BAD TEMPERS
by Howard Stiffle, 7/21/00

Dc: This is DCR, it's not the news. From fistfights in the supermarket to close calls on the highway to assaults on board airplanes, bad tempers are defining our way of dealing with each other. Is it the result of stress, high expectations, or just a general absence of manners? Howard Stiffle reports.

Howard: It has become clear that to interact with other people in American society today, one must risk facing rudeness and raw anger.
To find out why I visited social psychologist Brenda Haddit.

Brenda: How am I supposed to know? Do I look like some kind of oracle?

Howard: No, you look like some kind of social psychologist.

Brenda: So? So? I don't have a special pass key to anyone's brain!

Howard: I came over here because I thought you could add something to my story. Thanks for wasting my time.

Brenda: I can add This! And give one to Dale What's His Face too.

Howard: Yeah, thanks for nothing.

Brenda: (fading off) More than you deserve, pal.

Howard: Psychologist Brenda Haddit, whose surly attitude really ticked me off! Frustrated, I called syndicated manners columnist Don Barley.

Barley: (phone) You leech! You've got a lot of nerve. You're asking for the very thing I sell to newspapers every day! Why give it to you for free?

Howard: It's good publicity, you numbskull!

Barley: Do I need publicity from you? I don't think so. I'm in 800 papers, so … being on some dinky little public radio show? Big deal!

Howard: Aren't you concerned about why people are so angry?

Barley: I know why. That's my job. YOU figure it out.

Howard: (vo) Finally, in desperation, I visited the one person in my phone file who would make time for me without bitterness or reproach - my mom.

(sfx: tv in bg)

Mom: What can I tell you, Howard? People are nasty pains in the behind.

Howard: But mom, you taught me to respect everyone. And be polite.

Mom: Did I? I taught you that?

Howard: You did. You and dad.

Mom: It must have been something Dr. Spock told us to do.

Howard: You did it because some Doctor said so? You lectured me on how I was going to have a tough life if I didn't learn to be patient and polite and remember to use "the magic words, and now I'm grown up and everyone's cranky and nobody respects me and they're all doing better than I am and how am I supposed to feel? (pause) Mom! You're not even listening!

Mom: Well look, honey. Rosie is having Kathie Lee as a guest, and they're going to eat cheesecake together. She's been talking about it for weeks.

Howard: But you didn't pay attention to me when I was in the same room!

Mom: I know, Howard, but it's hard to do two things at once.
Go do your story and call me tonight. Tell me what you found out.
Go on! That's the best I can do for you now!

(sfx: tv fade out)

Howard: And so … the manners crisis remains a mystery. Is it stress? Is it time? Overwork? Materialism? Is it media? Is it too many questions? It might be any one of these things, or all of them. Or none.
It might be the shifting sands of change and the feeling that nothing is solid or reliable anymore. Not a job, a home, a family, not even a simple report like can ever be certain or conclusive. And that can lead to anger. A lot of anger. And out of that anger comes something that is None of Your Darn Business! I'm Howard Stiffle

Dale Connelly Reporting Home