What Grinds My Gears
If there’s one thing I categorically cannot abide, it’s a stupid person—whom I usually have the good breeding and grace to ignore, because arguing with an irrational person completely devoid of common sense is like trying to unstick gum from your hair. And to me, smoking is the EPITOME of stupidity. This morning, losing all grace and said good breeding, I yelled at a woman for tossing her cigarette butt callously into the street. As she wriggled her skinny tuckus away, I searched desperately for the absolutely worst epithet I could think of. “AND … YOU’RE FAT!”
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Adelin said,
August 15, 2006 at 12:31 pm
You think unsticking gum from your hair is hard? Try Vicks!
Lynn in Tucson said,
August 15, 2006 at 1:27 pm
The other day I kindly pointed out a trash can to a woman who, standing TWO FEET from said can, had tossed her cigarette in the street.
“Mandé?” she said to me in Spanish, not understanding.
“Hay la BASURA! AQUI!” I repeated, quite proud to be bilingual.
thissinglespark said,
August 15, 2006 at 2:42 pm
I hear ya, sister. Cannot cannot cannot stand smoking, though I’ll admit to having sucked back a few in my youth, being both young AND stupid. But I learned. Broke up with a perfectly nice guy when I was 26 because he, an asthmatic, made it through those troublesome teen years only to start smoking at age 28. There were other problems in the relationship, but his taking up smoking crushed all the respect I had for him like the nasty butt under his shoe. That, and he asked me to get rid of my cat because she “bothered his allergies.” The nerve.
Gina said,
August 15, 2006 at 7:35 pm
I share your disdain for smokers and litterers, but to think that being fat is the worst epithet is rather callous and offensive.
Jasmin said,
August 15, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Reposted from e-mail:
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As someone who was told and made to feel she was too fat all her life, it was the first thing that came to mind.
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Addendum: We cleared it up over e-mail; it’s hard to convey meaning and tone of voice with plain text. Plus, I’m still working on my self-control. It’s a Sisyphean task.