Chance, by God! Chance!
Which unknown but sure-to-be-famous writer gives the finger to tourists while writing with this view? Missy, that's who. Missy Neal. She just finished a masterpiece which I want her to call The Chance Club but she calls Basil's Irregulars. No wait. Now she's saying it's Chance. And I have craftily changed this blog entry to make her comments reveal her insanity. Bwahahahaa. Okay, whatever. Chance, Chance, Chance. She's the writer, so she has all the power. That is, until she sells the book and some editor changes the title to Edith Sidewinder's Slimy Smelly Adventures, or something. Can't do much with editors. Well, you know. You see the pictures in this blog.
posted by WriterChick at 8:10 AM
11 Comments:
Is it supposed to be funny to give the finger to tourists?
I don't get it ......
It's a wonder we don't do worse. Tourists have caused the quality of life for local residents to deteriorate in a big way. Tourists come here and act like there are no laws, no common sense, no common courtesy, no decency. They drink, vomit, scream, steal, urinate in public, vandalize... there's no end to it. These days, I think of them as monkeys with cars. If I went to their homes and did there what they do here, they'd be horrified. We're all sick of tourists. We want them to stay home. And I want my children to never have to see this kind of hellish behavor again.
Gee, Missy, that's a little harsh. Sure, a lot of tourists deserve the finger, but not every darn one of them.
I live in Arizona and we get all these damn snowbirds every winter, and we complain bitterly about them. We also get tourists, so I understand some of what you're saying. But most toursts are not as bad as you're playing them out to be. I love to travel. I don't vandalize, drink (well maybe, but I don't vomit--at least not publicly), scream, steal, urinate in public (right, Susan? :-)
Do you ever travel, Missy? Anywhere? Unless you live in a vacuum (which I'll admit most of us writers do) and you visit other places, then you're a tourist, a visitor, a whatever.
Do you scream, vandalize, drink, vomit, steal, urinate in public?
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is I think you're going way over the top. Tourists help the economy of a lot of places that would be devastated without them. Look at New Orleans. How hard will it be for them to rebuild with no money coming in from tourists? (although those tourists would likely steal, scream, urinate in public, vandalize... we are talking about the home of Mardi Gras)
And before you shove my comments down my throat, just know that I love Susan more than you do, so nya nya. ;-)
I understand what you're saying, and I'm sure you're not a thug or anything, but I can't agree with everything you say. I mostly ignored the tourists until the house was attacked in March. After that, it was like I had new eyes, and I started seeing all the damage and the rude behavior. I'm really tired of my sons catching people urinating in our driveway. And I'm tired of beer bottles and used condoms thrown behind my house, and the incoherent screaming on the beach at 3am. All of it.
It's a small island but we have schools, chruches, families, the whole bit. Our lives are being taken away from us. Every day, we're surrounded by people who don't know how to behave, and it gets worse by the year. We would gladly give up the tourist dollars, something no one would agree with ten years ago. Times have changed and we're getting organized to stop it.
The great mystery writer John D. MacDonald lived a few blocks from here. He didn't like tourists either, and he so despised a tourist condo building down the street that he wrote a novel (Condo) so he could destroy it, at least in print.
And yes, you like Susan better than I do. In fact, Susan and I are mortal enemies because she won't get the name of my novel right. It's not "The Chance Club" or "Basil's Irregulars." It's "Chance." That's all. And now she's got my agent, Eddie "Carwash" LaRue, all hepped up and getting it wrong.
She's fiendish, Debbie. Fiendish. She does this on purpose, you know. It's one of those pyschologist tricks where they try to drive you crazy with little things that eat away at you until you can't stand it any more. Well, I'm a doctor, too! And I'm on to your trickery, Susan, if that's your real name! Hah! Just because you have penguins pecking on your doors doesn't make you a nice person! Hah!
Love the photo. . .beautiful
Sorry Debbie, but I have to agree with Missy on this one.
You may be one of the rare tourists that remember their manners, but there are still more that do not. But then again, sadly, isn't that society in general?
We've gone from a time were we actually gave a crap about our neighbor to an "it doesn't concern me, so get the hell out of my way attitude."
Before you jump down my throat, Debbie, yes, I do travel. Like you I try to remember my manners. I also live in a tourist town, and it's maddening.
Lastly, writers may be high strung and eccentric, but we don't live in a vacuum.
I see your points Missy and anonymous. I'm fortunate that I don't see that kind of behaviour from tourists where I live. Hell, I live in the suburbs in a nice gated community. I'm cut off from the world.
But my point is that not all tourists are bad and a lot of places rely on that income to support their economy. Without it, a place that is a popular tourist attraction could very well fade away.
I do think that stricter ordinances, better law enforcement, etc., could make a difference. But then again we're talking about the economy of the place in question. Can they afford it?
I don't agree that there are more "bad" tourists than "good" tourists. I think the bad just make the rest of us look bad. Isn't that how it always is?
And anonymous, some of us authors do live in a vacuum! It sucks up our time, our souls, our lives. Of course there is e-mail, which gives us a large community of writers to chat with. I also do all my critiquing online. I have no life!!! Writing, my family, and a very cute cockapoo. That's it.
Missy, don't tell me Susan's gone evil. I'm supposed to be heading out to TN to work the SFB with her. Is she just messing with my head when I think she's really normal?
Oh, wait. Susan's never been normal. ;-)
Oh yes, Susan is evil, all right. She sits in her lair, scheming...well, she used to sit in her bathroom with the light turned off to do her scheming. When the book money started rolling in, she hired a large crew of workmen to build an actual lair on her property. It has variable lighting, sophisticated heating and air conditioning system, full broadband access, designer furniture--well, you get the idea.
So anyway, she sits in her expensive lair, on a solid gold throne designed by Donatella Versace herself, scheming real hard, thinking up EVIL. If you enter that lair, as you evidently plan to do, I would take a great deal of weaponry along. Susan's remote compound is literally crawling with tigers, wombats, howler monkeys, penguins, different tigers, and some kind of snake that spits venom up to fifty yards and never misses! And there are trapdoors everywhere.
You're a brave woman.
I'm scared . . . very scared now. Is it too late to get my money back on my plane tickets?
Did I mention the jumpsuited henchmen? The place is crawling with them. And they all have metal teeth.
Okay, I'm calling southwest airlines now...
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