Blogslapping
When reporting on passengers behaving badly I’m forever changing identifying details in order they remain anonymous. Yet at times I really wonder why they don’t deserve public shaming. For example, consider the following passenger from last night’s shift...
Around midnight at a beachside hotel (there I go again, omitting the hotel name) a party of three, two women and a bloke climbed in for Kings Cross. The same crowd mentioned in last Sunday’s report, the 'Sunday is the new Saturday' mob. Sure enough, within minutes the alpha female demanded music. ‘Tunes !’, she barked. ‘Give us some tunes !’, then resumed big-noting to her new best girlfriend sharing the back seat.
The fella up front leaned down to the radio and I left him to it, not realising he was too pissed to even find the volume. When no music was forthcoming the alpha-female, oblivious to the blokes failed attempt to operate a car stereo yelled, ‘Where’s the fuckin’ music !? We’re paying for this cab - we want music and we’ll have fuckin’ music !’.
Standard stuff from this crowd, amped on booze and pub noise before heading to hard core clubbing with the prospect of pills and wild sex. And for some, I’m a nobody, just a bloody interruption half-way through their night out. Well, I’m not 'just a bloody cabbie', I’m a blogging cabbie and could have her story online before she hit the dance floor. Such as...
This image shows a party of three who’ve just alighted from my cab in Kings Cross. The (hair colour) woman was a total arsehole. Besides mistakenly abusing me for failing to provide music, she spent the entire trip bragging to her younger companions she’d met at (beachside) Hotel. ‘I work in the (boutique health) industry three day per week. Every day I run on (trendy) Beach then hit the cafés for a leisurely breakfast. I own (many) investment apartments. I buy crap units and spend (minimal) bucks on a cheap renovation and then rent them to students. They don’t know any better, ha, ha, ha. I’m only (wrong side of thirty) years old but I’m worth (more than two) million bucks. I, I, me, me, blah, blah, blah...where’s the fuckin’ music !?’.
A post around six hundred characters, well short of the thousand characters allowed on my mobile phone moblogging tool. Such a moblog would take some twenty minutes to compose and transmit direct to Cablog, whilst waiting at Kings Cross rank for the next fare. But I never do it, so immune have I become to these clowns. Or maybe I’m just too chicken to take the inevitable flak, once they become aware of their public shaming. Though boy, I’m sometimes sorely tempted.
Someone who doesn’t tolerate inconsiderate public behaviour is Amy Alkon, the famous Advice Goddess columnist in the US who is also known as a blogslapper of ‘assclowns’. Recently, Amy was so annoyed by a ‘cell phone shouter’ in a LA café, she immediately posted personal details of the assclown's conversation to her weblog. The icing on the cake was the assclown receiving calls directing her to Amy’s post, using the phone number she’d haplessly broadcast to all and sundry. Fittingly, one of Amy’s mottos is -revenge is the best revenge.
Indeed, shaming websites catering for pissed-off victims of public arseholes are springing up with a vengeance. Check this Wall Street Journal article, inspired by Amy’s experience for a list of blogslapping websites. One potential site not yet created could cater for the common problem of locals and families terrorising the neighbourhood.
An old friend lives in what was once an idyllic rural subdivision, now a rural nightmare due to the recent arrival of outright bogans. Similiar to the famous chav in England who won a Lotto motza and upon purchasing an exclusive property proceeded to turn the joint into a speedway and wrecking yard, complete with savage dogs and friends to suit.
However my friend’s story involving threats, assaults, AVO’s, videocams, et al is a long one and I’m trying to tempt him into creating a terrorist-neighbours shaming website. When it happens, you’ll hear about it.
Oh, almost forgot, for my American readers - have you ever booked a taxi and not waited ? Beware of taxi-bunko site, your phone number may be black-listed.
UPDATE : Neighbours from Hell in Britian. Feel free to post in comments any 'neighbours from hell' encounters.
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