Ignorance, Insolence, or Stupidity?

I'll Let You Decide...

I swear that I really need to get a wireless notebook computer to use in the car. If had a keyboard and an internet connection on board I could write and post at LEAST ten pages of blogging “live from the scene of the crime” practically every single day.

By “scene of the crime” I don’t mean crimes in the actual law and order sense, I mean crimes of IGNORANCE, INSOLENCE, OR STUPIDITY.

Let me describe three situations that I witnessed recently and let you decide what the answer is…


Situation #1:

I was walking through the parking lot this afternoon at our local grocery store with my elderly friend “Bucky” (Dartmouth class of 1942.) When we reached the vehicular lane running in front of the store entrance, a driver that had just entered the parking lot from an adjacent road was kind enough to pause and motioned for us to cross the lane in front of him.

As we traversed the thirty or so feet of asphalt between us and the sidewalk, an SUV occupied by a solo woman, the driver, mindlessly blithering on her cell phone, also entered the lot and was forced to come to a stop behind the vehicle that had stopped and yielded to Bucky and I.

Once we had crossed about two thirds of the distance to the relative safety of the store entrance, the second driver proceed to sit on her horn, producing at least a three second long loud blast that caused Bucky and I and another half dozen shoppers to stop in our tracks and look to see what was happening.

We then hurried our progress as much is as possible for an 85 year old man walking with a walking stick. (Once I recovered from leaping three feet into the air, I also quickly moved to get out of her way as best as I could.)

Once we reached the curb, and as our lovely antagonist passed by us with her head turned convenantly away from our glare, I yelled “GET OVER YOURSELF.”

Another lady shopper laughed and said “good job.” Everyone was lucky that I was in Bucky’s company or my delivery might have taken a significantly more coarse verbal tone.

So how would you describe the source of this problem?

Was it Ignorance, Insolence, or Stupidity?


Situation #2:

After finishing Bucky’s twenty minute shopping spree and arriving at the register area, I volunteered to process his dozen items through one of the self service checkout isles.

I love the self service isles for their usual speed and convienance. I can run them almost as fast as the store’s cashiers. The only thing I haven’t accomplished is memorizing all of the barcodes for fruit and vegetables, although I know that Chiquita Bananas are #4011

What I didn’t notice when we got started was the middle aged man accompanied by his teenaged son who apparently thought that they were too important to wait in one of the other lines consisting of one or two persons “backed up” at each the full service registers.

Their actions were possibly acceptable in theory because there were four self service registers, but the problem arose when it became apparent that they had ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE—NO IDEA WHATSOEVER how to scan and bag their own groceries- an entire shopping cart full of food and drink.

The problem I had with this situation was that there is only one attendant monitoring the four self-serve registers.

The attendant was forced to hold their hand through the entire tedious process. She basically ended up doing their checkout for them, thereby turning the “self serve” checkout into their own personal “full serve checkout” because they refused to wait their turn.

To add insult to injury, the first item that I scanned was a bottle of wine, so I was forced to wait for the attendant to complete our co-shoppers expedited experience so that she could check my ID and allow our register to proceed with the process.

I see this kind of behavior at Home Depot and the grocery store all of the time. Please tell me if it is a symptom of IGNORANCE, INSOLENCE, or STUPIDITY?


Situation #3:

Finally, I saw this little incident a few weeks ago. As I turned into the grocery store parking lot I was forced to immediately come to an abrupt stop only a few car lengths inside the entrance.

What the heck?

As I slowly crept into the parking area I observed that the source of the delay wasn’t a middle aged Redneck and his elderly escort, but rather it was yet ANOTHER woman driver, talking on her cell phone while proudly displaying her shiny new Volvo station wagon and her poor parking skills adjacent to the fire lane/curb directly in front of the store between the two entrances.

The vehicular lane was effectively reduced to a one way flow pattern, causing the traffic jam at the entrance of the store lot.

What really got me was that I had time to park my truck, go into the store, pick out and purchase a half dozen items, and return to the parking lot to find Miss./Mrs. “Important” still sitting there blocking traffic.

Again I ask you, is THIS behavior an example of Ignorance, Insolence, or Stupidity?

I have developed a solution for this particular situation. The next time I find someone camping out in the fire lane on the curb for any substantial length of time I’m going to walk right up to the offending vehicle, tap on the window, and ask the driver for their autograph.

When they ask me "why?", I’m going to answer:

“BECAUSE YOU MUST BE A FAMOUS OR OTHERWISE DAMN IMPORTANT PERSON TO SPEND THIS MUCH TIME ILLEGALLY PARKED WHERE YOU ARE PARKED.”

That aught to do it…


Answer key: Situation #1-Ignorance; Situation #2-Stupidity; Situation #3-Insolence