Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
Matt Baume sends the above photo (we edited it slightly to protect the guilty), along with these words:
Thought this might make good fodder for a post. Maybe you’d want to mask his face before posting? Personally I’d leave it as is. Anyway, we can all agree: this person is gross.
Yes, we can agree with Matt here. But I’m sure nail-clipping on Muni has its ardent defenders. As always, we’d love to hear from all sides. But remember: Play nicely.
Update:
Got a partial translation from a Chinese-speaking source. According to our source:
The two women started having an argument about an available seat. As the clip progresses with both women arguing, saying “Fuck you” and “you’re stupid,” a bystander said in Cantonese something akin to, “Don’t get excited, talk to her slowly.” According to our commenters, more than one bystander could be heard saying, don’t fight, don’t fight. As the argument escalated and the women begin physically fighting, a second bystander said in Cantonese, “Hit her, hit her, hit her, hit her until she’s afraid.” Then a third bystander pulls them apart as you can see in the video clip.
This whole exchange is really disturbing. Can anybody else verify what was being said?
– Eugenia
Original post:
Okay, this is really ugly. But we couldn’t not post it, could we?
We’re working on getting a translation for the lady not speaking English. We’ll update this post as soon as we get that.
(Thx: @ActionNewsSF and @pereljon)
Muni rider Jessica tells the following tale:
I’m a usual N Judah rider to and from work during the week. However, one night last week I decided to go to a spin class at a different gym on Van Ness, thus leaving me 1 of few options by taking the 49 to get back home afterwards.
Just the thought of riding this bus at night made me incredibly paranoid. I found myself constantly checking around for the crazy man who stabbed the 11yo boy last week. Despite the fact that I knew the driver would not attempt to save my life in any dangerous/traumatic/life-threatening situation, I decided to sit near the front for my own contentment. During my initial scan of the people around me I noticed a blind man seated with a service dog. He had his cell phone in his hand and was sitting patiently (and probably also hoping he could get the hell off this bus as soon as possible).
There was a lady sitting perpendicular to him (in those single seats that always get first dibs since they isolate riders from sitting next to any creeps). She was rocking a sweet 80s-esque ponytail with sweatband and smelled like she had just bathed in steak fajitas. She noticed the blind guy had a cell phone and asked him if she could use it.
He said “well I’m a nice guy, but I don’t usually lend out my phone. Is it an absolute emergency?”
“Yeah,” she said lethargically.
I could tell he really didn’t want to let her use the phone, but now felt obligated and handed it over. At first, I thought she was going to try to steal it from him because he was blind. Instead she dialed a number and started talking in Spanish to the person on the other end. I speak Spanish and was trying to hear what she was saying about this emergency, but she was mumbling so much that I couldn’t understand. She continued chatting (yes, just chatting away) about her so-called emergency the entire ride. I was really tempted to go over to her and tell her how rude this was- what if he has pre-paid minutes! The guy did you a favor lady, don’t take complete advantage of him!
The blind guy looked miserable and it was obvious that he regretted his decision to be a nice guy. I was secretly hoping he would reprimand on this chick and snatch his phone back, but I’ll never know. About 7 minutes into her emergency phone call (I kid you not!) I had to get off at my stop. I don’t know how it all ended, but I would like to think that the dog pissed on her feet or something comparably satisfying.
Seen anyone else totally disregard all social norms and take advantage of another rider? If you’ve got any kind of Muni story to tell, this is the place: muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com
Photo by Flickr user reminisced content
Am I the only one who’s ever wondered how often people sitting at the front of the bus stand up to offer their seat to a pregnant woman, only to realize she’s just overweight?
Had that thought while riding the 22 the other day. Then felt like a terrible person for having aforementioned thought.
What “evil” thoughts have you had on Muni lately? Comments, please.
Remember the big-balls-having guy from the first Muni Mind Reader episode, the guy whose nuts are so big they take up two seats?
Well, the ladies of Boston had enough of these guys too, and they’ve created a button warning against such behavior.
The AboutWomen project in Boston, who made the button above, also wrote a letter to the MBTA expressing their concern:
We’ve designed a badge for public transportation customers to wear in order to encourage passenger civility. We hope to raise awareness of fellow passenger’s comfort with this visual reminder.
Often, we believe, some T-riders aren’t aware that they’re taking up three seats with their knees. Of course, there are many other discourteous behaviors, like occupying additional seats with your belongings, but the particular posture depicted on our button is the most commonly complained about offense found in our survey of T- passengers.
Read the rest of the letter here.
Thanks to our friends at Tenderblog and the London Underground Tube Diary for this hilarious find.
Photo by Flickr user messtiza
Last November, we were surprised and thrilled by a treat that landed in our inbox. It was Shane Papatolicas’s song, “Sometimes on the 38.” We wracked our brains for a way to host and post the song. We did, and for, oh, the next week or so, it was stuck in all our heads.
Well, here we are, nearly at the dog days of 2009, and Clancy Cavnar has sent another musical gem our way. This one is called, “entrar solamente por na porta de enfrente” (translation: only enter through the front doors).
entrar solamente por na porta de enfrente
Lyrics after the jump …