All these Anonymous Comments are So...Anonymous!

I'm flummoxed as to whether the most recent anonymous comment on my last post is a response to my response to the first anonymous comment, or perhaps a different "anonymous" entirely. It's funny to me that there are so many covert knitters, flying under the radar and unwilling to divulge their true identities. It brings outrageous pictures to my mind, pictures of women in trenchcoats with hats pulled down low over their faces knitting in the shadows and skulking along dark alleys with their yarn hidden in briefcases.

For the past two days, my top twenty natural search entry terms for this blog have related to the Yarn Harlot and the recent controversy I referenced in my last post.

This isn't traffic I want, have any use for, or expect to retain. It's more of a social experiment, and one that's yielding depressing results. Only one visitor--or two, depending upon whether we have one anonymous or two--has commented, but dozens of people have gone searching for phrases like "Yarn Harlot controversy". And then, you know, been indignant that I don't have knitting news to offer when they arrive.

Because, of course, everyone who clicks on a link titled: Stephanie Pearl McPhee is Overrated - My Mean Post about the Yarn Harlot" is looking for knitting news. Just read the comments to my last post; you'll see.

For what it's worth, I don't think anyone made a mean post about Stephanie Pearl McPhee. As I mentioned earlier, I know very little about her, and I don't have the slightest interest in knitting. But I do know that she's a best-selling author, and that even before the "controversy" some of her blog posts were getting hundreds of comments a day. I strongly suspect that she's in a position to roundly ignore anyone making mean posts about her, and that her reprimand was in fact intended for someone who wrote a "mean post" about someone else in the knitting community, someone perhaps less well established and more vulnerable. Just a guess, but I suspect that all those "Stephanie Pearl McPhee is overrated" and "Yarn Harlot bad mother" and "mean post about Yarn Harlot" searches aren't going to find you what you're looking for. Just a thought.

I'm looking forward to this traffic dying down. I want to think this kind of thing blows over quickly. I want to think we all have more important things to worry about. If you're really looking for "knitting news", check this out: Real Knitting News.

Okay, Okay...I Know There are Much BIGGER Things than This Wrong Around Us...

But I really want to talk today about trains. Like tens of thousands of other people, I use public transportation to commute to work in a major metropolitan area. For the most part, I'm happy with it. Sure, the train runs over a commuter every now and then or hits a car whose driver couldn't spare the four or five minutes he might have had to wait at the gate, and that holds things up a bit, but for the most part, it's smooth going. The trains are relatively clean and relatively comfortable, having someone else driving means that I can sleep or read or work or knit or create a popsicle-stick rendition of the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to work and back, and most of the other passengers are either Friendly or Unobtrusive.

There's one kind of passenger, though, that drives me to rage every evening. It's not out of self-interest, either--I always manage to find a seat, and if I don't, I'm young enough and game enough to sit on the steps in the vestibule or wherever I might find an empty space. But there are certain commuter trains in the evening that are so packed that people are sitting on the stairs, standing in the vestibules, standing in the aisles...and inevitably in every car you'll see two or three people who have their briefcases carefully set up in the seat to make sure that no one sits with them, or who are sitting in the outer seat and blocking an empty inner seat, or balacing a bag of popcorn there, while people search in vain for somewhere to sit down. Invariably, these people sit up very straight and stare straight ahead, as if they are entirely unaware of the scramble for seats going on around them. They're apparently unable to HEAR in that position as well, because the announcements the conductors make have no impact, either.

Every once in a while someone will stop next to one of them and say pleasantly but quite firmly and loudly enough for those around to hear, "Could you move that, please?"

I love when that happens. I never DO it, but I enjoy it tremendously. I'm in favor of larger action, though. The airlines have a great solution for this kind of problem...if you need two seats, you pay for two seats. So I think the conductors should pass through the cars when the train is crowded and politely inquire of each of these inconsiderate riders whether they'd like to share their seats or purchase an additional ticket.