annoying people

Mike Mennonno gets to thinking about rage after a lunchtime encounter yesterday with a man who erupted into one on the Common:

... When he went rabid, everyone sort of skittered away from him instinctively, careful to avert their eyes and avoid any jerky motions that might cause him to lunge at them, too. No one was harmed. The rage zombie -- he was just like one of the infected in 28 Days Later -- raged on some more but kept moving down the path.

There was a collective nervous chuckle when we'd reached a safe distance, like, WTF? Like when you pass someone walking a big dog on a leash, and the dog looks perfectly under control, but lunges at you suddenly as you pass close by, barking and snarling and going crazy for no apparent reason. Only better: this guy wasn't on a leash. That adrenaline rush puts some pep in your step. Better than a Red Bull.

All the rest of the way to work, it played over and over in my head. That poor sod a few paces in front of me. What if the rageoid hadn't just barked at him? What if he'd taken a bite? ...

Here's a photo of the guy who's been scamming sympathetic Red Line riders by giving them a copy of the Metro or the Dig or God knows what instead of Spare Change News when they hand over a dollar (or more, since he begs for additional funds).

Sarah reports her boyfriend was a victim of a Spare Change duper at the Davis Square T stop yesterday: He gave the guy a dollar (and another dollar because, well, he was also panhandling) and, instead of Spare Change News, the guy gave him some other, free, paper.

Area B-2 has posted its most recent party report, covering the period from Jan. 30 to Feb. 8: 16 parties where people had to be told to quiet down, four arrests, one criminal summons and 14 civil citations.

Officials feel compelled to warn people after a Hingham firefighter got sent to the hospital for a checkup after rescuing some fool dog in Hingham Harbor yesterday:

Firefighters donned cold water rescue suits and had to battle their way through ice and slush to reach the dog.

Officials say firefighters risk their lives going into open ocean water so that pet owners don't try it themselves, which would cause even more problems.

Mr. D, who teaches math at a Boston-area high school, wonders how he can get otherwise well behaved male students to stop ripping apart the restroom:

... Besides people peeing all over the toilets and floors (and usually not flushing what actually gets inside the bowl), every few days all of the toilet paper and paper towel rolls are shoved into every urine-filled toilet. A door was broken off its hinges as well. This was actually a new bathroom after the old ones were closed due to students causing flooding in one and taping the garbage can to the ceiling in the other (among other incidents). ...

Save My Spot in Southie.

I love this passive-aggressive note (hey, at least the aggrieved person left a note rather than hauling out a tire iron or something).

This is just the sort of thing people in Dorchester complain about.

Arielle, who moved here from New York, says Bostonians are wussy drinkers:

... In Boston, people drink to get drunk. I know what you're thinking - hellooooo, New Yorkers drink to get drunk too. This is true, but New Yorkers add another dimension to it; they drink to get drunk AND do awesomely ridiculous things. Bostonians stop short of this last bit. ...

I can't even remember the amount of times I've listening to someone in Boston talk about the night before and say something like, "Oh man, so-and-so was sooo drunk, he had to be taken home early." And they say this with AWE! And ADMIRATION! It's like, oooh they maxed out on their drinking so they must be FUCKING AWESOME! If a New Yorker hears about someone who had to go home early, you know what they think about the situation? "FAIL!!!" Because hello, you did a stupid thing and you missed out on a night of partying. When someone in New York goes home early, they APOLOGIZE the next day. ...

Rob Bellinger lets loose with a good ranty barrage against suburbanites, from the annoying way they stock up on touristy trinkets downtown to their general ignorance:

... Last weekend I was in a bar in Quincy when a secretary from the suburb of Abington, wherever that may be, tried to hit on me (or otherwise talked to me for some reason). She asked me where I lived. "Oh," she said. "There's some nice parts in Somerville, I guess." Like you would fucking know. For all these people, the city is the place they drive through or take the T under on their way to their own personal disneyland. ...

Y Combinator, which provided initial funding for high-tech startups, is moving permanently to Silicon Valley. Co-founder Paul Graham writes it had more to do with that part of California being a better place to raise a kid than Cambridge - he's about to become a father. But he adds:

... I think it will be better for the startups we fund to all be in the Valley. We never tried to claim to the startups in the summer cycles that it was a net advantage to be in Boston. The most we could claim was that we could mitigate the disadvantages sufficiently well—for example, by flying everyone out to California to present to investors at our Mountain View office. But we did worry that the Boston groups were losing out. Boston just doesn't have the startup culture that the Valley does. It has more startup culture than anywhere else, but the gap between number 1 and number 2 is huge; nothing makes that clearer than alternating between them. ...

Via Tom Summit, who writes:

... It was annoying when TechCrunch "discovered" Y Combinator and Hacker News and claimed them as one of their own even though it originated in Boston. It is now even more annoying to think that it is now true.

Stay in MA tries to stem the tide.

Four months of construction hell that will make you wish you could just burn the whole building down.

In case you missed it, and in case you're driven nuts by people who shovel their driveways onto the sidewalk or street, you have to read Swirlygrrl's Special Queen Snowflake story.

