Wait, what's the problem with thanking bus drivers?
It leads to Thank inflation. Think of the children.
Well, they don't have to let you off.
Thank inflation disproportionately helps the deeply indebted.
I've been thanking bus drivers for at least twenty years.
The important thing is not to thank them when you first get on. They haven't done anything yet.
I do myself compulsively thank waiters. Not sure how drivers are inherently different.
I'm going to replace the word "thank" in this thread with the word "Negro".
It's fairly standard practice in Vancouver. Just like rioting after losing the 7th game of the Stanley Cup finals.
4: Nice, I was trying for one in that vein and failing. Also I wasn't around at the time but the "metal bar" was very good. I used it out of the blue on my wife and son and it sorta kinda worked--after an uncomfortable delay.
I'm sure Minivet's concerns would disappear if he were simply to say: "Thanks, you've really earned your pay today."
The important thing is not to thank them when you first get on. They haven't done anything yet.
Well, they stopped the bus and opened the door. That's something.
Now my daughter and other son are ridiculing the basic "ouch" joke as lame and ancient. so turns out I'm humiliated in meatspace and cyberspace. Thanks.
Teo, do you find yourself thanking when you are alone?
Well, they stopped the bus and opened the door. That's something.
Well, I wouldn't thank them as they're approaching you and just beginning to brake.
Teo, do you find yourself thanking when you are alone?
Only sometimes.
Well, I wouldn't thank them as they're approaching you and just beginning to brake.
Well, they wouldn't be able to hear you anyway.
I wouldn't hold up a sign that says "Thanks".
Also, Heebie, I meant in my final question that I'm not sure what tradition, etiquette, and/or logic actually dictate.
No, no, I'm sure from context that you wanted me to rank them in full generality.
People tend to thank the pilot or co-pilot if they see them at the end of a flight.
24: People tend to thank the pilot or co-pilot if they see them at the end of a flight.
"Thank God I'm getting out of this flying sardine can!" they say.
6: On Embarking:
Sometimes the bus driver will stop for me even if I'm half a block ahead of the proper bus stop if they see me running toward the stop as they pull away. Or wait a few extra seconds at the bus stop to let me catch up. That deserves a hearty "thank you," which I am not remiss in awarding.
On the other hand, sometimes the bus driver will ignore me when I am clearly waiting for the bus at a proper bus stop, in which case I run alongside the bus and yell at the bus driver for as long as I can keep up, usually a couple of blocks (but only when it's clearly - though perhaps erroneously - marked as my bus and not out of service).
Because some bus drivers don't stop for me, I thank the ones who do, even though it's just their job.
I thank the bus driver if they've been personable, or at minimum non-hostile. It's like tipping wait-staff if they've actually given you good service, but free. More people should thank people without warning or provocation. It's a good thing.
On Disembarking:
Likewise, some bus drivers will skip over the stop I need despite my clear request. So I thank the ones who do their job properly. I think it's reasonable and just (though not obligatory) to do so. Lots of people do their jobs well who could get away with doing it poorly, and it costs me little to encourage them with kind words.
Not thank bus drivers? You might as well suggest that you should never thank a human being for a favor or a kindness since it's part of a civilized human's job to help others.
You folks thank waiters, right? And the people who refill your glass of water? Even though they're doing their job? And the cashier for giving you your change? People usually like it when you acknowledge that they have done their job correctly and to your satisfaction.
I just say "That'll do, Bus Driver. That'll do."
Or sometimes I give them a wet willie. And a wink. They know what I mean.
Or just pat them on then head as you exit.
37: Is it some kind of obscure comment on their musical taste? This is what I could find for wet willie:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_Willie
Nope. I think they see the humor in an earful of spit and get that I'm thanking them.
Oh, I see - you meant this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_willy#Wet_willy
By definition it seems to satisfy DS's "without warning or provocation" request.
Out of curiosity, I googled "dry willie" as well and found this:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dry%20Willie
That is dangerous misinformation. For a proper dry willie, use white vermouth instead of spit. The modern idea that "dry" means unlubricated is based on an etymological misunderstanding (dry refers to the dry vermouth, not the absence of liquid), plus stupid fake macho masochism.
"Guillermo Mojado" is available as a pseud.
