Am I A "Gossip Depository"?

Why is it that people I barely know or people I cannot stand think that when they are talking to me and I am quiet they need to fill the space with useless gossip about other people?

I'll be the first to admit that I semi-gossip.

Allow me to explain: I gossip with my super close friends, and that is all!! I don't go around telling random people things like this:

sidebar: actual comments from actual people, all names have been changed to "So and So"

"So and So smokes crack, big time, I hear her dealer is about to cut her off."

Excuse me, WHAT?!?!?!

"So and So can't come on the bus cause So and So's wife will kill her cause she and him had a fling!"

Okay, didn't need to know, but thanks for dumping that load on me...

Anyway, I don't know if that just comes along with the territory of being a barkeep, or if by my irritated silence that you are talking to me

a)because I am counting my till and cannot respond and count at the same time, or
b)because I can't stand you

people tend to get diarrhea of the mouth around me!! Then of course I wonder about said people and what they say about me behind my back, although I'm pretty boring, since I'm usually the only sober one in the room...weirdness.