The Avenger discusses her neighbors, one of whom had "Asshole" keyed into her car when she parked in a shoveled, but unclaimed spot, another of whom refuses to shovel his walk:

... After the snow packs down due to foot traffic it turns to ice. I nearly died there one day so I took it upon myself. I wrote on an envelope " Shovel please" and strategically placed it. I should have known, the note never disappeared and no shoveling happened. How people can be so ignorant stuns me. They take the time to shovel a spot and leave their sidewalk shear ice. ...

Don't respond to their middle finger with one of your own - it's just what they'd expect. Instead, learn from Brian McPherson's experience with a couple of Massholes irate at his daring to cross Columbia Road in Dorchester in front of them:

... They started screaming at me in Spanish and giving me the finger. I stopped in front of their vehicle and gave them a genuine smile and wave. This really got them angry. They then whipped past me and I continued to smile and wave. They then stopped in the middle of Columbia road and continued to yell at me while I continued to, you guessed it, smile and wave. ahhh. Now if they were really in such a hurry why would they have time to stop?

Its so gratifying being so happy and friendly and it seriously pisses people off. ...

A couple weeks ago, I saw some guys driving this vehicle into the parking lot of Home Depot. You'll note a full set of emergency lights and sirens (in the hood.) That siren is illegal, and so are the lights; they require a permit to be on the vehicle (which requires application by the chief of a fire department), and they require an active police officer or fire fighter, responding to a call as part of their job, to use. The vehicle is also clearly painted and lettered to give the impression that it's somehow an official vehicle.

While it is wonderful to see a group providing "canteen" services to fire fighters and doing it via donations, a)isn't this something the city should be doing anyway (in some sort of capacity), and b)why do they need lights and sirens to get hot coffee to a fire?

BehindDarkEyes photographed the ad-hoc sign somebody put up in the elevator in her Brighton apartment building the other day - before somebody else took it down.

Unlike on my Rozzie street, where neighbors help each other out for the sheer neighborly joy of it all, Jason reports things work a little differently on his South Boston street. Like, you might have to resort to a threat or two after you spot your neighbor shoveling out his car right onto the sidewalk in front of your house.

With roughly 0.08 inches of snow on the ground, a Southie Masshole marked his territory today.

Miss Von Schtoop is getting very annoyed with lunkheads with messenger bags slung around their shoulders:

... The other day I was sitting next to a young woman who was in the aisle seat. First she got clocked under the chin by a dopey rider swinging an oversized tote under her arm. She then got a thwack on the back of the head from the same dopey rider who wanted to shift the bag to the other shoulder.

And the bag swinger knew she bonked the seated passenger because she then told her to "ooh, mind!" as if her massive tote was its own entity for which she wasn't responsible. ...

Elsie discusses an encounter with an evil woman in the boot department at Marshall's in Canton:

... Just as I made it to the end of the aisle she came around whipping around the corner and attempted to put her carriage between me and the boot display I was already reaching towards (mind you there was only about 10 inches of space). I will not go in to the fact that people with carriages in the shoe department are a huge pet peeve of mine to begin with. She said "excuse me", smirked and inched her carriage forward, obviously delusional in thinking that I may possibly would move out of the way so she could move right in front of me. I was not going to be taken by this pathetic attempt to intercept the boots. I smiled and said "oh why of course and then proceeded to move so close to the shelving unit my ovaries were being squished into some aingers thus forcing her to proceed behind me. ...

Earlier: Guerilla shopping techniques at TJ Maxx.

The Berkeley Beacon reports the Gypsy Bar on Boylston Street bar is complaining about chain-smoking, loitering Emerson students clogging up the sidewalk in front of its doors:

... Though no official report was filed, Emerson Police Chief George Noonan said he would like to see Emersonians respect the wishes of the college's neighbors. Officers have begun asking students to move out from the storefront.

The problem, said day manager Tanya Cavazza, is when students don't move even after she and the delivery people ask. ...

The paper quotes students who basically say, tough, the bar sucks:

... Students interviewed said they didn't care if the managers were complaining about them smoking in front of their door, since the people who go to the bar are equally disruptive to the Emerson community.

"Well, we're complaining about assholes blocking the street, getting drunk and [getting] in fights," said junior theatre studies major Brian Tweedy as he stood in front of the Gypsy Bar's doorway. "[Emerson] should give us somewhere that's convenient to smoke." ...

Via MassCops.

Spatch is not happy with whoever's remodeling the kitchen in the apartment under his:

... [P]ower drills are whirring and things are getting hammered and slammed and pulled down and stuff.

At 7:30 in the goddamn morning. On a Sunday. ...

Alicia has a verbal run-in with one of the Youth of Today at the Downtown Crossing T stop.

Sarah shares some secrets, but warns if you try any of them on her, she'll cut you.

Channel 7 reports 12 families were forced out of the three-story building today.

Pahkcah02, who lives in the same complex, reports what happened when she returned from a trip to the supermarket to find the road to her place blocked:

... I rolled down my window, explained to the sergeant that I lived in that complex and he proceeded to scream at me for about 2 minutes before I drove away. After safely pulling over to the side of the road, I called the Canton police non-emergency line and was informed that there was large fire in the building next to mine.

Obviously I was concerned for people's safety. Having said that, it would've been nice if the folks over at Canton emergency services (the ones who recently demanded an additional 2.5% of my money - obviously none of this money went to pay for sensitivity training) could've explained everything to me before a full-blown panic attack set in. ...