A proper Purple Nurple is lubricated with lemon juice, Maraschino liqueur, and Creme de Violette. Most modern practitioners inexplicably omit the very ingredient that gives it its characteristic color. Barbarians.
Semi-transit related: At a radical gathering tonight which included a young woman from Edmonton. The subject of tall bikes came up, and she allowed has how maybe she had a tall bike, because her feet didn't really touch the ground. No, no, we all said, we're talking about tall bikes. And then we showed her pictures on the internet and she was amazed.
HG, your gang following the Yellowstone bear story?
We are! Scary. But not super rare, right?
47: I don't think grizzlies usually cook their food too thoroughly, so it probably was on the rare side. Medium-rare, at best.
First death in YNP in 25 years: rare. Californians w/out bear spray: not rare.
Huh, I assumed since it was the third attack this year, and there'd been something similar when my sister-in-law was there last summer, that this was a yearly-ish thing. I didn't realize most bear attacks weren't fatal.
What?! What the hell is wrong with saying "thank you" for any service rendered? Feels "off" how? It is never inappropriate to exercise common courtesy, and to not treat a person who provides a convenience or a service as a mere machine. Am I missing something? God.
46: Oddly enough, the Yellowstone bear is a sweeter, gentler variant of the more expensive and hard to find Greenstone bear, renowned for its traditions of herbal medicine.
These bears famously disputed the manner in which one should prepare one's meat, the Yellows preferring it gently cooked through over low heat, the Greens advocating a seared, even charred outside and a rare center. The dispute grew heated, but the resolution was so successful that the bears thenceforth renamed themselves after their (Yellow and Green) Char Truce.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America
54 makes for some grizzly reading.
Not very common. Worth having the spray along, nonetheless.
None in the Missions, I see: we've had bear-induced changes of plan the last couple of times up there . . .
56: The number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear ultimately.
A long time ago, the Grizzly Bear People cooked all their food. Every night they would get together and share all the food they had collected, and make complicated recipes that they got out of a big cookbook. Since the Grizzly Bear People liked to eat humans so much, the name of the cookbook was "To Serve Man".
Anyway, one night Coyote smelled the men cooking and came to the Grizzlies' camp and tried to get them to give him some of their delicious food. But the Grizzly Bear People were contemptuous and told Coyote that he couldn't have any, since he was too small to catch hikers or Californians, except for the occasional baby.
This made Coyote very angry. So he went to the costume shop and purchased a Grizzly costume. The next night he went to the Grizzly Bear People's camp and snuck around in the shadows, spreading a rumor that one of the Grizzlies was going to steal the cookbook and keep it for themselves. As the night went on, the Grizzlies got more and more suspicious of each other. Words were exchanged, punches flew, and finally it turned into an all-out donnybrook.
Coyote thought this was his chance, so he crept over to the dais where the cookbook, "To Serve Man", was kept, and started to steal it. Unfortunately, the hem of his Grizzly costume got caught on a thorn, and when he pulled at it, his costume fell apart. Coyote dropped the cookbook and ran for his life, and the Grizzlies fell onto the cookbook and soon it had been torn to pieces.
The Grizzly Bear People were so angry with each other that they vowed never to eat together again, and without the recipes in the cookbook, men just didn't taste right. That's why Grizzlies only eat people very occasionally, and always by themselves. They tried to recreate some of the recipes, using other animals and different types of kindling, but the result, "The Moose-Wood Cookbook", wasn't really to their liking, so they abandoned it, without even getting a Creative Commons license for it.
This doesn't apply to brown or grizzly country, but otherwise don't go out at night in pursuit of a strange, mournful song, lest you encounter a black bear singing in the dead of night.
The term "small bear" can also be misleading as it refers not to the physical volume of the bears, but to their lower alcohol content. Since they are moderate in all their conduct, not only their drinking, they don't have as "big" an impact as their "large" brethren.
Interestingly, the species' prominence in the financial industry seems to be a thing of the past, gone the way of the Stearns.
50: An acquaintance of mine, having neglected to obtain pepper spray, attempted to use bear spray in self-defense, but the situation got pretty hairy.
Bug spray drastically reduced the size of the problem.
I do it less often than I used to before London buses started enforcing the "disembark at the rear" policy. When the bus is crowded (not exactly uncommon), it's not like the driver could hear anyway. But if it's empty, I still say thank you. And I always say "Hi" or "Morning" when I board.
