And be a complete slob and read the ever informative Metro and its stories that make sure we know that woman got her new face from a cadaver and not a living donor, Mike Mennonno reports.
Miss M, who is 6 1/2 months pregnant, however, reports that one thing T riders never do, or at least, people on the 7 bus never do, is offer their seats to women in the later and more obvious stages of pregnancy. She prepares a Luther-like set of theses to explain to people what does not qualify them for sitting in those seats marked for the disabled, including:
2. Needing to reapply your lipgloss.
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Comments
Now a living donor?
By Ron Newman
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 3:24pm
Of a face? I'm not sure I like that idea much.
I need a finger donor
By adamg
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 3:28pm
And now from a living donor, so I can type "not" instead of "now."
Not once
By Jeff Egnaczyk
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 4:36pm
My wife said that not once did someone give up their seat on the T when she was pregnant. Of course she was always wearing a heavy coat and barely showed signs other than her belly.
#7 Bus
By plt3012
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 4:59pm
Yuppies. Very thoughtful bunch on this route. I've seen similar stuff over the years.
And now a word from the psychic bloggers network
By eekanotloggedin
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 7:50pm
Sucks that no one's offering her a seat, but how does Miss M tell by looking at seated bus passengers that they don't have balance problems or heart conditions or back problems or cerebral palsy or or or?
You really think every
By anon
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 8:56pm
You really think every single person on the bus could be disabled?
I didn't say that
By eeka
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 9:47pm
I said that she has no way of knowing whether the person putting on lip gloss needed to sit there in the first place because of a disability.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
or
By neilv
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 9:27pm
were pregnant? :)
FWIW, I'd give up my seat for someone who I thought to be pregnant, and I'd guess that the majority of Bostonians would.
Miss M saying "Things That Do NOT Make You Disabled," might mean that she was focusing on the disabled/elderly seats. Makes sense that would be where she has the most trouble: people taking and holding onto those seats are either going to be disabled/elderly or from the percentage of the population that is oblivious to such things or kinda a jerk.
Right, that's what I'm saying
By eeka
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 9:50pm
People on here are frequently bitching that there was some young sheveled-looking person in the priority seats who was being an asshole by not offering his/her seat. Because they can obviously tell by looking at a seated person whether said person has balance problems or gets faint or has trouble standing or whatnot.
You know, the disabled people are the old hags with the fluorescent jackets and the fanny packs, and anyone who's young and looks to have a job or social life clearly couldn't have a disability, so they must just be rude!
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Yeah
By neilv
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 11:23pm
I had an inner ear problem for a while. (Stupid damaging viruses, and infected roommates who admit only later that they weren't washing hands as promised because that irritates their previously undisclosed eczema. :)
I learned that there are a few indicators of this kind of balance problem that a knowledgeable person *might* notice in someone sitting on a bus, but even those are ambiguous, and in general you can't tell.
Someone with this kind of balance problem... you'll regret them giving you their seat on the bus, if they're standing grasping the pole beside you as the vomiting starts. :)
Look, I don't look disabled
By Miss M
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 9:11am
Look, I don't look disabled either when I've got a purse over my abdomen. But if all six people sitting in the disabled seats this morning had invisible disabilities? I'll eat my flip flops.
Bingo
By Kaz
Wed, 05/06/2009 - 11:13pm
My brother has MS and if seated would appear absolutely normal and maybe even with a bit of assholish air about him (it's the goatee...).
If he tried to stay standing on a moving bus, he'd probably end up cracking his head on a handrail or falling through the door out onto the street. He has trouble navigating carpeted floors when he's in a relapse. The seat is the only place for him and yet once he's seated he'd look and act absolutely normal...well, normal for him anyways.
Some people are missing the point
By Annoyed
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 12:07am
OH FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE. There is going to be an exception TO EVERYTHING. The point is, that if you are a fairly normal person, YOU SHOULD GIVE UP YOUR SEAT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TROUBLE STANDING. FULL STOP. Stop trying to make the poster feel bad for getting angry at the perfectly able yuppies who refuse to show simple kindness to those who need the seats more than they do.
It wasn't clear that they
By neilv
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 8:42am
It wasn't clear that they necessarily were perfectly able yuppies.
I'm all for offering my seat (when the Green Line seats filled up last week, I realized that I automatically scanned the passengers entering my car to see if anyone needed the seat I was unaccustomed to having), and I'm instinctively suspicious of yuppies as much as the next guy, but I don't like to make assumptions about fault of other people.
They're yuppies, same as me
By Miss M
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 9:09am
They're yuppies, same as me (just so you know I'm not hating on the whole demographic). Most of them are younger than me, actually.
On my bus routes people always give up seats
By Mia
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 12:42pm
To the point that it sometimes looks like a race to see who gets up first.
Next time I recommend asking for a seat if you want one. I did that once when I had a migraine and was afraid I was going to vomit. I asked someone if I could have his seat (to avoid the possible vomiting). He got up, no problem.
Sure, it's nice to not have to ask, but it's better than riding around angry and/or sick.
I've given up my seat for
By anonanimal
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 12:58am
I've given up my seat for elderly people and women who are obviously pregnant.
But I hate it when I'm dozing off after pulling an all-nighter for a paper, or have my eyes closed because of a migraine headache, and some random lady starts screaming at me for not giving up my seat to a mother and child/blind man who just got on that I DIDN'T SEE BECAUSE I HAD MY EYES CLOSED and my head leaning against the side of the car.
Christ. Get off your high horse. If someone politely tapped me on the shoulder and asked if they could have my seat, I would absolutely give it to them. But to embarrass me in front of the whole train and call me inconsiderate and ignorant because I didn't see said mother and child/blind man to begin with? Stupid.
exactly
By GuitarGuynBoston
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 9:07am
That happened to me on the green line once. I happen to not have my brace on that day so I must have looked normal. But i was sitting in the single seat right behind the train conductor cause it is one of the only seats that i can sit in and actually get up from later since my leg does not bend enough for the other ones. I was completely adrift looking out the window when a T personal came on the train and started yelling at me to move so that some lady who didn't appear to have a disability, unless obesity is, could have my seat. Since I wasn't about to deal with an argument from a T personal I simply got off the train and waited for the next one that wasn't so packed so that I could sit.
Masshole behavior
By fenwayguy
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 3:29pm
Why get all resentful and victimy instead of just making a reasonable request clearly, respectfully and if you're up to it, with a bit of self-deprecating humor? Commuters are often lost in their own thoughts, and to expect them to read yours is, shall we say, unrealistic. For some reason, though, people around here tend to go right from the cold stare to the angry/shouting approach -- probably a result of our Puritan and Catholic social heritage, IMO, but that's a whole 'nother thread.
What bothers me....
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 4:22pm
...are people (typically elderly women) who won't sit down in an available place, but instead clearly get testy if the person sitting NEXT to that empty place doesn't get up, thus letting her have _two_ seats.
Serious question -- how does one tell whether a woman in a coat is heavy or pregnant (unless pregnant with twins or in a very late stage of pregnancy)?
Good point Michael
By Pete Nice
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 4:28pm
Guessing or commenting on whether a woman is pregnant is never a good thing.
Write this down
By fenwayguy
Mon, 05/11/2009 - 2:54pm
That's where "I'm sorry to intrude. I'm pregnant, and right now I'm desperate to sit down. Would you be so kind?" comes in. Leave out the "as if it's not totally obvious, you maroon!" part.