Let’s be honest, sometimes it seems like every day is Festive on Balloon Juice, but let’s really make today count.
Let the airing of grievances begin.
Reader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.
Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.
She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.
It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.
He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!
I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.
The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.
Peak wingnut was a lie.
Black Jesus loves a paper trail.
Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.
The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.
A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.
The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.
Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard
“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”
They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.
New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.
Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.
Bark louder, little dog.
rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius
You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.
Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.
Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.
This blog will pay for itself.
sab
We already were working on that in the last three or four squishable happy threads.
Barbara
Pet peeve #1: In the last three weeks no fewer than four drivers have pulled out in front of us to turn right or make a u turn where it wasn’t legal. Someone nearly hit my husband as he sped around us. Someone else passed us from the right hand parking lane on a residential street. What the heck is going on?
Layer8Problem
“Come On Ei-Feckin’-leen” is grinding through my skull on repeat and I’m about to stick my earphones in and blast it out with “Time Has Come Today”. The long version.
I gotta come up with better grievances.
Omnes Omnibus
My grievance is that I agree with Balloon Juice’s anti-Christian bigot about the awfulness of Marian Carey.
Poe Larity
I don’t even know where to start.
tjmn
Why don’t people turn on their headlights in rain or at dusk?
Why doesn’t Cole tell us what he really thinks?
Who the hell invented political ads?
Don’t get me started on those damned fucking Republicans!
PAB- Goddess what a PAB!
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: It grieves me to agree with that commenter insofar as it relates to The Christmas Song That Shall Not Be Named Nor Played in My Home — By Any Artist. But I don’t know if he’s correct about Carey being an awful person in general. I won’t take his word for it.
WaterGirl
@Poe Larity: the beginning? Middle is good, too. Random spot is also acceptable.
Ohio Mom
@Barbara: Same thing here, have observed as a driver and as a passenger. Same question, what got into everybody?
My complaint, same as every year. My SIL sent me a present that was more than I would spend on a gift, and once again, something I have no use for or interest in. Now I have to reciprocate. I consider this a waste of money on both our parts and I hate wasting money.
Mostly though, my feelings are hurt. If after a quarter of a century, you still have no clue about me, you haven’t been paying any attention. And if you haven’t been paying attention, that speaks to your complete and total disregard of me, and feeling disregarded is a bummer.
My policy on presents is, if I see something that is perfect for you and within my budget, I am thrilled to get it for you without any special occasion attached. But just buying to check off a box, bah.
Nukular Biskits
#1 – Flying.
#2 – A group of people walking 3 or 4 abreast down an aisle (particularly in airports … see #1).
#3 – Gas pumps that don’t give receipts.
Lemme drink so more coffee and I’ll come up with more.
WaterGirl
My grievance. When the first comment on a post is critical of the post.
That makes me cranky, whether it’s one of mine or someone else’s.
mrmoshpotato
Why do I think you’ll regret egging us on? 🤣
Almost Retired
Repulsive ex-Ohio Governor John Kasich as a regular contributor on MSNBC. I loathe his creepy Pennywise smile and his “aren’t I funny and reasonable” schtick. His observations are utterly banal. Plus, three or four sentences in, his reasonable facade crumbles and the smarmy little authoritarian that he actually is pokes through.
And MSNBC hosts have evidently been instructed to be Trump Cabinet-level deferential to the little putz and laugh at all his jokes and treat his sophomoric opinions as great insights.
The only person who hates him more than me appears to be his make-up artist.
grumbles
What was envisioned as a fairly mellow holiday season ending in a short visit with a friend ended up involving:
– a cross-country 3-day trip put out a work fire that became a 9 day trip,
– an older relative in the emergency room,
– a much younger one needing a hasty change in living arrangements,
– and now another cross-country flight to help a close friend move abruptly out of necessity.
Anyone know anywhere relaxing I can catch my breath and sleep for a bit? Like an illegal warehouse party or a glass-shatterterium?
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: It also wouldn’t surprise me if copyright overreach was mostly the action of agents or record labels. Her ex was the CEO of Sony Records. I know she had emotional problems and public meltdowns at one time but I have never followed her that closely.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Surely not!
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Awfulness as a person, I have only a little info.* Awfulness as an artist, that is self-evident.
*My ex worked for a a time in catering for private aviation and Carey had a reputation as demanding, picky, and not very nice. OTOH, the Springsteen and Bon Jovi had the reps of being easy going and friendly. Springsteen would even help carry luggage to the plane.
coin operated
@Omnes Omnibus: Nope…he doesn’t get a pass on credibility for *anything* after the DC meetup debacle. Not even for she who sings an xmas song that must not be named….
Dangerman
I’m reasonably sure I haven’t heard any cover of “Last Christmas” this year; how can it be Christmas without that song at least once? The very next day! The nerve!!
mrmoshpotato
@tjmn:
Or at night?! Seriously, I’ve seen way too many people driving at night with their headlights off!
How in the hell do you not realize your lights are off?
WaterGirl
@grumbles: yikes!
Not that we’re grading anyone’s complaints, but if we were you might be an early front runner !
frosty
@Barbara: Get a dash cam. This summer Ms F T-boned someone who ran a red light. He immediately jumped out and accused her “You ran the red light!” She answered “No I didn’t, you did, and I have the dash cam to prove it.”
It shut him up. She sent the video to the insurance companies, too.
My Festivus grievance … Upper back pain diagnosed as Postural Dysfunction, AKA sitting in the recliner reading the phone and laptop too much. The Physical Terrorist gave me dumbbell exercises to do but I’m too much of a dumbbell to do them as often as I should.
It’s not much of a grievance, I know.
ETA: Long running grievance. Why does Edit Comment not come up in Visual and only Text? It’s a PITA re-editing 2 or 3 times to get the formatting and paragraph breaks right. Also, intermittently it comes up in Visual. Grrr (h/t Another Scott)
Barbara
@grumbles:You need to cultivate airport (or travel) zen. Which is to take advantage of any waiting time to engage in soothing thoughts. I used to carry mint tea bags and a book to read just for this purpose when I was traveling a lot. Hope things calm down and major kudos for being the port in a storm for those around you. Sort of like a traveling stable for those who couldn’t find room at the inn.
mrmoshpotato
@Ohio Mom:
How thoughtful!
Betty Cracker
Also, airboats without noise suppression gear. My county has an ordinance the MAGA chud sheriff uses to harass teens for playing loud music in their cars, but these goddamn airboats roar around every lake and river at all hours, and that’s okay, according to the authorities. What the goddamn fucking HELL?
WaterGirl
@coin operated: so you’re grievance is just one word! :-) which we won’t type!
3Sice
I’ve gotta a lot of problems with you people….
Jerry Stiller is legend.
Barbara
@mrmoshpotato: My daughter has her lights on manual, which I forget when I drive her car. That’s my excuse.
mrmoshpotato
@Nukular Biskits:
Oh! Oh oh! 😠😠😠
Omnes Omnibus
@coin operated: Look, I am not saying he has credibility, I am saying that I am appalled to find that I independently arrived at similar judgement to one of his. It throws me.
Scout211
Grievances:
Balloon-juice related: my grievance is when commenters use straw man arguments for other commenters opinions to make their own points. Triangulating Democrats and Balloon-juice commenters is not cool.
Personal: I am not okay with people who tell me that everything will be fine if my husband just asks his doctor for that new Alzheimer’s medication that they read about in some popular new site. Ugh.
Political grievance: All things GOP. The end.
HinTN
@Ohio Mom:
No, you don’t!
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Hahaha!
Nukular Biskits
@mrmoshpotato:
And I should have added “at a leisurely pace”.
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom: My policy on presents is that it should be one of three things:
1) Consumable (flowers/plants count)
2) Handmade/Homemade, by me or someone else
3) A book
sab
Why does my dog grind up her dog biscuits into little kibbles all over the house instead of swallowing them like a normal dog? And then looks at me in anguish when I vacuum them up. “Do you know how much effort went into making thoe kibbles?”
Tom Levenson
My grievance (local category): that my mother, her memory is a blessing, bequeathed me her dental genes, with the proximate result being two extractions in the last month. Nothing makes you feel decrepit so much as…being decrepit.
My grievance (wide world category): Too many to count, so I’ll just focus on my abiding rage at the New York Times, which can be so much better, and in many individual instances is, while sliding ever further into Vichy Times corruption.
Tom Levenson
Duplicate.
Apologies.
Barbara
@Omnes Omnibus: I am always a little skeptical at these kinds of judgments because so many stories of “difficult” artists turn out to be about Black women. Carey is biracial, which granted not everyone is aware of.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: A couple of years ago, I got my dad a sweatshirt that said, “It’s not hoarding if it’s books.”
HinTN
@Barbara:
That’s the best damn thing I’ve read in a while. TY
mrmoshpotato
@frosty:
BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Omnes Omnibus
@Barbara: Which is why I will stick to the artistic judgment of “She’s awful.”
3Sice
Religious dietary restrictions, vegetarian/vegan, these are things one can work with culinarily speaking.
The relative that has very specific tastes, and only voices them at the holiday table…. f that guy/gal.
dmsilev
I’m kind of pissed at myself for agreeing to read grad-school applications not just for my department but for a related one across campus. 260 of the damn things I have to go through and rate and so forth over the next couple of weeks.
Happy “holiday”!
Suzanne
Grievances: apparently Greenies give some dogs diarrhea, and mine did a squirty turd all over the sidewalk yesterday afternoon. Which was not awesome to “pick up”. I did my best.
Then last night, she did another one in the living room on the rug. So awesome.
Poe Larity
@Barbara:
Unless you’re talking about SFO, which zenport doesn’t have loudspeakers at 110db and Mariah playing in-between?
You know they’ve turned up the speakers because too many people are wearing headphones?
frosty
@Betty Cracker: That’s a good grievance. The last time I was canoeing on the Ocklawaha, we could hear the airboat coming for ages. OTOH, he slowed down passing us, which the fishermen never did. But that’s a different grievance, isn’t it?
NotMax
Leonardo da Grinchi’s favorite holiday.
:)
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Last year, I got my mom a little zipper pouch that said, “If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck ’em.”
O. Felix Culpa
I have a grievance about the read-out on my scale this morning. And about the wonderful cookies in the house that I baked…and may have enjoyed a bit too much.
Also, my stepmom seems to be showing signs of dementia. She has been my dad’s caretaker, which makes matters particularly difficult. We hope to visit them soon, to assess the situation. Then we need to figure out what to do if our suspicions are borne out.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
Even at night in the pitch black? Sounds like a (crocodile) recipe for
good eatingdisaster!BeautifulPlumage
My grievance is that Cole (probably) won’t install in in-car camera with sound so we can all enjoy the upcoming shenanigans on the cross-country cavalcade.
