Why Does This Irritate Me So Much?

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This morning, the subway car is absolutely silent, except for this lady chattering away on her phone with someone named Jeanine. She's not particularly loud and she's not saying anything inflammatory; mostly, she's just saying, "Right. Right. Yeah, right!" And laughing. I could put on my headphones or I could move. I'm not irritated when two live people have a conversation in front of me, but there's something about hearing one side of a conversation and the person's lack of consideration about those around her who have to listen to it that grates. Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm has a great bit about this phenomenon. If I can find it on YouTube, I'll post it later. In the meantime, here's the culprit. If you know her, ask her to wait until she's above ground. Unless she's giving CPR instructions to someone, I can't understand the reason to make the rest of us listen to one half of another person's innocuous conversation.

UPDATE: Here's the clip I mentioned...The one from CYE, where Larry expresses his annoyance with a cell phone user in a restaurant.

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