I guess this entry is proof that what really makes me want to blog is anger. Plenty has happened to me over the past few months but this really got my goat.As we like to do occasionally, Ellen and I went to the movies yesterday. The 4:25 show of "The Hangover" at the Americana. (Very funny, but certainly not the second coming of Preston Sturges or anything.)
The theater was pretty crowded -- our row was full, mostly of teens and twenty-somethings. The young people behind us talked throughout, but I let them alone. Because: soon into the movie, a young woman one seat over pulled out her phone, read a message, and texted one in reply. This happened over and over. After the sixth time it was clear that she was more interested in the text conversation than the movie. (Maybe it was too lowbrow for her sensibilities, and she should have gone to see "Dim Sum Funeral" instead.) I leaned over and said "hey could you stop texting, it's very distracting." She replied, "It's distracting you?" or something like that, to which I responded, "yes." She stopped.
Then later in the movie she started again. I thought of leaning over to her friend (who was right next to me) and saying, "If your friend doesn't stop texting, I am going to grab her cel phone and heave it at the screen," but for some reason I didn't, even though it was making me mad and kind of ruining the movie for me.
But I did make my point. After the movie was over and the lights came up, she and her friend stood up and started making their way past us. I let her friend go past, but then immediately extended my leg to block the offending texter's progress. She was forced to stop. I said to her, "You shouldn't text in movies. It's fucking rude." She looked at me and made her counter-argument: "Shut up old man!" At that point Ellen sort of reached out to push her toward the aisle, saying something like "Get out of here." They left. I felt good that I had said something, but I must admit I didn't like being called an old man, even by a rude young whipper-snapper.
I was glad that I didn't lower myself further by adding "I said no texting fatty!" even though it would have been appropriate.
1 comment:
Shut up, old man! I was going to say that texting is better than talking, at least, but then I remembered my experience at one of the Apatow flicks. The guy behind us was clearly going to talk through the movie, which alarmed me at first. But then, as the movie went on, I realized he enhanced the movie with his commentary. Yay!
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