I have to preface this with a confession. I am a Grammar Nazi. Errors in grammar and usage committed by OTHER PEOPLE make my skin crawl, and I have to bite my tongue to not correct them. I have much more tolerance for my own mistakes.
The other day my wife and I went out for breakfast. Our server was excellent. He didn't disappear for long periods of time, When we asked for something, it was quickly delivered. It was good service and he earned the good tip we gave him.
More than once we asked for something, and his response was "No problem." While that would not be my choice of words it certainly did not cause the aforementioned skin crawling. In that instance it is just a substitute for 'Yes'.
However, when he would deliver something to the table, refill our coffee or water, and one of us would say "Thank you", his response was the same, "No problem".
"No problem" is not the same as "You're welcome".
Petty? Of course it is, and yes I am an old fart. I was not particularly polite as a young man but I have grown to appreciate certain niceties that grease the wheels of society. Among those are "please", "thank you" and "you're welcome". While "no problem" could be an acceptable answer to the question "May I have another cup of coffee?", it is not a response to "thank you".
This concludes my petty peeve for the day.
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Showing posts with label manners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manners. Show all posts
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Sunday, September 15, 2013
There is something you can do
When I commute into the city, I drive the casual carpool. I pick up riders at the Park and Ride in the morning, and on Beal Street in the afternoon. On the return trip I use the carpool on ramp, and it is one of those ramps with two lanes that merge into one. It also has three lanes feeding into two at the beginning of the ramp. So those of us coming from the Beal Street pickup point have to merge twice.
Every now and then some asshole in the lane to my right will tailgate the car in front of him, making the merge impossible. They refuse to let a car merge in front of them. Yes, this is rude behavior, and I try to never reward rude behavior, but in these circumstances there is nothing I can do. The key word of the phrase is 'I', there is nothing that I can do. That does not mean there is nothing to be done.
As we were approaching the entrance to the freeway, I noticed it happening again. Not to me this time, but to the car to my left. The car following me was right on my ass, doing everything they could to prevent the car in the other lane from merging. So I did something about it.
Although the white line was gone, the lane was still wide enough for two cars. I moved to the right, as far as I could. I slowed down (hard to slow down much more, it was stop and go already). I did that until the car on my left realized I was making space for them, and they pulled up beside me.
They were not even with me, they were about a third of a way from parallel. It was enough. I slipped in front of them and they followed me onto the freeway. There was nothing that they could have done about it, but there was something I could. So I did.
You could too.
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Every now and then some asshole in the lane to my right will tailgate the car in front of him, making the merge impossible. They refuse to let a car merge in front of them. Yes, this is rude behavior, and I try to never reward rude behavior, but in these circumstances there is nothing I can do. The key word of the phrase is 'I', there is nothing that I can do. That does not mean there is nothing to be done.
As we were approaching the entrance to the freeway, I noticed it happening again. Not to me this time, but to the car to my left. The car following me was right on my ass, doing everything they could to prevent the car in the other lane from merging. So I did something about it.
Although the white line was gone, the lane was still wide enough for two cars. I moved to the right, as far as I could. I slowed down (hard to slow down much more, it was stop and go already). I did that until the car on my left realized I was making space for them, and they pulled up beside me.
They were not even with me, they were about a third of a way from parallel. It was enough. I slipped in front of them and they followed me onto the freeway. There was nothing that they could have done about it, but there was something I could. So I did.
You could too.
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Friday, August 23, 2013
I was reminded today...
why it is, I will almost never yield the right-of-way to a taxi.
I was driving down Mission Street during rush hour. Traffic was not awful, but it was not light either. I was stopped at a traffic light. The cross street was a two way street, I think it was 4th but it could have been 5th or 3rd. It was a block from the Metreon.
A taxi was approaching in the right lane, and as the car in front of me was not tailgating, he managed to wedge his nose into the space between him and the car in front of him. When the light changed and the lead car entered the intersection, the taxi finished pulling into the lane and promptly signaled for a left turn.
Of course, nobody else made the light. This is Mission Street at rush hour, the taxi was not going to be able to make the turn until the light changed. I knew it, the driver in front of me knew it, the taxi driver knew it.
So he knew before he did that he was not going to make his turn any faster, but he would block anyone else from making the light. There was nobody behind me when he got there, he could have easily pulled in there. But that did not give him the opportunity to be an asshole.
What can we do about it, other than encourage everyone to tailgate? How about this.
If you are in a taxi, and the driver does something like that, something rude and completely unnecessary. Don't give him a tip. And then, when you pay him, tell him why you didn't give him a tip.
A long time ago, I read a quote from Larry Ellison. I do not know if it was a real quote, or something made up by someone who didn't like him. The quote was, "It is not enough to win, somebody has to lose". But my point is that there are enough people with that attitude, that taxi drivers will still get tips from people who think being an asshole is manly. So maybe it will not change anything.
But wouldn't it feel great?
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I was driving down Mission Street during rush hour. Traffic was not awful, but it was not light either. I was stopped at a traffic light. The cross street was a two way street, I think it was 4th but it could have been 5th or 3rd. It was a block from the Metreon.
A taxi was approaching in the right lane, and as the car in front of me was not tailgating, he managed to wedge his nose into the space between him and the car in front of him. When the light changed and the lead car entered the intersection, the taxi finished pulling into the lane and promptly signaled for a left turn.
Of course, nobody else made the light. This is Mission Street at rush hour, the taxi was not going to be able to make the turn until the light changed. I knew it, the driver in front of me knew it, the taxi driver knew it.
So he knew before he did that he was not going to make his turn any faster, but he would block anyone else from making the light. There was nobody behind me when he got there, he could have easily pulled in there. But that did not give him the opportunity to be an asshole.
What can we do about it, other than encourage everyone to tailgate? How about this.
If you are in a taxi, and the driver does something like that, something rude and completely unnecessary. Don't give him a tip. And then, when you pay him, tell him why you didn't give him a tip.
A long time ago, I read a quote from Larry Ellison. I do not know if it was a real quote, or something made up by someone who didn't like him. The quote was, "It is not enough to win, somebody has to lose". But my point is that there are enough people with that attitude, that taxi drivers will still get tips from people who think being an asshole is manly. So maybe it will not change anything.
But wouldn't it feel great?
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