A brother and a sister, for better or for worse

[venta]

On Saturday night, ChrisC and I were strolling across the North Circular on the way to the cinema. Not that we were a danger to traffic, we used a pelican crossing and everything. As a car which had stopped at the lights pulled away, the passenger wound down the window, leaned out and yelled at us "Are you two twins?"

Now, I can understand the question. Superficially, we look quite similar: similar height, similar hair-colour, and we both have long hair[*]. We have - occasionally - been mistaken for each other by people who know us well (though admittedly at a distance, or in photographs, and not recently).

What baffled me was that the shouter clearly intended it to be a cutting and deadly insult. As it was, it left us both faintly amused with a side order of "eh?"

Of course, it is possible that our fashionably-tousled teenager has embarked on a policy of yelling weird things out of windows with the aim of causing confusion and cognitive dissonance all over London (I'd certainly find that much more fun than hurling abuse at people).

[*] We also wear nearly-identical, independently-chosen glasses. Though mine were in my bag at the time, rather than on my face, so not directly relevant. On the rare occasions I leave mine lying around somewhere in our flat, whole seconds of hilarity ensue.

What's the strangest thing anyone's ever shouted at you?

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

While waiting to be served in a pub, someone once remarked to me, "It's a good job I know the Prince of Wales!"

I'm assuming this was the beginning of a chatup line that would be gone with, "It's a pub down the road, let's go there instead!" but I was just so boggled by it that I didn't wait to hear the punchline.

[ebee.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a girlguider, kentwellie and university council bod I'm not even sure where to begin. Other humans= teh weird. Once called "better in bed than Satan" by a nutty baptist when staffing witchfest. I remain hopeful this is true.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

a policy of yelling weird things out of windows with the aim of causing confusion and cognitive dissonance

Me and some mates used to do this when we were teenagers. Over-educated sixth-formers who'd recently discovered Monty Python. It didn't really work: sometimes we got bafflement, but more reliably we got told to sod off in no uncertain terms. Which was fair enough, so we did.

[venta.livejournal.com]

:)

I'm a great collector of overheard snatches of conversations - the sort where someone walks past and you feel like you want to turn round and follow them to find out the context.

When at university, some friends of mine decided that they were going to deliberately spout nonsense whenever people walked past them to create this effect.

Unfortunately, the first pair of people they passed beat them to it, by saying something along the lines of "Shall we stop off at home and masturbate first?"

At which point they decided they were outclassed and gave up :)

[metame.livejournal.com]

I was accused of being "an animatronic" once.
It wasn't an insult, they genuinely believed it.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, you are quite implausible ;)

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

In the days when I used to sport a trenchcoat and trilby (I only stopped because they got so scruffy) I got lots of things shouted at me, including 'Inspector Gadget!' and 'Where's your violin case?'. These were more pleasing than not.

Not verbal, but I was cycling in Oxford once and had a sandwich thrown at me from a passing car.

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

"Lezzers!" Shouted at female me and male quantumboo.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

What are lezzers anyway? Does anyone really know? ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Are they related to Rozzers?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do know a few straight-but-long-haired couples that's happened to.

ChrisC and I have only encountered the polite alternative, where someone in a restaurant says "So, ladies, are you ready to or... Oops."

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

People don't seem to shout entertaining things at me. I feel left out now.

(Oh, and your post title comes from one of the songs on Covanant's Northern Lights album; I think it's Call The Ships To Port. Do I get a point? :) )

[venta.livejournal.com]

It is indeed Call the Ships to Port, you win one kudo :)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Woohoo!

I can rest content now that I've earned my kudo quotient for the year :)

[brrm.livejournal.com]

I've had lemonade thrown at me when I was cycling. Find someone who's had a chocolate bar or packet of crisps thrown at them and we've got ourselves a lunch!

Also had "Oi neo!" shouted at me when wearing long swooshy leather coat circa 1998. Probably pointless to say that neo's coat was fabric; I think only Morpheus wore a leather trenchcoat?