I think it's pretty much custom and practice here.
I've always done it, although as 65 says, I wouldn't do it if disembarking at the rear. I'm very 'please/thank-you' anyway,* something my wife (as a rude foreigner) finds amusing/annoying depending.
* as would be normal for many Brits, I'd think.
I generally don't because a) when you're getting on I tend to be part of a crowd pushing on and b) when getting off I am at the back of the bus and can't really shout "Thanks!" to the driver 15 feet away.
I thank coach drivers. And waiters, obviously. (Who wouldn't thank waiters?)
One of the complains the bus/tram drivers had here with the introduction of the chipcard was that because they didn't need to stamp people's tickets anymore few people bothered to greet them coming on board. So being polite to drivers is appreciated by them.
And I always try to be polite myself.
WHO WANTS TO THANK MUTOMBO?!
Oooh, I have a new level of neurosis to add here. I do thank bus drivers, but as I do I worry that the volume of people thanking them, each of whom the driver ordinarily responds to, makes the thanking more burdensome and annoying than just filing off the bus silently (this only applies to crowded buses, but that's usually the only ones I'm on.)
I always thank the bus driver as I leave and you have to exit the bus from the front, barring times when the aisle is packed, so you are passing the driver anyway.
I recently became a regular bus rider and was surprised by the whole thanking thing. I'm accustomed to thanking people who are facing toward me (waitrons, cashiers). But I've gotten used to it. I more regularly thank the morning bus driver - who is the same guy every day - than I do the variable afternoon drivers.
I recently became a regular bus rider
That's a good thing. You don't want to get the urge when you're stuck at the back of a packed crosstown.
74: As long as we're going that route, if you are passing the driver thanking him as well seems condescending.
Data point: I just got off the bus and said "thank you" as usual. The driver told me to take care, so I got that going for me.
54: A lot more black bear incidents on that list than would have been my guess (I did know of a couple of them, like the 3 boys killed in the '70s in Algonquin). They generally did not get the publicity that things like the two separate grizzly attacks in Glacier in 1967 did. Still given the ubiquity of black bears in many relatively populated areas the fatality/bear-person encounter is surely several orders of magnitude higher for brown than black.
Black bears are more easily deterred because they often have assets to protect from civil judgments. Brown bears only worry about the criminal trial.
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Ofcom, the media regulator, is to investigate News Corporation's proposed bid for satellite broadcaster BSkyB. The BBC has learnt that Ofcom will look into whether News Corp would be a 'fit and proper' owner.
71: I try to mitigate that by yelling "Thanks!" when I'm almost off the bus so the driver can't (and therefore feels no obligation to) respond.
Also by not riding at rush hour, because I chose my abode carefully.
Any chance of a NOTW open thread so we Brits don't have to clog up the rest of the blog?
Because we Americans can't understand your island's tradition of profound, in-depth reporting and breasts?
52: I never thought it was wrong for anyone to do it; just wanted to work out if it should reasonably be a standard. I like standards.
On reflection, yes, my main personal objection to it is probably that one's never facing them - it feels like a forced interaction. But that doesn't count for much.
In our buses, you have to pay when leaving the bus for outbound trips, so that might make it more natural to say thanks.
Many bus drivers either dislike their passengers or are rude people. Many passengers are also pretty rude. If some bus route seems like a friendly neighborhood diner, then thanks are probably unnecesssary, but IME this is rare. Eye contact and a smile would probably be equivalent.
My etiquette peeve is "no problem!" usually extra perky, instead of "you're welcome." I think it's pretty clearly generational.
Any chance of a NOTW open thread so we Brits don't have to clog up the rest of the blog?
Done and done.
I say "no problem", but in my defense it annoys me every time I say it, it's habit, and I'm definitely not perky. "you're welcome" seems so presumptious, while with "no problem" I'm attempting to convince the other person that helping them wasn't a burden. I suppose I should just go with "my pleasure", or, as the situation warrants, "my pleasure ... laydeez".
86: I have a tendency to say "Don't worry about it" which is pretty close to "No problem". What annoys you? Both are pretty close to the standard polite formulation in other languages, and the English "you're welcome" is oddly fossilized -- 'welcome' is hardly ever used outside of that one formula.