Barbara
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t much care for her music, but she has a live version of I’ll Be There that shows off the full potential of her voice and makes me think of what she might have been with better material.
schrodingers_cat
OT question: Do any BJers use fountain pens to draw? Any favorites? I use my Lamy Safari. Going to try my hand at ink and watercolor combo this new year. What paper do you use? I am thinking of using Bristol Smooth.
I also have some dip pens with various nibs and India inks so that should be fun.
Barbara
@Poe Larity: My parents fought nonstop and my mother shouted a lot when my dad was absent. Overhead noise is not enough to stop me from immersing myself in a good book.
dr. luba
@Suzanne: Agreed. At least for us olds. Youngs on their own often need stuff, but we olds rarely do. Except for snowglobes. Who doesn’t need a nice snowglobe?
My brother is getting soap from me, as usual. My friends all get bottles of Baileys (home made) and pysanka tree ornaments (ditto). A few lucky ones get honey liqueur.
schrodingers_cat
@Barbara: Yeah if the book is engaging then I can tune out the noise.
zhena gogolia
@Barbara: Same around here. The other day we were stopped at a red light behind another car. All of a sudden, the car just went right through the red light. I’ve seen people go through red lights while moving, but I’ve never before seen someone deliberately, after being stopped for a few seconds, just blatantly go through the light. Weird.
Another Scott
@Ohio Mom: “I received your thoughtful present. You shouldn’t have. We are finding we have too much stuff now, and I’m sure you feel the same way, so we’ve made a resolution going forward to give to charities instead of presents. We’ve made a donation in your name to https://abortionfunds.org/ . Thanks again, happy holidays, we’ll catch up in the new year.
Yours etc.,
Ohio Mom”
;-)
I find it really, really hard to give presents any more. Anything people need they most likely already have already, or have ideas of a particular version of a thing, so trying to get them one is fraught. I hate shopping for clothes, even for myself, and my J is really particular about her clothes. Jewelry is problematic and often just collects dust. Gift certificates can be problematic and are usually impersonal. I don’t like “tell me what you want” either.
I’m becoming much more enamored about giving to charities in another person’s name. It can be inspiring, and it can be a not-so-subtle ribbing, and it is for a good cause.
The main thing is, don’t stress about it, and try not to stress others. This time of year is stressful enough as it is…
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Poe Larity
I have a suggestion for next years calendar.
We have KC Green illustrate the selected pet pictures to This Is Fine standards.
NotMax
@BeautifulPlumage
Ka-ching! Guaranteed moneymaker on pay-per-view.
mrmoshpotato
@Scout211:
Ahhhh!!!! Drug ads!!!!!
Yeah! I’ll ask my doctor about my A1C! “Hey doc! What the fuck is A1C?!”
And, you’re a drug ad! 1. Fuck off! You shouldn’t exist in a responsible society! 2. What is this singing/dancing bullshit?!
And fuck you Pepto Bismaul! (intentional misspelling) I don’t need singing about diarrhea unless you’re 🎶driving in a Chevy🎶!
Ask your doctor if Ooga Booga Beluga is right for you!
Suzanne
@dr. luba: Yeah, my kids get things like clothes and books and toys and Spawn the Elder gets some sensible stuff (like a crockpot) now that he’s sharing an apartment with roommates. But mehhhhhhh. Adults have all the stuff they need and most of the stuff they want.
raven
My bride has decided to host a group for Christmas brunch since we are staying home this year. She wants oyster stew because her family always had it so I was out early this morning trying to find some. I could only locate two dozen on the shell so I bought them. It’s been years since I shucked any but I still remember putting an oyster knife through my palm. The university of Maryland Extension has a YouTube that says you can put them in the freezer overnight and they will open. Any input?
Scout211
@mrmoshpotato: Exactly!
mrmoshpotato
@Nukular Biskits:
Even worse. Especially at the airport.
Almost Retired
@mrmoshpotato: Oooh, drug ads. Good grievance. Although those people in the Skyrizi ads seem to be having so much fun it almost makes me wish I had moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.
Phylllis
Packaging. Example: I ordered hubby a new artist portfolio from Blick. it came in a flat cardboard box/mailer. Okay. Once that was opened, it was additionally wrapped in more cardboard with almost impenetrable tape, and then wrapped in a plastic bag. I swear it took me twenty minutes to unearth.
mrmoshpotato
@sab: Does she actually eat any of the biscuit, or is it just a game to her?
NotMax
@raven
New tradition. A shuck your own party.
//
Barbara
@raven: You are a good husband. We buy them already shucked. We made oyster stew the day after Thanksgiving for the remaining guests. Such a treat.
Mornington Crescent
If there are two adjacent seats on the bus, take the seat by the window, not the one by the aisle.
BeautifulPlumage
@NotMax: I mean, he has vet bills coming up. And we deserve it, as a treat.
raven
@Barbara: I would have but it was all they had
eta, oooo, look:
Freezing and thawing is the easiest hands-off method of opening oysters, according to Croxton. “Honestly, a lot of these things happen to us on the farm — we have oysters that are exposed to low tide in the middle of the winter, and they get hit by the freezing cold. They’ll die, and the second they thaw, they open,” he says.
Oysters and Uni Butter Are a Match Made in Heaven
“So if you want to bring that into the kitchen, just stick your oysters in the freezer, let them thoroughly freeze, and then put them in the refrigerator. As they start to thaw down, they’ll pop up and then you’re in. The nice thing about it is, once you put them in the refrigerator, the texture will come back, and it’s not going to change the flavor.”
Splitting Image
I just got a little giggle out of a mastodon exchange featuring people ragging on some men’s rights activists.
Everyone was wishing them “Happy Christmas Adam”. December 23rd is henceforth Christmas Adam because it comes before Christmas Eve and is generally unsatisfying.
My plan for the next couple of weeks is to re-watch all of my Jane Austen adaptations. The rest of the world, or at least the annoying parts of it, can go away until I’m done.
NotMax
@raven
Time was oysters and brothels were joined at the hip, as it were.
Barbara
@Scout211: Thinking of you and wishing you the best.
coin operated
@WaterGirl:
@Omnes Omnibus:
As someone who had xians do real damage to my family and myself, there were several of their grips with xian culture that I agreed with. My real grevience is the broad brush they used for *everything* xian…to the point they became incoherent (as evidenced in DC rant). Shame, really.
Scout211
@Barbara: Thank you. 😊
FastEdD
My dog is an ausshole. I do everything I can to make his life comfortable yet he still complains. Ausshole.
My eyebrows look funny. My brother says I should cut them off, but he is an ausshole too.
I gave my friend Dave a Coors Light, because it was the only beer I had and he drank it and hated it. The only reason I had a Coors Light in the fridge is somebody gave it to me and I didn’t want it either. He flew all the way out here from North Carolina so he could complain about drinking swill.
Sprouts had sidedishes on sale for $1.99 instead of $7.99 so now I am going to eat them all tomorrow and get fat. Curse you Sprouts.
My student Richard texted me to wish me a happy birthday because it is his birthday too. He suggested I’m 107 years old.
That is all.
eclare
My 2018 Honda CR-V, which I bought to be a super reliable car, now has two recalls. The dealer is an hour away, and the time to fix the first recall is about four hours. So that is six hours, basically the whole day wasted. I assume the fuel pump repair will take about as long.
Grrrr….I guess I’ll watch season two of The Bear on my phone at the dealer. Just finished season one. One word: wow.
Danielx
Another vote for (against) vehicular lunatics.
CarolPW
@raven: I bash them with a hammer a couple of times. Works well if you are cooking them and you don’t need to keep the liquid.
Layer8Problem
@mrmoshpotato: And the a**hole supplements commercials! Prevagen! Fruits and Veggies! Happy active older folk living their best lives thanks to the tireless efforts of the screwy Magic Pill industry!
eclare
@FastEdD:
Happy birthday!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@dmsilev: I always set myself a limit for how many service things I’d do. Once I reached it, I said a guilt-free no.
West of the Rockies
@mrmoshpotato:
Side effects include spontaneous brain fissures, exploding eyeballs, varicose lips, leaky armpits, toe goiter, and combustible knees.
p.a.
@raven: kevlar glove
Barbara
@CarolPW: The liquid makes for a richer stew, so I would try to save it. Maybe bash them in a container and strain the liquid to use?
eclare
@West of the Rockies:
The segment “Cheating Death with Dr Stephen T Colbert” on the old Colbert Report had great send ups of drug ads, with side effects like you mentioned.
FastEdD
@eclare: Thank you! It was a couple days ago, but I’ll take what I can get. For the record, I’m only 106.
La Nonna
I hate QR codes, particularly in place of menus or winelists, reading them on my phone is no fun. This “digital life” where I do all the work, whether banking, booking travel, finding the menu, accessing the Italian bureaucracy (not easy), with a necessary app for each function … sometimes you just want face to face interaction, or even some help.
Yes, I am 70+.
Scout211
On the other hand, hats off to Honda for announcing the recall and also reimbursing owners who’ve already had the fuel pump replaced. I had a Camry in the 80’s that had two “hidden” recalls that cost me a lot of money for service. They refused to announce the pulsating brakes/suspension problem that had many of us replacing a set of tires due to the damage. The other was a fuel pump that I paid to get replaced after several tows.
My grievance is with Toyota’s reluctance to announce a recall until they were forced to do so.
I live an hour away from the closest Honda dealer and now that my husband can’t drive, I take the courtesy van to the mall for the day and shop, eat lunch and hang out at the Barnes and Noble.
NotMax
@West of the Rockies
A favorite:
“Do not take if allergic to the ingredients.”
No sh*t, Sherlock.
Barbara
@eclare: Speaking of side effects: it turns out that Fosamax can cause significant musculoskeletal pain in up to 10% of people taking it. I had heard about the dire effects, which are rare, but the intermediate effects are not rare at all. Now on a medication pause pending consult with MD.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@West of the Rockies:
NotMax
@La Nonna
QR codes are of the devil.
West of the Rockies
My dear wife has six kids. One was adopted and asks for nothing. Four of the other five (all but one in their 30’s) still require substantial financial assistance. We probably provide 3K a month to them. Grow up, get jobs!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@La Nonna: Ah, a grievance I can get behind. Stupid QR menus plus bad cell service and no WiFi at the restaurant!
zhena gogolia
@La Nonna: Co-sign.
