Dear Muni Diaries: There’s this Situation on My Bus

What do you do when bus riders just can’t stop pinching the flabby adorable cheeks of your driver husband? Such are the problems that Dear Abigail Van Buren received back in 1978. Full disclosure: We adore old Dear Abby advice columns. Here’s her advice.

Dear Abby: My husband is not what you’d call handsome. He’s middle aged, a little on the flabby side, and he’s losing his hair. But he’s a bus driver, and Abby, I don’t think you know how crazy some women are for bus drivers. It must be the uniform, because the women fall all over Bill as if he were a Marine captain or something. Bill says that most of the women on his run are mental cases. They have tried to tip him, give him their phone numbers, and they fight for the seat right behind the driver so they can blow on his neck. One lady even pinched him.

Should I ask Bill to get into some other line of work? Or should I let him stay on that bus with all those crazy women? THE DRIVER’S WIFE

Dear Wife: Men who meet the public (in uniform and out) will be tipped, tempted, and even pinched occasionally. Give him lots of love. And trust. If a man is happy at home, he won’t look left or right.

Hmm … are women mauling your flabby, balding yet freakin’ irresistible bus driver husband? Smother him with love.

This gets me thinking, not about harassing bus drivers, but of all those odd situations that come up when riding public transit. Not sure what to say to that guy taking up two bus seats, the stranger passed out and drooling on your shoulder, or the woman over sharing on her cell phone? What would Dear Abby say about that?

Email us your bus-riding dilemmas. We have more Dear Abby gems for you, and if you send us your own bus dilemma, and we’ll respond with our best etiquette advice. Just don’t ask us which fork to use.

Bus Advertising That Stinks

Talk about a captive audience. Dunkin’ Donuts has launched a unique olfactory ad campaign on buses in South Korea, spritzing morning commuters with smell of coffee. The campaign uses air freshener-like devices that squirt the coffee aroma when activated by a jingle in Dunkin’ Donuts radio ads that play on the buses. The ads are timed to air right before you roll up to a bus stop with Dunkin’ Donut ads and a Dunkin’ Donut shop located conveniently across the street.

The company says it has seen a 16 percent increase in visits to its stores. I guess the smell of coffee beats lots of other possible smells on the bus. What do you think of the ad campaign? Too creepy or kind of cool?

via Huffington Post

Video: Danish Ecstasy Bus

Legos, Hans Christian Andersen? Meh. This ridiculously awesome commercial for Midttrafik makes us want to fly to Denmark just to ride the bus.

According to a commenter, here’s the narration:

Midttrafik presents … The Bus!
The bus driver is cool … “I’m cool…”
Top nice seating
Gigantic panoramic windows … with impressive scenic view
Designer bells with cool functions
Free handles
It is big… and long
It has its own lane
Yeah, it’s street … and it also runs a[t] night
“I’m still cool”
Yes, the bus is cool, so get up ealier tomorrow and get a good seat
Midttrafik … we’ll handle the driving for you.

Wow.

Next Stop … A Tribute to NYC’s Miss Subways


Photo: The first Miss Subways winner, Mona Freeman, via the Miss Subways Facebook Page.

New York City Subway stations have a specific type of beauty: underground urban sensibility mixed with iconic ceramic plaques and tile mosaics. We wouldn’t have thought they’d serve as the backdrop for a beauty contest, but we’re glad to be proven wrong.

For decades beginning in the 1940s, the Subway stations paid tribute to more than 200 winners of the Miss Subways contest. To enter, you just needed to be a lady, a New York City resident, and a Subway rider. The lovely winners’ photos, accomplishments, and aspirations were featured on posters throughout the transit system. New York artist Fiona Gardner and journalist Amy Zimmer tracked down 40 of the former beauty queens, photographed them, and plan to tell their life stories in an upcoming book, Meet Miss Subways. The duo still needs funding to complete their book — here’s more info on the Miss Subways Kickstarter project.

We have to admit, this unbelievably cool project has left us with a little city envy. Can we have a Miss Muni, please?

NYC Subway Riders Grab Suspected Groper

Sometimes, tolerating big-city transit requires imagining your happy place or staring a hole through your iPhone. That’s why we love this story about New York City subway Good Samaritans who jumped into action and dragged a passenger from the train after a woman accused him of groping her. Does the Muni humper ring a bell?

The video of the whole takedown is above, including the accused perp getting arrested.

We know, we know, innocent until proven guilty. But don’t you just love the idea of a little subway justice?

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