Comments on Cell Phones, Public Flossing and Other Violations of the Rules

Well said.

Not to be a jackass, but you mention semi-private space as your second "space" and then again as your fourth that we must invision.

Aside from that nitpick, I entirely agree with you.

Can't say I really needed 500 words to tell me what I already knew... but well put anyway.

Amen.

Your analysis is for the most part right on, but what are you doing complaining about public farting? While I find it as gross as most people do (at least if it's audible, which can be controlled), you're complaining about something which is involuntary. You might as well complain about sneezing in public, even if people do that into tissues or handkerchiefs. And sometimes you just have to fly with a baby. Hopefully you're prepared but the pressure change can be hard on the ears and little kids don't know any better way to deal with pain and discomfort. Sorry, folks, but sometimes you just have to deal with those sorts of things. They're not like yakking at the top of your lungs into your cell.

@5 Wait a sec. Farting is involuntary? Really? I'm like a Japanese woman--I'd usually rather die than just let one rip in public. Unless I'm in pain. Is that too much info? Sorry folks. At least I'm not screaming this into a cell phone at the airport.

I'm with you re: the babies, though.

@6, Like I said, you can be discreet. Or maybe you can hold it just long enough but that's a gamble.

You have an expectation of being "left the fuck alone" on the bus or on the street? Good luck with that....

I find it hard to believe that sitting through those phone conversations was anywhere near as annoying as being accosted for money by someone who smells like a pisser, but panhandling is apparently a protected activity.

Being annoyed may indeed be a rational response. Acting like cell phone lady's actions were somehow a personal attack is pretty much just standard Savage self-absorption...

Here, here, brother dear.

@2, I think that one was supposed to be semi-private and the other semi-public.

@8, if you have never entertained fantasies of killing someone who is talking at an incredibly loud volume in a space you are not entirely free to leave, you may not be human at all.

I think we've learned something about Matt from Denver's ability, or lack thereof, to contain his gas. Matt, farts are not involuntary for others. Your lack of control is not normal. Forgivable, yes - there are folks who can't physically hold it. But most can.

I think there is something about phone conversations that is more annoying because they are one-sided. I have no proof, but it seems easier to filter out a conversation when all parties are present.

I've certainly been in restaurants with lots of loud conversations that didn't seem as annoying as the person riding a bus explaining the complete details of last night's date to whomever is on the other end of the phone.

#6 - "I would rather die than fart"

Honey, need to start with your own repressed stuff. Farting is natural, just one body like all other bodies.

That phrase is very telling of a tight assed prig. Talk with some real people who do not fart with glee, but know it is just gas and as natural as licking you lips.

Get help for body images problems and repression.

And for the rest of you spoiled up tight white people, how about live and let live. All on the planet together and today it her crying baby and tomorrow yours.

Not to mention the all human universe faring and diarhea, dandruff, and needing to pee often.

So to where am I transported when someone's dog is running loose in the fucking bar I'm trying to relax in?

This is an interesting idea, that farts can bend space itself and therefore time as well.

@14. Oh, Earl. I guess I have to put J/K!!!! after every one of my posts. Who seriously says they'd rather die than fart in public? I didn't. If you're honestly going to quote someone and build an entire self-righteous post on it, then perhaps you should quote accurately. Look at it again, sweetie pie. And ripping one is different that discreetly letting one go. But thanks, Earth Brother, for trying.

Peace.

@ 12, you may be blessed with an intestinal tract that is completely under your mental control, but actual human beings are pretty helpless when it comes to gas. Or you may be graced with an iron sphincter but the rest of humanity can't seal up tight, at least not for long. So let us hail your superhuman ability in that area and hope that you breed copiously so that one day there will be no public farting. Until then, we'll all have to be discreet. Ciao!

Please remove "in public" from my 3rd sentence.

That is all.

Hey Matt- I love your comments and respect you immensely as a slogger!

That said, I'm concerned that you're very wrong about farting. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people aren't farting without control. Most people can and do control it.

I only say this because you seem nice and great and maybe you should see somebody about your wild farting?

Boys, boys...

The lesson here? No elevator rides or road trips with Matt from Denver.

(I hope when you spoon your back is on the edge of the bed. eeeewww.)

Part of what makes loud in-person conversations less annoying is that even the most clueless people unconsciously modulate what and when and how loudly they say something to fit the situation. Because their conversation is taking place in their physical surroundings, they too are to some degree present in their physical surroundings. People on cell phones are in Cell Phone World. Mentally they are in a private bubble that consists of them and their conversational partner.

Having said that, I also agree with the people who mention the one-sidedness. There's something really unnerving about walking past a silent person and have them start shouting when you're inches away.

@2: Thanks, fixed it.

I think many people in "semi-private" spaces fall into "if I close my eyes, you can't see me" kind of thinking. Like "I can't possibly be annoying people by talking loud, I'm in faraway cellphone land!" and "Nobody can smell my farts when I'm listening to my iPod!" Magic!

I think that semi-private, semi-public places kind also be divided up into two categories based on appropriate volume. A noisy sports bar, or a club, versus a library, cafe, etc.

"Your home (where no one can go unless invited"

Attention, Chicago Fan : The Religious Right would like to speak with you. Please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone. Thank you.

people who transform the semi-private spaces of our shared public realm into their own little private worlds are petty tyrants who must be resisted.

That's exactly what I told Sen. Craig.