A little pre-holiday foolishness

There sometimes are no words to express my wonderment when reading articles like this:

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported:

LITTLE FALLS, Minn. -- He's big, he's yellow, and he's missing.
Police in Little Falls are searching for a blow-up figure of SpongeBob SquarePants, taken from his perch atop a Burger King restaurant.
The popular cartoon character was plugging his new movie in a joint marketing deal with Burger King.
Police found a ransom note which reads: ``We have SpongeBob. Give us ten Crabby Patties, fries and milkshakes.'' It was signed by SpongeBob's nemesis, Plankton. And the note had this postscript: ``Patrick is next,'' a reference to SpongeBob's starfish buddy.

This is so silly it's pathetic.

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How Rude!

I admit, I grew up watching Full House on ABC's TGIF like it was nobody's business. Watching Stephanie Tanner say "How rude!" whenever her sister told her to go away. As I am inundated with rudeness on my day-to-day encounters, I think Stephanie hit it on the nail: how rude!

Philadelphia, "The City of Brotherly Love" is anything but. They say you can make it anywhere if you can make it in New Y0rk, but I beg to differ. I met some of the nicest people on the streets of the Big Apple when I went to school there. People who actually stopped to give me directions. People who told me where the nearest Wendy's was. But here, where I try to give the best directions (sometimes to a fault, as I often talk with my hands---all that circling probably is annoying); people are so nasty. So nasty they ought to be ashamed.

My coworker recently moved from upstate New York to live here. One day she was left behind on an assignment, which was luckily within walking distance of the office. On her walk, she asked a passerby where the Broad Street subway was, to which the jerk responded "there ain't no subway on Broad Street." There is one and only one subway in the whole city, and it's on Broad Street! I bet if you offered $20 for directions Philadelphians wouldnt give you a right turn unless you upped the pay to $50. Just pathetic.

Among the other rude things "we" do here (hey, my neighbors in Filthydelfia actually booed Santa and the Mayor) we have a real problem with respecting others in large groups. Metropolitan areas are ones where there are many social events that are free, and thus attract thousands of people at a time. Nevertheless, people have no consideration for others with small children, and gee, strollers or wheelchairs. I've had doors slap me in the shoulder by jerks who dont hold the door when I'm pushing my daughter through a doorway. I've been walked into, and several attemps were made to walk through me. Now, I realize I am on the short side, but I still have personal space. I deserve to walk in a straight line as much as the next person. But people will walk into me, cut me off, shove me, you name it.

But when you have my child involved, you best be expecting fisticufs. For real. I may not be from the hood, but that's a rumble where I'm from. Don't disrespect the stroller. The new thing to do is leap over the stroller, as in hurdle it. You read me right; leap over the stroller. I didn't think it was a trend when a 70-something man lept over my stroller after a theatre matinee on Broad Street (irony anyone?), until yesterday.

At the Philadelphia International Art Expo, where artists, craftsmen, and talents from around the country displayed and sold their gifts, I was pushing my daughter to my job's vendor table, and just as I reached the table, this woman ran and cut me off. Adding insult to injury, the heifer actually jumped over my stroller when she turned around. My coworker as my witness, she jumped over my stroller, and God help me for not nudging the stroller forward just enough for an unfortunate accident to happen. Ooooooooh I wanted to trip that woman and watch her fall just for the audacity of treating my daughter like a like a track obstacle.

This all happened after a day of being shoved, walked into, cut off, and generally treated like I was in the way as I tried to expose my child to some culture amidst some of the most disgusting people on the planet. After over two hours of this, it is easy to understand why I was so tempted to give that woman what she deserved. And you best believe that I did run up behind that old man on Broad Street last year and ram his heels. He deserved it.

For all the culture and rich history, this city is seriously lacking in class. I've had it to HERE. I remember being pregnant and on the bus as a dozen men watched me stand. And I've seen it happen to other women. It's not even about chivalry--which is six feet under here--it's about courtesy. In Philadlephia, to even expect it is to expect disappointment.

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