I wish I were Australian so I could say "no worries".
Instead of "No problem," I always say, "Just don't ask me for anything else for the next week or so."
NO PROBLEMO.
Anytime is closer to "de nada" "du rien" or the equivalent. Seems natural. When someone responds "de nada" for an impersonal "gracias," we both understand that we're just being polite, that this is a verbal nod over nothing much. Both of these are actually also meiosis, minimising that something was actually done. "Anytime" seems just right in this regard.
When a cheerful barista bares her teeth and manages to say ":) no problem! :)" that's different. It might suggest that pulling the espresso meant something volitional, giving attentive or skilled personal service. There's a self-aggrandizing note that I hear. I'm pretty sure it's not intended that way, acknowledge that this is my problem for being out of step with the times.
94.2: You should probably try to think less.
I'm getting the sense that lw dislikes cheer.
I find "don't worry about it" vaguely New York-y. As if the default assumption is that everyone is so neurotic that someone is always worried about something. And they have to be ordered not to worry.
No problem is great -- it's so soothing! "Thanks!" "No problem". Ahhhhhhh. There are no problems.
95. Yes,of courrse. From the perspective of my personal sense of equanimity, I should also take less notice of my surroundings.
But this is a paradox-- if everyone stops paying attention to their surroundings, public exteriors will become hideous and neglected, alternating between blighted neglect and the idiotic swagger of mall entrances and retail facades, since nobody is looking.
I love cheer, and am kind to animals. Clenched teeth and uptalk are not cheer, often are a poor approximation of courtesy, since unaccompanied by eye contact.
I like 94.1. I normally say "no problem" but have never been satisfied with it, feeling it a bit flippant.
98.last: If you stared at the barista's chest like everyone else, you wouldn't worry about eye contact.
95 gets it right.
I was recently in Afghanistan, and didn't know a single word of any of the languages, or in any of the languages in the same family. Fortunately, I got an Afghan woman on the plane to teach me hello no and thank you in Dari. Used the last frequently and generally to good effect.
Should have learned some Nepalese, though. Next time.
often are a poor approximation of courtesy, since unaccompanied by eye contact.
The assumption that courtesy requires eye contact is not universal.
The barristas don't seem into my intense, searing eye contact. Because they are rude.
102: The assumption that courtesy requires eye contact is not universal.
Longer LB: "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK"
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House builders pound like
Woodpeckers. Smaller child wakes
Only to vomit.
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105: That's going to be a long day. Sorry about that.
Thanking the bus driver is de rigeur in Santa Cruz and surprisingly common in Santiago.
"Thanking" the bus driver is obligatory ATM.
103: Not because they are lesbians? Or straight guys?
97: I find "don't worry about it" vaguely New York-y. As if the default assumption is that everyone is so neurotic that someone is always worried about something.
There is a Woody Allen quote I want to use but can't find (I thought Annie Hall but no luck)--something along the lines of being a New Yorker so worrying about things is his exercise program. But pithy, and maybe even apt.
I don't need to work out. My anxiety acts as aerobics.
Is everyone else waiting for Sid to comment "No Problem" or is it just me?
Eye contact seems closer to the opposite of "courtesy", to me at least. You use eye contact when you want to be sure the other person is focused on you and you alone, to emphasize the importance of the interaction you are having. None of this makes any sense in the context of getting off the bus, or having just bought a latte.
I thank the bus driver, always have done.
Now wondering what I say when I'm thanked .... mostly nothing, although "anytime, babe" also comes to mind, which I am finding a bit embarrassing. I definitely overuse endearments.
Thanks for nothing, 113 messed up the joke.
114. The custom varies from country to country, and apparently within the US as well. IMO, eye contact is used to indicate either that you acknowledge the presence of a human being, or to indicate that you are listening.
Quick glance with a smile/crinkled-eyes is positive. On the other hand, held slightly too long, with intense 'I will fuckin' chib you' glare ...
Somebody did just stab a bus driver last week, but not on my bus or anything.
There's also eye contact as a signal of deference: I'm totally focused on you and waiting for you to say something. There are service people who do this, but I don't think of not doing it as rude.
It is a sign of today's fallen world that focusing attention on somebody is indeed deference.
