Seester has been in a particularly good mood this week thus leaving me without my regular dose of her ascerbic take on the mundanities of life. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for me, nature abhors a vacuum so I ended up having a daily hate of my own.

I live in a large metro area which I find to be one of the rudest cities in the country. I blame it on the weather. I think that it is the six straight months of 100 degree plus days that causes the people here to act without the least amount of common courtesy towards one another. Whatever the reason, the manners that you find regularly exhibited in the people of the Midwest are non-existent in my hometown.

Which brings me to my Daily Hate...the disappearance of the phrases "please", "thank you" and "you're welcome" in our vernacular.

It was close to noon on Friday and I was feeling a bit peckish so I headed over to a local eatery for some lunch. On my way in, I noticed that there was a man walking several paces behind me so when I opened the door I paused and waited for him to catch up, thus holding the door for him. I didn't recognize him at the time but evidently he is a very important person, possibly the Duke of Windsor or other noble dignitary . What else could explain his brutish behavior as he breezed right past me without so much as a nod of recognition that I had just held the door open for him? And it didn't stop there. Once I freed his path of the obstacle of the front door, he promptly went to the counter and ordered his lunch, cutting ahead of the other people patiently waiting their turn.

In these instances, I have taken to saying "YOU'RE WELCOME" at a decibel level only appropriate for rock concerts, something similar to that which would cause a parent to remind me to use my indoor voice. I know that this reaction does nothing to further my cause for the restoration of polite behavior but when a person acts that rude, they should be publicly called out on it.

I'm not asking for a profuse, over-the-top acknowledgment of gratitude, their first born child, or access to their bank account.  A simple "thank you" will do.