Thursday, April 19, 2007

You wouldn't like me when I'm angry

Can we please cool it with the rage?
Earlier this month the St. Paul Pioneer Press printed a Columbia News Service story about the growing incidences of what the story calls Sidewalk Rage, which it apparently defines as any incident in which one person gets really ticked off at another person where both of the people involved are on a sidewalk at the time. Apparently the term was considered more concise than "getting really ticked off at other people in public rights of way."
I guess I get that.
I don't know if Road Rage was the first commonly recognized form of situational rage, but it's was the first to enter my consciousness. This was back around the time we started seeing all kinds of stories about drivers in California who had started opening fire on the Interstate, having deciding a raised middle finger was no longer an appropriate response to the jerk who cut you off.
At the time, it seemed like an appropriate turn of phrase. Drivers were getting honked off at the idiots on the road all around them and were flying off the handle. They were on the road. They were in a rage. Simple as that.
Now, rage is everywhere. It's moved from the road to the sidewalk and there's no stopping it. Consider these terms that turned up at least one recorded incident in the first five responses from a Google search:
Travel Rage: A blanket term that includes Air Rage (getting miffed at altitude when), Hotel Rage (wanting to ring the bell of the clerk who lost your reservation) and Train Rage (like Air Rage, presumably, but on rails and generally at a lower fare and with more stops).
Restaurant Rage: Now getting irate at the waiter who takes an hour to bring your soup or the jerk at the next table who won't get off his cell phone gets its own diagnosis.
Cable Rage: The Urban Dictionary describes this as getting extremely frustrated at a particularly nasty tangle of cables. I'll admit, it sounds a lot better than, "Becoming upset at the realization your sloppy cable-routing habits have created a disgusting mess behind your home entertainment system."
Parking Rage: Pretty much what it sounds like. Someone takes the parking spot you wanted, you flip out. Someone parks too close to your car, forcing you to contort your body like Plastic Man just to get out of the mall parking lot, you key their door. Someone's car alarm won't stop going off, you smash a trash can through their windshield. Simple.
Snow Rage: This might be a particular concern this week. According to the Chicago Tribune a 73-year-old man was charged with assault in March of this year after he reportedly slashed his neighbor with a knife because he didn't like the fact the neighbor was blowing snow into his yard.
"I'm very upset about what happened," the man reportedly said after he was released on bail. "We're good friends, good neighbors. I just want this to blow over."
Apparently this assumes it doesn't blow into his yard.
Sports Rage: This one's easy. Parents go nuts at a sporting event. Parents attack ref. Parents attack opposing coach. Parents attack their own child's coach. Take your pick, really.
To be fair, there were several terms that don't yet turn up claims of rage syndromes. So far as I can tell, nobody has yet coined the term Soup Rage. There was nothing for Slacker Rage, although that one seems pretty self-explanatory. A search for Salamander Rage turned up a review for the Sega Genesis game Streets of Rage 2 (which was awesome, by the way) but no incidents of people getting angry over newts. There were no valid responses for Television Rage, which seems really surprising. Seriously, nobody's blood boils when they watch Two and a Half Men?
A search for Marshmallow Rage turned up a story about Fluffernutter wars raging in Massachusetts. That doesn't really fit this discussion but it suggests that despite playing a key role in the American Revolution Massachusetts now has the lamest wars ever.
I'm sure these types of rage and more are on the horizon, though. It's just a matter of time. And when I see them I'm going to get really mad.
Call it Rage Rage.

No comments: