Ah, but Town Meeting will make you pray for Chthulu’s wrath.

And I would not think you less for it

FWIW I read this article when Burneko tweeted about it this morning, and felt profoundly sad for the author. “Invisible” seniors are a very real thing and I worry about having the same experience as I age. I do make an effort to acknowledge everyone—but particularly elderly people—who walk by me while I’m out doing…

I’m with you, they are being weird. You are the one who recently moved; shit is hectic, your stuff doesn’t quite fit the house yet, things don’t look the way you want them to. It’s presumptuous for the neighbors to assume you are obligated to invite them inside, especially if they haven’t invited you over first.

She probably also doesn’t see the irony in her describing a bunch of people she doesn’t even know in those terms.

There’s definitely a generational and rural component.

I live on a small side street in Philly (Philly of all places!) and I’m happy that I know, talk with, and appreciate each of my neighbors. They’re good people (with a few odd ducks) who look out for each other. We pick up each other’s mail, watch each other’s kids ever now and then, and have street dinners other once…

fresh basil is a delight

Exactly!

Or in the voting booth.

I’m gonna say you are right. They should invite you over as a “welcome to the neighborhood party” not a “I HAVE JOINED YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD COME VISIT ME AT MY HOUSE PARTY” that you throw.

Counterpoint: Many people moving into urban areas also seem to be pushing for processes that reduce and eliminate human interaction.

I think it boils down to, as you noted, people simply do not communicate/interact the same way they did when she (or I) was coming up. If you wanted to see a neighbor or say hi, you went and did that. Or maybe you called them. Nowadays, you text people (maybe) or read/like something in their social media timeline.…

I knew the old neighbors who were thirty years older than us, but he died and she moved closer to the kids. We would wave or exchange pleasantries. They had tomatoes and herbs that grew right on the property line and invited us to take as much as we wanted because they never used them all up.

Yeah, it’s kind of just in your best interest to make nice with at least a couple of your neighbors. So if you go on vacation for example you feel comfortable asking them to pick up your mail and keep an eye on things.

I think it really depends on your neighborhood and lifestyle. If you live someplace where it snows and you and your neighbors tend to be outside shoveling at the same time, you talk. Or if you each have dogs and you pass each other on walks. Or if your kids play together. etc.

My in-laws are looking to move near us from New Jersey, which they claim is a festering hole of iniquity in which nobody knows anybody and people are just in it for the lucre and an out to Florida when there’s a big enough pile of money to do it. Much of that is true. I lived in Jersey for years and knew all of our…

Many people appear to be shallow, immoral, intolerant, and hateful about their neighbor’s ideas about religion, politics, the color of their house, etc. I can’t believe these attitudes have taken root my lifetime, but they have.

What I really enjoy about that question is that it’s basically a “talk about” prompt, but phrased as a question.

“LeBron, is this a case of where you have to defend home court at this point?”