Old Dan and Little Ann
We watch a lot of the same movies every Christmas. Last night was Christmas Vacation. It always weirds me out that it seems I just watched a movie the other day when an entire year has passed. Plus, Clark watches a 1955 black and white movie in the attic. That was 34 years from 1989. Which was 34 years ago. The mind. It reels.
Alison Rose
I am so utterly sick of this current social media phase of “post painfully obviously staged and scripted videos and pretend they’re real and candid for the clickz” and I want it to die a quick and ignominious death.
Mike in Pasadena
@Barbara: The phenomina you’re witnessing began in earest in California in late 2016. We call it the trump effect where people ignore stop signs, execute U-turns mid-block, and when making a right turn at a light, look only to the left for oncoming trafic and ignore the defenseless pedestrians stepping into the street on their right. Called the trump effect because it is the adoption in the general population of the mindset that says, “I’m the only person in the world and I can do whatever I want.”
eclare
@Scout211:
That’s a good idea, maybe I’ll see if they have a van that can take me to the mall, at least for lunch.
And I hope you and your husband are doing as well as possible.
West of the Rockies
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
I’ve not heard that bit before! What’s it from?
Mr. Bemused Senior
@West of the Rockies: the Goon Show, Tales of Men’s Shirts. [A story of Down Under]
eclare
@Barbara:
That’s a pretty big percentage with side effects. Good luck getting it figured out with your dr.
Mai Naem mobile
@Omnes Omnibus: OT and not about Carey but I knew a guy who retired from working private aviation. He said Oprah was a drunk, Elvis and Diana Ross were nice. Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis were jerks. He worked in NH for a time so met a few POTUS candidates. He said GHW Bush was friendly and described Jackie Kennedy as ‘provincial’ which is just a term I would never connect with Jackie Kennedy.
Spanky
@mrmoshpotato:
That could be either a diarrhea drug or a band name. Or both!
Glidwrith
@mrmoshpotato: Because my night vision is so good, it doesn’t register that it’s dark for everyone else.
CindyH
@Ohio Mom: I don’t think you need to reciprocate – just gracious thank you should suffice if the true meaning of gift giving was intended.
eclare
@Mike in Pasadena:
Started here in Memphis well before 2016. You can tell when some country person comes here to see a dr, they actually stop at red lights and go on green. Natives floor it on red and wait a while on green, to avoid the people running the red.
Kayla Rudbek
@Barbara: people forgetting how to drive, too much time playing Grand Theft Auto?
CaseyL
My friends might have grievances against me: I sent out no cards and bought no presents this year. I just…never got myself in gear. No excuses: it has not been a bad year at all. I just wasn’t in the spirit, or something.
I may baffle them all by sending out New Years cards :)
Kathleen
@Barbara: It’s to the point where I’m afraid to drive. I’ve never seen so many drivers run red lights in all the years I’ve been driving. Also, at least once or twice a day for the past several weeks Cincy expressways have had fatal crashes and accidents that have all lanes tied up. I think people are still reacting to Covid lockdowns. Plus Joe Biden is old.
Barbara
@Ohio Mom: My mom told me a long time ago not to take gift misses personally either as a recipient or a giver. In your case, regifting to someone might be possible and that’s what I would do.
JAFD
Is SEPTA ever going to fix the escalator to Tracks 3/4 on the upper level at 30th Street ?
The SouthEastern Pa Transportation has new system, scan train ticket to get to or from platform at downtown stations. So I arrive on train from Trenton with two minutes to spare, drag heavy suitcase onto down elevator, scan thru ticket to get off at bottom, scan to get to platform for my outbound train. Found have to get suitcase up stairs. No way. Have to get attendant to buzz me out and thru gate to elevator. Fortunately that Paoli Local was three minutes late. Feh
eclare
@CaseyL:
One of my cousins sends out Halloween cards with a photo of the family in costume. So send out New Year’s cards, or surprise everyone with Presidents’ Day cards.
Layer8Problem
Make America Grand [Theft] Auto.
Scout211
@Barbara: Ugh! I hated taking oral Fosamax. Too many rules and restriction like don’t you dare bend over or your day is filled with horrible heartburn. Don’t ask me how I know.
Luckily, or unluckily, I developed a severe rash and itching. I am now on the once yearly Reclast infusion with no issues.
Good luck. I hope they find a better medication for you. Note: every single osteoporosis medication has pages of possible side effects. It’s scary to read the long list.
But the infusion was fine, at least for me.
O. Felix Culpa
@CaseyL: I’ve done New Years cards when I couldn’t manage Christmas cards on time. No one took offense, as far as I know.
eclare
@Kathleen:
I’m afraid to drive here. It seems like most of the wrecks here are due to speeding, like going over 100 in a 45. An off duty cop did that and killed two people. I hate to drive anyway, and shit like that does not help. My 2018 car has less than 10k miles, that is how much I hate to drive.
Splitting Image
@Spanky:
He’s the villain in the upcoming Nightmare Before Christmas / Finding Nemo crossover.
Glidwrith
@O. Felix Culpa: I tried to do Christmas cards one year. They sat, unopened, for a year and then were donated.
I’ll stick with baked goods.
pat
My pet peeve: people who don’t use cruise control. I’m tooling along on a mostly empty freeway and some jerk passes and pretty soon I come up on him and pass and then after a while he is coming up to me again…..
Also, no lights. Why can they not figure out the Auto on the light knob?
Also, Gaza, Ukraine and trump. GUT. Ick.
Also, holidays in general. Jeeze, get out some old ornaments, invite someone for dinner on the 25th, buy and cook something you normally wouldn’t cook….. who needs it?
Bah humbug.
danielx
@eclare:
But at least they did issue the recall! Under general grievances: via LGM, a Reuters piece about how Tesla vehicles are defective pieces of shit. And how Tesla has gone to great lengths to ascribe such potentially deadly things as front suspension failure (at 115 miles!) to driver abuse.
As if I needed additional reasons to detest Elon Musk.
ETA: apologies, there was a thread on this yesterday pm. Still seething though.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ohio Mom: Donate in your SIL’s name as your reciprocal gift. Maybe she’ll even stop sending the useless gifts.
dexwood
@CaseyL:
We mail Happy New Year cards every year to all who send us Christmas cards. They’ve become a hit with our friends. So often, Christmas cards get kind of overlooked during the holiday madness, but New Year cards stand out a bit.
RachelBakes
After actually sleeping until/past the alarm for the last week (a rare occurrence), our son woke up for the day today at 3:30. And now is driving us crazy.
Kathleen
@La Nonna: May I join you on the couch? I’ve been tempted to tell merchants and vendors that my religious belief is that QR Codes are beasts that serve the devil so I can’t patronize their companies. ETA I’m over 70 also.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Related: When someone says, “I can’t believe it’s been 40 comments and nobody has mentioned X.” Happens a lot in “Medium Cool.” It’s not our responsibility to mention things you like.
I get that it’s a rhetorical intensifier, like X is really cool or important, but it has a criticizing, carping vibe to it.
pat
Another peeve: HOUSE SPARROWS. They have completely taken over in my yard. Immigrants! Poisoning my birding.
Ruckus
@Barbara:
I live in SoCal and we now have over 9.83 million people living in LA county, in 4,753 square miles. That’s a larger population than 40 states. There are always cars and there are always people who don’t care that there are OTHER human beings they are supposed to share the road with.
I know no actual way to change that. OK I do but it’s illegal and immoral.
Mike in Pasadena
@Mike in Pasadena: There are many more examples, too many to mention here, but another that’s one of my least favorite is failing to use turn signals, especially in situations where it would be most helpful to other drivers trying to avoid a collision.
A friend once asked me why I did not buy a beemer. My response: “If I’m going to spend that much money on a car, I expect it to at least have turn signals.”
Layer8Problem
@CaseyL: You and I seem to be sharing the same psychic miasma.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: And half the time it actually has been mentioned.
grumbles
@Barbara:
I never forget a book t fly with, but I always forget the value of things that smell good, thanks for the reminder.
Steeplejack
@mrmoshpotato:
Conversely, I hate those elaborate LED headlights that blaze like high beams all the time.
eclare
@danielx:
True. I saw that thread and was appalled. You can’t take a Tesla through a car wash?
Kayla Rudbek
@Omnes Omnibus: even a broken clock is right twice a day
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Steeplejack: Long ago, on a discussion board about The Amazing Race, the mod said comments should not be about other commenters. They should be about the topic. The “I can’t believe” stuff veers close to that guideline. I’ve found it useful over the years.
no comment
@O. Felix Culpa:
Husband & I have a similar situation with his parents. My MIL is not very mobile and has other health conditions. FIL has a family history of Alzheimers and increasing trouble with his short term memory. And they live 12 hours or so away. For various reasons (weather, politics, husband’s job, etc.) we aren’t willing to move to their state. We’re trying to get them to move to either a single level home within 15 mins of our house, or an independent living facility less than 30 mins away from us. For various reasons (weather, familiarity, mild hoarding, loss of independence, etc.) they are unwilling.
I will also complain about unexpected veterinary surgeries. We’ve had 2 in the past year. One dog had an eye removed earlier this year. Another had a leg amputation more recently. Pups, we love you & are willing to spend the money on you, but you’re causing us great emotional stress! Please just stay healthy & uninjured!
pat
OK, this complaining about cars has me going. I drive a VW Golf, and it is the smallest car in the lot when I go shopping. Nothing but huge pickups and SUVs that would completely destroy my Golf in a collision.
My sister was hit by a car as she crossed the street a few years ago. Thankfully it was a car and not a pickup, because she got a broken femur. Any larger vehicle would have killed her.
OK, that’s enough, got to go do some shopping. Need cat litter…..
Alison Rose
@Barbara: I think that works in some cases, but in others where it is clearly obvious the person put zero thought into it, it’s pretty hard not to take that personally. In my early 20s, in the midst of my goth era, my grandma bought me a peach-colored cable-knit sweater and a grass-green flowered ankle-length skirt. The only thought that went into those gifts was “I, the gift-giver, think these clothes are nice, and also I don’t like that my granddaughter dresses like a graveyard ho” and I was, I think, justifiably miffed.
And no, I never wore either item.
DarbysMom
5 star reviews on websites from people who HAVEN’T TRIED THE PRODUCT/RECIPE YET! There are so many of these. I don’t get it. Yesterday I saw a review from someone who gave a recipe 4 stars and said they ‘couldn’t wait to try it.’ What was the thought process that led them to conclude the recipe only deserved 4 stars?
Also: 5 star reviews of a recipe where the reviewer writes something like, “Fantastic recipe. I substituted shrimp for the chicken; left out the mushrooms and green onions and added molasses and cardamom. Will definitely make again!”
