I’d just like to thank the two young punks who thought it was their right to go to the front of the line at the movie the other night.
Yes, my wife said something but all those other people you passed ignored it. The theatre folks only made you wait until we were out of sight. So yes it is okay. To all the mice in the line do you feel it is okay for a couple of punks to jump the line after you have been waiting patiently for half an hour? The issue isn’t that there were plenty of seats, what if there weren’t? These punks count on nobody being willing to stand up because it is an insignificant cause. So when do you make your stand? No wonder nobody seems to have any manners anymore they don’t have to. Every time some punk pushes in front all the people that let him tell him it is okay. If one person stands up there may be a fight. If everybody had said something they would have had to back down. What if a punch had been thrown, then someone gets hurt and someone goes to jail all because a bunch of mice in a line up say it’s okay for someone to take what they are entitled to. No wonder crime and bullying go on the way it is. When will people start to step up?
How many of you went in, sat down and then griped to your partner about how rude those guys were. My wife went to the management and they did little, but the 30 people they pushed ahead of did less. No wonder society is the way it is. It is time that people started stepping up to come together for the little things and then perhaps the little things won’t become a big thing over nothing. Yes maybe it was over a movie but what do you allow some one to take from you next? So to the two punks that pushed in, think about this, what happens when someone thinks your pushing in isn’t a little thing? Do you fight, there are people out there that will, are you ready to go to jail or worse, push me I WILL PUSH BACK. When I pick my battles the consequences don’t matter so the next time you butt in be prepared. And all you mice in the line—I hope there is always somebody to fight your battles and then you will never have to step up. This isn’t survival of the fittest just the rudest. —Picking My Battles
This article appears in May 17-23, 2012.
“I hope there is always somebody to fight your battles and then you will never have to step up. “
We don’t all have your wife to fight our battles for us, OB. What exactly did you do? Getting all self-righteous on LTWWB but yet you, yourself, did nothing either.
Go fuck yourself, OB.
This is what needs to happen to the little scrotebags
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quaQRYahPf8
We live in a society where we are preached at to get someone else to fight our battles for us. Never stand up cause fighting is wrong, always go to the authority figure. If everyone is looking for the authority figure who is the authority?
i think if the majority of the line-up people had said something, this wouldn’t have happened. was the movie worth lining up for, op?
Just say really loudly, “HEY FUCKO, BACK OF THE LINE IS THAT WAY”, alerting the rest of the people in line what is going on. You would be surprised to find out how many people will back you up when you speak up loudly. Or maybe it’s because I look like a mountaineer home for the weekend and that intimidates people. Either way, win for me.
you too eh, shitd? yes i find that works really well and whistles are good too
Yup, PG. Those ignant little Justin Beiber wannabes don’t stand a change.
If you’ve got a mouth, use it, for fuck’s sake! As far as the ‘mice’ go, who the hell cares? The mice will always be with us, OP, get over it.
May I borrow your wife next time I get into a tight situation OP? She sounds like a handy lady to have around.
I’m with TTFN. Shout..Shout..Let it all out.
they probably thought it was a line to get some brains o.p., seeing as they have very little there, to begin with.
I have no problem calling these asshats out on their shit. *shrug*
As a fan of “Mr. Callaghan”, I fully endorse Victor’s post.
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx3nmyLh…
THE COWARD ON BISCAYNE BOULEVARD
I had just come out of the motel on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami and was standing on the corner in broad daylight waiting for the traffic lights to change. Then a woman came running out from across the street being chased by a chunky individual yelling curses at her. He caught up to her right next to me, got her down on the pavement, and started punching her violently. I was stunned, frozen to the spot, and did nothing. It was over in an instant. The cops were notified and took statements from a couple of witnesses, me included. I described what I saw and the fact that I did not interfere. Another guy, another witness I guess, gave me the fish eye.
I met the woman the next day. It turned out that she was a prostitute and seemed quite unconcerned by it all. In fact she was laughing about it, revealing that she had no teeth. It wasn’t her first encounter with the guy but her madam, who was with her, said that he was known to the police for similar incidents and she was taking him to court.
So, was I a coward? (“Coward, n. faint-hearted, pusillanimous.” Concise Oxford Dictionary) Or should I have jumped in, started punching, and rolled around with the attacker on Biscayne Boulevard? He looked like a low-life and may have had a gun or a knife. What then? Or was I, like the rest of the people in the bitch, just a coward? I wouldn’t like to think so but then you never know. I realize that the commenters, heroes all to a man, will now come on saying how thay would have given the guy the old one-two but something tells me that things would not have been that different. But then, maybe they would.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
I’m just surprised that you were staying in something as plebeian as a motel on Biscayne Blvd.
