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If anyone else here plays poker: bad beat stories. Because you're the first person who's ever lost a hand when you were initially favored to win it. People act like 25% shots are 1% or rarer....
Ah yes, this is a good one. I'm not into games (card or board). However, that is irrelevant to certain people who find it imperative to explain the rules of games they play(ed) in intricate detail so that I will be able to follow all the plays and then wowed by whatever happened at the end of the game to cause the win/loss.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Marcinkiewicz
*anything* for say 20 seconds, I assume it's time to change the subject unless the other person's response or body language indicates otherwise.
I think it's because they are lonely and don't have anybody to talk to in their lives. These people you are referring to are they divorced or widowed? I had a snowbird neighbor like this. After a while I just had to stop seeing her because while she was droning on and on in my head I was thinking "please stop talking already before I scream".
Two of them are married and two are divorced, both with girlfriends. They are socially very active, with many interests and activities which makes it even more of a puzzle. Just thought of another guy like this who was 45 or 50 when I met him at a party. He was married with children. I knew his wife who was very nice but this was my first time meeting him. I was trapped with him for 20 minutes of nonstop talking. I went to the bathroom because it was the only way to get away from him. When I returned I saw him doing the same thing to a teenage girl. I felt bad for her, she had no idea how to get away from him. My hostess told me he does this at every gathering and no one will rescue the person who he's talking at because then the rescuer has to listen to him. He was clueless. He seemed to think that he was entertaining. YUGH!!
I shy away from any of these ranters:
Racist slurs .
Religious zealots.
Any #metoo supporter.
The current events guru.
It's boring because to keep my attention, share YOUR genuine view and not something you read up on or listen to on a podcast.
You bet I listen to my elders on their health. They've survived all the other stuff...marriage,,,jobs...families. loss of family or loved ones. The one thing most are left with is to live to see another day...and oddly the health plays a huge part if that will even happen. It's important to them. When they give up ..and not share that...that would be a sad day.....
Sports, weather, too much political talk, especially talking about the mango Mussolini. I have a co-worker that won't shut up about the most boring subjects and goes on and on and on and it's things that are obscure and you can completely tell I couldn't give a crap less, yet ramble ramble ramble on.
Minutia -- people who tell a story and obsess about some stupid detail that is not at all pertinent to the story. "was it noon or 1:00" "Wait, maybe it was Thursday, not Friday?" Ugh.
Repeat stories -- I've heard this story. I've told you that I have heard this story before. They insist on continuing to tell you the same stupid story. Grr.
Yeah, or "Now what was that guy's name?" Some guy you never heard of, and they dwell on his NAME?
To me, retirement plans are like bowel movements. We all have them, and that's fine, but I don't want to hear about yours, and I REALLY don't want to talk about mine.
Another one: People who turn all aspects of a conversation to self-relevance. I know someone like this. She's especially weird about dates. For example, my father died on October 30, 1999. When I met her and this somehow came up in conversation, it turned out her husband had died on October 30, 1983. OK, interesting, move on.
But no. "I just can't get over how strange it is that your father and my husband died the same day." Well, no, these deaths occurred 16 years apart. There are only 365 days in a year. There are 7 billion people. Births and deaths are going to occur on the same days.
It gets worse. WHATEVER day or year you mention, it is relevant to something in her life. My daughter's birthday is August 24. When I said that, her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open--why, that was the day her oldest son was DUE but he came a month early. 30 years before I had my daughter. Isn't that STRANGE? No. No, it's not.
Name any date and it's one on which her grandchildren were born or were due. Or she had an operation. Or moved. Or her sister got married. Or...
Last night I mentioned a story I'd once read of a woman whose son was killed in the Pan Am plane bomb terrorist attack over Lockerbie in Scotland. She said, "when did that happen?" "In 1988." "Oh, that's the year my German Shepherd died."
Agreed...ask some questions. It amazes me how so many people just like to talk about themselves.<<<
Yup. I taught my kids that at an early age, it's a gateway to popularity. Everyone wants to talk about themselves. Everyone.
That's how I got over my terrible shyness as a young adult. Johnny Carson was being interviewed by someone, and he said, "Everyone thinks I am such a great talk show host, but all I really do is ask people questions about themselves, and they start talking. Everyone loves to talk about themselves and all I have to do is ask the questions."
I thought, Hmm, and the next time I went to a party, I moved out of the crowd and into the kitchen, as I often did, but people kept coming in to get beer from the fridge. A couple of people said hello, and introduced themselves, so I said my name and then said, "I work with Rosemarie. So how do you know her?" And they would launch into a story, and from the story I would find another question to ask, and the next thing you know Rosemarie called me and told me how Dean and Mary and Lisa said they met me and thought I was such a great person. All I did was ask them about themselves and let them talk.
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