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
I’ve been told that if one’s head is stuffed solidly up the exit orifice it’s rather dark so it’s possible that they don’t know they are driving because it’s always dark in their world.
Those of us who think it’s better to actually see where we are going, and that it likely smells better, do actually like to see what is ahead of us.
Kathleen
@eclare: My 2016 Subaru has about 38K miles, thanks to Covid lockdown and working from home for 4 years, plus not liking to go places or do things! I worry more about accidents than I do about getting shot, which also happens regularly in my area.
thruppence
@Omnes Omnibus: I met Mariah Carey briefly many years ago before she married a billionaire and got her implants. She seemed nice enough. Tiny person.
Nelle
I’m going to break the Festivus complaint thread because I am too excited to wait to gloat and chortle. Just got back from the latest strenth assessment at the Y – I use the EGym, a series of resistance machines that I started in May when I became concerned that I was so unfit that I couldn’t keep my grandson, whom I watch two days a week, safe. He’s a real live wire, a climber, and is now 17 months. I’m 72.
My assessment today is that my lower body (legs) is 51 years – I’ve got some bad knees. But my upper body is now evaluated at a bio age of 26 and my core at 21, for an overall biostrength age of 33 years. Of course, I have some fat around that, but man, I wish I had known that I had the capacity to be strong earlier in life (my father was a phenomenally strong construction worker, but I didn’t realize that I had his genetics in that).
On another note, does anyone have any experience with regenerative therapy for rebuilding knee cartilage? I think I may be too old, but it intrigues me. My husband just finished reading Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Song of the Cell aloud to me and I’m hoping I might be eligible.
Steeplejack
@Almost Retired:
😹
Layer8Problem
I just finished a traditional Irish breakfast brunch and am enduring an earnest urban folkie bluegrass session. I’m considering a second Bloody Mary to compensate. But little kids are rapt listening and they’re dancing so that I can’t be too whingy. Happy little kids make things better.
Christ, and now they’re doing “Swing Low [Yadda Yadda]”. Oh well, it’s the holidays.
EriktheRed
I have to fuckin’ work overtime today!
Miss Bianca
@CaseyL: I’m kind of there with you. Can’t get into any kind of spirit this year in terms of hustling to get gifts for people. I keep reminding myself (and them) that there are Twelve Days of Christmas.
Which might make a good grievance. Hey, merchants and Chambers of Commerce – can we phase out “it’s Christmas before Halloween” and bring back the Twelve Days of Christmas? I mean, it’s eleven more days of giving people stuff, come on!
Nelle
@pat: I can’t put anything in the feeder. Forty to fifty sparrows are on it in an instant, driving out any other birds. This is the third winter of this. (Sometimes, though, I do put feed out. I think of it as setting the table for hawks from the nearby field. The hawk usually gets at least one in the crowd. Nature raw.)
WaterGirl
Mr. Bear has some grievances he would like me to share for him. In fact, he insisted.
He does not like the cone!
He does not like the medicine!
He does not like me stabbing him in the ear (aka inserting ear medicine)!
He does not like throwing up because the medicine upsets his tummy!
edit: Not to get ahead of myself, but I am pretty sure Mr. Bear is not going to like the 2 new medicines I am now supposed to give him so he doesn’t throw up the other medicine.
Glidwrith
@dr. luba: Wait. You can make homemade Bailey’s?????
How does one do this?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Nelle: Go you!
Kelly
I hate people that bag thier dog’s poop and leave the damn bag beside the path. Very few of them really loop back to pick the bag up.
Miss Bianca
@Alison Rose: OK, now “a graveyard ho” is a thing in my mind. And I cannot stop laughing about it. Uh…thanks? Or wait, should a new mindworm be a grievance?
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: My Dad didn’t talk about what it was like to be in the army, but he did repeatedly share one thing.
“Never volunteer for anything.”
My poor dad, apparently that didn’t take for me.
MagdaInBlack
My current real time grievance is that one of my neighbors across the hall is making crab stuffed mushrooms ( i know that aroma) and I do not know which door to knock on with my empty plate.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne: Oh no!
Phylllis
@NotMax: And now they likely have viruses embedded in them.
tybee
@raven: freezing oysters (or clams) does make them easier to open. you may have to give them some defrosting time.
WaterGirl
@dr. luba: Those are crazy! Those are made out of paper???
Also, if we are very good, will you tell us how to make home made Baileys? And honey liqueur?
Layer8Problem
@WaterGirl: Tell him the cone is really cute. Cats always appreciate your telling them things like that!
And I hope he’s doing better.
gwangung
Hm. Newer LED headlights—superbright at night, and enough to induce night blindness, particularly on jacked up trucks.
Drivers who drive the wrong way down one-way streets. Nope. I’m not going to move to make it easier for you.
Drivers who roll into crosswalks without looking for pausing.
WaterGirl
@Poe Larity:
I recognize all of those words, but I have no idea what that means.
Princess
@raven: there’s a method that involves heating them briefly. I think maybe online Bon Appetit has it. Since you’re cooking them anyway, I expect that would work for you.
My grievance is that Canada Post makes one delivery attempt. Then you need to pick it up. I am typing from a very long line.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
😹 True.
Alison Rose
@Miss Bianca: You’re welcome and/or I’m sorry :P
Soprano2
Our dog Nitro is struggling in the cold weather. He has a lot of arthritis, and sometimes I have to help him get up when he’s lying on the back porch. I fear he won’t make it thru next year. 😪 He takes more meds than I do. I’m trying a new supplement the vet recommended, and it seems to help, but there’s no way to fix the problem. He’s probably 15 or 16, we’re not sure since we don’t know how old he was when we got him, so it’s not surprising, but I still have a grievance about it. I hate that he’s suffering with arthritis and I can’t fix it.
Jackie
@Ohio Mom: If you don’t get her a gift, maybe she’ll get pissed off enough to stop buying you gifts?
Just a thought.
Juju
@mrmoshpotato: it probably depends on how bright the moon is, and if it’s a full moon.
Steeplejack
@DarbysMom:
Or where they do all the substitutions and conclude: “This recipe sucks!”
SW
Pharma commercials on TV. The poor bastard with IBS working as a truck driver who has swapped out his captains chair for a toilet. The human blueberry crooning about her A1C. The heartbreak of psoriasis as an upbeat dance number. It just goes on and on. One horrible disease after another where the sufferers are transformed into happy singing and dancing members of the big happy family united by their use of the magic pill.🤮
OzarkHillbilly
Space X and X (formerly Twitter) CEO, Elon Musk
Miss Bianca
@gwangung: Yep, superbright headlamps are definitely a hazard out here in the sticks as well as in the city. The worst is that I can’t tell whether or not they’ve got their brights on half the time, and I’m afraid to flash in case they *do* end up turning their brights on and frying my eyeballs out of their sockets.
Juju
@Omnes Omnibus: I can’t even comment on the awfulness of her work. I don’t think I’ve ever made it to the end of anything I’ve ever heard by Marion Carey. There is a pitch or tone in her voice that when I hear it, it actually makes my skin crawl, I think it’s much the same reaction that dogs have to high pitched sounds, but I don’t howl.
mrmoshpotato
@Almost Retired:
LMAO!
Uncle Cosmo
I am so with you here. Thoroughly sick of editing a comment in Text & then needing to re-edit it because line & paragraph breaks are fuctup & then re-re-editing it because one of the fuctup breaks was missed etc usw atd…
Miss Bianca
@SW: You know what I can’t understand, is this – if we can ban cigarette and liquor ads on TV, why can’t we ban prescription drug ads? Where’s the public health media campaign about this? Are they just that powerful a lobby? Prescription drug abuse is surely just as compelling a public health hazard as either of the above.
Brachiator
@Alison Rose:
I am amused by, but really not into Goth stuff. When I regularly commuted to work on the LA Metro trains, I often noted a young woman with pale skin, dark eyes and black clothes who carried a small purse that was shaped like a coffin. It was really cute.
Never tried to talk to her. I leave people be during their commute.
But I wondered now and then how she might have reacted to one of my conversation starters. “Some of my family own a funeral home. Have you ever gone for a joy ride in a hearse?”
ETA. My cousin would sometimes drive the hearse for personal business with a coffin in the back. But never with a deceased person. That would have been disrespectful.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Oh, poor Mr. Bear! He is so beautiful. He’s like the Earl of Southhampton in his ruff.
Steeplejack
@Mike in Pasadena:
Something I’ve noticed around me lately is drivers activating the turn signal as they’re actually making the turn. WTF.
Here’s a puzzler: Drivers at a stop light who leave a huge space between them and the car in front of them, like a full car length or so. It’s particularly maddening when if they closed up the space a little you could get around them into the left turn lane carved out of the median.
What is up with that? I’ve only ever seen it here in NoVA. I fantasize about some heretical driver education sect (possibly also responsible for no turn signals?), but then I wonder if the mainstream thinking has changed since I learned to drive 60 years ago.
sab
@Miss Bianca: I don’t think we are bannimg much of anything on tv anymore, simce the SCt decided corporations are people with first and second amendment rights.
ETA I am seeing liquor and online gambling ads all the time.
Subsole
@Dangerman:
I gotta ask: how?
How have you not heard that song??
I have heard at least five versions of it in the last week alone.
Nelle
@Miss Bianca: They confuse me. I can’t write myself a Rx. Do doctors really let their patients really them what to prescribe?
Juju
@Omnes Omnibus: Do yourself a favor and just scroll past anything you see with his or her name on it. It’s what I do. I learned from reading other comments that Mariah Carey may have some issues, but I don’t know and I am not in a mood to care right now, and I doubt I will later on.
mrmoshpotato
@Layer8Problem: Hooray for the unregulated supplements market! /S
Fair Economist
My grievance is that I’d planned to cook a nice Christmas dinner for my sweetie and me. And it came out pretty well – roast chicken and vegetables, creamed spinach, gravy from the drippings (yum) and a cranberry-orange relish. I had thirds and still licked the pots when cleaning up.
But my husband was running a fever of 101 and ate in his room, not with me (by mutual agreement). So no carving show; I ate with my rabbit, who did enjoy a little of the relish as a treat. And, although I’m doing my best not to, I’ll probably catch what my husband has too. Sucks.
raven
@tybee: I have plenty of time since this is xmas day. How ya been?
Sure Lurkalot
@Suzanne: I agree with your list but…grievance:
as much as I love books, holding them, the smell, the paper, I just don’t want or buy them anymore. I have shelf loads and more in boxes. There are very few I have re-read or plan to. I still get “coffee table” type books at Xmas that are paged through once or twice and then what?
