Snubbing

Since arriving in Montreal, I’ve become remarkably good at snubbing people. Most of it is justified – e.g. I don’t bother replying to people handing out the Quran, or bible, or copies of the Bhagavad-Gita. Nor do I accept flyers or pamphlets from the people protesting puppy mills, etc. Nope. When I’m walking, I tend to charge ahead and bull through things. If someone’s overly aggressive, I just jump out the way and detour around them.

It took me a full month (or two) to train one fellow not to pester me though. Everyday outside of my metro station there’s a guy handing out free copies of “24 Heures” – a French newspaper. He’s very aggressive about handing them out. He’ll nudge himself in your way to try to force you to take the paper. He also announces over and over, “24 Hours, free to take, 24 Hours,” etc. It’s very aggravating. It also doesn’t help that it’s morning whenever I encounter him. As already mentioned, I don’t do mornings.

After a month of ignoring him though, he got the hint. Now whenever I pass by him, he withholds his newspapers and just nods in recognition of my surliness. Phew.