What do you do to change the subject or shut someone up and still be nice about it?

Make an excuse to get up and leave (You need a drink, gotta go the bathroom etc.) and when you come back start a new conversation on a different topic.

True, but they are very into this mind numbing event, and I would not want to be rude.

I usually just let them talk…call it a test of patience ;)

Well, it I had hair, I would pull it out, and I feel I am a patient person, but with this one person.

I have a couple of friends who drive me nuts by rambling on. I wait till they take a breath and then say” I’m sorry, please excuse me, I really have to run to the bathroon”. I’ve never offended them (Thank Goddness they are not on Funadvice and read this!! ; )

Make small changes in the subject. Generalize or go into detail and make comparisons to equal subjects that you’d rather want to talk about.

So if your friend is maybe talking about a local politician, you could say, “I’m just happy that guy wasn’t dealing with the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico last year. He’d have totally made it worse. Did you know that large numbers of baby dolphins are dying there and they think it’s because of the oil….” And then maybe he’ll forget to rant about that politician. Or you could tell that you read about a survey that said 50% of all people don’t trust politicians in general…

If he is talking about his ex-girlfriend all day, tell him that Mandy, who you both knew in high-school got divorced and is fighting her ex about who will have the kids.

Or if he keeps talking about how much he hates his boss, change subject towards “what you believe to be good style in leadership”.

True, or they would be trying to figure out if they where the friends you where talking about.

i leave say that i have to do something

Well if it was my friend I would tell them to shut the hell up, but it is usually customers, or people I do not know that well, my friends know me, and they will get over it, or they are not my friends.

OK, I see. But the method is also OK for a stranger. I mean, if someone keeps talking about the weather, you could tell him about the weather on your last vacation and then ask where he went to on his last vacation. Or if they keep talking about the as and tts of your female co-worker, you might want to bluntly change the subjects towards “did you knowhow really, really female a transvestite could look if they took the right medication”… but if you do something like that, plz take a photo of his face and post it here.