I’m torn between loving e-books because of their ease and portability and hating them because they made me dislike getting books.
gwangung
@Steeplejack: Yup, that’s maddeningly, too. Especially when I’m trying to make it into that left hand turn lane.
I understand a bit of space, up to a half car length. But a full car length or more…argh.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: I will share your compliment with Mr. Bear, perhaps that will console him a bit.
mrmoshpotato
@West of the Rockies: Dr. Stephen T. Colbert DFA, is that you?
Absolutely loved his Cheating Death segments on The Colbert Report!
ETA – apparently eclare shares my love of the segment.
Uncle Cosmo
The only honest Christmas carol in history, courtesy of Tom Lehrer. Enjoy!
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: It’s okay. We’re on day 10 of the medicine, and he only has to take it for 18 more days. //
He has a MRSP infection. (Like MRSA for people.).
NotMax
@Layer8Problem
Tumbler of whiskey and a cigarette?
:)
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s like agreeing with something Bill Kristol or George Conway says. It’s a WTF moment.
NeenerNeener
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t use them but one of my former co-workers is really into them since she retired. If you have an account on the Book of Faces look up “jemma jason”. Not her real name, of course, but that’s how she posts.
Juju
@Scout211: That is irritating. I get that suggestion sometimes in regards to my mother. It’s tiresome.
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato: +1, and I’ll be darned if his loooong lists of contraindications aren’t mimicked by every prescription drug ad we’re bombarded with today: “May cause death. Do not take McStoogie if allergic to McStoogie.”
OzarkHillbilly
You don’t see this every day.
In Brazil, an anaconda had a nasty shock when it tried to prey upon a caiman. Anacondas, like boas, wrap themselves around their victims and squeeze them to death. This 9ft-long caiman, however, fought back. The photographer reported that the pair stayed locked in battle for an hour, after which they went their separate ways – both realising, perhaps, that they’d bitten off more than they could chew.
Photograph: Henrique Olsen/Mediadrumimages
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zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Here’s hoping all goes well!
cain
@Phylllis:
Huh.. I got my wife a bong. :D She’s been using cannabis to help her go to sleep. But smoking sucks, so we got a bong. :)
Villago Delenda Est
@Miss Bianca: I’m old enough to remember tobacco ads on TV, but not old enough to recall the kicking and screaming of Big Tobacco over it. I’m sure there was some, but I just wasn’t old enough for it to register with me.
mrmoshpotato
@La Nonna: Yes! To hell with QR codes. Conversely, restaurants that post a paper menu in their windows are great. It’s nice to just be walking past and see what the place serves.
Danielx
@Brachiator:
A friend of mine’s dad owned a 1941 Cadillac hearse (still in the family) and I did indeed go joy riding in it, along with a variety of other friends. Teen age girls were fascinated by the dark red velvet upholstery in the back end, for reasons unknown.
twbrandt
@DarbysMom: Or people who substitute a bunch of ingredients and use a different cooking method than what’s in the recipe, and then complain! Whatever you made, it wasn’t the recipe you said was bad.
zhena gogolia
I was going to complain about late iGourmet delivery, but it’s too boring. Long story short, we bought the cheese locally, so now we have enough cheese to last a year. Oh well.
zhena gogolia
@Villago Delenda Est: Just watch Mad Men, you’ll get the whole story.
zhena gogolia
@Danielx: Okay, I mentioned this when Andre Braugher was the subject, but you would like the episode of Homicide where Kyle Secor’s girlfriend will only make love to him while lying in a coffin.
cain
@OzarkHillbilly: I loved this picture – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2023/dec/22/the-week-in-wildlife-in-pictures-eagles-battle-a-swimming-buck-and-a-leopard-on-the-loose#img-15
ETA and this one:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2023/dec/22/the-week-in-wildlife-in-pictures-eagles-battle-a-swimming-buck-and-a-leopard-on-the-loose#img-1
Drivers in Kruger national park, South Africa, were held up by a lion who decided the road would be a good place to take a nap. The lion with the darker mane was fast asleep until the arrival of his lighter-maned sibling, who woke him up by urinating on him – much to the amusement of the watching motorists.
Photograph: @Wings2Tusks/Caters News
haha – boys will be boys. Can’t believe he pee’d on his brother.
Villago Delenda Est
@WaterGirl: I hear Mr. Bear’s grievances, and I sympathize with him, of course, but I also know as an adult in the room (we were discussing this just this morning at Yr Wonkette) that all those things are necessary. Still, virtual scritches of the ears for Mr. Bear from me.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Thank you.
sab
@Miss Bianca: I believe the current right wing view is that they know better than doctors what is medically good for us.
Phylllis
@cain: Useful gifts, both. Sounds like a winner to me.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@sab: Of course they do. They looked it up on the Internet.
[ETA does this count as a grievance?]
Juju
@raven: Yes. Oysters are disgusting, and for me, deadly. Skip them. Also just ignore me. I’m in a mood. I love that you do such nice things for your wife.
cain
@Phylllis: Sleep has been difficult given her troubles over the past year. Her mind is alive with ideas, emotional distress, and planning. So anything to calm her mind she’s trying to do.
WaterGirl
My new grievance is that dr. luba at #57 has not yet shared how to make homemade Baileys.
Steeplejack
@gwangung:
The salt in the wound is that the left turn green is before the straight-ahead green, so you sit there looking at your chance for happiness disappear. Then straight-ahead green and spacer guy putters off, at which point you can get into the turn lane—and wait through another whole light cycle.
MagdaInBlack
@cain: Welcome to the lovely scent of bong water.
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Anybody who thinks advertising doesn’t work needs to explain to me why I remember so many cigarette jingles.
While the county was pondering banning smoking in commercial spaces, bars and restaurants particularly, the shrieks came from the owners who were afraid of losing bidnez. “Won’t someone think of the smokers?” What they didn’t consider was the new customers who could eat and drink not enveloped in a cloud of tobacco.
Besides, smokers still ate and drank, even while taking their nasty habit to the parking lot.
See also, non-smoking sections on airplanes. Those were REALLY effective,
Juju
@Almost Retired: I hate the ad where the woman sings a song about her type 2 diabetes.
hilts
Donald Trump walking freely among us instead of being in solitary confinement in a supermax federal prison for instigating the January 6th insurrection.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mr. Bemused Senior: “Research”. They did their “research”. With Google.
eclare
@Kathleen:
Same here, with people getting shot. Memphis set a record for homicides this year. And business burglaries. I know people have said crime is overstated to provoke fear, here, the fear is real. I bought a Club for my car.
Villago Delenda Est
@hilts: Don’t get me started. He took pretty much the same oath that Raven, Omnes, and I took, and shat on it.
cain
🤣🤣
eclare
@Nelle:
Congratulations!
trollhattan
First though was literally “When did lions get guns?” A Far Side cartoon resides in there, somewhere.
OzarkHillbilly
@cain: I had a big brother. I believe it.
Alison Rose
@Brachiator: I also owned a coffin-shaped purse. I imagine a majority of goth chicks did. I also had a black heart-shaped one covered in embroidered stitches, and a red-and-black one that looked like a corset and shaped like a woman’s upper body.
The thing to know is: Goths are the biggest dorks in the world.
Almost Retired
@Juju: My wife loathes that commercial. She’ll look up from her newspaper and say “turn off the fucking dancing diabetics.”
Steeplejack
@Miss Bianca:
I have this problem on city streets here in NoVA—can’t tell whether the oncoming car has its high beams on or just the new intense LED lamps—or both. Plus it’s worse when they’re up higher on a gigantic pickup truck. I’ve given up on flashing them and just suffer in silence. Well, I do curse sometimes.
Alison Rose
A grievance that has only happened a few times (but still very annoying), one of which was a couple days ago: Instacart shoppers who smoke in their car with your groceries on the backseat. Just love having cereal boxes and such that stink like cigarettes. Like, your pathetic addict ass can’t wait until *after* you’ve made deliveries to smoke? Gross.
cain
The 4 cats we own have now formed a criminal organization led by the young female. The two tabbies who just came out of kittenhood and one of my black cat, Lav. Has been running around opening doors at random and fucking around. The worst was when they opened the door to the garage. ‘Madam’ as we call her leads her boys wherever she wants.
My daughter bought her cat Louis (after Louis Vitton, but I call him Llewellyn as he is a cat leader and gang leader from LA) – ‘Madam did not approve. The black cats already know Papas (his other name), and are attached to him. Ziggy, who likes to be friends with everyone tried hard to become friends. ‘Madam’ (or Zoe) has been pooping outside the litterbox and is indiscriminately peeing outside the litter box and on the carpet at the entrance. ‘Madam’ has also gone into my daughter’s room and decided to pee there. Wherever Papas was, Madam was sure to do something about it.
He’s gone temporary so we might have some respite. :-) Every time my daughter brings her cat, some shit goes down. :)
That’s my caturday story for today. :)
cain
@OzarkHillbilly: lololol
Mai Naem mobile
@Nelle: not direct experience but have a friend who works at UPS who has had several coworkers get it done and they apparently feel their knees are like new. Keep in mind UPS has good insurance benefits.
cain
Hey @Watergirl – when you gonna get the front page posts to show up on Mastodon? Gonna install the ActivityPub plugin?????!!
SW
@trollhattan: yep. Death as a nagging side effect!
eclare
@WaterGirl:
Poor baby! Give him a scritch from me.
Steeplejack
@Sure Lurkalot:
I have struck an uneasy compromise between e-books for casual stuff (genre fiction, current affairs, etc.) and physical books for “known keepers”—classics, personal favorites, books where the graphics don’t translate to Kindle. It has worked pretty well, but I do miss the smell of physical books and the differences in typography and book design.
WaterGirl
@Almost Retired:
Rotating tag?
cain
I learned that watching videos of Evanescence concerts. :D
Don’t get me wrong, I love the music – but after awhile I have to change bands maybe put Katrina and the Waves or something.
Uncle Cosmo
Start off in a brightly-lit parking lot and drive under bright lights for a couple of minutes before exiting and it can be very hard to tell if your headlights are fully on – even if the dashboard’s illuminated that might just mean you have the side/running lights on. I’ve done this a few times & have always been grateful when an approaching car flicks its high beams to alert me, so when I see a car with headlights off I try to reserve judgement and do the same for them.
(NB Several posts now with no eruption of obscenity from you. Well played, Moshie!)
Phylllis
@cain: Hope it helps. I was routinely up for 1-2 hours in the middle of the night for years due to stress. I routinely sleep through the night now since retiring.
WaterGirl
@cain: I have no idea what this is, or whether that is a serious comment. ??
Jackie
My grievance of just now:
CNN has BREAKING NEWS!!!
