Hibbs' thought for the day

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It's said that this week's ACTION and DCU: DECISIONS were also pulped because of some sort of other problem -- ACTION for showing Clark drinking beer on the cover. His bottle is now very glaringly labeled "SODA POP". You just know that Pa Kent has a moonshine still...

But DCU: DECISIONS is even weirder for me -- apparently it was to "de-Condi" one of the candidates, but between solicitation and publication, the cover suddenly now has a piece of graffiti on a wall that says "Heroes don't vote!" which, to me, is like 10,000 times worse than Clark drinking a brew, or Condi in the DCU. To me, I read it as "Hey kids, be a hero: Don't vote!"

*brrr*

God, I have to finish this Tilting I'm writing, more later.

-B

WE'RE LIVING IN A CIVILIZATION!!!!

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To quote George Constanza and all that.

It's really hot in San Francisco this week, kind of unseasonably so. Sure, I understand that it isn't as gross and hot as it is on the EAST coast, but still. Public transportation is even more grueling in High Heat.

With gas prices rising rapidly, more and more people are turning to (or at least considering) public transportation.

I, myself, have always been a bus guy. I don't know how to drive, and while our family has a car (preschooler, kinda have to), I still buy a monthly bus pass every month, and try to use the bus as much as humanly possible.

I don't know if it is just that no one ever taught people (I mean, when I was in elementary school in Brooklyn, they taught us things like "when you're in the library, and you don't know where to reshelve the book, just leave it on the table for the librarian to do -- that's MUCH better than mis-filing it!" Today, I think all they're really concerned about is making sure kids can pass standardized tests...), or if people are just stupid and rude, or what exactly the problem is, but here are some tips if you find yourself on public transportation:

(I apologize that this has nothing to do with comics)

1) If you HAVE to stand RIGHT IN the DOORWAY, at least be aware of your surroundings, and move out of the way as someone approaches the door to exit the vehicle. I really don't understand why people CHOOSE to stand in the door, but jesus, people, please let your fellow passengers use it for its intended purpose.

As a corollary to that, you CAN NOT get upset if you get elbowed, or smacked, or pushed, or yelled at because you're standing in the doorway and aren't letting people go past. The doorway is not an aisle!

2) If you wear a backpack REMOVE IT FROM YOUR BACK ON A CROWDED BUS. Wear it over one shoulder, or, even better, hold it by the loop in your hand. Your full backpack on your back takes up the space of a second person, nimrod, and every time you turn your body, you're smacking people all around you, even though you don't know it.

3) Let people in pain, or children, or the elderly have your seat. Don't be an ass.

4) Unless it is an EMERGENCY, please please please don't talk on the phone. NO ONE wants to hear your half of your conversation, and EVERY SINGLE OTHER person on the bus thinks you're an inconsiderate asshole.

5) If you don't have a bus pass or transfer or equivalent thing that allows you to just stroll onto the bus, it's really inconsiderate to shove other people out of the way to board, then hold up the entire line by fumbling with your fare at the fare box.

There's a lot more, but it all boils down to: don't be an ass; pay attention to your fellow people; be considerate and polite.

Thanks, and have a great day!

-B

What the fuck is wrong with people?

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No seriously, what the fuck IS wrong with people? Yesterday, I went into the store to find out some stupid piece of shit decided to graffiti all over the windows up and down Divisadero st. Graffiti is a part of urban living, I suppose, though it is one that I've never really understood. If 99% of the people who see it can't read it, don't know what it means, don't understand your affiliation, and think you're a ignorant asshole for doing it, then I don't see the benefit whatsoever.

The different between "the usual" graffiti and yesterday's adventure, is that the small-dicked little morons used acid to "etch" the windows, which permanently stains them, and is (as I understand it) impossible to remove without warping the glass. I could spend a couple of hundred dollars to replace the glass (then just have some OTHER idiot hit is a few days later), or I could spend a couple of thousand dollars to get specially coated glass that makes it "impossible" to tag in that way -- but then I'm afraid someone will just throw a brick through the window, y'know?

