Have you ever been in a conversation (or as happened to me tonight, been sitting next to someone in a conversation) when a third person comes up, interrupts the conversation, says “I am sorry for interrupting” and then proceeds to start talking to one of the people who had been involved in a conversation?

Am I the only one who finds this to be very rude? What does the person mean when they say “sorry for interrupting”? If they were really sorry, then they shouldn’t have intentionally interrupted. Right?

(I particularly find this annoying when someone in the generation above me breaks into one of my conversations without even the `courtesy` of a fake apology like the one cited above. They just start talking to the person with whom I had been talking, as if I was not standing there, having a conversation. I hope that I am not a big ba’al ga’ava for thinking this, but why is it socially acceptable for them to rudely interrupt like that? And if I would then re-interrupt them and say “excuse me, but I was having a conversation”, I would be the rude one?!? hmph!)

(And for those who were sitting at the table with me at Seudat Shlishit tonight, this post should explain my bewildered look that you may have seen at one point in the meal)