We’ll bring it to you LIVE – Right after this two minute break. 😤
WaterGirl
@SW:
More of a one-time thing, as opposed to nagging, wouldn’t you say? :-)
brantl
@Barbara: people who are assholes, drive more especially like assholes during the holiday.
cain
Yep, I can believe it. I’ve always slept – for some reason, I embrace sleep as it lets me forget for awhile. The next day helps me even though sometimes my stress all comes back.
Spanky
@Nelle:
Stay tuned. Mrs Spanky is going in for the first of two treatments the first week of the new year. The two acquaintances whom I discovered had had it raved about it, so there’s that.
wjca
Amen. Especially as amended.
cain
It’s a serious comment – here check this out:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/
You essentially can get even more exposure to BJ by linking it to the fediverse – that means people on mastodon can see all the front pagers and comment on it.
ETA: blog post by a friend of mine – https://enblog.eischmann.cz/2023/12/12/increase-reader-engagement-with-activitypub-plugin/
SW
@WaterGirl: Except on Groundhog Day.
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus:
And we pedestrians like to see thousands of pounds of metal moving at night. Cars with their lights off are oddly invisible.
WaterGirl
@Jackie: Slightly reminiscent of the old promos for 20/20 or whatever news show it was.
“Do you know thing you are doing right now that can cause sudden death? Tune in on Thursday to find out.”
That kind of thing made me crazy. Not sure if that’s still going on; with Tivo I don’t have to see commercials.
Alison Rose
@Jackie: Related grievance: Roughly 90% of stuff the news channels tout as BREAKING NEWS!!!! is stupid and no big deal.
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan: That was my first thought too!
eclare
@Alison Rose:
That’s rude. Years ago I worked for a woman who smoked nonstop. Whenever I got workpapers or files from her the stench was overpowering. But that was the early 90’s, she could still smoke in the office. People should know by now that pretty much anything absorbs that smell.
WaterGirl
@SW: Touche!
Spanky
@Steeplejack: The actual truth is worse than that. They simply have no depth perception.
BlueGuitarist
@mrmoshpotato:
Have you heard Taylor Mali, “Voice of America V/O”?
https://youtu.be/9T9bCsP7_Y4?si=_7hanElpPB-Jvu8u
cain
@cain:
I think the only caveat is that it might be a two way street – meaning when people respond from mastodon it shows up on the comments here.
eversor
To those doubting the copyrighting of Queen of Christmas and it being thrown out of court…
https://variety.com/2022/music/news/mariah-carey-trademark-queen-christmas-darlene-love-elizabeth-chan-1235341993/
I’m write about Zaytina as well. But I also know that moderate Democrats/liberals will not believe anything bad about anything they like and than fart out lies and misdirection rather than admit that something really is bad. If someone blended kittens live on TV liberals would claim it wasn’t true provided they served a good organic tapas menu at marked up prices.
I also knew people would claim “it’s only because she’s a Black woman” without bothering to look at the fact that the two people who started the suits against her that she was picking on were a Black woman and an Asian woman!
My SO is highly defensive of Carey and pulled the same “not true” followed up by “don’t care” once she saw it. It’s OK, the get out of jail free card is to go by Williams and Sonoma and and buy some overpriced POS SMEG device and then go to the organic market that costs more than Whole Foods and all will be forgiven and I will be once again a proper moderate suburban liberal Democrat because at the end of the day it really is all about conspicous consumption and social signalling.
I’m still waiting till she realizes some of her relatives were also abused by the Church. But I guess I’m OK with that now to! Christians gonna Christian. Go Go Alito!
Alison Rose
@eclare: Back when I worked in offices, it used to bug me how either oblivious or uncaring smokers were. Like, when you come back inside, you smell. Badly. Strongly. Don’t come stand next to me to chat. Also, the number of “breaks” some of them would take was irritating. Get some fucking nicotine gum and do your damn job.
brantl
@mrmoshpotato: And they do it in black cars, too.
Sister Golden Bear
I just lost a crown this morning while biting down on… an English muffin. Thankfully, it doesn’t hurt, so rather than calling my dentist for an emergency appointment, just left a message for her that I need to go in next week.
Ruckus
@Splitting Image:
OK, I laughed out loud at that!
eclare
@Alison Rose:
I started work at a big accounting firm in 1991, and if you had an office, you could smoke if you closed the door. We used to joke that when JJ and Becky finished smoking and opened the office door, it was as if Cheech and Chong’s van door had opened. But with cigarette smoke, I would have preferred the pot smell.
cain
This whole thing reminds me of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where after being rejected the monster decided to fully embrace his monstrosity.
raven
@Juju: Ugh, I’m struggling with this. They were harvested the 13th and the interwebs tell me they are safe everywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks. I put them in the freezer but now I worry I won’t be able to tell if they are bad because the tell-tale signs show up when they are fresh in the shell!
Alison Rose
@eclare: Thankfully, by the time I started working and being in California, there was never a place where you could smoke inside.
brantl
@sab: I would guess, because she likes them that way.
eclare
@Sister Golden Bear:
Thank dog it doesn’t hurt on a Saturday of a holiday weekend! I’ve lost crowns, it’s annoying, but luckily not a pain emergency.
Poe Larity
@WaterGirl: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/16/1149232763/this-is-fine-meme-anniversary-gunshow-web-comic
WaterGirl
My grievance is when we derail a really good thread by endlessly replying to or talking about a commenter, rather than continuing the original discussion.
eclare
@Alison Rose:
I worked for a very old school accounting firm. When I started there women were still required to wear skirts, and men were required to wear hats til the early 70’s.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@WaterGirl: Fair warning
WaterGirl
@Poe Larity: Thank you.
Ruckus
@Mike in Pasadena:
So, Shit For Brains is an apt name for his majesty and a catchall for his admirers.
laura
@Spanky: my dearest friend has been doing the regenerative infusion for her knee for a couple few years and expect for the initial pain after injection she believes it has been more than worth it and only complains of it’s “experimental” status and high cost. Good luck!
eclare
@WaterGirl:
Same. It is so easy to scroll on by. Or pie.
RevRick
That all too many people think that Christmas Day is the last day of Christmas. No, people! *shakes pastoral fist into the void*
It goes through January 5th.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I injured myself and while recovering I stumbled in these You Tube channels full of the memoirs of Axis WW2 soldiers. The one that really caught my attention was this guy that was a General in the 1st SS panzer division and had been a member of the SS since the early 30s. So hard core Nazis and it wasn’t quite what I expected. This guy talks more like an overly enthusiastic boy scout rather than some stone cold killer. Hardly any of the ideology and lot of how proud he is of his boys and even more surprising, his personal horror over seeing dead enemy soldiers. In other words this guy wasn’t soulless husk and had plenty of empathy for people he was supposed to hate.
And yet he was a convicted war criminal. I haven’t got to that part, and somehow I get the feeling I don’t want to find out how someone who seems an otherwise a decent person gets it that screwed up.
And he does making interesting comparison to Trump and his MAGA twats.
it’s here,but be warned, just his descriptions of the combat is nightmare fuel.
https://youtu.be/CVDAE9TXgoE?si=NjVdau1M-xgUfp1y
Scout211
Yes! Thank you!
A wise old internet guru once told me, “One car off the rails is not a derailment. It’s only a derailment if the rest of the cars are attached. Unhook the rest of the cars and the train moves on.”
What a wise (made-up) person that was.
eclare
@Scout211:
That is a really good analogy.
Alison Rose
@eclare: Did the rules specify what type of hat? Because if not, they could have a little fun with it. Beanie with a propeller, jester hat with bells, a mini version of the Beach Blanket Babylon hat. (And yes, that’s real, she actually wore that thing in the performances, and it was amazing. I went to BBB numerous times and it was a shit-ton of fun. Was so sad when I’d heard it closed down for good.)
sab
@eclare: We still have a couple of tax clients whose data we leave out for a couple of days to air out. Locked safely on a file cabinet shelf, but nowhere near any of us. And it means their work loses its place in line.
Ruckus
@eclare:
I live in SoCal and my 2016 car has less than 17,500 miles on it. It’s faster to take the bus/train/bus when I have to go across town. And far cheaper. I walked to work the last 3 yrs I worked because it was 1 mile away. Didn’t have to work an extra day to make up for the cost of gas. I just walked a mile to the store and back. Sure it’s faster by car but the walk is better for my health.
raven
@Scout211: On Firedog Lake we used to say “srcoll”!
eclare
@Alison Rose:
Oh wow! That is some hat! Pretty sure Arthur Andersen required fedoras. We called ourselves androids long before the software for a reason.
Barbara
@zhena gogolia: If you wrap it tightly most kinds of cheese do well in the freezer. Or at least medium and hard cheese– not sure about soft cheeses like brie.
Juju
@raven: I’d struggle with that too.
raven
I’ve completely changed my mind. If the way to tell if an oyster is bad is if the shell is open and the say way to shuck them is to freeze them and the shell pops open then how will I know? Back to putting them in the fridge and shucking them tomorrow. Then I can make the stew and feel somewhat confident!
Juju
@WaterGirl: Ooh. Good one.
Layer8Problem
@NotMax: Jameson’s, please. And cannabis rather than tobacco in the alley if I’m feeling convivial.
Nah, the usual: eggs, toast, Irish bacon, white pudding, black pudding.
Alison Rose
@eclare: Ah, fedoras before they became a douche signal.
tomtofa
@dr. luba: Very late to the thread, but Bravo! on the pysanka eggs; they are incredible!
sab
@eclare: I remember a woman coming in to work at Deloitte in SF about 1995 in a very nice pants suit and getting sent home to change into a skirt.
brantl
@gwangung:Drivers who roll into crosswalks without looking for pausing.
Mine is assholes who drive out into the intersection at a red stoplight, often in trucks as if they can’t see around corners that they clearly can; people who have already started hooking their left turn on a red light, blocking the lane for the left turners on the perpendicular road, who actually have the right-of-way.; bungholes, all.
Tehanu
Oh, thank God, I’m not the only one who feels that way!
eclare
@sab:
IIRC it was the Chicago Andersen office that really pushed for pants to be allowed because it was so cold. I think it was around the mid-nineties.
And I think it started as just a winter dress code exception, but that changed quickly.
trollhattan
@sab:
But enough about Hillary, already.
Alison Rose
@brantl: It’s been years since I drove, but the one that ticked me off royally was when the light is green but traffic was stopped just past the intersection, but idiots would still drive into the intersection, and then inevitably the light would change before the traffic moved, so then their dumbass is sitting there blocking the other way.
eclare
@trollhattan:
Hahaha…
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
Walk at whatever pace you’re going anyway, right towards them. Then stop when you’re eight or ten feet away, making them walk around you.
brantl
@Steeplejack:Something I’ve noticed around me lately is drivers activating the turn signal as they’re actually making the turn. WTF.
