Peoples' Bad Habits Continued
The last post was about lazy people. This is about selfish ones. Many of the examples overlap and involve both characteristics. You could do a list of selfish ones from driving habits or cell phone use alone so I include just a few here.
What do you think of people who (no particular order):
- Don't give a damn about other drivers. They won't let you in. They don't thank you if you let them in. They take 2 parking spots to protect their special baby. We need "Bone Head Onboard" stickers for their back windows. The previous post cited people who are too lazy to correct their bad parking. This one is about those who take 2 spots deliberately.
- Queue jumpers in any situation. I call them out whenever I can. If you don't queue it's like watching seagulls or pigeons being fed in a parking lot!
- People who pee or defecate on a toilet seat then walk away. Others plug the toilet with paper towels they used to avoid any skin contact. Covering the seat is OK but please put paper towels in the trash. To protect their ass hole they are acting like one.
- With COVID-19 there is an entire class on its own - the unvaccinated. No need to expand on this one except for one point: in this case selfishness kills!
- Golfers who take 6 practice swings/putts holding up every other golfer on the course. Sometimes it is a foursome and they all do it. Then they miss the fairway or cup entirely.
- Those who stop dead in the middle of an aisle or at the bottom of an escalator with no thought that there might be others around them. Try this while driving. OOPS. Many already do.
- This one will get a reaction for sure. How about people who can't leave their phone alone the moment it makes a sound in the middle of a conversation. Also those who use it while talking in a very loud voice in public. Which came first - diagnoses of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or Cell Phones?
- Once again phone users who still persist in using their phone while driving. This can and does have fatal consequences. Nothing less than hands free is acceptable, even at a red light. You might as well drive with a blindfold on, ear protectors, and your hands tied.
- People who filled their carts with toilet paper, hand sanitizer, masks etc. when COVID-19 hit. This has passed but it will return for sure. Thankfully some retailers took action to quell this trend. Do these folks keep their seat on a bus/subway when a 95 year old senior with 2 crutches gets tossed around in front of them? Probably (maybe they are too busy on their cell phone.)
- Guests at a dinner for Christmas etc. who, after their plates are full, start to eat before everyone is served, especially the hosts. Good hosts will probably say to go ahead but it is polite to wait just the same.
As usual, please comment with your own.
It is great to be so perfect!!
Smarten up People. Really?
This list could easily double or triple in size but 10 is a nice round number. Perhaps I am too lazy to come up with a longer list when I know that most people are too lazy to read more than a Tweet. These affect me and probably you almost every day.
If you are guilty of any of these you deserve a special place in Hell, especially if you use that old standby about providing a job for someone. These are in no particular order.
Are you annoyed by people who:
- Leave shopping carts that are hidden between 2 parked cars. You only see them when you attempt to snag what appears to be a lucky spot just for you! I often return them. Do you?
- Deposit groceries, especially frozen ones, which they no longer want or can't afford, so they just dump them anywhere - usually many aisles from where they belong.
- Remove clothes from hangers or packages to try on or examine only to leave them in a heap on top of others.
- Are litterbugs when a trash bin is only steps away. Burning at the stake in Hell is reserved for those who spit out their chewing gum in this manner.
- Toss their butts out the car window. The burning stake in Hell again if it is still lit. Look at today's forest fires. Lazy AND stupid.
- Are too lazy to get a moderate amount of personal exercise daily. OK, this only affects the rest of us in terms of our medical and insurance rates being high. But they could live so much better lives if just a half hour brisk walk was part of their daily routine.
- Park their cars at ridiculous angles and nowhere near the centre of their spot. This makes it difficult for the adjacent car to park and results in door chips and dents. A second attempt will normally fix the problem.
- Don't bother to keep tissues with them in which to cough or sneeze. If they forget, then coughing into their sleeve or coat/jacket is acceptable. This is selfish and rude in addition to lazy. I confess to sometimes forgetting the tissues.
- Won't keep their own trash until their pickup day. Instead they dump it when a bag is full into a public trash bin or business dumpster paid for by others. Once again, also selfish.
- Don't keep their properties at least as neat and tidy as their surrounding neighbours' places thus becoming an eyesore.
In the next post the annoying characteristic will be selfishness instead of laziness although there is often an overlap!
Feel free to contribute your own.
#thebrewsterblock
Music of any form is: What you want it to be!
I was just reviewing an interview from 2019 between commentator Ben Shapiro and rapper Zuby. Shapiro had maintained several times that Rap was not music! It was not popular. Naturally Zuby disagreed.
It did remind me of thoughts and pieces I have written in the past of a similar nature. I am not a Rap fan - so what? Many people are.
I am sure most of you had similar disagreements with your parents about the latest music trends compared to the "old" days. I started to follow pop music in the '50s - it was Rock and Roll. The only thing my folks rolled was their eyes at the claim that this was music! We in turn were not exactly fond of Frank Sinatra, Lawrence Welk, or '40s music like big bands. However even then I did not question that it constituted music - just square music!
Shapiro tried to define requirements for the label of "music" citing harmony, melody, and rhythm. Surely your priority as a fan or listener is what you like or what sounds or feels good to you. When I first heard Rap I had similar thoughts - how can such a monotone repetition of really bad poetry with a mechanically produced background pass for music? The basic problem for me was that there was no singing and since the performer didn't play anything, no talent was required.
The other day I heard one and have no idea of the performer's background, skin colour, or political beliefs. It consisted of a total monotone - one note. If there were two he was sharp or flat on one of them! So to me TALENT is a mandatory element and all Rap required was speaking rapidly. Fans argue that it has a message. So does almost any lyric.
OK, OK. I know that riled a few people. Let me continue. The debate requires a little more of a broad perspective. I once thought that Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen were terrible, not singing real music. Now I realize how wrong I was.
So consider these points:
Classical music seldom involves lyrics or vocalists but who would ever say that Beethoven and Mozart did not play music? What they did have was immense talent. The same goes for big bands and marching bands. You might not listen to them but it is clearly music.
Have you ever heard a very moving piece sung a cappello such as a national anthem? Think of Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, or even Frank Sinatra. They use their raw talent and magnificently trained (YEARS of it) vocal chords to leave you spellbound - with no harmony or rhythm. This is not music? Of course it is - so is a soprano or tenor singing a solo.
As to rhythm alone, have you heard solo efforts by any of drummers John Bonham; Buddy Rich; Keith Moon; or Max Weinberg to name a few? These are also music. If you tapped your foot or gyrated along with it, it was music! Listen to a steel drum/pan group and see if you disagree.
Another point - today you can use computer hardware and software to produce any of these. Does that also disqualify it as music? I don't think so. Great producers do this when working with singers or instrumentalists and the result is indeed great music.
Let us not forget those pieces that were immensely popular but made no real sense at all! Listen to Whiter Shade of Pale; American Pie; Wooly Bully. Others repeat lines and phrases over and over like Hey Jude; Roxanne; Chain of Fools; Ain't No Sunshine; and again Wooly Bully. This would debunk the belief that a deep or moving message is also required.
In conclusion if you have a recognized talent in any of the above singly or in combination then you are making music. When people dance or sing or clap to accompany you - same conclusion.
So you can decide for yourself if Rap or any other verbal or instrumental expression is music. If you dig it or can jive to it, who cares?
#thebrewsterblock
