Lemon Drops: Talk to the Hand

I recently (Oh, I lie. I finished a week ago.) read my second book by Lynne Truss. It was Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door. I liked it a lot, though probably not as much as her first book, called Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Talk To the Hand was still a really good book about rudeness, as the title implies. It discussed a lot of issues that I think are pressing in today's society.
The introduction was quite lengthy, and then it went into the "six good reasons". These discussed common issues in the world that have to do with rudeness. She told a lot of stories that were quite comical, which made the book very entertaining and enjoyable.

It wasn't what you'd think of as a book about rudeness, though. It didn't tell what you should do in certain situations, and it wasn't really about etiquitte. It was just kind of like when you realize something is a problem and feel that you need to rant about it. It was that and a lot more.

It's truth made you laugh and realize that you'd been in a lot of the same situations. People talking loudly on cell phones all over the place (of course, I thrive on this so I can later blog on their stupidity) and others cursing at complete stragers or yelling at store workers or commiting various other acts of rudeness.

It also made me see rudeness in a different light. It made me realize when I'm about to do somthing that would make people think "How rude!" and makes me hesitate.

That's something you hear a lot around places.

One person cuts in front of another in the hall.

"How rude!"

Someone bumps into another or burps or whatever and doesn't excuse themself.

"How rude!"

Someone doesn't hold the door open for the person behind them.

"How rude!"

Of course, there are some times when rudeness is obvious, but need we state it so blatantly? I was recently at the mall, waiting in line for a soft pretzel. I never like it when someone stands directly behind me in a line, so I never do it. I was about 3 feet behind the woman in front of me - clearly still in the line - when a man came up in front of me and cut into that 3 foot space, like I wasn't even standing there. There was no "excuse me," no "may I get ahead of you, I'm in a hurry" and no convential getting-in-the-back-of-the-line.

But I kept my cool and didn't say a word. It got even more frustrating, though, when he didn't know what to order and then his kids came up to him (crowding me further, of course) and started demanding their orders, too.

I got the pretzels that were fresh from the oven though, didn't I?

As cliche as it is, sometimes you want to yell "how rude!" and sometimes more than that. But we must hold ourselves back, because isn't yelling "how rude!" rude in and of itself?

If you want to read more about Lynne Truss or any of her books, click here.