My annoying habit
I have an annoying habit. At least, that's what my wife, my cats, the dog, colleagues, and several random strangers on the train tell me. And, both Marlene Dietrich and Sandi Toksvig seem to agree.
I have an annoying habit. At least, that's what my wife, my cats, the dog, colleagues, and several random strangers on the train tell me. My offence is that my typing - allegedly - is way too loud. And we're not talking about my loud opinions (guilty as charged!) but about the actual typing on my laptop keyboard. Apparently, it’s too noisy. Pffft!
As if this chorus of disapproval from those around me wasn't enough, now Sandi Toksvig – host extraordinaire of the TV show QI – has also joined the critics. I was recently reading her book Peas & Queues: The Minefield of Modern Manners (2014). Somewhere in the middle, I came across this bit that felt like a slap out of nowhere:
“I understand that some people have to work on the train. I don’t understand why typing needs to be so loud. It’s mostly men, I’m afraid. They bash the keyboard as if it were some wild beast which will only do their bidding if it is subdued first. Allow me an aside to those men – Fellows! It is an inanimate object! It’s not going anywhere. It will work just as well if you are gentle … and quiet.”
Toksvig is a brilliant person whom I admire greatly. And it seems she, along with my wife, my cats, the dog, colleagues, and those pesky strangers on the train, might have some support from the iconic Marlene Dietrich. In the movie Der Blaue Engel, Dietrich sang about not "hammering on the keys" and how a little "pianissimo" always pleases.
I don't think that theory applies to my dilemma, though. After all, the film is from 1930, way before the era of laptops. Plus, this line is sung in Dietrich's showstopper "Ich bin die Fesche Lola". For those of you who, like me, did not excel at German in school, the English version is called "They call me Naughty Lola." Now, there’s a clue. I suspect what she refers to as her "little pianola" might not actually be about a self-playing piano but something altogether different.
However, comparing typing to playing the piano is not a bad idea. Both express emotions and moods through a series of button presses, and without some bold crescendos and dramatic fortissimos, it all becomes pretty bland. Some people might like that, but some of us are just a bit more Beethoven's 5th Symphony and a bit less Moonlight Sonata.