CTA Tattler

Let's see now: The CTA is having budget problems, like usual, much of the L is under slow zones & this is today's item?
I know it's summer, the silly season starts tomorrow, but I really don't give a shit about some pinhead's cellphone address book!

[I know it's summer, the silly season starts tomorrow, but I really don't give a shit about some pinhead's cellphone address book!]

Well ... that's abrasive.

Do we really need more discussion about our delusional "governor" and his lack of ability to make nice and pass a capital bill so our bridges don't collapse and our trains run on some semblance of time? Every now and again the Tattler needs to go back to the roots. Go read the Tribune site and comment there if you want unrelenting negative CTA coverage.

someone needs to buy UC-C a drink.

Someone needs to tel UC-C to start his own blog. I'll bet it would get dozens of unique visitors per month. Kevin's CTA Tattler has definitely shifted focus, which I applaud, but it's nice to get some of these slice-of-life stories reminiscent of the ol' tattler.

The girls could have been joking...

I'm with strannix, Martha, moby, and mike. Longtime readers of this site remember these tales fondly, and it's even the site's slogan -- "Seen and heard on the Chicago Transit Authority." Whatever you feel an irrepressible urge to vent about today (and are you going to say anything new?), UC-C, feel free to wander back into the more recent archives and you'll find a thread for it.

The amusing little stories may not get 50 replies. There's not a lot you can say about them. But they're what lead to the building of this community that can discuss the heck out of things that can be discussed about the CTA.

Perhaps this little amusing story might get 50 replies, but not because the story provoks that much discussion. But because UCC's very uncalled for response that kicks things off.

If the story doesn't amuse you, move on. It's just that easy. Life, for most people, is a mix of important things, and inconsequential things. Even though I may appear to live for the long, drawn-out discussion, it's these little amusing moments that make life worth living. The little smile on my face for a few seconds is far more important than any of the real issues.

I actually think it's pretty sad that we have so many other issues to discuss. I'm all for forgetting about those problems for a day. Too bad UCC decided to piss in our corn flakes.

I love the seen and heard on the CTA. These stories make me laugh! I'm glad Kevin keeps the blog a bit grounded from only talking about the BS politics of the CTA. Cheers to you Kevin!

Honestly, I've been amused maybe once by these stories - they usually are pretty tame. This one? I can't even grok what it's talking about, except that it seems like something I'd be tuning out on the el, not listening to. And certainly not interesting to read about. I'm not trying to be abrasive like the first poster, but I really don't get why some of these stories charm people so. They just seem boring to me.

Well Mike...guess since you don't like the stories everyone else should to! How about grok or grep or sed or awk or whatever this. You're not the only person in the world and most could care less what you think. don't like it? Move along.

The point is that she has more than one Baby Daddy, and didn't realize it at the time.

I, for one, thought it was funny. It is a nice diversion from the political discourse that seems to have become the focus for this blog and the community surrounding it. I started reading this for the "slice of life" entries and am glad when I see their return.

I grok "wrongness" lol

I still think she was joking. Hell, I make jokes about Baby Daddies. Cause I think it is a funny nickname...

"Grok?" That sounds like something the young lady did to obtain a baby daddy. Sounds like a cross between grope and f*ck.

Mike, you've read "Stranger In A Strange Land" once too often.

For the rest of you, "grok" was used by Heinlein to mean you totally liked & understood what was said.
Stranger was written in 1962 & a lot of people read it while stoned.
Mike may be one of them.

" This one? I can't even grok what it's talking about"

That says something about you, not the story. You seem to be one of those people who, for whatever reason, have a difficult time understanding simple things. It may not even be your fault. You may have a learning disability or something. But what is on you is the fact that instead of recogniizing you are limited in this area, you instead assume that the people telling these stories are somehow being pointless and lack humor. And it would be one thing if you just assumed this, but you actually express it publicly and insult them. And what makes it worse is you did so after there were around a half dozen people who expressed they thought it was funny. It would be one thing if you actually understood the story and thought it was uninteresting. That would be fine. I thought it was interesting and so did several other people, but that is a matter of opinion. But you didn't even understand it and yet you declared it uninteresting anyway. In the future, you should look a little at yourself when these things confuse you instead of blaming the subject.

I won't even get into UCC's utterly bizarre post. He or she has always been someone who complains just for the sake of complaining, almost as much as Kevin B. And, by the way, she is incorrect that the system still has many slow zones. They have been almost entirely removed.

Thanks for the reference, Sock Puppeteer. I think I read that book back in college. Either I was stoned or the book wasn't that good because I sure don't remember it. Anyway, I don't think Mike has a learning disability, MK, I think he's just wanted to riff on Unindicted Co-C's pissiness. Using grok was obviously intended to drive home the point that he's obviously much smarter and more sophisticated than the rest of us. As for the whole Baby Daddy thing, I've worked with several students who were under 16 and had two kids by two different guys. Unfortunately, I grok today's post all too well.

[Using grok was obviously intended to drive home the point that he's obviously much smarter and more sophisticated than the rest of us.]

I don't think that's fair. You can do something to amuse yourself without looking down on others. That's all that was going on here.

I didn't have a problem with Mike's post. It didn't come out of nowhere like UC-c's post did; there was discussion about how interesting these stories are and he disagreed. No big deal.

And he wasn't an ass about it. He just said that he didn't find the story amusing. He even explicitly disavowed himself from the tone of UC-c's post.

I honestly don't see how he "insulted" anyone at all.

And look, they managed to insult me as well and I wasn't even complaining :)

I love the silly stuff, that's why I'm always emailing Kevin with inane shit I see on the train, in the hopes he'll publish it.

YEAH, UC is prolly someone who complains about people who choose to ride the escalator rather than walk up the escalator! And these people just get in his/her way.

[YEAH, UC is prolly someone who complains about people who choose to ride the escalator rather than walk up the escalator!]

Actually, I really doubt UC-c has a problem with that, given some previous comments here.

But it annoys me, to be honest. It's not a huge deal; I understand escalators make it easier for people who have difficulty with stairs, and a lot of stations still don't have elevators.

But if you can, at least stand to the right so the rest of us who want to walk up can get by. It's not a ride at Disneyland, for goodness sake, and walking up escalators is both much quicker and easier than standard stairs for those of us who don't find the view on the way up all that compelling.

Sounds like UC-C just wants attention.

I for one, did find the story funny.

Lighten up people, life is too short to be so critical.

[It's not a ride at Disneyland, for goodness sake, and walking up escalators is both much quicker and easier than standard stairs for those of us who don't find the view on the way up all that compelling]

I find people who shove by me while I a riding an escalator pretty rude, honestly. I don't know what the escalators you are talking about are like, but most of them are not wide enough but for maybe one person to stand, or maybe two at the most, so if someone is riding them, there is not enough room for you to feasibly push past them to walk up them. I oersonally ride escalators instead of walking up them because I have an extreme fear of heights and climbing open stairs of any sort is extremely difficult for me. Someone pushing by me just so they can run up the escalator could give me a full blown panic attack. Or, what about an elderly person who has mobility problems? You pushing past them could cause them to lose their balance and fall. It's just like shoving someone who is climbing a set of stairs out the way because they aren't climbing fast enough for you. Be patient and wait your turn. It may add what, two more mintues to your commute?