Those lines are usually pretty congested. Did you ever consider just tripping them?
RSVP
: Ivan, Master & Commander (05/08, 10:25AM)
That wasn’t the best of it. Prior to the motel we were tenting in an RV park also on Biscayne Blvd (!) which looked pretty good in the CAA campground book back in Montreal. However, things didn’t quite turn out as planned. There we were in our little 7’X7′ tent sandwiched between mamoth motor homes – this was some time ago I hasten to add – most of which were owned by permanent “campers.” Faces used to appear in the curtained windows looking down (in every sense) on us.
I believe the motel itself was used for, um, professional purposes since the lady and the madam appeared the next morning, also from across the road. My guess was that the “girls” were housed across the street and normally ventured over to the motel when the appropriate activities were about to commence. The thug must have been making an informal morning visit when things went wrong. (Incidentally, we also unsuspectingly stayed in another brothel, this time in Paris. Throughout the night there were shrieks of laughter as the girls and their customers ran up and down the hall outside our door. But, of course, that’s not all they did. Anyway, the receptionist at the desk, a stout, elderly but highly-made up and coiffeured lady, actually carried a white toy poodle and the bathroom fixtures, including the bidet, were in black marble, always a dead give-away. I wondered why she looked at us oddly but soon the penny dropped.)
But the point of my post (if there was one) was to suggest that one really never does know how one will react in a situation like that. In any case, whistling or verbal advice to get to the back of the line wouldn’t have done much good.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
I’m sure that Biscayne Boulevard is the line of demarcation between Miami’s Gallery, Theatre AND Red Light districts. Again, I have no trouble picturing the good Professor in a brothel. Any number of Carry On movies have employed that particular plot device to full effect. What I cannot wrap my head around is the concept Montrealman in a tent , let alone at a campsite. My entire worldview is crashing down around me.
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/J0J9FdN8oqA/0.jpg
Perhaps you should stay on topic, MM. I don’t think that some kids cutting in line, and a hooker being savagely beaten by a thug is even remotely related. But nice story nonetheless. I’m surprised that someone with such disdain for the underclass would have such a penchant for houses of ill repute.
Op…they aren’t mice those types are sheep…& its because of this timid animals natural instinct to clump up in a group & do nothing…that Sheeple has become a discriptive word for those types of people.
As for butting in, you can butt in line any time you want . But I won’t put up with it & I’ll make it perfectly clear.
OB probably thought he/she was being cyber-bullied and cried for government legislation.
RSVPs
: Ivan Captain & Commander (05/08, 3:56PM)
“What I cannot wrap my mind around is Montrealman in a tent let alone a campsite.”
Well Ivan, I take your point but you must not suppose that tents and campsites are irretrievably Under Class. Generally speaking this might be so but in my particular case you must think of “THE PHILOSOPHER IN THE TENT!” There is a common misconception which maintains that class (intelligence) and wealth (Sybaritic luxury) are in an inverse relationship but I think this is mistaken. In any case we are extremely private people and abhor indiscriminate public accomodation in principle but our hand was forced. As I indicated previously, this was some time ago and we have now graduated to a 15′ fibreglass Trillium trailer (1977 vintage). So far there have been no misadventures with brothels but I’ll keep you posted.
: Stephen Harper (4:25PM)
“I don’t think that kids cutting in line and a hooker being savagely beaten by a thug is even remotely related.”
Of course, Stephen, that is true, but you have missed the relationship which resides rather in one’s reaction to the two events, not the events themselves. One’s reaction might be cowardly or courageous as the case might be but the point (as in the bitch) remains the same -how would you react?
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
‘in my particular case you must think of “THE PHILOSOPHER IN THE TENT!”‘
Right. Are the silhouettes on the canvas, reality? Or merely reality filtered through the perspective of the philosopher? What next? “THE AESTHETE AT THE BOWLING ALLEY” or maybe “THE STOIC PLAYING MINI-GOLF”. How about “KIERKEGAARD IN BRANSON, MISSOURI”. The mind doth boggle.
I’d have figured you for an Airstream man.
RSVP
: Ivan, Master & Commander (05/09, 8:00AM)
All excellent questions, Ivan, and your analogy is very Platonic, i.e. the shadows on the cave wall in The Republic, and all that. The congruence (or lack of it) between perception (the silhouettes on the canvas) and reality (the unperceived “thing-in-itself”) is of course epistemologically foundational, i.e., one’s answer to that question will largely determine one’s position on all the others. Do you have a reflected position on the perception-reality question? Are you prepared to defend it?
Airstreams are classics but are still being made. Vintage Trilliums, on the other hand, are classics as well but are no longer being made. This is an important difference.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!