Comments on: Clap Your Hands Say Nah

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:05:59 +0000

Perhaps it’s a music student doing rhythm exercises? That was one of the requirements for my highschool band class. We had ‘rhythm sheets’ that the teacher gave us to practice-sheets full of unusual or difficult rhythms to practice by clapping them out. really annoying and boring. regardless, that neighbor should be shot for being so obnoxious that early in the morning!

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:34:23 +0000

We had a neighbor that lived on the ass-end of our house (literally a step away his yard was) who would mow his lawn three times a week, at a pretty early hour usually (before 9 am).

I think he had some issues, though, his wife worked and he seemed… off. I heard tale that he had a mental problem and was on assistance. I never held it against him, but my boyfriend at the time was terrified of lawnmowers (lopped off a toe once with one) so it made for an interesting situation.

By: Kara

Kara — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:55:24 +0000

Well here we say, “…if you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it…”

Personally I think that makes more sense.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:59:28 +0000

I think that people need to lighten up. The poster of the note should close their own window, rather and complaining about noise that their neighbor was making in their own home, and expecting the neighbor to close their window. 8:30 is really not that early, and unless the noise is so loud that it warrants calling the police (ie a raging party or loud music) its really disrespectful to expect others to change their habits in the comfort of their own homes. Set some soft soothing music to play in the morning to help drone out the noise, or SHUT YOUR OWN WINDOW.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:39:08 +0000

Maybe they’re just surprised by the greatness of the sun every morning and believe it deserves a round of applause.

By: Human Going

Human Going — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 03:37:49 +0000

8:30am is far from the crack of dawn.

By: Bri.

Bri. — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 01:59:47 +0000

Yea. Sounds like Oakland. I live in Oakland, and every Friday when we put our recycling out, there’s a guy who goes through it, and is seemingly having an argument on his headset. Only without the headset. The argument would be completely coherent if there were another participant, but there isn’t.

By: Possum

Possum — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:48:00 +0000

Actually I didn’t go scouting for primary schools before I moved in so I didn’t actually know beforehand. It doesn’t matter if I knew or not anyway, it’d be unreasonable to ask anyone to be quiet just because you want to sleep after a time that most people (school children, people who want to clap to keep themselves happy and set themselves up for the day, anyone) are awake. It’s not like he was in the alley shooting up heroin and crying with the pain of his life for 10 minutes a day. Why not just try and do something in your room to drown the noise out?

By: SmokeEntity

SmokeEntity — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:17:22 +0000

This actually made me LOL.

By: kermit

kermit — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:46:01 +0000

Possum, the difference is that you chose to live a place that you knew was close to a school. So it was not a surprise to you that children would be yelping outside during recess or early in the morning. Just like if you chose to live above a night club in the downtown core, you already know ahead of time that they’re going to be making noise until 3AM (or whenever closing time is for bars).

People who live in residential areas aren’t out of line for expecting peace and quiet. It’s not about calling the police, but letting people know that they should try to put a lid on it. And I say this as a person who’s dealing with a neighbor who sounds like a really really loud and whiny Fran Dresher.

By: kermit

kermit — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:36:17 +0000

Elk, my point was not to say that anyone “has” to do anything. Of course nobody short of the police can force anyone to be quiet. My points were:

1) it’s considerate and neighborly to be respectful of one’s neighbors. If you want to clap at the crack of dawn or have some morning ritual that makes you sound like the Ricola guy with his yack bugle, then either go live in a rural area or make a point of going to a public park instead of subjecting the entire apartment building to your clapping / yodeling or whatever. That stuff is annoying no matter if you’re trying to sleep or if you’re just getting up.

2) Shift workers are not as much of a minority as some people like to believe. Aside from the fact that stores like Home Depot and McDonald’s are open 24 hours, there are plenty of things functioning 24 hours a day that some people don’t even notice. Do you use electricity, surf the Internet, watch tv outside of standard business hours or order stuff online to be rush delivered to your door?. I bet you and a lot of people do. All of these things require real live people on site to make sure that they run smoothly. It’s not just emergency workers and army people.

By: Possum

Possum — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:04:32 +0000

I agree with quite a few people on this subject really, 8:30 am is not early morning. I live next to a school and I have a constant stream of screeching kids coming past my window from 8:30 until 9 and again from 3 until 3:30 (which I keep closed because I’m on the ground floor) but I can’t exactly go out and tell them to shut up and fuck off because I don’t have a lecture or work until later on and I’m trying to sleep. I’ve had trouble with neighbours telling us to turn our music down or whatever when it’s not unreasonably loud in the middle of the day because they’re trying to sleep. It’s YOUR choice if you choose to sleep unreasonable hours and if you want to get annoyed then fine, go for it, but you can’t force people to be quiet when they’re perfectly entitled to make noise. There’s noise pollution laws for a reason, if you contacted your local police and said “help me please I’m being kept awake at 8:30 by someone clapping and singing for 10 minutes” I bet they’d tell you to stop being so silly and put some music on.

By: Doctor Slack

Doctor Slack — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:53:16 +0000

“Hand clapping at 8:30 would no doubt disrupt his sleep and annoy him.”

So what? How is someone else’s hand-clapping or any other decibel production any of his business at 8:30 am? Get some earplugs. What the Hell planet are people living on?

By: Doctor Slack

Doctor Slack — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:46:03 +0000

I agree. This complaint is nuts. The world is awake by 7:30 am anyway, suck it up and leave the poor guy and his clapping alone.