I saw a dumbass just yesterday who started to signall a lane change 5 seconds after he had completed it. I can’t imagine WTF good he thought that was.
Juju
@Tehanu: I’m a white girl with limited dance skills but even I could dance better than Ms Type 2 Diabetes. .
schrodingers_cat
@trollhattan: Is she on YT? I am not on FB.
eclare
@Alison Rose:
Same here, that really pisses me off. I used to commute through an intersection where people did that regularly, I’m surprised no one wanting to drive through a blocked intersection took matters into their own hands. I only move if I have room to move out of the way.
brantl
@Villago Delenda Est: I don’t find George Conway half as repulsive as Bill Christal, that Pie in the Face photo of him? I want that as a poster.
Kelly
I’m also mad at appliance designers that put barely visible labels on controls. They use a shiny black panel with tiny labels to achieve a clean stark design which means I need a bright light and my glasses to use the durn thing.
Juju
@brantl: Perhaps he just likes watching the little flashing arrow from time to time because it fascinates him.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose: How about “[random U.S. rep] DESTROYS [random GOP witness] in hearing!” And it’s Katie Porter drawing on a whiteboard or something.
Alison Rose
@Kelly: Or when numbers on dials or something rub off over time.
Layer8Problem
@Layer8Problem: Drat, forgot the bangers. And the beans. Y’know, that’s a lot of animal fat and protein when you think about it.
Steve in the ATL
1. Leaf blowers
2. People who use leaf blowers
3. The guy who invented leaf blowers
4. Gas pump televisions
further bulletins as events warrant.
Alison Rose
@zhena gogolia: LOLOL yeah. Or people share a video from Twitter like “watch her tear into this guy!!!!” and it’s like “you said this but it was actually that”. People have seriously low thresholds for being impressed.
Dangerman
@Subsole: When I go shopping, my time in store is about the length of one song. Maybe two. I get my stuff and go. Then it’s a crap shoot.
WaterGirl
@raven: That’s a good idea, inadvertently poisoning your guests is probably not on your to do list! :-)
Alison Rose
Okay, I know this one is very petty, but what is the deal with (and forgive me, golden-aged Juicers) old people on Facebook capitalizing every word of their comment? Thank You For Saving This Sweet Dog, You Are An Angel. Like, the fuck. You have to do that intentionally, it’s not like somehow not noticing your caps lock was on.
O. Felix Culpa
Misplaced apostrophe’s.
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: With you on 1-3! What is a gas pump television?
Suzanne
@Alison Rose:
The best kind.
twbrandt
@O. Felix Culpa: and “quote” marks.
scav
Everyone puts their tree up far too early as well. And then dumps the poor bedraggled tree on the street exactly when it should be at its best. <eternal sigh>. Still, at least it means our pear trees (et al) are usually on sale before we actually need them.
NotMax
@Alison Rose
That’s how we pass along sooper sekrit coded messages to one another, don’tcha know.
;)
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl: some gas stations have televisions at each pump and when you start pumping the tv turns on and blares either commercials or celebrity news, but always at a too high volume
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: Woah!
Glidwrith
@Steeplejack: Nope, drivers out here leave huge gaps in front of them too.
Jackie
@Steve in the ATL: Gas pump TVs? Is that a real thing?
Captain C
@Alison Rose:
Hanging Bats Filmed Upside-Down Look Like a Goth Nightclub (youtube link)
Alison Rose
@Captain C: LOL I have been sent that clip many times. Honestly, it’s pretty accurate.
Juju
@scav: I just finished decorating my tree Thursday. I was aiming for the 20th but I missed it by a day. I don’t get the right after Thanksgiving tree thing either.
brantl
@eversor: Jesus, I pied you on my kindle, now I have to pie you on my laptop. Wish the pie filter travelled.
Scout211
What in tarnation!? You city folk have some crazy new fangled inventions.
trollhattan
@Jackie: Have encountered them and it’s jarring. “Fuck you, is there no escape?” my instant response.
Luckily, Costo so far has avoided this particular plague.
Alison Rose
@Scout211: It’s one of the things I do not miss about driving. Although there was one time where someone had written “shut up” in Sharpie on the screen, so that was funny.
NotMax
@Glidwrith
Maybe precautionary due to new vehicles now able to zoom from zero to 60 in like 5 seconds?
mrmoshpotato
@MagdaInBlack: I saw stuffed clams at Jewel (excuse me, Jewel’s) yesterday but had no freezer space. I bet they’d be interesting.
Phylllis
@Steve in the ATL: Second button down on the right side of the screen is the mute button (usually-have run across one or two where it doesn’t work).
Anoniminous
@Scout211:
Unfortunately they are found here in the hinterland of New Mexico as well.
NotMax
@trollhattan
“And that, kiddies, is why mankind invented the ball peen hammer.”
//
Alison Rose
All medications — OTC, prescription, everything — should come in chewable form. And not those nasty animal-gelatin-filled gummy things that feel like you’re chewing on a chunk of car tire. Make them like Skittles or something. I’d even take the chalky type like my Tums and Flintstones vitamins.
(Yes, I take Flintstones vitamins. Adult vitamins are either “swallow this thing that’s the size of a fucking Brazil nut” or they are the above-mentioned tire-rubber gummy. No thank you.)
raven
@WaterGirl: Not all of them anyway.
raven
@Steve in the ATL: Kirby killing the cruitin!
brantl
@O. Felix Culpa: I saw what you did, there.
Captain C
@Alison Rose: I feel like it needs an Audra soundtrack
(ETA: Partly because I worked with two of them at my first library job.)
dnfree
@Ohio Mom: Can you have the conversation with her? We’ve had it with various relatives as we’ve gotten older: “We’re older and anything we need we buy for ourselves. And we don’t need more stuff otherwise because we’re trying to get rid of stuff. So how about we stop buying for each other and save the expense and the postage?” Or my brothers and I now donate to charities (designated by each other) instead of physical gifts.
Eolirin
Supreme Court just tied up the Jan 6th case against Trump until all appeals on immunity are exhausted through the normal process.
dr. luba
I was printing out my Xmas letter, and removed the laserjet cartridge to check if I had extras. I do. Had some difficulty getting it back in. Now the printer won’t take up paper. At the moment it is unplugged and I will clean the rollers. We’ll see.
I bought it last year. Says there is a jam, but none visible.
Luckily I still have my old printer, an ancient HP, app 20 years old. I can still print on it, slowly, from the old laptop….
Why does this never happen when I’m not on a deadline?
scav
@Alison Rose: Ah, if we’re going that direction, I want the massive aspirin tablets that go fizz in a glass of water.
Layer8Problem
@trollhattan: Once in the dim early time of these things one of the stupid buttons along the sides of the screen would shut the sound off. No more. I mean what is the object? “You’re undoubtedly a rube! You care about celebrities so we’ll tell you ten pointless seconds about them! Then we’ll advertise at you about something useless! Have you bought stuff yet??” I’m surprised someone hasn’t vandalized the things with whatever comes to hand from the toolbox in their trunk to show the petroleum companies an equal and opposing degree of raw contempt.
ETA: And NotMax puts it more succinctly.
brantl
@Glidwrith: It helps prevent the twelve-car-domino wreck when the asshole who can’t see the 12 cars ahead of him at the stoplight doesn’t stop.
mrmoshpotato
@Almost Retired:
What’s her opinion of that singing Pepto Bismol commercial?
Anoniminous
@NotMax:
Speaking as a professional CompEng striking electronic devices with a hammer in the presence of a highly flammable gas is contraindicated for continued existence. Solution: stand several hundred meters away and shoot the damn things with a high powered rifle as is your Constitutional Right.
WaterGirl
@O. Felix Culpa:
I tried to find the image of the awesome sign Betty Cracker posted years ago – from a little mom & pop place. apostrophes for plural case, no apostrophes were there should have been some, apostrophe in its where it didn’t below. No luck.
That was a classic!
Redshift
@Barbara: Oh, I’d be airing grievances all day if I got started on so the ways drivers got way worse when the roads were a lot emptier during the pandemic and then didn’t get better when that ended!
Two particular favorites are then coming upon someone backing out of a parking space and just going on past instead of waiting, grrr. And the people who treat other cars as a slalom course, passing on the right and left even when the left lane is clear and they could just keep going there. Grrrrrrrrr!
brantl
@dr. luba: Re-remove and re-attach the cartridge, if it’s going in hard, it’s not going in right….. And keep those nasty thoughts to yourself, Baud.
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: Oh! I saw that exactly once, I think, at a station associated with a Sam’s Club or a Walmart or something.
Ugh. Okay, I am with you on all 4.
Almost Retired
@mrmoshpotato: Who doesn’t love a peppy little ditty about explosive diarrhea?
ETA She hates it. As do all right-thinking people.
mrmoshpotato
@Uncle Cosmo:
What the fuck did you say?
brantl
@Almost Retired: Explosive Diarrhea, best punk band name EVER.
trollhattan
@Anoniminous:
I could see in a stand your ground state, the pump becoming animated, unmoor, and come running after you.
Gotta go, have a movie to pitch.
Scout211
I saw a work truck last week with the business name professionally painted on the side of the truck with a an apostrophe used in a plural word. So neither the business owners nor the sign painting company noticed how wrong that was? And with a professional paint job, blaming it on auto-correct like some people* do, is just not gonna fly.
But seriously, we need a whole new Festivus thread for grammar, punctuation and other language crimes. It’s a balloon-juice specialty.
*Some people=me, maybe
Ksmiami
I think Love Actually is a horror film. Also, Christmas trees are a nightmare.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: The one I saw didn’t have a TV show or anything. It was some guy in a loud voice, hawking something like a giant pepsi for only X amount if you buy Y amount of gas!
Advertising shouted at you, basically.
Alison Rose
@Scout211: People who put commas, in weird spots.
mrmoshpotato
@eclare:
During 2020-21, I hated smelling campfires, because the smell would get absorbed by my mask – even if it was a little wiff.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
On my side of the family, we all got to that point about fifteen years ago: the last thing any of us in my generation (and what was still our parents’ generation) of the family needed was more goddamn stuff. Ever since, the kids got presents, but no adult-to-adult giving; instead, we’d make a charitable donation of what we used to spend on presents for each other. That’s worked out quite well for all.
My wife’s family hasn’t reached a similar conclusion, so we’re still in the mode of trying to think of inexpensive things we can put on our Christmas lists that won’t go to waste.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Has there been an officially accepted answer to Jewel vs. Jewel’s?
