Hi, All-
Just wanted to let you know that I was playing around with some of the features of Blogger, (the site that runs this blog) and have enabled the mobile device function. This means all of you out there using iPhones, Droids (I'm looking at you, Angie!), and other smart phones can now access the blog directly from your phone and it will be in mobile format! I also changed the settings so that you can email the blog posts to other people and you can now leave comments without having to register. Pretty cool, huh? Also, check this out....I looked at the statistics of who was looking at the blog and where they are located and found that there were 4 views from Germany (must be those German tourists!!) and 1 from Malaysia! I've gone international!!
I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks so look for a new post in August. Enjoy the rest of your Summer and...
Thank you for riding MUNI!
Yours Truly
7.11.2011
Fireworks!
When Summer comes to the city, you can usually count on one thing...well, two things actually...lots of German tourists and fights on MUNI. That's right, fights. There's something about the combination of tourists, heat, holidays, and school being out that always seems to be a recipe for disaster.
Recently, all of these factors collided on Independence Day weekend. Now I'm probably one of the least patriotic people you will ever meet and I haven't seen a good fireworks display (by choice) in several years...due to the aforementioned tourists, heat, holiday hub bub, traffic, crowds and kids out of school. Don't get me wrong, I love this country and am very grateful for all of my rights that I do have...I just don't go around waving a flag or wearing a "Support Our Troops" appliqued sweatshirt. Living in this city has given me a new found patience and tolerance for all people and their rights and freedoms...some more so than others.
Now an occasional altercation isn't anything new to MUNI riders. As I had mentioned in a previous post, all sense of decency and decorum go right out the window when MUNI pulls up to a stop and there is a large crowd waiting to get on. In fact you will often hear a terse, "can you move down?! there's plenty of room!", which will elicit a reply of "I can't move down any farther!"....or "Can you please turn off your cell phone/radio/iPod and/or use some headphones?! No one wants to hear the crap you call music!", which will usually elicit a few "F-bombs".
So you can only imagine how a hot MUNI train filled with tired impatient tourists and the working stiffs who just want to get to their destinations could lead to many a verbal altercation if someone disrupts that commute or acts less than decent. I have to admit, I have been involved in a few of these myself (see the post "True Colors"), but they have never amounted to more than just spouting off...which any local can tell you is par for the course...especially if someone invades your 18" of personal space. But never have I been involved in a physical altercation. Oh I've imagined plenty of them! I've imagined punching people in the neck who refuse to give up their seats to the elderly or ripping the nail clipper out of someone's hands and shoving it up their nose because they wouldn't stop clipping their nails on the bus. So I can easily understand how physical altercations come to fruition.
So it wasn't that big of a shock to me when a brawl broke out between my boyfriend, (we'll call him Tony) and another passenger. Now let me start by saying that Tony is not one to start anything, but he will definitely finish something should someone be in danger or be at the receiving end of some bully. He's also 37 and a bit too old for your average school yard scraps. But it all started when we were just six stops from home and young (17-20 year old) VERY stoned guy (I named him "The Stoner") forced his way onto the already overcrowded rush hour train. Tony and I were standing fairly close to the door and were getting routinely jostled every time someone got on or off the train. Jostling is to be expected. Flat out pushing and shoving will buy you an ass kicking...as The Stoner found out.
As passengers were exiting the train, The Stoner was like a salmon swimming upstream against the tide. When he finally got on, he proceeded to push those around him to try and create room for himself. He didn't discriminate either. He actually pushed an elderly woman so hard that she exited the train at the next stop for fear of further physical abuse. Two stops prior, Tony had actually offered her his arm to hold onto because it was so crowded and she was so frail. Well, when The Stoner got around to pushing Tony, he was taken by surprise when Tony pushed back. A few hard shoves back and forth, and Tony had had enough. In the true WWF style that he had been raised on as a kid, he became Randy "Macho Man" Savage and grabbed The Stoner in a half-nelson and pinned him on the floor. Knowing that Tony can certainly hold his own, I actually found myself in awe just watching the whole thing go down. It always amazes me how witnesses react in these kinds of situations. Some women screamed, some scampered to the front of the train, one guy just stood there holding onto the hand rail, some closed their eyes and pretended it wasn't happening. Those who had scampered to the other end of the train had alerted the driver...who called police...thus bringing the train to a full on stop. Tony had done it. He had become "That Guy". You know...the one who ruins EVERYONE'S commute?! Our train was stopped and other trains had started to back up behind us. Great! As the scuffle continues, The Stoner is persistently trying to reach into his backpack. Tony then demands, "What are you going to do? Are you going to pull something on me?", to which The Stoner replies, "yeah...a gun!". Great. See, this is one of those freedoms that we are all afforded that I'm not crazy about. NO ONE is crazy about this when you are trapped on a train with a guy who claims to have a gun! It's at this point, that the back door of the train opens to let people on/off....and just like something out of a Schwarzenegger movie, Tony saw his opening and picked The Stoner up by the back of his pants and hurled him out the door onto the street! Which was followed by his backpack being thrown in his general direction as well. This happens not once, but TWICE. Yes, twice. The Stoner gets up off the street and tries to scramble back onto the train and is twice denied by Tony. In true San Francisco fashion, all of the onlookers who previously did NOTHING start cheering for Tony and his heroics. The cops come, pat The Stoner down, find no weapons, decide that he's "not right" and detain him anyway. Tony and I both get interviewed along with a few other passengers and are asked whether or not we want to press charges. We decline and are sent on our way. Wow, and I thought it was going to be another year without fireworks!
