Diner etiquite

[Devil's Advocate]

"Sure, sometimes things get really out of whack and they need to warn you that they're going to be ten or fifteen minutes late or whatever but most of the time it's not off by much and shouldn't require this much hand holding for adult customers."

Except, sometimes they do. I remember once I was riding the TE, sitting at dinner with a dad and his 11-or-so year old daughter. The guy making the announcements in coach (we could hear them in the diner) made YET ANOTHER "don't walk barefoot" announcements and the girl said, "Wow, they really think they have to repeat things a lot of times for people to hear them" and I quietly said "That's because some people don't listen" and her dad laughed. But they DON'T. I've seen it. I've seen people walk to the diner to ask when they were going to start serving the 6:45 meal...when they weren't even running behind and it wasn't 6:45 yet. I guess I'm less surprised by the fact that Amtrak figures it needs to hand-hold because I work in academia, and I've seen all kinds of crazy not-paying-attention or non-direction-following.

I personally believe that in a civilized society we should be allowed to harm or even kill ourselves if we so choose, but that we should be protected from the harm caused by others. However, here in America we seem to slowly marching toward the exact opposite situation.

 

[haolerider]

"Sure, sometimes things get really out of whack and they need to warn you that they're going to be ten or fifteen minutes late or whatever but most of the time it's not off by much and shouldn't require this much hand holding for adult customers."

Except, sometimes they do. I remember once I was riding the TE, sitting at dinner with a dad and his 11-or-so year old daughter. The guy making the announcements in coach (we could hear them in the diner) made YET ANOTHER "don't walk barefoot" announcements and the girl said, "Wow, they really think they have to repeat things a lot of times for people to hear them" and I quietly said "That's because some people don't listen" and her dad laughed. But they DON'T. I've seen it. I've seen people walk to the diner to ask when they were going to start serving the 6:45 meal...when they weren't even running behind and it wasn't 6:45 yet. I guess I'm less surprised by the fact that Amtrak figures it needs to hand-hold because I work in academia, and I've seen all kinds of crazy not-paying-attention or non-direction-following.

I personally believe that in a civilized society we should be allowed to harm or even kill ourselves if we so choose, but that we should be protected from the harm caused by others. However, here in America we seem to slowly marching toward the exact opposite situation.

What?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

What?

We just seem to spend most of our time, energy, and money trying to protect the feeble minded from harming themselves while also doing our best to protect the greediest 1% from losing their money and power. I'd prefer we turn that whole equation inside out. Protect the bulk of our population who once lived in the middle by punishing the lunacy at the top and allowing the idiocy at the bottom to experience a little more natural selection. That's all.

 

[TimePeace]

We find train riders to be some of the friendliest folks around. At the diner, we always say good morning or hello, introduce ourselves by first name, and say we are from Maine. That usually warms things up with no pressure to answer questions.

That's exactly what I do, including the Maine part

 

[Ziv]

What?

We just seem to spend most of our time, energy, and money trying to protect the feeble minded from harming themselves while also doing our best to protect the greediest 1% from losing their money and power. I'd prefer we turn that whole equation inside out. Protect the bulk of our population who once lived in the middle by punishing the lunacy at the top and allowing the idiocy at the bottom to experience a little more natural selection. That's all.

TS, I kind of agree to an extent on the idea that the US mollycoddles people a bit too much. Common sense is not even remotely required. Whether it is useful to remind people that being bare foot and walking between train cars might be a bit dangerous, to incredible steps we go to, to try to make our trains and subways completely safe, I sometimes think we should just allow a Darwinian selection process to take place. Case in point, one of the cheapest and fastest ways to get around Bangkok is the express ferries on the Chao Phraya river. The stern is an open deck, the forward 80% of the boat is a semi enclosed boat house. The boat powers up to a pier, slams into it a bit firmly at times, the deckhand wraps a line around a cleat and everyone jumps across a gap that can be 3" or 24" at times. No problem, no trips, no falls, people know that making a mistake would be a bad idea and almost no one ever falls in. Can you imagine a system like that in the US? I can't.

 

[haolerider]

What?

We just seem to spend most of our time, energy, and money trying to protect the feeble minded from harming themselves while also doing our best to protect the greediest 1% from losing their money and power. I'd prefer we turn that whole equation inside out. Protect the bulk of our population who once lived in the middle by punishing the lunacy at the top and allowing the idiocy at the bottom to experience a little more natural selection. That's all.

I think that is called "elitism". By the way, where do you put yourself - at the top. middle or bottom?

I would agree that there is a lot of time and energy spent making rules, laws, regulations, etc that would tend to be silly, but your suggestions about natural selection are over the top as far as I am concerned, b/ut that is what makes life interesting - different opinions - and neither of us is totally right.

 

[SarahZ]

Many more know where Maine is, but some still think New Mexico is a foreign country!

Truth: The first time I went to visit B in Albuquerque, a couple people asked if I had my passport yet. :huh: :unsure: