Monday, November 30, 2009

A matter of etiquette

A question, of some urgency, has occurred to me here in the 'Humanities 2' reading room at the British Library.

Clearly, were one of my neighbours to begin a loud and lengthy conversation with someone sitting next to her, I would be well within my rights--being in a library--to ask her to be quiet.

I mean: that's obvious.

But what if she's merely bothering me, with increasing urgency, as a result of what we might call her...'excessively intense'... 'aggressive'--I would even go so far to say 'abusive'--style of typing?

There's no real way of addressing this situation without looking like a bit of an ass, is there?

11 comments:

The Wife said...

Oh no, not one of them chicks with clickety-clack talons (that betray a distinct confusion of priorities in life)?

Or just a stout academic matron heaving her hefty chest about too audibly as her fingertips hover over the keyboard?

Oh poor you! It sure sounds like hell ....

JCWood said...

Sort of a mixture of the two. Stout matronly chick (in hot pink jumper and Myra Hindley hair).

The talons seem well clipped. But she seems to be literally attacking the keyboard in frenzied bursts of typing.

Poor me? That poor machine...

The sound thus produced is reminiscent of an intermittently deranged hamster chewing his way frantically out of a wooden box.

https://obscenedesserts.blogspot.com/ said...

"Chrrrr .... chrr chrr chrr .... chrrr." Sort of like that?

JCWood said...

Exactly. Though maybe more like a kind of 'takka-takka-takka-tak...thwump [spacebar] takka-tak-takka-takka-tak-thwump-takka takka thwump' etc.

https://obscenedesserts.blogspot.com/ said...

Sorry, but hamsters - even when deranged - don't do the "takka takka".

Don't worry about the machine, which I'm somehow sure is a MacBook (it must be, in London) - unkaputtbar. Does she have a hot pink sleeve to go with it?

JCWood said...

No sleeve visible.

But, indeed, an Apple it be.

Francis Sedgemore said...

Excuse me while I butt in on this domestic chit-chat...

Back in Wales I used to share an office with a neurotic space scientist who took out all his hopes, fears and anger on his PC keyboard. Its suffering was short-lived, however, unlike that of my colleague. I believe that Dr X got through three of four keyboards a year. All on the taxpayer, natch.

https://obscenedesserts.blogspot.com/ said...

I've only ever killed a keyboard by spilling wet stuff on it.

mikeovswinton said...

Abusive Typewriting. Good name for a blog perhaps?

https://obscenedesserts.blogspot.com/ said...

"Smack the keyboard, smack the keyboard, smack the keaboard ...."

Sung to the tune of "Hang the DJ."

BTW, Morrissey on Desert Island Discs was a disappointment.

JCWood said...

Panic on the keys of London?

I was pounding on the keyboard in a quiet hour, but heaven knows they're miserable now?

Typing is nice, but typing can stop you....

etc.