People who think New Yorkers are bad need to go to Moscow. (I personally loved it there.)

That, and the annoying bit where we say unpleasant things out loud. I was quite the revelation in my British office. And I thought that I was being reserved ;) I will never forget the look on one of my colleague's faces when one of the guys requested something unreasonable and I said "well, he's just going to have to get over it, because we can't do it". She was flabbergasted at first, then delighted at the phrase "get over it"

This is funny, given the near constant stream of snippy nasty-grams we get from our counterparts in our London office.

For some reason the people here are horrible about the stand right/walk left thing. Like, even if they see everyone in front of them standing to the right and people passing up the left side, they will still stand there with their briefcase taking up the right side and stand on the left.

And when I encounter people standing on the left, I kick 'em in the ass and yell "GOTCHA, IDIOT!"

So, it kind of depends on where I am, how nice I'm gonna be!

For some reason the people here are horrible about the stand right/walk left thing.

Oh, that drives me insane. And I will say "stand right/walk left" not really even under my breath. I've also stopped hiding when I roll my eyes at totally unencumbered people taking the elevator one floor.

This is how my usual shopping goes, 'cause I know you're dying to know

crushing on Java bigtime.

I've also stopped hiding when I roll my eyes at totally unencumbered people taking the elevator one floor.

Plenty of people might have a reason for taking the elevator that's not readily apparent.

eh ... I give people a pass on the elevator. I have bad knees and stairs hurt. Also, most buildings (for security reasons) are set up so that you can get off the floor into the stairwell, but you can't get from the stairwell onto the floor.

Even Southerners will follow up a backhanded compliment with "Bless her heart"

"Bless her heart" is the verbal equivalent of a smiley. It's used primarily to deflect the personal attack it just follows.

Southern verbal emoticons. Bless their heart.

I should have noted that I'm actually thinking about a pretty specific set of people who I am relatively familiar with (the company that shares the elevator bank with us and some from my own) so I'm not purely judging on a split second of contact. But you're right that it's something you can't always know.

Oooh, there was a woman on the train the other day with her stuff in the seat beside her blithely tapping away on her phone while the rest of us were standing in the stairwell having to get off the train to let new people on. I could have slapped her.

I wonder if this will cease to be a problem when we all give up landlines for cells.

No.

I got a new number on my cell a year ago, and I still get people calling it, and when I answer, either saying "Who's this?" or just starting to talk to the young black man who had the number before.

When I interrupt with my way-white, way-female voice, it doesn't help things at all.