OUCH!!!

We are being attacked!  Not by aliens, evildoers, muggers or DWI drivers. The current curse is cacophony.  It’s inescapable, ubiquitous and damned annoying at home and out.

Say you’re walking down the street and suddenly – BANG! The radio in the car cruising by is broadcasting some unearthly sounds to a radius of about ten blocks at deafening decibels. What you hear – this so called music – is definitely not sing-able and ear piercing. Oh, for Cole Porter! It’s a joy when the light changes and the driver charges on to contaminate other streets. Those poor drivers – typically under twenty-five – will be sorry when they reach fifty and have to raise the volume ever higher because they’ve shattered their ear drums ands are candidates for hearing aids.

Then there are those drivers who believe in blaring their own horns incessantly. How often do you jump at that startling sound? Of course, those horns do not move the cars in front because there are other cars in front that can’t move, These are probably the same drivers who race to a red light and screech to a halt. Ugh! Does getting to the red light first win anything? And just think of what they’re doing to their brake linings.

Meandering through the streets of Manhattan, one is assaulted by the occasional gunshot, the shouting “Stop Thief!,” the police-fire engine-ambulance sirens and the person who has an intimate conversation on his or her cell phone loud enough for everyone in the street, bus, elevator to share the non news. I find it amazing that when a police car, fire engine or ambulance is racing through the avenues, blaring their sirens for cars to get out of their way, half the drives are oblivious. Perhaps they’ve been listening to their boomer boxes too long.

Then you go to a restaurant for a good meal and a little peace and quiet. Wrong. You and your friend are seated at a dime-sized table when your noses practically touch you have to scream at each other to be heard because everyone in the restaurant is screaming. To compound this, some restaurants play sounds that pass for music raising the noise level to totally intolerable. Cause for indigestion.

Segue to the movie theatres. They don’t offer you apparatus for the hearing disabled the way the Broadway theaters do because all the ads (why do we have to pay to watch ads in movie theatres?) and previews are so fortissimo, you do not need those hearing aids. Often, the movie’s sound level is perfectly acceptable. Why this happens is definitely a puzzlement.

Now go to the tranquility of your home and turn on the TV. Same as the movie theatres. With all the high teach around today, one would think the broadcasters could air the commercials and shows at the same sound levels.  But, no. The ads blast, the shows have a normal sound level. I am most grateful to the remote with the clever mute button. I mute the commercials and unmute the program. That’s not what the advertisers planned but I consider it exercise for my fingers.

Living in a giant city like New York, it’s impossible to escape noise even if your apartment is on the fortieth floor. However, those double-paned windows magically filter out just about every noise except sirens. Well, nothing’s perfect.