Quote Originally Posted by FreeVenice
I say if they haven't said thank you by the time they cross by you. . .Trip them. . .lol, it doesn't have to be to the floor. Just a little stumble to shake them up. . .
^LMAO. That dooor gets me too. Kid Dynamite, I agree that it is mostly pretty women who are rude and don't thank you. I will ALMOST always thank someone when they've held the door. The only time I might not, is if I was RIGHT behind them and they didn't really hold it. I will still most of the time say a really quite "thanks." like, thanks for the effort.

Quote Originally Posted by stinkyattic
Manners are very important to me and always have been. I was raised pretty strictly and table manners were like rule #1 of our house... I always got the sense that my mother saw an orderly meal as a microcosm of the life she had always aspired to, far removed from her hardscrabble roots.
So my table manners are ridiculous and I consider eating dinner in front of the TV completely abhorrent unless there's a REALLY good reason for it [*cough* red sox game].
Also thanking people!!
Huge thing for me.
Being respectful to waitstaff and retail workers is IMHO incredibly important- Having worked in restaurants all through college and then after when I was trying to buy my house, I'm apalled by the total demanding, condescending, assholes that seemingly normal people can turn into when they walk into a restaurant. Some lowly busboy comes by to fill your water, say thanks to the kid- friendliness makes the difference between a good work environment and a bad one and you both go home happier, unless you are a total douchebag who ENJOYS putting the working class in their place in the mud.
Rant!!!
I hear you completely about the courtesy in restaurants and general other business establishments. It is almost like everyone is SO busy that they act like the typical busy jerk businessman. People don't appreciate the services that are provided for them to the extent that they should, IMO. I hear people bitching about how their whole dining experience better be impeccable, or that little waiter/waitress isn't getting a dime for a tip. Then at the same time, they don't even say thank you the 4 times the waiter comes to fill up their water.

I've found that you can really almost FORCE someone to smile if you say "Thanks" and look them directly in the eyes and give them a little smile. Almost everywhere I try that, it seems to work. It's an old Sociology experiment. I didn't make it up, but I use it, and it seems to then make both parties feel a moment of "ahhh." You don't have to be a creep about it, just a GENUINE thank you weighs much more than a fleeting, no-eye contact utterance.


The Fog :rastasmoke: