There’s a new game show on MUNI Street Theater- “Crazy? or Bluetoooth?” It’s a fairly simple game – the next time you see someone talking to the wall or gesturing frantically to no one in particular you make a guess – are they insane, or are they using a Bluetooth headset with a cell phone?
The trick is, you may be surprised at how often you’re wrong. For example, on the N-Judah there is a regular rider, who I have nicknamed “Satan’s Spokesman” because it seems like every time I’ve seen him ride from downtown to the Fillmore St./Duboce stop, he’s talking in a Charles Manson voice about something Satan-related. No doubt to anyone that he’s in the “Crazy” category.
That said, the last three times I’ve guessed, I’ve been completely wrong. Not too long ago I got on the N at Irving and 9th, and on board was a guy with odd hair, talking loudly and waving his arms. I was ready to assume he was Yet Another Loud Crazy guy, until I saw him tap the side of his head, where sure enough, there was a Bluetooth headset.
Later I saw him pull out one of the most expensive cell phones a person can buy. Turns out he was not “crazy” at all – just loud and obnoxious, with a weird sense of fashion.
Likewise on two separate occasions I’ve seen people talking to the wall or whatever who seem normal at first glance, but in both cases, said seemingly normal people were, in fact, those lost souls you see around town who are talking about all sorts of Whatever, to anyone who will listen. Even a MUNI car.
Try it out for yourself, and report back your results! Enjoy!
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This is just like a game I played when I lived in Hollywood: Homeless or Fashionable?
I first saw one of these “hand-free” cell phones at a post office in Manhattan in about 1999. A man in line a few feet ahead of me was talking loudly in Russian (which I don’t understand) and gesticulating passionately. “Fucking crazy people,” thought I. Then I saw the little apparatus.
I often incorrectly guess crazy. And then I wonder if the phone works.
I usually guess crazy, too. Depending on the Muni station, I’m sometimes more right than wrong, though.