Sunday 6 July 2008

being passive aggressive in helvetica

s and i watched a documentary about helvetica last night. it's one of those fonts that people love to hate, but part of its appeal is its ability to convey messages in a simple, clear manner.

so with that thought, here is the note i wrote to our neighbo(u)rs this morning after a restless night. the last time i was awakened at 3 AM to the red hot chili peppers must have been at bryn mawr...


passiveaggressivebbq


s recently introduced me to a fantastically snarky, sarcastic website: passive aggressive notes. i don't think i have the guts to nail this note to their door and take a picture of it, but i do think it is in keeping with the spirit of the site.

incidentally, it might have been enough for these neighbors to warrant a passive aggressive note from us when their tree nearly fell through our living room window earlier in the day, but they had to top it off with their barbeque merriment. i don't have enough publishable words to describe my feelings toward them right now...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Branwyn, noisy neighbors are so annoying! At least (back in college!) when we'd throw a wild party----at least we'd have the "courtesy" to invite all the neighbors. Don't people even do that anymore? :-) Not that you'd want to party with your neighbors, though! Branwyn, hey I hope you're enjoying the summer in London. I just learned that here in Singapore, people never really use the word "summer"-----because every day of the year is summertime! Hot and humid. Dreadful!

Martina Dove said...

I laughed at passive aggressive site so much although many were just plain aggressive and some were actually logical and to the point.
I realised, after years of aggression towards noisy neighbours, that the best way is to psychologically manipulate them to feel utter shame and guilt.
My most recent note read:
" Hi, I am so very sorry to complain, but your music was very loud last night, as the night before and I could hear it through earplugs, with the door shut upstairs. I work 6 days a week and get up at 6 to go to work and am exhausted after the lack of sleep. I hate the fact I have to ask you to turn it down and maybe keep it low after 11pm, you seem like wonderful people and I would hate to think that you feel I was being unreasonable. Sorry again :("

After that, both came to apologise and invite me to their wedding. For the first time in my life, I felt the investment in psychological research methods has paid off :)