Comment by cory (Guest)

cory (Guest) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 01:59:26 +0000

This made me fucking laugh.

Punk Ass

Ken — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 23:44:00 +0000

I went curling this evening. (All my readers know that I'm in a curling league, right?)

We curl at a hockey rink. Immediately before our ice time, there's usually a youth hockey league that plays... a bunch of 13-year-olds, from what I can tell. Once they finish, the Zamboni runs over the ice, and then people from our club bring out the curling rocks and prepare the ice surface. As I arrived and sat on the bleachers to change my shoes, the ice preparation was going on and the hockey players were departing the locker room.

One of those 13-year-olds yelled over the glass to the people preparing the ice. He yelled, "Women's sport!" with a sneer, as if that were a put-down, and as if that were any more true for curling than it was for hockey.

And then he yelled it again.

Maybe he didn't notice that I was there with a curling broom in my hand. Or maybe he didn't care. But our eyes met as he gleefully repeated his brilliant slur. Four options entered my mind:

(a) I could explain to him that curling was certainly not a women's-only sport, and also that there were plenty of women who played hockey;

(b) I could tell him that it was cowardly and hateful to display a false sense of braggadocio towards something he clearly did not understand, when seemingly protected by a wall of anonymity (and glass);

(c) I could tell him that curling was a game of athleticism and finesse, and were he to try it, he would understand that;

(d) I could call him a punk-ass.

I looked him square in the eye and chose option (d).

Was that the right thing to do? Probably not. But frankly, I have had it with rudeness. I cannot abide the fact that some people think it's okay to do whatever they want, despite who may be hurt by their actions, without any consequences. I cannot stand the fact that some people find it necessary to put other people down to elevate their own status. And on top of it all, I hate when kids pick up these habits, kids who have absolutely no standing in proper society but display a sense of entitlement as if they were kings of the world.

The kid seemed genuinely taken aback. First he asked me, "Are you talking to me?" He didn't say it in a confrontational Robert Deniro-esque manner; I think he couldn't believe that an adult would actually address him that way. I said, "Yes."

Then he asked me, "What did you say?" Again, he seemed to just be asking for clarification. So I said, slowly, "Punk. Ass." And he was dumbfounded.

I glared at him for a moment, finished putting on my shoes, and walked away. As I was just getting out of earshot, I heard him say to his friend sulkily, "That's not even a real word." That made me regret my phrasing to some degree. I should have gone with "little shit", which would have perhaps been within a modern-day 13-year-old's vocabulary.

I am both sorry and glad for what I did. Mostly glad. Maybe, just maybe, when that kid gets the urge to yell something idiotic in the future, he'll look around first for a weird-looking Asian guy wielding a curling broom, and think better of it.