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43 messages

BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...

12 Jan 13 - 06:18 AM (#3464916)
Subject: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: DMcG

Hairdressers, for one. I understand many people enjoy chatting to complete strangers. But please, I came for a haircut, not to discuss football, sport, cars or lots of other things I have no interest in


And no, bank teller, I don't want to chat about my holidays...


12 Jan 13 - 06:35 AM (#3464920)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Newport Boy

Politicians - they mostly spout nonsense or PR-speak.

Phil


12 Jan 13 - 07:14 AM (#3464926)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: fat B****rd

...but deadlies.


12 Jan 13 - 07:33 AM (#3464931)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Jack the Sailor

I agree about hairdressers. I would rather they paid attention to their work. I guess some people like talking to barbers. But at least they should ask if you want to chat.


12 Jan 13 - 07:35 AM (#3464933)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Jack the Sailor

A silent order of sizzling fajitas would be a need trick. FB I am never silent after all those green peppers and onions and red beans.


12 Jan 13 - 07:46 AM (#3464939)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: GUEST,Eliza

Being quite a friendly old gal myself, I've had to learn the hard way that when you phone your Bank and the person begins with all sorts of friendly overtures such as how you are, what the weather is like, did you have a nice Christmas etc etc it's only because, at the end of the business, they want to sell you Insurance, a Mortgage, a Savings Account and so on. It makes me very cynical and bitter, especially since, after you decline, they can't get shot of you quickly enough! And I have a dear young lassie who cuts my hair and likes to tell me her life story and her latest problems, and goes on and on cutting and cutting until I look like Sinead O'Connor. (Not a good look at my age!)


12 Jan 13 - 08:50 AM (#3464955)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: gnomad

Speaking as a one-time bank teller (or cashier as we called it in the UK) I can make an observation or two.

Hating irrelevant chat is just as common on the staff side of the screen as on the public, and shaking off the over-communicative customer so that you can get on with the people who actually want service, without offending the talker, is quite an art. It is all a matter of balance.

So yes to silent orders, a great idea, hairdressers, bank personnel, taxi-drivers, window-cleaners, all good but above all, customers.


12 Jan 13 - 08:59 AM (#3464959)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Dead Horse

Bodhran Beaters.


12 Jan 13 - 09:02 AM (#3464964)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Jack the Sailor

Eliza tear up a picture of the Pope. That'll straighten her out!


12 Jan 13 - 10:08 AM (#3464981)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Ed T

My barber has a sign indicating that two topics are off limits in his shop, politics and religion. He says that they defy logical discussion and encourage discourse, and interferes with the peaceful barbershop atmosphere.


12 Jan 13 - 11:14 AM (#3465009)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: gnu

... Loud Barbers. My guy likes to be the centre of attention (entertainment?) and when there are others waiting and he is speaking to them he talks loudly... with MY ear about a foot away!

Silent Whistlers. Same deal as the barber! I asked the guy behind me at the grocery checkout a while back to please not whistle so close to me. He said, "Well, excuse me." I said, "Well, no need to be rude twice."


12 Jan 13 - 11:52 AM (#3465021)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: GUEST,Eliza

LOL Jack!
gnomad, I quite appreciate that bank personnel haven't the time to chat on the phone. I'm very business-like and polite, but brief. However, they pipe up and call me by my Christian name, asking all sorts of chummy questions. I know full well where it's leading, but have to smile, as I haven't a bean and certainly can't afford any of their 'products', which they should know already if they have my feeble account in front of them!


12 Jan 13 - 12:08 PM (#3465028)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Ed T

Never whistle on a boat. It brings heavy winds.

Well, maybe do so in a sailboat while in the windless doldrums.


12 Jan 13 - 12:34 PM (#3465041)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Bee-dubya-ell

Sidewalk preachers.


12 Jan 13 - 12:47 PM (#3465044)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Phil Cooper

To support my music habit for the last 28 years, I've worked as a park district cleaning guy. There are some regular members who come in a chat every day, and some who don't want to interact. I have pretty much stuck to a "speak when spoken to" policy. So I talk to the members who like to talk and don't talk to the one's who would rather pretend I'm not there. I've only had one person ask why I never referred to him by name, though I talked to other regulars.