Well eye contact is a general thing we do when listening. We don't tend to do it when speaking. Gazillions of studies on this sort of thing by psychologists and linguists. I expect it's part of why we think people talking to us while making eye contact are psychos.
A couple years ago, the wife and I worked a concession stand at the Ravens-Steelers game. After some hours, the wife remarked that I certainly seemed to have a way with the female patrons -- apparently young women from Baltimore, and even Pittsburgh, can be lit up with eye contact and a smile. They weren't reading deference or, apparently (and unaccountably), creepy old man.
Not really, I don't think. Does it sound less bad if I say "Focusing attention to a degree not explained by either personal intimacy or the practical requirements of the interaction"?
. . . didn't know a single word of any of the languages, or in any of the languages in the same family
I recently watched The Tourist (better than I expected) I was very amused by the joke of Johnny Depp trying to use Spanish to communicate with various people in Italy, all of whom spoke English.
Eye contact takes many forms; shocker.
122: People in Pittsburgh are horribly rude by standards you'd see in the midwest. After you get to know them, you realize they aren't rude, they just don't like anybody.
After some hours, the wife remarked that I certainly seemed to have a way with the female patrons -- apparently young women from Baltimore, and even Pittsburgh, can be lit up with eye contact and a smile. They weren't reading deference or, apparently (and unaccountably), creepy old man.
Hah, Westerners. I posted about going to Taos, and thinking everyone behind a service counter wanted to be my best friend -- they all made eye-contact and smiled at me. Which was nice, I was on vacation, but then they seemed confused when I settled in for a nice chat, given that we were so close.
Where I'm from, that body language reads as "I'm such an exuberantly warm person that I'm moving this transaction out of business and into a developing personal intimacy." Doesn't necessarily, or usually, read as creepy -- it doesn't feel like getting hit on -- but it's disconcerting when you find out that you've misread it, and the smiler doesn't actually want to go have lunch with you. Like slipping off a step.
119. applies pretty much everywhere outside the US, I think.
Combined with idiotically complex "menus," getting neither eye contact nor verbal confirmation of what it was I asked for means that I will get either fried leather instead of food or cream in my coffee. Possibly I should stop mumbling and bellow instead.
There was some crappy romantic comedy that I saw last year that had a nice bit of camerawork in the beginning (hilarious and sweet lives of three couples was the plot); three 5-to-10 second cuts in quick succession, parallel construction. The just-met couple looked intensely at each other while choosing something together. The established couple negotiated tensely and respectfully with each other about which restaurant, looking for weakness. The old (nearly 50!!) couple got into a taxi and looked away from each other.
126: I don't hate people. I just feel better when they're not around.
I have a tendency to say "Don't worry about it" which is pretty close to "No problem".
"No problem" and "you're welcome" are, to my ear, meaningless conventional phrases - like "bless you."
"Don't worry about it" is nonstandard enough that it would make me wonder if I should be worrying about it.
I often say "Sure thing." Upon reflection, that seems weird.
I also have a lot of interactions with cashiers that go like this:
Me: "Thank you."
Cashier: "Thank you."
I wish I liked the human race
I wish I liked its silly face
I wished I liked the way it walked
I wish I liked that way it talked
and when I'm introduced to one
I wish I thought "What jolly fun!"
I often say "Sure thing." Upon reflection, that seems weird.
I do it too, with a not exactly perky but kind of peppy, can-do intonation. Not sure what I mean by it.
"Don't worry about it" is nonstandard enough
I sometimes say, "no worries" which feels natural to me.
133: It doesn't make you feel like Paul Hogan? Or maybe feeling like Paul Hogan is natural to you, in which case I envy you.
I don't think anyone would ever confuse me with Paul Hogan, nor would I have made that association.
I still confuse Paul Giamatti and Paul Hogan.
136: By speaking to them in Norwegian?
There's also eye contact as a signal of deference: I'm totally focused on you and waiting for you to say something.
I learned to do this to a fairly extreme degree when I was an Asian kid in martial arts, waiting for my master to drop wisdom. I still do it sometimes, which gets me unexpected results from anyone who isn't an older Korean man who thinks it is his due.
It makes instructors of anything else wonder what the fuck I'm doing. It makes men on first dates tell me their darkest secrets. I can dial it back if I remember, but I often don't remember until the interaction has already gone strange.
