Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Courtesies: Common, Uncommon, and Dis-
There's been an awful lot of heavy talk on my blog lately, so I figured now would be a good time to change that.
I'd like to talk for a bit on some of the daily courtesies we extend each other. They take place routinely, and sometimes we don't even think about them.
Blog Spam: So far I've gotten only one on this, my main blog; and one on Siskiyou Breeze, my train project. For me, this does not constitute a major problem. But I still find it highly annoying when someone leaves a comment like, "I like your blog," without making any remark indicating why, or indeed even that the blog was actually read at all.
For now I'm content to ignore it. If it becomes a problem here, I'll turn on the "word verification" feature. Or maybe I'll go to the blogs that those people are advertising and leave snarky comments questioning their credibility and integrity. The secon didea has the appeal that enough people doing it would cut down on the problem, but the drawback that it really makes me no better than them (in the "two wrongs don't make a right" sort of mold) so I'll probably just do the former.
Elevators: The principle I generally go by is "off before on" -- let people off the elevator before getting on. It'll be less crowded that way. So far I've only seen two people who didn't seem to like that idea, both while I was trying to get off. One stepped forward, saw that I was coming off, and barrelled right past me at such a speed that if he'd made contact I would have fallen over. The other, quite some years ago, didn't even look -- he just stepped forward and bumped right into me. (And this guy was dressed in a suit, as a professional. It makes me wonder how his career's gone since then.)
These two are the big exception to the rule, though; I've almost always found people on elevators to be very ready to help others -- holding doors, pushing your button for you, and so forth.
Grocery Checkout: I've noticed that, since divider bars have come into use, it's become standard courtesy to put one down at the back of your load, and for the person behind to say, "Thank you." On occasion someone's forgotten to do that, and I've put my own bar down in front; the person in front of me has almost always said, "I'm sorry."
I like this. It kind of represents us all taking care of each other. That makes it kind of neat, I think.
Pedestrian Crossings: Despite having arthritic knees and a bad hip, I like to walk long distances. (I've only gotten to the point relatively recently where I have to use a cane to go more than a block or so, and even then I can occasionally do without.) Every so often I come to an intersection and get ready to cross an open lane of traffic (that is, one that doesn't have a stop sign, whereas the one I'm walking parallel to does have one) and a single car approaches. I stop and wait. I see the car slow down, and I figure it's going to make a turn, and I can just cross right behind it. Then the car stops. I wait and wonder what on Earth this person is doing. Then the driver waves me across the street.
It's not that I don't appreciate the thought, but both the driver and I would have gotten to where we were going much more quickly if he'd just gone on ahead. If you're the only car on the road, or have only one following you, stopping to let me cross only delays and confuses me. (And by similar token, stopping to let me cross when traffic in the other lane is running constant is really pretty futile.)
Videos on VHS: Back in the 1980s, before the advent of DVD, the commonly-heard request went, "Be kind; rewind." Back then, nearly everyone did rewind the tapes before returning them for others to use. These days when I rent a VHS tape or check one out of the library it's almost never rewound. No, it won't kill me to rewind it myself, but please... be kind; rewind.
Postcript: I was very excited yesterday afternoon to note that Blog Explosion had named EbB their "Blog of the Day" for yesterday/today. I think I would have preferred to have either this post or this one at the top when it happened, but at least I could insert this paragraph with the links to draw your attention to them.
I'd like to talk for a bit on some of the daily courtesies we extend each other. They take place routinely, and sometimes we don't even think about them.
Blog Spam: So far I've gotten only one on this, my main blog; and one on Siskiyou Breeze, my train project. For me, this does not constitute a major problem. But I still find it highly annoying when someone leaves a comment like, "I like your blog," without making any remark indicating why, or indeed even that the blog was actually read at all.
For now I'm content to ignore it. If it becomes a problem here, I'll turn on the "word verification" feature. Or maybe I'll go to the blogs that those people are advertising and leave snarky comments questioning their credibility and integrity. The secon didea has the appeal that enough people doing it would cut down on the problem, but the drawback that it really makes me no better than them (in the "two wrongs don't make a right" sort of mold) so I'll probably just do the former.
Elevators: The principle I generally go by is "off before on" -- let people off the elevator before getting on. It'll be less crowded that way. So far I've only seen two people who didn't seem to like that idea, both while I was trying to get off. One stepped forward, saw that I was coming off, and barrelled right past me at such a speed that if he'd made contact I would have fallen over. The other, quite some years ago, didn't even look -- he just stepped forward and bumped right into me. (And this guy was dressed in a suit, as a professional. It makes me wonder how his career's gone since then.)
These two are the big exception to the rule, though; I've almost always found people on elevators to be very ready to help others -- holding doors, pushing your button for you, and so forth.
Grocery Checkout: I've noticed that, since divider bars have come into use, it's become standard courtesy to put one down at the back of your load, and for the person behind to say, "Thank you." On occasion someone's forgotten to do that, and I've put my own bar down in front; the person in front of me has almost always said, "I'm sorry."
I like this. It kind of represents us all taking care of each other. That makes it kind of neat, I think.
Pedestrian Crossings: Despite having arthritic knees and a bad hip, I like to walk long distances. (I've only gotten to the point relatively recently where I have to use a cane to go more than a block or so, and even then I can occasionally do without.) Every so often I come to an intersection and get ready to cross an open lane of traffic (that is, one that doesn't have a stop sign, whereas the one I'm walking parallel to does have one) and a single car approaches. I stop and wait. I see the car slow down, and I figure it's going to make a turn, and I can just cross right behind it. Then the car stops. I wait and wonder what on Earth this person is doing. Then the driver waves me across the street.
It's not that I don't appreciate the thought, but both the driver and I would have gotten to where we were going much more quickly if he'd just gone on ahead. If you're the only car on the road, or have only one following you, stopping to let me cross only delays and confuses me. (And by similar token, stopping to let me cross when traffic in the other lane is running constant is really pretty futile.)
Videos on VHS: Back in the 1980s, before the advent of DVD, the commonly-heard request went, "Be kind; rewind." Back then, nearly everyone did rewind the tapes before returning them for others to use. These days when I rent a VHS tape or check one out of the library it's almost never rewound. No, it won't kill me to rewind it myself, but please... be kind; rewind.
Postcript: I was very excited yesterday afternoon to note that Blog Explosion had named EbB their "Blog of the Day" for yesterday/today. I think I would have preferred to have either this post or this one at the top when it happened, but at least I could insert this paragraph with the links to draw your attention to them.
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