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.

I do keep getting someone speaking an Asian foreign language at me when I answer mine sometimes. I thought it would stop after the first few times I answered and used a different language to ineffectively tell them I was probably not who they were looking for.

And, even though I'll bitch about the tourists, I will sometimes (mood and time allowing) stop and help them find their way around.

me too. It makes me feel good, and they always look so surprised when I'm friendly. Perhaps it's because, as a woman of color, they are expecting me to bust a cap in their ass.

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

oh, but that's not in person. I got plenty of snippy memos or notes, but no one would ever man up when I asked. Once, I genuinely couldn't the handwriting, and asked the guy for clarification,and he told me "oh, no bother"

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

or Germany/Austria. Those folks give new meaning to the word brusque.