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I get the opposite - the very nice waitress in Pizza Hut kept calling me 'sir' a couple of weeks ago. From the back it was excusable, but then she did it from the front too, and by then I felt it was a bit late to correct her. And sometimes people get very indignant when I go into the Ladies'.

[rosenkavalier.livejournal.com]

> ChrisC and I have only encountered the polite alternative

I also seem to get that quite a lot... (Mind you, I've been accused of being a lesbian in the past as well...)

[marjory.livejournal.com]

So you and Chris C are kind of a gothy version of Howard & Hilda from Ever Decreasing Circles? There are far worse things to be!

I go through phases of getting yelled at a lot, but the weirdest?

I suppose that came from a woman in Göttingen who decided I was a witch (she told me so in great detail at the bus stop once) and used to yell SATAN! and WHORE OF SATAN! at me when she saw me, which was pretty regularly. Then I got the internet at home and stopped needing to go out for my bizarre abuse...

Next oddest also happened in Göttingen when a woman yelled at me, "You aren't in Turkey NOW!" which I kind of knew already, but I thanked her cordially anyway. I guess that woman-who-thought-I-am-a-witch was having a day off.

XD

[venta.livejournal.com]

Wow... that's some quite impressive weirdness. Presumably all your intriguing Göttingen abuse was also in German...

I'm not sure I understand the full extent of your question, having never seen Ever Decreasing Circles. After a little light googling, though, I'm going to go with a 'no' :)

[ruanae.livejournal.com]

Hmm I've had various things shouted at me, including the standard "Oi Goth" and other such witty banter. I once had a cabbage thrown at me from a van, fortunately it missed. (I've also had stones, sweets, spit etc and been set on fire but that's par for the course) When I was waiting for the bus to college someone shouted "Get a job" which was confusing as I was waiting at a bus station, which i didn't think was an indicator of being unemployed...

Actually the weirdest question was when I was on holiday, when a woman came up to me and my brother and asked if we were part of some religious group as we had long hair! When we said no her next question was "Do you work in IT then?". Was by offensive, just odd

[marjory.livejournal.com]

Howard & Hilda used to wear matchng his'n'hers outfits.

I'll get me coat...

Yeah, the Göttingen abuse was in German. People would have to get up close to me and hear me yammering in my furriner speech/accent before they would know to abuse me in pidgin English (for some reason, everyone so inclined knew phrases like 'Fuck you!' or the best one was "You are fucking!", which had the obvious witty rejoinder of, "No, I'm being harrassed by a cretin."). Initially this involved me thinking, "Did she just say...? Oh!" or being vague and asking them to repeat it more slowly and clearly for me. After a time, Pollyanna was able to shrug and speculate how jolly thrilled Miss Rumney and Mrs Hyslop would have been that I could understand every crazy word and parse the grammar!

Today, I am making long comments.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Find someone who's had a chocolate bar or packet of crisps

Well, if you scroll down to ruanae's comment, you can add some healthy veg, some sweets and, er, apparently a means of cooking!

[venta.livejournal.com]

and been set on fire

Er... no, I think it's worth asking about that one.

What !?!?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Er... still no :)

We do sometimes match a bit, being both a bit inclined towards the combats-and-t-shirt school of fashion. But never deliberately! (We have occasionally drawn straws to see who has to get changed after deeming out t-shirts too similar to be simultaneously worn.)

I'm sure Mrs Hyslop would approve of knowing enough German to understand crazing screaming witch-women. She'd practically encourage it :)

[ruanae.livejournal.com]

It's one of those stories that sounds more exciting than it is. Basically I was sat on a bus with friends going round to someones house. Sat minding my own business till suddenly smoke starts drifting round in front of me. Friend turns round and tells me I'm on fire. Well smouldering anyway. Turns out a scally got sat behind me had decided to set the back of my head/pony tail on fire with a lighter. Fortunatly i don't use hair spray or those spray on hair dyes or it would have been a lot less fun. So I managed to put myself out and the scally got off the bus laughing. Bus driver didn't do anything either. Was more annoying than anything else, but after that not a lot tends to phase me. Although i do prefer to sit with my back to a corner on a bus if possible.