Ric Kahn did a piece in the Globe about places in the city that are fighting the good fight against rude behavior, such as public cussing and talking on the cell phone while ordering coffee.

Hearing the F-bomb in public doesn't give Bostonist the vapors. This is a city, and what would a city be like without F-bombs? But someone talking on a cell phone while ordering coffee or a sandwich deserves to have her cell phone shoved up her nose. Kahn describes one "Trudy Rudey" who couldn't let go of the phone at Espresso Royale:

The woman was trying to order for herself, a friend, and a third party - on the other end of her cellphone. As others waited in line, according to the manager, she bombarded employees there with a litany of questions about whether they had this item or that.

For the record, Espresso Royale has banned ordering while on the cell. Kahn also references the top 10 rude behaviors as determined by the Civility Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Institute and the Jacob France Institute at the University of Baltimore. (Did anyone else find it funny that the Civility Institute is in Baltimore, of all places? Uh, what?)

The top 10 rude behaviors are basically variants of the Bostonist's Golden Rule, which is "Don't be an asshole." Oops--that was a cuss. Is the Civility Initiative coming after us? Anyway, here's a simplified version of the rules, focusing on the people who commit the crimes:

1. Asshole bigots at work
2. Asshole drivers
3. Credit-hogging assholes
4. Assholes at the coffee shop
5. Asshole bigots in any situation
6. Asshole kids
7. Asshole litterers
8. Assholes who park in disabled spots when they shouldn't
9. Asshole smokers
10. Asshole cell-phone users

And, we'd like to add a new breed of asshole to the list--the asshole who doesn't shovel his or her sidewalk.

Image from Amazon.