As a previous poster said, the reverse side to being a talkative person, is getting cornered by a talkative customer/member, when you need to be moving along.


12 Jan 13 - 01:05 PM (#3465052)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: McGrath of Harlow

I'd quite like chatty barbers. But I've got hearing aids, and have to take them off to have my hair cut, and they never say a word after that.


12 Jan 13 - 01:05 PM (#3465053)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: McGrath of Harlow

I'd quite like chatty barbers. But I've got hearing aids, and have to take them off to have my hair cut, and they never say a word after that.


12 Jan 13 - 01:42 PM (#3465065)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Jack the Sailor

Do they have to repeat themselves?


12 Jan 13 - 02:34 PM (#3465076)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Ed T

There are times when you should observe your right to remain silent:

Silence may be golden


12 Jan 13 - 03:30 PM (#3465090)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: gnomad

Eliza yes, I too dislike the first name thing, and the sell you something (anything!) attitude that goes with call centres. One thing to do is to make your preference for more formal address clear (same with healthcare staff imo) if they cannot comply it might be the issue that decides where to take your business.

After my time in high street banking I did a few years for a different firm, call centre based, and one day received one of those "Just tell us how much you want up to £xxx and it's yours" letters from my employers (we were required to have an account for receipt of salary). I had had recent and extensive experience of dealing with over-extended borrowers, and the misery they can undergo. I knew instantly that were I to borrow the sum indicated I would be well over-committed, despite having rather better resources than my employers knew.
I suggested to the lending people that this didn't fit the mantra of "responsible lending" that they were pushing to the call-centre staff, and produced figures based on the information they held to demonstrate my point. They could offer no decent counter argument, and seemed put off by meeting opposition in person, especially in front of a large-ish department. Funny, but no-one ever suggested I should move to the lending section, and when my entire department later got phased out I was glad to get out of banking altogether. It was no longer the profession I had joined some 33 years earlier. My current work may involve scraping muck off the bottom of a boat (among other activities) but I feel cleaner.


12 Jan 13 - 03:38 PM (#3465095)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: ChanteyLass

On the other hand . . .
When about middle school age, my son announced that he thought little of psychiatrists and people in related fields. Why, I asked. Because they just want to know other people's private business, he answered. I told him that some people found comfort in telling another person things that they wouldn't discuss with just anybody, but my son would have none of it. A few days later, I took him to Fantastic Sam's for a haircut. He spent the entire time with the stylist telling all sorts of things: his parents were divorced, his mom hadn't remarried, his dad lived with another woman and her two children who were older than him and always seemed to be in trouble, sometimes the police came to their house to talk to them, and his stepmother never stopped smoking, etc. After we left I said, those are the kinds of things one might tell a psychiatrist. He pooh-poohed that idea. I guess I should feel grateful that telling the stylist cost a lot less than telling a psychiatrist.


12 Jan 13 - 04:00 PM (#3465101)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Don Firth

I've heard it said that the oldest known joke in the world was being told in Athens about fourteen centuries ago. The barber asks Socrates how he would like his hair and beard trimmed. Socrates responded,

"In silence!"

Don Firth


12 Jan 13 - 04:15 PM (#3465106)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: alanabit

That quote has also been attributed to Sir Winston Churchill.


12 Jan 13 - 04:51 PM (#3465123)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Bill D

I had a dentist once who, as soon as he had MY mouth occupied, talked to his assistant almost constantly... about family, the weather... whatever.

He was a nice guy, but I'd rather he'd have played the radio.


12 Jan 13 - 05:04 PM (#3465128)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Bee-dubya-ell

Hey, be careful what you ask for, people. First comes the silence, then comes the white face paint and, before you know it, you've got yourself a mime.

I'd rather have some Chatty Cathy cut my hair than have a mime pretend to do it with nonexistent comb and scissors.


12 Jan 13 - 05:12 PM (#3465131)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity

Newport Boy: "Politicians - they mostly spout nonsense or PR-speak."


AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!
That's the first thing that popped into my head, too....
The next most needless thing are those who believe any of it, and become self appointed parrots!

