Thread: Vex and the city

This poll was carried out in New York to find the most irritating people. Any agreements, and how many of these could be applied here in Thailand?



Hey, oblivious, slow-walking sidewalk blocker - you've been named Public Enemy No. 1.

About 29 percent of 2,300 respondents to a survey by snarky Brooklyn-based Web site People Who Deserve It agreed that it would be "socially responsible" to "punch you in the face."

"Everybody hates you," seethed the site's Williamsburg Web masters, two ad copywriters.

"You clog our sidewalks and subway platforms. You make us late and irritable. You ruin the morning before the day even starts.

"You're going to get punched in the face. And it's nobody's fault but your own."

Sidewalk blockers top the list of the 10 New York types who deserve a beatdown.

Self-important Bluetooth guy was the second most hated. Twenty-four percent wanted to punch him because he wears his cellphone earpiece - even on planes, in movie theaters, and in bathrooms - prompting people to surmise he's "either crazy or really annoying."

And express-checkout cheater should wear a helmet next time he's in Whole Foods.

He brings three times the 15-item limit to the register, enraging enough fellow shoppers to be No. 3 on the list with 11 percent of the vote.

"If I ran things, any scan over the limit would trigger a trap door under Express Checkout Cheater," one Web site visitor wrote.

The impatient subway boarder - described as "brainless salmon people, desperately trying to swim upstream" - narrowly beat out full-volume headphone guy for fourth place in the poll.

No-umbrella-etiquette lady is also asking for it.

Three percent of those polled said it's time for serious payback for those carrying their monster umbrella in a way that could take an eye out.

"No lifting for oncoming traffic, no lowering for the abnormally tall - just straight up hooking and jabbing," the Web site griped, suggesting violence "rain down" on the women who employ these umbrella tactics.

Tandem sidewalk tourists who walk hand-in-hand during rush hour, and ungrateful homeless guys who look at the change you give them with disdain rounded out the Top 10.

new yorkers got NOTHIN' on the Thai version of the slow walking sidewalk guy.

ive been behind more than a few thais who will stop right in the middle of a doorway, like in a tesco. just walking and stop right when they are in the door. now thats special.

really though...all of these things are magnified here by 5x.

Excellent graphic!

Woe betide you if you're the express checkout cheater and you're in front of me while I'm standing there holding half a cucumber and a small bunch of under-ripe bananas.

Not a big fan of self-important bluetooth guy either. I see those Thai father types walking around the supermarket -with a couple of raggy-arsed kids in tow - and they've got this flashing, bleeping contraption hooked around their ear. Who are they expecting a call from on a Sunday morning? I can't believe for a moment that anyone considers themselves that important. And look closely and they're wearing the cheapest, most horrible clothing. I feel like tapping them on the shoulder and suggesting they cut down on the James Bond shit and put some decent fuckin' clothes on their back.

What about "I drive on the sidewalk in a school zone so my spoiled ass brat of a kid doesn't have to walk three extra feet guy?" A simple punch in the face would not suffice for that fucktard, nah, I'm thinkingabout a tire iron to the ankle.

Originally Posted by crew

WTF is umbrella etiquette?

Umberella etiquette I think involves raising your brolly aloft when you are walking past someone who's six foot seven, so as to not poke his or eye out.
Brolly etiquette is by and large non-existent in Bangkok because it relies heavily on the concept of awareness - being aware of those fellow pedestrians wanting to pass you from behind and those passing you in the opposite direction. I've always found Thais to be sadly lacking in the 'pedestrian awareness' department.

Originally Posted by Bangkok Phil

Brolly etiquette is by and large non-existent in Bangkok because it relies heavily on the concept of awareness - being aware of those fellow pedestrians wanting to pass you from behind and those passing you in the opposite direction. I've always found Thais to be sadly lacking in the 'pedestrian awareness' department.

Thanks Phil. Following a similar logic, might you say express lane cheating doesn't exist here? In much the same way many Thais lack 'pedestrian awareness', I think the concept of rules, following the rules and being asked to obey rules is often a foreign concept*.

Other meaningless signs in the LOS:
Safety First
No Passing Zone
Start Queue Here
Clean Food Good Taste

*Unless it involved anything with yellow in it.

Originally Posted by crew

Thanks Phil. Following a similar logic, might you say express lane cheating doesn't exist here?

I don't see much express lane cheating personally but usually when I go to a supermarket it's for a full trolley-load so I don't use the ELC anyway. If there is an express lane cheating situation in a Thai supermarket, it's very often because the checkout girl doesn't have the backbone to tell the customer with 11 or 12 items to choose another aisle. Much of it comes down to poor training. Much of it comes down to the checkout girl knowing her status. She's not going to tell some Khun Ying poodle-carrying diamond-dripper that she's breaking the roles just because she's got a bag of oranges and a roll of bacofoil over the ten.

Originally Posted by Bangkok Phil

Much of it comes down to the checkout girl knowing her status. She's not going to tell some Khun Ying poodle-carrying diamond-dripper that she's breaking the roles just because she's got a bag of oranges and a roll of bacofoil over the ten.

Truer words have rarely been spoken.

I would go for number one with a sub-species - the mobile phone user.

I hate shopping malls at the best of times, but this species really does make the whole experience unbearable and can lead to homicidal tendencies.

Usually women, they have the phone clamped to their ear and are on a different planet. They weave back and forth as you're trying to get past them. The ones that really get me going are the ones who are walking straight at you - and just don't see you. At first, I tried to counter by standing stock still and let them crash into me hoping that they would come out of that trance like state.

It doesn't work. They react as if a light breeze had blown across their brow and plough ever onwards.

I think that the Bluetooth guy also gets me. After all, are they so bloody important that they have to walk around with a piece of hardware stuck in their ear. They remind me of the Borg.

The lack of etiquette and social awareness is much more pronounced in Bangkok than it is in New York. One of the major differences is that if you are acting like a fucking idiot in New York, then believe me several people are going to let you know about it. Not the case here in Thailand. Unless there is some incredibly irritated foreigner screaming at Boonjoy to stop blocking the fucking sidewalk, she is going to continue to walk slowly and aimlessly for the rest of her days.