First off, THANK YOU for putting up a post to suggests the rare idea of taking the issue into your own hands and handling it with tact, discretion and diplomacy.

YES...there are nice ways to bring up sore subjects. In some cases, even prefacing with "you may not want to hear this, but..." can work. And surprisingly, the offending person may not know how disruptive they are being, and their reactions of course can range from "OMG I'm sorry" to "Take me as you find me" types.

Still...it amazes me that throughout the brief perusal of comments to this article that virtually none other brought up the idea that you could just try up and telling this person, saving going to HR, a manager, or some other escalation that should be saved for AFTER asking the offending person nicely. After all, if they don't know a problem exists, they can't do much to fix it now can they?