This morning's oddity...

[Arch]

So I was sitting on the bike, at the traffic lights at the top of North St, in the ASL, waiting for the green. A chap, who may have been a little the worse for something or other, stopped at the kerb, looked at me and yelled "F*** Off!". He then walked halfway across the road, still looking at me, and me regarding him warily from behind my sunglasses, and stopped to yell "You look like Sophia Loren!". Then he carried on, pausing only to yell "Stinks!" as he reached the other side and went on his way...

Did Sophia Loren ever wear manky stained craghoppers and teeshirt and ride a bike?

 

[potsy]

They're not all locked up are they?

 

[TVC]

Get yer coat luv...yer pulled.

 

[661-Pete]

Tourettes Syndrome, possibly? (sorry to disappoint, A!)

Unexpected, especially aggressive behaviour, by a total stranger, can be an embarrassment for the listener too. I remember waiting for a supermarket checkout. In front of me was a man in a wheelchair. In an adjacent queue, a small toddler started crying. The man looked at the child and yelled "SHUT UP!" for no apparent reason. The child's mother, taken aback, rounded on the man and said "I beg your pardon? It's my responsibility to take care of my children, not yours". The man was immediately suffused with blushes and remorse, started muttering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me, I shouted without thinking, been having a bad day..." etc. etc. It took a while for the mother to be satisfied. Meanwhile, I, a witness to all this, wished I could have been anywhere as far away as possible from that checkout queue. Witnessing someone else's acute embarrassment is not fun!

 

[Yellow Fang]

Care in the community, heh? Still there are worse insults than being compared to Sophia Loren.

 

[downfader]

Tourettes Syndrome, possibly? (sorry to disappoint, A!)

Unexpected, especially aggressive behaviour, by a total stranger, can be an embarrassment for the listener too. I remember waiting for a supermarket checkout. In front of me was a man in a wheelchair. In an adjacent queue, a small toddler started crying. The man looked at the child and yelled "SHUT UP!" for no apparent reason. The child's mother, taken aback, rounded on the man and said "I beg your pardon? It's my responsibility to take care of my children, not yours". The man was immediately suffused with blushes and remorse, started muttering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me, I shouted without thinking, been having a bad day..." etc. etc. It took a while for the mother to be satisfied. Meanwhile, I, a witness to all this, wished I could have been anywhere as far away as possible from that checkout queue. Witnessing someone else's acute embarrassment is not fun!

Have met a couple of people with Tourettes. Horrible condition mainly because people witness to the the noises and swearing think its deliberate. An old work colleage had a mate with it, wheelchair bound he had to wear safety goggles and mitts or else he'd jam his eyes out with his thumb. What was worse was when he went to a Saint match and got kicked out after the illness made him shout some horrible racist stuff, no level of explanation from his friends would calm matters either, even though one was asain.

Guy in the OP doesnt sound like Tourettes though. Just sounds like a prat.

 

[Arch]

Tourettes Syndrome, possibly? (sorry to disappoint, A!)

I did wonder about that. I remember seeing a documentary on telly a while back about it, and thinking what a dreadful condition it would be to have, and how it affected the sufferers. And I didn't know this, but it can come on in later life - there was a chap who'd been an optician, and then woke up one day with the tics and shouting and stuff...

But I'm not sure in this case. There was something rather characteristic about the men (it was all men, I think) in the film, something about the way they were either acutely embarrassed by each outburst, or managed to completely ignore the outbursts in between (it's hard to explain it somehow...). This chap didn't quite fit the bill I think, the way he stopped to look at me and shout.... It seemed too measured, rather than involuntary.

On the Tourettes note, I remember there was a group of them who met up for support, and it was bad taste comedy gold. The lady from the sufferers association came to talk to them, and did what I presume is the best thing - ignored the outbursts. Whereas a lady from the CAB seemed to have more trouble just ignoring it. She was obviously trying hard (and succeeding) to not be offended, but she did pause and react to each shout, as opposed to just talking through. It's one of those tricky things I guess, like how much help you should offer to someone who is disabled in any way - enough to be polite, not so much as to be patronising....

 

[summerdays]

I know someone with Tourettes - his isn't the full on swearing variety (yet?) but we just ignore it - he gets embarrassed by it and then that just makes it worse.

 

[slugonabike]

I remember seeing that prog., Arch. It must be a really horrible thing to live with as it can alientate others who don't understand.

 

[trsleigh]

They're not all locked up are they?

Too right.
Recently a passenger from a passing car declared " I know that Jesus loves you."
Always nice to know.
Better than the chap standing outside a pub who yelled at me as I cycled past on the road "Get off your bike"
Is it cos i ride Brompton?

 

[Hilldodger]

"You look like Sophia Loren!".

More like Celia Johnson, Arch. You'll get it later.

 

[Arch]

More like Celia Johnson, Arch. You'll get it later.

I am aware of your meaning... Wobbly John already emailed me....

Will Trevor Howard be there? Or preferably, someone like him, but not dead?

 

[Hilldodger]

I am aware of your meaning... Wobbly John already emailed me....

Will Trevor Howard be there? Or preferably, someone like him, but not dead?

I'm sure there will be.

 

[sheddy]

Sophia Loren eh ? Was it Peter Sellers ?