Sexpigeon, the best blog in the world, is spending some time on Caltrain this week:
Here is a thing of commuter trains that pass through affluent areas: there are besuited and groomed men who not only commit the sin of hogging the outside seat, they also slop the inside seat with their bag, their briefcase, their repellant backpack. They then insert headphones so that you must ask them to remove their headphones in order to then ask them if you might take that seat that their accessories are currently occupying. Men of less careful habit, who are suitless and of ordinary grooming, find themselves intimidated to ask this series of questions, and so they stuff themselves standing into the vestibules at the end of the carriage.
Men who hog seats are no men at all.
You don’t have to ask them nothing at all — just beat them up with your sneaker feet! It only becomes an etiquette issue on BART, with those short rides between stops.
I deal with this every day on Caltrain and have no problem getting their attention and telling them to move their satchel.
Ask them to move. I don’t see the problem, unless they are refusing to move.
That said, I did once have to sit on the legs of some kid who was stretched out across the bus seat and refused to move. After I sat on him he moved his legs.
Seriously! People who are too passive to ask for a seat are “no men at all”
I understand the sentiment of that, and I don’t think my own passiveness in these situations to be lauded. Quite the opposite. My own problem is: it’s easy enough to ask for a seat from someone who is, say, just distracted and hasn’t noticed the train filling up. When some is impassively hogging a seat and sealing themselves off from them who might want a seat, when someone is obviously being a dick, well, I don’t know how to approach that problem without being a dick, myself. I know there’s got to be a way, but I can’t achieve it.
HDPVD is right. Tag, there is a way, but you just have to not be a dick to understand it.
i’m sure this man would let you sit in the seat next to him if you asked. perhaps he prefers the aisle. let’s face it, you are only really mad at yourself because you seem incapable of interacting with the rest of humanity in a civilized manner. this is peanuts.
I guarantee that the little man with sunglasses and a bow tie will shudder and sneak away when you assertively say “HEY, can I have one of your TWO seats please?”
shoot them in the back three times. works for me.
& the fogbender had the best blog ’til the homies got on his case & he took it down.
Me too
“Excuse me, why don’t you pick up your stuff, or just slide over…I’d like to sit down”
This article = White People Problems. To clarify, you don’t have to be White to have them.
Yes, of course you can ask. And I *do* ask when people hog seats like this. But I think it’s worth pointing out that it is — at least in my experience — frequently young, able-bodied men who are doing this. Sitting like this is a display of a selfish, entitled attitude that, unfortunately, is all too common. When, as a woman, I encounter this entitled attitude on and off throughout every day, THAT is why it grates. It’s everywhere.
Besides, asking doesn’t mean someone will move. When my lower leg was in a cast, a man refused to give me his seat (another very kind man asked him to do so, having seen me struggle to stand) on the J a few years ago.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen similar things as well.
I try to remind myself that we only remember the bad, and not the passengers that actually are considerate of others.
He’s probably saving it for his LADY FRIEND.
You mean his left hand?
Have the Bloggers and techno-weenies of the world forgotten how to communicate without gadgets? Seriously just ask the guy to move over. Please find something else to rant about, like how the Batista added soy to you’re white mocha and forgot to give you a straw. Real men please……
What a dick!
I only wish that if I were to be immortalized by this website as a douche, you give me the consideration of using a sharper image, as I think my snazzy bowtie is deserving of it.
The man who hogs seats is not a man? ok but he still be able to prove that you’re man using another method, right?
do it next time
Why do they always put the block guy on blast? I bet if you were a paler shade of dark, you wouldn’t have been showcased like that.
I hope your mom is proud of you, a$$hole!
Sometimes, kinder words is the solution. Although I would like to vent as much as you would in these somewhat ridiculous situations + attitudes