It was on the tube into work yesterday that I noticed a vivid red sign that declared 'don't stare'. Apparently staring at people is now a threatening act. Then I saw another sign which said ‘hate crimes - you can prevent them by ‘asking a question’ like ‘where does this train terminate?’ Or ‘what time is it?’.
Got me thinking.
I was a ripperologist when I was young. Lots of gore, lots of mystery, not a lot of focus on the ladies who got slashed. All geared towards a mystique around the guy (who was clearly totally f@cked up) as opposed to the human tragedy of the 5 women. Very unlikely he wore a top hat and black cape - none of the witnesses saw a dude like that. And instead of a cool nickname like ‘the ripper’, it should have been ‘sad loser bastard’. Not as appealing a tour name that one.
But after a while I realised, ‘jeepers, that happened 140 years ago and is totally inconsequential. What the hell am I doing with my time?’ We could all do with a dose of that thinking at times.
As for staring at people on the tube. Guilty. I mean, that’s pretty much all there is to do. Shame there’s so many ugly ones.
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