pet peeve
ok, i have a pet peeve i'm feeling the need to rant about. (not really a common occurance for me...)
smokers who throw their still smoldering butts on the ground, especially out of car windows in the path of unsuspecting pedestrians and cyclists.
i mean come on, find an ashtray already. it seems to be a somewhat socially acceptable form of littering that is just arrogant and rude. seemingly reasonable looking people (well, except for the smoking bit) who you wouldn't expect to see littering just throwing their junk on the ground. granted it's a small piece of trash, but crikies it's burning. and the shit adds up. it's like once they get their fix they're faced with the realities of their filthy habit and can't distance themselves from it fast enough. therefore, actually extinguishing and disposing of their trash like a reasonable member of society takes far too long.
now i'm too much of a civil libertarian to be against smoking outright. at least not outside. people should be able to do what they want with their health and their future, even if that means throwing them away. i'm willing to tolerate second hand smoke (up to a point) for the greater good of the civil liberties. but i'm seriously tempted to start calling people on this. or maybe i'll just conspicuously stomp on and dispose of their butts properly in front of them without saying a word. or flick those burning butts right back into their open car windows.
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comments
This bugs the crap out of me as well.
I do the conspicuous stomp every now and then, when the opportunity presents itself and if I'm feeling particularly bold.
posted by: dave | July 11, 2006 02:27 PM
Ha - Dave beat me to it. I totally do the self-righteous stomp all the time. What bugs me is not just the littering -- it's that the cigarette is continuing to burn and to pollute the air with nasty smoke when it isn't even being used for its intended purpose any longer. Put the damn thing out!
posted by: Ariel | July 13, 2006 10:41 AM
if i weren't so disgusted by picking up a butt that someone has sucked on for the past 3 minutes, i'd opt to chuck it back into the car window. that's a whole level of bold i haven't yet embraced.
posted by: julie | July 14, 2006 10:42 AM
about 10 years ago at 9 AM on a saturday morning, i was at a stoplight (on my bike) and a pickup rolled up next to me with 2 men, drinking beer, in it. they both sneered at me, and the passenger flipped his lit butt out the window, which hit me in the leg and fell to the ground. i picked it up and said "excuse me. i think you dropped this." and tossed it back in the truck. the look on their face was priceless.
i think the funny thing about people who smoke in their cars is they flick their butts out because they don't want to use their ashtray because they don't want their cars to look like it belongs to a smoker. it does cut down the resale value substantially. they are the same people you see in new england, when the snow is flying the temp is 15 degrees, with their window cracked open, holding their lit butt out the air gap so the smoke doesn't get in the car.
posted by: wayne | July 18, 2006 05:25 AM