Bastards.
Also, in my experience, people talking on cell phones tend to talk more loudly than they normally would, which can be really irritating in a small store, or if you’re stuck near them on public transportation.
I know I’m going to regret asking this. But how on earth do you know that people do this?
I mean, I get that you can smell when a diaper has been soiled, but how do you know that they’re wearing it simply to avoid having to break their drinking session?