I am a frequent thanker and smiler.
The Aussie phrase "no worries" has infiltrated British English and is now used widely in what one linguist has described as a mark of respect for Australian culture....
"You don't get that kind of acceptance of another dialect unless they were seen as prestigious. You don't borrow from a dialect you don't respect," he said.
"That's why a lot of Americanisms don't get in (to British English) or get in slowly."OK!
I always thank bus drivers, but I thank everyone, including people who let doors close in my face.
And I definitely am a habitual user of "no problem," "no worries," "not to worry," etc. (I really didn't realize that "no worries" was Australian until recently. I think we say it often enough out here in the West, though.)
I always thank bus drivers, but I thank everyone, including people who let doors close in my face.
And I definitely am a habitual user of "no problem," "no worries," "not to worry," etc. (I really didn't realize that "no worries" was Australian until recently. I think we say it often enough out here in the West, though.)
I also thank my finger for double-tapping.
On Philadelphia buses I say, "Thanks for the mummeries." Once a year.
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Does anyone want a Google+ invitation? You don't even have to be my friend.
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good question. Offer expired, I'm going to lunch.
I think they're in a new round of expansion - I got an invite just now.
I can promise that Google+ is already cooler than Wave.
The things that differentiate it from Facebook are exciting to someone like me, who really doesn't like the idea of sharing stuff with all his friends, family and acquaintances.
Oh, also, Facebook seemed inappropriate for online-only acquaintances, of which I have a lot. Google+ feels a lot more welcoming to that sort of thing.
After all these years of refusing to get a Facebook, I'm mildly tempted by Google+.
Speaking of Google, I searched for something this morning, and all the results had a line underneath them saying something like "You have +1ed this link" (quote probably not accurate). I looked around the site trying to figure out what that meant, and couldn't see anything helpful. I have gmail, and was logged into it, but I'm fairly certain I don't have a profile -- I deleted the one they'd set up for me during the Buzz debacle.
Anyone know what that was?
Another great thing is it doesn't have Farmville.
Yet.
Yeah, the +1 button is part of Google+, it's their answer to the Facebook "Like" button. When you +1 something, it gets added to your profile-or-whatever-thing.
Does Facebook still have Farmville? I deleted that from my feed like 18 months ago.
156: Must have been some kind of a glitch, because I'm not on Google+.
Farmville is worth a billion dollars.
Facebook still has Farmville (which is actually the most-played computer game in the brief history of the medium) but now it doesn't show up in your feed unless you actually play. Of course, everyone has already blocked it so not many people noticed.
It's the same as Buzz. Everyone has a Google+ account; some people just don't know it yet.
No, the +1 thing has been inexplicably enabled for people not on Plus, I think.
I like how Plus lets you view your profile as seen by any random surfer, and modify to suit.
162: I really really hate that. Google seems to want me to be publicly visible in relation to anything I do online while I'm in a browser logged into gmail. I don't want that, and they make me nervous. Whatever happened to 'Don't be evil'?
Yeah, Google's an advertising company just like Facebook, so I think they're bound to do the same shit over time, even if they're more transparent about it up front. I had to hide my freaking private photo album from public view!
Still waiting fondly for Diaspora.
164.2: Not my first preference, but compared to being stabbed by Romans...
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Random gripe: I just recently made an online donation to the DCCC and got on their electronic mailing list and I'm already annoyed at them. Yesterday they sent me an e-mail asking me to sign an online petition expressing my support for medicare. I ignored it because I think online petitions are generally worthless.
Today I get an e-mail with the subject, "did you see my email?" (lack of capitalization in the original) and now I'm just annoyed.
I don't mind the idea of getting news and fundraising appeals, but I don't want them trying to look like personal e-mails. That's just irksome.
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Whatever happened to 'Don't be evil'?
Hahahhahahahahahaha. You probably think Chevron's primary business is building pretty offshore reefs for tropical fish.
How on earth did I come to believe Megan was a white girl with a thing for Asians? Sometimes I wonder if my reading comprehension is up to par.
Between this and not being Mcardle she is full of surprises.
166: Doesn't everybody in the world now have fake e-mail addresses to give non-trusted organizations?
Of course, the fact that you are willing to trust the DCCC with your money suggests that you may be a bit too trusting.