Thank you for riding MUNI,
Yours Truly
Here's your SAM of the week:
Recently, all of these factors collided on Independence Day weekend. Now I'm probably one of the least patriotic people you will ever meet and I haven't seen a good fireworks display (by choice) in several years...due to the aforementioned tourists, heat, holiday hub bub, traffic, crowds and kids out of school. Don't get me wrong, I love this country and am very grateful for all of my rights that I do have...I just don't go around waving a flag or wearing a "Support Our Troops" appliqued sweatshirt. Living in this city has given me a new found patience and tolerance for all people and their rights and freedoms...some more so than others.
Now an occasional altercation isn't anything new to MUNI riders. As I had mentioned in a previous post, all sense of decency and decorum go right out the window when MUNI pulls up to a stop and there is a large crowd waiting to get on. In fact you will often hear a terse, "can you move down?! there's plenty of room!", which will elicit a reply of "I can't move down any farther!"....or "Can you please turn off your cell phone/radio/iPod and/or use some headphones?! No one wants to hear the crap you call music!", which will usually elicit a few "F-bombs".
So you can only imagine how a hot MUNI train filled with tired impatient tourists and the working stiffs who just want to get to their destinations could lead to many a verbal altercation if someone disrupts that commute or acts less than decent. I have to admit, I have been involved in a few of these myself (see the post "True Colors"), but they have never amounted to more than just spouting off...which any local can tell you is par for the course...especially if someone invades your 18" of personal space. But never have I been involved in a physical altercation. Oh I've imagined plenty of them! I've imagined punching people in the neck who refuse to give up their seats to the elderly or ripping the nail clipper out of someone's hands and shoving it up their nose because they wouldn't stop clipping their nails on the bus. So I can easily understand how physical altercations come to fruition.
So it wasn't that big of a shock to me when a brawl broke out between my boyfriend, (we'll call him Tony) and another passenger. Now let me start by saying that Tony is not one to start anything, but he will definitely finish something should someone be in danger or be at the receiving end of some bully. He's also 37 and a bit too old for your average school yard scraps. But it all started when we were just six stops from home and young (17-20 year old) VERY stoned guy (I named him "The Stoner") forced his way onto the already overcrowded rush hour train. Tony and I were standing fairly close to the door and were getting routinely jostled every time someone got on or off the train. Jostling is to be expected. Flat out pushing and shoving will buy you an ass kicking...as The Stoner found out.
As passengers were exiting the train, The Stoner was like a salmon swimming upstream against the tide. When he finally got on, he proceeded to push those around him to try and create room for himself. He didn't discriminate either. He actually pushed an elderly woman so hard that she exited the train at the next stop for fear of further physical abuse. Two stops prior, Tony had actually offered her his arm to hold onto because it was so crowded and she was so frail. Well, when The Stoner got around to pushing Tony, he was taken by surprise when Tony pushed back. A few hard shoves back and forth, and Tony had had enough. In the true WWF style that he had been raised on as a kid, he became Randy "Macho Man" Savage and grabbed The Stoner in a half-nelson and pinned him on the floor. Knowing that Tony can certainly hold his own, I actually found myself in awe just watching the whole thing go down. It always amazes me how witnesses react in these kinds of situations. Some women screamed, some scampered to the front of the train, one guy just stood there holding onto the hand rail, some closed their eyes and pretended it wasn't happening. Those who had scampered to the other end of the train had alerted the driver...who called police...thus bringing the train to a full on stop. Tony had done it. He had become "That Guy". You know...the one who ruins EVERYONE'S commute?! Our train was stopped and other trains had started to back up behind us. Great! As the scuffle continues, The Stoner is persistently trying to reach into his backpack. Tony then demands, "What are you going to do? Are you going to pull something on me?", to which The Stoner replies, "yeah...a gun!". Great. See, this is one of those freedoms that we are all afforded that I'm not crazy about. NO ONE is crazy about this when you are trapped on a train with a guy who claims to have a gun! It's at this point, that the back door of the train opens to let people on/off....and just like something out of a Schwarzenegger movie, Tony saw his opening and picked The Stoner up by the back of his pants and hurled him out the door onto the street! Which was followed by his backpack being thrown in his general direction as well. This happens not once, but TWICE. Yes, twice. The Stoner gets up off the street and tries to scramble back onto the train and is twice denied by Tony. In true San Francisco fashion, all of the onlookers who previously did NOTHING start cheering for Tony and his heroics. The cops come, pat The Stoner down, find no weapons, decide that he's "not right" and detain him anyway. Tony and I both get interviewed along with a few other passengers and are asked whether or not we want to press charges. We decline and are sent on our way. Wow, and I thought it was going to be another year without fireworks!
Thank you for riding MUNI,
Yours Truly
Here's your SAM of the week:
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