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CROWDED ?
I just returned from a very enjoyable cruise vacation. One thing I like about a cruise is that you have a lot of time to rest, relax, and just think. As an astute observer of human behavior, I enjoyed watching people act and react to each other.
Without question the world is a crowded place with billions and billions of people( I’m not really sure of that statistic but I assume someone has to eat those trillions of Mcdonald’s hamburgers) My observations on the trip, reinforced one of my assumptions about human behavior,(for lack of a better term, I’ll call it the Ya-Daa, or spatially challenged syndrome). The study also helped me formulate and crystallize an important hypothesis, and a corollary. (I’m talking possible inclusion in the New England Journal of Medicine)
Here we were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, surround by millions of square miles of nothing but the sea, emptiness, and wide open spaces. And yet I was witness to several instance of the Ya-Daa syndrome. The first one occurred somewhere between Cuban and the Yucatan peninsula. Our ship, a huge 11 story, 100ton vessel, moving at a blazing 20 miles an hour, actually had to sound its horn, because a small pleasure craft was heading right towards us. A whole ocean to navigate in, and this guy is heading right for a huge cruise boat. (forget radar…he could hear the steel drum music 10 miles away)
The second instance was around the buffet table. Take otherwise polite and courteous people and hand them a dinner plate near free food and all of a sudden their brains size up. (We are not driving race cars here people, just shuffle and pay attention.) It was pitiful to watch as grown people could not decide which way to walk. Instead they seemed to just stare at their plates and walk aimlessly in circles, as some primal instinct drives them towards the shrimp scampi.
This ailment is also evident when passengers board or exit an airplane. It seems the same dynamics are at work. I just want to yell, “Come on people, throw your luggage in the overhead storage bin and sit the hell down. Do you need to see a video or something”.
This affliction is also evident in parking lots. As an example, I parked my new car at the very back of the Disney world parking lot (in hopes that no idiots will bang into it). Keep in mind I’m at the very back of a 500 acre parking lot. I have to take 2 shuttles, a transfer, and a pack mule to get to the gate. There is not another car within a day’s journey. Yet, at the end of the day, when I trek back to my car, sure enough there is a ding in my door, and some imbecile is parked so close to me that I can’t open my driver’s door.
I also often witness this behavior in the local grocery store. Inevitably someone has chosen to position their shopping cart right in the middle of the isle, while they ponder some life changing decision as to which brand ketchup they want to buy. A variation of this “shopping cart dementia” is the, I’ll park the cart sidewise in the middle of an isle, while in some sort of self indulging trance, thereby making it impossible for anyone else to get thru maneuver. Amazingly the same seizure like state occurs when it’s time to pay at the check out. You can clearly see the “ I didn’t know you were going to ask me to pay now”, look in their eyes.
I try to be a patient and understanding person. However, lets not over analyze this.. I’ve come to the conclusion that some people just should not reproduce and there a lot of just plain stupid people..
Until latter
P.I.B
I just returned from a very enjoyable cruise vacation. One thing I like about a cruise is that you have a lot of time to rest, relax, and just think. As an astute observer of human behavior, I enjoyed watching people act and react to each other.
Without question the world is a crowded place with billions and billions of people( I’m not really sure of that statistic but I assume someone has to eat those trillions of Mcdonald’s hamburgers) My observations on the trip, reinforced one of my assumptions about human behavior,(for lack of a better term, I’ll call it the Ya-Daa, or spatially challenged syndrome). The study also helped me formulate and crystallize an important hypothesis, and a corollary. (I’m talking possible inclusion in the New England Journal of Medicine)
Here we were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, surround by millions of square miles of nothing but the sea, emptiness, and wide open spaces. And yet I was witness to several instance of the Ya-Daa syndrome. The first one occurred somewhere between Cuban and the Yucatan peninsula. Our ship, a huge 11 story, 100ton vessel, moving at a blazing 20 miles an hour, actually had to sound its horn, because a small pleasure craft was heading right towards us. A whole ocean to navigate in, and this guy is heading right for a huge cruise boat. (forget radar…he could hear the steel drum music 10 miles away)
The second instance was around the buffet table. Take otherwise polite and courteous people and hand them a dinner plate near free food and all of a sudden their brains size up. (We are not driving race cars here people, just shuffle and pay attention.) It was pitiful to watch as grown people could not decide which way to walk. Instead they seemed to just stare at their plates and walk aimlessly in circles, as some primal instinct drives them towards the shrimp scampi.
This ailment is also evident when passengers board or exit an airplane. It seems the same dynamics are at work. I just want to yell, “Come on people, throw your luggage in the overhead storage bin and sit the hell down. Do you need to see a video or something”.
This affliction is also evident in parking lots. As an example, I parked my new car at the very back of the Disney world parking lot (in hopes that no idiots will bang into it). Keep in mind I’m at the very back of a 500 acre parking lot. I have to take 2 shuttles, a transfer, and a pack mule to get to the gate. There is not another car within a day’s journey. Yet, at the end of the day, when I trek back to my car, sure enough there is a ding in my door, and some imbecile is parked so close to me that I can’t open my driver’s door.
I also often witness this behavior in the local grocery store. Inevitably someone has chosen to position their shopping cart right in the middle of the isle, while they ponder some life changing decision as to which brand ketchup they want to buy. A variation of this “shopping cart dementia” is the, I’ll park the cart sidewise in the middle of an isle, while in some sort of self indulging trance, thereby making it impossible for anyone else to get thru maneuver. Amazingly the same seizure like state occurs when it’s time to pay at the check out. You can clearly see the “ I didn’t know you were going to ask me to pay now”, look in their eyes.
I try to be a patient and understanding person. However, lets not over analyze this.. I’ve come to the conclusion that some people just should not reproduce and there a lot of just plain stupid people..
Until latter
P.I.B
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