Taking the Quiet Car a Bit Too Seriously ...

Dear Quiet Car Dictator on the MARC Train,

Yo bro, I can see where you were coming from yesterday afternoon. It had been a long day at work, the 5:20 train was crowded because somehow the geniuses at MARC lost half their equipment for the 4:46 train so people couldn't get on it. And yeah, I know, there's a question there about how you lose train equipment. Maybe it got lost in that famed New Carrollton, Seabrook, Silver Spring Triangle thing. I don't know. But anyway - given that the train was crowded and both you and I were fortunate enough to find seats, it should have come to your attention - quiet car or not - that there would be folks standing in the middle. AND ... this was on the single-level car, where there are no hand rail things in the middle for people to hold on to if they are caught standing.

So let me just say, that when the two nice women that were caught standing in the aisle between our seats becuase they couldn't find one - the right thing to do would have been to at least offer one of them your seat (but lay off the blonde, I saw her first). The proper way to handle the situation was NOT to let me ask them if one of them would have liked to sit down (they politely declined, but that's not the point), then pipe up with "DO YOU KNOW THIS IS THE QUIET CAR?" ... Hey, do you know you're an asshole? (to borrow a famous Eritrean saying). I wish I could have taken a picture of the look the two women gave you. But then, I bet you've seen that look a lot from women, so maybe you didn't need the Polaroid.

You'll forgive me I'm sure for snickering under my breath when Dude next to the two women standing in the aisle, who was chowing down on BBQ, cole slaw and a biscuit from God knows where while the train was moving, reached up above yo head to get his water from out of his bag and dumped food on you. Had you been standing, and the lady been sitting, you could have seen the accident coming, knocked the food away like the Bulls going apeshit on Charles Smith in the playoffs a few years back, and saved the girl from getting food on her blouse - and you would have been a hero not once but twice.

But nope, like the Red Bulls with a 10-point lead, you ********ed it up. Nice going.

Signed,
Marc D. Rider