I'm a child of New York in the 70s, so I appreciate the graffiti ARTIST -- those guys who spent serious time decorating the subway trains? Wonder and awe from me. The big elaborate and colorful pieces on 8x12 foot sections of abandoned walls? There's some urban attraction in that.

But just taking out your dick and randomly spraying piss everywhere? You're a stupid, pathetic piece of shit who should get dumped in prison, and cornholed daily for the crime of being a moron. At the very least, I'd like the punishment to be that a squad of homeless people are dispatched to the taggers room, where they proceed to take a shit over every object the tagger cares about whatsoever. Maybe they'd get it then.

(that would presuppose that there was a reasonable way of catching such shit-heads -- it's not even like we get a police car rolling by the store more than 3 or 4 times a day though. Let alone at 3 AM when they hit nearly every store I checked in a 4 block stretch)

Its not just the vandalism, but society as a whole seems like it is filling up with unsocialized morons faster and faster. On Wednesday, I was taking the bus home, and, as usual for the 24-Divisadero it was pretty unreasonably crowded (Man, remember when Muni was just 25 cents, and busses came every 5 minutes? Now they're $1.50, and you've got to wait 20 minutes between runs). There's two kids on the bus, a brother and sister I think, one maybe 12, the other 14 or so. The 12 year old boy is standing across the aisle, hands on either side of the rails of the bus, making it so no one can get past him at all. People are trying to get on the bus, but he's (consciously) creating a bottleneck. I don't really mind riding in the "driver's area" of the bus, but a lot of people do, and it's not really safe for the driver anyway (can't see his side mirrors), so I say to the kid "Excuse me, could you move in, so everyone else can board?". His sister spins on me and screams "Ain't you never heard of 'please'?". "Uh, yeah, that's what 'excuse me' means" The kid says something about there being no room, and I'm like 3 times his size, and you could fit 4 more of me into the space he's occupying but I don't really care that much -- like I said, I'm cool with being in the driver's area.

Driver isn't though. "MOve in, move in!" he starts to yell at me. "I'd love to, bud, but little man here won't move." Meanwhile his sister is unleashing a steady stream of invective at me in the way that only an ignorant selfish 14 year old that's going to end up with 3 babies by age 19, and will die with a glass pipe in her mouth before she's 30, can. Bus Driver says "The bus isn't moving until everyone moves in!" and the kid finally relents and moves aside while moaning all of the time. At the next stop, they make a big show of getting off the bus.

Children like these need to be slapped. Repeatedly. Where the hell are their parents. You know, when *I* was a kid (again: 70s, New York, not Leave it to Beaver) I don't know of any teenager that would have dared disrespect a grownup like that. It just wasn't done.

The only reason I didn't smack the kid was, just a few minutes before they were talking with another lady who seemed to know them - even asked how their mom was. She looked like a young school teacher or something. I pretty much expected HER to say something, but she never did.

Just before the boy gets off the bus, he stares directly at me and says "Some niggers ought shut up before they get they asses shot." I looked at the adult-who-knew-them. She had that helpless liberal smile on her face suggesting "Boys will be boys" or some other nonsense. I'm reasonably sure she'll never mention to the kid's parents that he just threatened to kill an adult, on a bus full of people.

So, what the fuck is wrong with people? Who are this kid's parents? Do they not care that their boy is likely to end up in prison or the morgue within the next decade?

If I ever caught even a whiff of that kind of insubordination from Ben, he wouldn't be able to sit down for a week. I may be an asshole, but I try to have a modicum of manners. I even usually thank the bus driver as I get off every day. I feel like George Constanza some days, screaming "Don't you know we live in a society? A SOCIETY?!?!"

No reviews this morning -- I'm too grumpy.

-B