GfS


13 Jan 13 - 11:43 AM (#3465480)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Elmore

Republicans.


13 Jan 13 - 01:47 PM (#3465538)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Charmion

Bus drivers!

It gives me the willies when the bus driver engages in a prolonged conversation with some buddy who is always in the front (or "cripple") seat or standing behind the driver blocking the gangway at the front of the bus. Of course, this always happens in rush hour, when the bus is part of a flood of traffic negotiating an obstacle course of parked vehicles, jay-walking pedestrians, snowbanks and roadworks debris.

Ottawa city buses used to have a sign at the front that said "Please do not talk to the operator" in both official languages. I miss those signs.


14 Jan 13 - 04:18 AM (#3465804)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Musket

Some of us have nostalgic memories of having hair to be cut... Speaking to myself whilst lawnmowering the sides to blend in with the top (ie short blade, no attachment..) isn't quite the same as football, politics or religion with a barber.

Silent orders of anybody I disagree with would sound good on paper but life would become very boring at first and may even lead to me believing the shit I come out with. Naw, we need challenge. Except perhaps...

A silent order of those who would force their views on others?

Not funny enough.

Try

A silent order of retired social workers with a finger in their ear reminding retired geography teachers how difficult it was on the herring fleet many years ago.

Too close to the mark

How about

A silent order of real ale bores.

Now we're talking..


14 Jan 13 - 09:57 AM (#3465906)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: EBarnacle

How about audience members? Last night, Lady Hillary and I were staffing the Global Fest concerts. About half the audience were very busily talking to each other instead of listening. It was almost impossible to hear thee acts, especially Martha Redbone and the Roots Project.

What made it worse was that she was one of the few acts who had the sound level set at a tolerable level.


14 Jan 13 - 10:03 AM (#3465910)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Elmore

NRA spokespersons.


14 Jan 13 - 02:04 PM (#3466019)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Elmore

fundamentalist preachers.


14 Jan 13 - 02:20 PM (#3466024)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Ed T

""That quote has also been attributed to Sir Winston Churchill.

Was Winston Churchill actually Zelig?


14 Jan 13 - 02:42 PM (#3466038)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: GUEST,Eliza

Oh crumbs, 'singalong' folk in the seat next to you who can't contain their desire to participate in an opera or musical. And Phobile Moan Addicts who bleep and text and light up the cinema with their infernal technology. And bus passengers behind you who relate all the gossip to their neighbour, or a running commentary on what they can see out of the window. In fact, everyone should become a Trappist when they leave the house!


14 Jan 13 - 03:18 PM (#3466055)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: fat B****rd

The, no doubt worthy in their own right, persons of both sexes who seem to think that every body within earshot needs to know every detail of their conversation by shouting down their mobile 'phones as if anybody on the other end is deaf. This is especially prevalent on buses.
There, grump over.


14 Jan 13 - 04:42 PM (#3466097)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: GUEST,amergin

women....listening to them nag to take out the rubbish, clear the drain, lower the toilet seat, and so on....it gets old.


14 Jan 13 - 06:41 PM (#3466151)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Elmore

Politicians or political commentators who utter the phrase, "at the end of the day." A congresswoman on MSNBC broke the record today,with a total of 8 times in 4 minutes.


15 Jan 13 - 04:31 AM (#3466323)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: GUEST,Eliza

There seems to be an epidemic of the word 'obviously' too. I suppose it fills a tiny gap in the discourse while the twit thinks about what to say next. (More drivel no doubt, obviously)


15 Jan 13 - 04:59 AM (#3466328)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Will Fly

...


15 Jan 13 - 05:05 AM (#3466329)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T

):-) Will

Don T.


15 Jan 13 - 05:15 AM (#3466330)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: bubblyrat

...monks .


15 Jan 13 - 09:54 AM (#3466424)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Jack the Sailor

Obviously, some people misuse the word in a manner that is apparent to even casual observers.


15 Jan 13 - 10:49 AM (#3466446)
Subject: RE: BS: We need a Silent Order Of ...
From: Ed T

We need a Silent Order of "shut the F___ up" for those who can't summarize and go "on and on" about nothing.