B-line blues

Riding public transportation provides one of the best people-watching platforms that I am aware of. In Boston, riding the T can also be utterly frustrating. When that pedestrian in the orange tee with the extra large Dunkin' Donuts ice coffee beats the train to every traffic light, it takes some mental discipline to avoid making a scene of my restlessness.

There are always those passengers, though, who make this torturous trip slightly more bearable. Take, for example, the seemingly normal 20-something who got on at Packard's Corner yesterday. His Sox cap and North Face backpack hid him well in the crowd of college/post-college B-liners.

At Babcock Street, Normal Guy got out a textbook and began a highlighting frenzy. At St. Paul Street, he whipped out the index cards. By BU Central, the iPhone had his attention. Text twist it is.

Normal Guy stood up at Blandford Street, perched to exit at the last of the completely useless above-ground stops.

The front doors opened. "Rear doors please!" he shouted. They opened, just for him. Normal Guy proceeded to launch a neck-bending, hail-sized ball of spit onto Comm Ave.

With that, he reclaimed his seat and re-focused on the pile of index cards. The train descended into Kenmore Station and suddenly picked up speed.

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READER BLOOPERS: What's the funniest thing you've witnessed on public transportation?