168: She is -- calling herself Asian above was either a typo or talking about the social role she was playing (acting 'Asian' because she was in a martial arts class).
the fact that you are willing to trust the DCCC with your money suggests that you may be a bit too trusting.
That's probably true but, in this case, I do trust that they will take me off their list if I unsubscribe. Which I am now planning to do.
Doesn't everybody in the world now have fake e-mail addresses to give non-trusted organizations?
Believe me, I thought about it.
I don't know about fake e-mail addresses, but I have my actual e-mail and an e-mail that I use for forms, buying shit, and the like.
170: Okay, but to be sure, she's really not McMegan, right?
Right, I was joking about being in all-Asian surroundings as I grew up in LA.
I am white, and not McArdle.
175: That's a shame, because I could really go for some galbi right now.
86
My etiquette peeve is "no problem!" usually extra perky, instead of "you're welcome." I think it's pretty clearly generational.
Sorry about that. I find I very rarely say "you're welcome"; "no problem" and other less formal variations just seem much more natural to me for some reason.
118
Somebody did just stab a bus driver last week, but not on my bus or anything.
I wouldn't have worried about that until you came right out and said it. Just what are you trying to hide?
124
I was very amused by the joke of Johnny Depp trying to use Spanish to communicate with various people in Italy, all of whom spoke English.
My girlfriend and I went to France this past winter. She speaks basically no French, but a little Spanish, so she kept on trying to use that... and getting answered in English, of course.
As for the original "thanking the bus driver" thing, I rarely do it on city buses. I'd say I exit through the back half the time, and those times I just plain couldn't. I do it on my office's shuttles, though. For one thing, it's at least a tiny bit personal, since there are only half a dozen or so bus drivers I see daily. For another, sometimes they'll stop for me as I'm leaving the building even if they've already pulled away from the curb, which is nice, so I try to show appreciation.
And as for Google + or Bing Buzz or whatever, I have no idea. I check Facebook often (because I have friends who use it a lot) but rarely update my page and play no games on it or anything. Ugh. Keeping up with real life is hard enough.
I don't know about fake e-mail addresses, but ...
I suppose I could have said dummy addresses, but the wags around here would have suggested that any address of mine is, by definition, a dummy address.
"you're welcome" is oddly fossilized
Piffle.
My BF and his family often say "No problems." This is not usually after I thank him for something, but when I have apologized. It kind of grates. I'd prefer "no problem," but I realized the other day that I've started saying it too.
I have a client who is pretty much addicted to Farmville and some Hidden Object game. She's not going to be able to pay her bills, if she keeps it up.
180 reminds me: I wish there were something equivalent to de nada for the meaningless little apologies we make all the time now - to get across "not only is it not a problem, it's not something you needed to apologize for in the first place." I'd grudgingly accept the practice if there were just a fitting conventional response to it.
182: I occasionally say "It's no thing" in that context. On examination, this makes no sense, but it seems to work.
184 was me. Sorry for omitting my name and I hope it didn't cause any problems.
That's not right. "Don't mention it" means the issue was too small for you to have bothered to mention it. "I won't mention it" doesn't make sense in this context.
But it doesn't half fuck with people's heads when you do that IRL.
I don't mind the idea of getting news and fundraising appeals, but I don't want them trying to look like personal e-mails. That's just irksome.
Was it sent from the pol's Blackberry? 'Cause that's how you know they really care.
"Don't mention it."
"Awww, shucks, it warn't nuthin', ma'am."
That only sounds right if you've shot somebody who did her wrong.
182: The funny thing is that he's more likely than not to be saying it when I've said something truly awful.
194: Or if you just busted up a chiffarobe.
194: Actually No ma'am, there ain't no charge.
You know something, Mr. Hick, entailments are bad.
You probably noticed the "+1" button on a third-party site; it seems like every site that has share-on-Facebook/Twitter buttons has now added +1 buttons too.
For "it's nothing" in Spanish, I use "No hay de que, Randy Quaid," all said in a super-Gringo accent.
["No hey day kway"]
192 "Awww, shucks, it warn't nuthin', ma'am."
My memory of the old thread is fuzzy, but isn't this something teo says in a laundromat?
125 Eye contact takes many forms; shocker.
The shocker isn't supposed to involve eye contact, as far as I know.