By the time someone's annoyed me enough to say something, I'm usually past the point of being able to, in the immortal words of George Costanza, "de-sour and sweeten." I always say something polite like "Would you please stop talking?" or "Would you mind keeping it down?" but I have so much trouble taking the edge out of my voice. lol
But then there was the woman sitting behind me, snapping her gum through about 2/3 of "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster," to whom I said something to the effect of "Are you kidding me with this?", lol. Then I sat there praying she wouldn't throw her gum in my hair, while she continued to snap away. Finally she got up and left. Sheesh.
>but generally speaking, if I ask people using those words and >in the absolutely nicest tone of voice I can muster, I get >okay results. I've noticed that people who snap or hiss or >yell at others in the theatre usually just get abuse, lol. So >I try to make it a "We're All On The Same Team" kind of >thing.