OPINION: When ‘nice’ is annoying: Exasperating conversations
The big, thick garbageman paused for a second between breaths that were turning white in the stinging cold air. Then a familiar look filled his face. I interpreted it to mean something like: Shut up, you condescending fool.
I’ve gotten this look before from others: the bride-to-be, on a miserably cold and rainy day at a normally sunny resort, when I cheerfully offered something about outdoor weddings “not being all they are cracked up to be”; the tired grocery clerk who mumbled something about trying to put her long shift out of her mind just as I quizzed her about her sore feet on such a long, dreary day.
The Look expresses some combination of consternation and boiling rage. And pity.