Random Weird Moments, Part II

Every once in a while there's someone engaged in a troubling distraction in the close confines of public transit. For example, last year, I'd been riding the N Judah from downtown out to the Sunset, and suddenly there was this middle aged Asian guy (balding, stocky, but not fat), running back and forth between the front and back of the car going, in a baritone:

AAAAAAHH! AAAAHHHHHH!! AAAIIIIAAAHHHGHHGGGGG!!!

He was yelling plenty loudly enough to make it obvious that every single person in the bus (iPod or not) was actively ignoring him, in the hope that the screaming would be the worst of it. The yelling and running kept up for a little while, then suddenly, a guy in his 20s yelled:

SHUT UP!

Then something wonderful happened. The crazy Asian guy actually shut up. He sat down and spent the rest of his ride nodding and mumbling busily to himself.

Maybe I'll try this yelling shut up thing sometime.

Random Weird Moments Part I

You know those weird things that happen that have no particular context?

Some evening a while ago, I was riding the 44 O'Shaugnessy from Glen Park to 9th and Judah. Shortly after I boarded, two 20-30 year old women came on and sat on a front bench, opened their cellphones, and started talking a little loudly. Kind of: yap yap yap riiiiiight oh my god sure sure yap yap yap oooo really? ....

After a minute or so, the driver abruptly stopped the bus and turned around to face the two of them. He said: "If you ol' bitches don't shut up and stop makin' this an unpleasant environment for everybody I'm goin' throw you off this bus."

You haven't seen two women on cellphones taken more aback in your life, I bet.

The one in front piped up semi-assertively, "Excuse me, did you just call me a bitch?"

"Yeah, bitch," he said. "Now you shut up or get off my bus."

They folded up their phones and sat quietly, making unhappy faces, and the driver resumed his route. I have to admit, one less person talking audibly into a cellphone anywhere near me is one more person I don't mind being around.