37 Comments
User's avatar
Joshua Ramos Levine's avatar

“When our daughter was little, we did more recon on restaurants than J. Edgar Hoover did on MLK.” This little gem is gonna get stolen and repurposed by some other writer!

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Hahaha! I don’t know if I’d be mad or proud if that happened 😄

Angie Maher's avatar

Man, do I feel you on the free newsletter and people reading every single week but never engaging!!!! Why is the heart so hard???

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

It’s certainly nice to know when someone is listening/reading

Angie Maher's avatar

I can see they are reading from my stats…I just don’t know what they are thinking in response to my words.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Haha. Ok thanks!!

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Probably a question I should know the answer to, but where in the stats can you see that?

Angie Maher's avatar

If you are on your phone, at the top of each post should be a little “stats” button. It can tell you the number of people who have read your post, how many likes, how many comments. To drill down farther, go to your laptop and login. Then you can get to your dashboard and look at individual subscribers, to see how many “stars” they have, which tells you how often they read your pieces. Warning: be prepared to find out that many of your friends don’t read your stuff.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

I get it though, I was like that too previously. It wasn’t until I started sharing my writing with others that I realized how important that kind of feedback is.

Angie Maher's avatar

I guess my mindset is this: if we didn’t want/invite engagement, we wouldn’t share our words with the world. It’s like a one-sided conversation. I want the other person to speak as well.

William Weaver's avatar

Oh man, and the probem is when you see it a couple times, you start seeing it everywhere lol

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

You mean inconsiderate people?

William Weaver's avatar

Yep. They are everywhere.

Not exactly related, but last night my kid's car refused to budge while he was stopped at a light at a mjaor intersection. This is the repacement car for the one he just totaled. He was in one of two left turn lanes.

I went out there and parked behind him in my truck with my blinkers on and we called for a tow truck and waited an hour and a half.

In that time, about 10 people, of all colors, asked if we needed help.

So many others pulled up behind us and waited for us to move when the light turned green. All the while I was waving them around as soon as I saw them coming up behind us, I had my arm out the window.

I can't wrap my head around how many people pulled right up behind us and sat there.

Then, some of them realized it and almost got dusted moving into the left lane right as another car was coming up in that lane.

So not inconsiderate, but stupid? On their phones? Who knows, but good grief, what in the world is going on with that nonsense? It was weird and annoying.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

First, shitty car news again, sorry!

And also, the dichotomy is definitely weird. I very often comment to my family when we are at large events…like, tens of thousands of people…how cool it is that everyone gets along and looks out for each other.

And then you have these micro interpersonal interactions and people are completely oblivious.

Weird.

William Weaver's avatar

It's so strange.

Jon Murphy's avatar

😂 hilarious post

Jennifer Haubrich's avatar

I love this Seinfeld episode!

A question I asked myself this week in a parking lot is if a car is already half out of a spot, should someone drive behind them or wait for them to finish backing out? I wait for someone when I see this, but this, I have noticed, is uncommon.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Agree, I wait as well. But I learned this habit the hard way.

Years ago I was backing out of a spot and someone quickly zoomed around a corner, didn’t stop, and I backed into them. When the police came, I was the one that got the ticket 😡

Bill Southern's avatar

Be honest, Henny - you flipped them off, didn't you? And, yes, I remember the McGlaughlin Group roundtable - but, I would point out that you have pictured SNL's Dana Carvey, doing John McGlaughlin. Also, Rule of Three proposed a solution for those who have been flipped, but are not sure why. . .

https://ruleofthree.substack.com/p/road-rage-etiquette?utm_source=publication-search

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Ha! Birds of a feather I suppose, Bill.

As a general rule I NEVER flip people off in the car. Too many gun wielding nut jobs out there.

I knew it was Carvey - that was the joke 🤣. That skit is the only reason I even knew the McLauphlin Group existed 🤣🤣

Sheila Moeschen's avatar

This is tremendous and spot on! We are child free, but I am in knee pit sweats when we'd be in those places with our nephews, hyper aware that it was on US to hold society together and not be the ding-dongs in line going "Do you want the strawberry one or the chocolate one or the plain one? That one has sprinkles. Do you want sprinkles?" We drill our orders in the car, march in, one adult gives the order, the other whisks the antsy-pokey-whiney children to a table as far away from anyone else as possible. This is the sane order of things. GET ON BOARD.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

You get it She. We alone are responsible for the moral backbone of this country. This is the way.

Sheila Moeschen's avatar

I know. You're right. It's just.....such a BIG JOB, you know? I think I'll submit us for the Nobel Peace Prize. Seems like a lock, yeah?

Moorea Maguire's avatar

Ugh, I can't stand people who don't use their turn signals.

Chris Stanton's avatar

The turn signal thing drives me batshit. But here’s a good one for you. Years ago, I was stopped in the left lane of a two-lane road with my signal on, waiting for traffic to pass so I could turn into a coffee place. The person behind me starts laying on their horn and gesturing wildly for me to turn. Meanwhile, 1.) There was a lot of traffic. I couldn’t turn. 2.) There were no cars coming in the lane to our right. He could have very easily, and leisurely, gone around me. It was so insane I just started laughing at him. But WTF is with people?

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

“WTF is with people?” should be a tshirt

Chris Stanton's avatar

I’d buy a dozen of them.

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Careful what you wish for

Chris Stanton's avatar

😅

Paul Horton's avatar

I’ve been in all of these situations and share your ire

Paul Horton's avatar

😆

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

Very kind of you to say ire, and not rage or insanity 🤣

Jenn Schuessler's avatar

Where do I feel humanity’s failings the most?? In the checkout line. I have onnnne itemmm. Never fails and no one ever offers to let me go first. It’s the little things, isn’t it??

Henny Hiemenz's avatar

I don’t know what’s worse: when they look you in the eye and then choose not to do the kind thing, or when they are totally oblivious.