WaterGirl
@raven: LOL! literally.
If only.
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: Link?
WaterGirl
@dr. luba:
A time-honored question.
The answer: printers sense when we are stressed or on a deadline, and they behave accordingly, though not in a good way.
Scout211
::shameful face emoji::
Sorry! I have been known, to overuse,commas. They are not in short supply, so I figure, why not, I can just use them all up, all the time, willy-nilly. It’s perfectly, fine.
Ha! That auto-correct, it’s always making
mymistakes.NotMax
@Almost Retired
Life would be sunnier without Peloton or e.l.f. ads, also too.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: It’s like the opposite of an emotional support animal.
mrmoshpotato
@BlueGuitarist: That was good.
JMG
I get books for Christmas. I got Alice a membership in the Cape art museum and some art supplies. When it is possible to give experiences as presents, I try to do so.
VeniceRiley
Late to this party, but I am too old to tolerate driving on the opposite side of the road and the opposite side of the car, and it’s turning me into a shut-in. Coupled with my “nobody walks in LA” former life….
Oh well. I suppose I’ll get knee high wellies and walk the dog(s) in shit weather, but I refuse to drive roundabouts on the wrong side and the wrong way. Boo!
Redshift
@WaterGirl: I got a card this year from a friend whose family name ends in S. The return address labels had “”The [family name]” with apostrophe ‘S’ appended.
I don’t think they would have ordered them that way themselves, so I suspect they came free from some organization. Which means they’re sending lots of apostrophe-s name labels, which are wrong for everyone.
NotMax
WaterGirl
Resistentialism in action.
;)
WaterGirl
@NotMax: I did not know there was a name for that!
BlueGuitarist
I have absolutely no idea how I unintentionally pied some commenters.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: Speaking of which…
DW.com – Hundreds of Airbus staff sick after Christmas meal in France.
Bleurg. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@Almost Retired: Yet, somehow, Alka Seltzer managed to make witty, memorable commercials about acid indigestion back in the day. Pepto-Bismol may just be trying to recreate a wave, so to speak.
I don’t watch commercial TV these days so I guess I just don’t know what I’m missing!
Steve in the ATL
@raven: in Kirby we trust! And I’m happy about the Ravioli kid going to Nebraska—talented but toxic.
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: Click on the small cherry pie, or cherry tart if that’s how you prefer to think about it. The click on the tab that says Filtered, and you can un-select the people you want un-pied.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: oh, dear.
Another Scott
@Steve in the ATL: CHEDDAR NEWS!!!ONE
Whoever started the schools that teach people how to talk like that – nobody really talks like that when not on some sort of media – needs to end up in their own special circle of hell…
Grr…,
Scott.
pat
I keep my finger on the mute button and I’m not even sure what those ads are advertising.
WaterGirl
@pat: With Tivo, on most shows you can just click the “take me directly to the end of the commercials” button
Miss Bianca
@Scout211:
Oh, I don’t know, I think we can pile on to this one…
Just started a new novel that caught my eye – Eros and Psyche – and almost quit on the spot on p. 2 when something written in Eros’s voice has him saying, “for Psyche and I.”
EXCUSE ME? Eros, you’re a fucking god! (actually, *the* fucking god, now that I think about it.) English may not be your native language, but a god should know better than to use such crappy grammar!
Sheesh. Talk about my willing suspension of disbelief getting suspended.
(More seriously, where the fuck is this author’s editor. Oh, right – they don’t exist anymore. ANOTHER GRIEVANCE.)
BlueGuitarist
@WaterGirl:
thanks!
i unpied
I guess phone in pocket somehow did the pie ing
RevRick
@scav: Confession: we have a Balsam Hill artificial tree, but then I get to stall taking it down until Candlemas. I’ve done Candlemas services several times, we lit candles like at Christmas Eve and the last time, I got them to sing “Phos Hilaros” as a round to the tune Tallis Canon.
One thing that saddens me is how congregational singing is dying, but it’s of a piece with the mentality that sees worship as a form of entertainment.
Raven
@Steve in the ATL: zactlty!
Juju
@Alison Rose: I don’t, see a problem with, that.
lowtechcyclist
@CaseyL:
I may do the same this year. The last few weeks before my retirement were a zoo, and once that was behind me, I just wasn’t ready to throw myself into some other activity. So I may do New Year’s cards this year.
Either that, or mention that Christmas is theoretically a twelve-day season, and I’m sending these cards out on the day of fiiiive, golden, riiiiiiings! , so I’m not late after all. You got this card before Epiphany? Quitcherbitchen. ;-)
cain
@Another Scott: oh man, sucks to be them. There is an “Airplane!” joke in there somewhere.
WaterGirl
@Juju:
I think you could have snuck in one more comma, possibly after “problem”, for emphasis.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain: Bullshit. Mary Shelley’s creature was well written. This one, not so much.
Alison Rose
My cat’s current grievance is that the leaves falling off the tree outside our windows make her think there are birds out there when there aren’t.
lowtechcyclist
@Miss Bianca:
When you’re a fucking god (let alone *the* fucking god – nice one, btw!), they let you do that.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Do attorneys have special grievances like graphic designers do?
Examples: everyone with graphic design software thinks they are a graphic designer.
I often wonder if it grates on the attorneys here when lay people like men use the word “filing” when it should be “opinion” or “ruling” when it should be something else.
RevRick
@lowtechcyclist: It isn’t theoretically a 12-day season. It is a 12-day season. And you are merely extending its joy.
Yutsano
I’m so exhausted right now I can’t even read this whole thing.
But dammit we haven’t had a Tbogg in forever, so I’m definitely contributing to that!
And my grievance: why the fuck is house hunting so damn hard?
mrmoshpotato
@dr. luba:
Wow.
WaterGirl
@Yutsano: I was just thinking that I am surprised that we haven’t heard from the house hunters and job hunters yet.
Each of those alone could probably generate a TBogg unit.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Briefly.
;)
Alison Rose
@Yutsano: We had one recently! But I’m always in favor of more.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: ha!
Maybe just for a Minute! (order)
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
Sounds like a modified version of Maximum Overdrive.
Ruckus
@VeniceRiley:
There’s at least one of us in the LA area that walks. Me. Less in winter, not in the rain, but still. This morning walked a mile to the store and another back. I’ll be 3/4 of a century old soon enough.
dr. luba
@Glidwrith: easy peasy. You just need a blender. This is the recipe, which I got from a Yooper cookbook, but substituted vodka for whiskey.
http://www.lubapetrusha.com/Recipes/Baileys.html
I have a veyr large blender and make double batches. In any case, if you use a 3:1 ratio of mixture to vodka, the stuff does not need refrigeration and lasts forever…theoretically.
Uncle Cosmo
@Jackie: Reminiscent of George Carlin’s first comedy routine, as a radio disk jockey (W-I-N-O, Wonderful WINO!), which one teenage night I saw him do (in short hair!) on Ed Sullivan:
mrmoshpotato
@Scout211: A nearby roofing company misspells our neighborhood name on their trucks. It’s fun – and by fun, I mean hilariously annoying.
ETA – oh, and their phone number has the area code of the suburb just north of us.
dr. luba
@WaterGirl: The snowflakes are written on eggs. I also do papercut snowflakes, which are on the site there, too.
Bailey’s: http://www.lubapetrusha.com/Recipes/Baileys.html
Medivka (honey liqueur)
INGREDIENTS
• 1 fifth grain alcohol
• 2 cups honey
• 2 cups water (distilled, filtered) • Tie in cheesecloth pouch:
• 1 vanilla bean
• 5 allspice (whole)
• 5 cloves (whole)
• 1⁄4 cinnamon stick (crushed)
• 1⁄4 nutmeg
• 1 orange peel (large orange)
DIRECTIONS
I find that sometimes you need to filter the medivka once or twice through a coffee filter set into a funnel if you want it to be crystal clear.
:
dr. luba
@brantl: It was off center, and I did remove the cartridge and put it back in. Fits well.
But when I try to print, it makes a sound like it is trying to pull up the paper but failing. I am informed there is a jam. There is no jam I can see.
The old HP is like the tortoise…slow and steady, but still works.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl:
No employer gives a shit about an AA degree. It might as well be written in glitter pen on construction paper for all the value companies see in it.
dr. luba
@mrmoshpotato: Bought it in March 2024, so almost 20 years old. I myself am amazed it has lasted this long. Which is why I bought another HP when I couldn’t get drivers for it any more.
HP LaserJet 1012 Printer
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
It’s Jewel. That’s what the signs say. (Oh, I will reignite this fight with all comers! 😁)
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
See: Skirmish (1950) by Clifford D. Simak.
Uncle Cosmo
Used to be a lot worse before online shopping and convenient delivery. Now we’re only left with the little old ladies puttputting to the mall, out-of-the-area drivers trying to find an unfamiliar address for a party**, imbeciles doing 80 mph headed for the same party and 90 mph returning stewed to the gills…
** No shit, I was stuck behind one of these assholes doing 5 mph on a 1-lane road in my neighborhood – a 5-minute trip lasted 20. I was tempted to close the gap & shove the sumbidge through the next stop sign, but there wasn’t enough traffic on the cross street to ensure that the occupants of that car would die the flaming death they deserved…as in the old saying, “I want to die like my grandfather did, in his sleep – not like the other people in the car he was driving at the time…”
zhena gogolia
@twbrandt: Try our “delicious” pizza!
Villago Delenda Est
@O. Felix Culpa: There’s a tire joint in Tracktown that used to call themselves “Auto Pro’s”. Now they’re called “Auto Pro s”.
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL: How about the ones on the backs of the seats in NYC cabs? (I’m not sure those are there any more, since I haven’t been to NYC since before Covid, but they sure were annoying!)
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
A house parents lived in was on a long one block street, so a street sign at the intersections on either end. Name of the street was spelled differently on each of them.
Uncle Cosmo
IOW it obeys Sturgeon’s Law (“90% of [whatever] is crap”) for values of “whatever” that encompass most everything in the multiverse. You would expect anything different?
Villago Delenda Est
@mrmoshpotato: Plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is! (OK, so that’s an Alka Seltzer jingle, not Pepto, but you get the idea).
zhena gogolia
@Uncle Cosmo: I always thought he was much funnier when he had short hair.
zhena gogolia
Festivus is really fun, I must say!
WaterGirl
@dr. luba: That sounds divine! All those great spices. What does it taste like?
You should sell that. I would buy it. :-)
Glidwrith
@dr. luba: Wow, my mother adores Bailey’s and that looks awesome. Thanks!
bluefoot
@Scout211: I hear you on people telling you everything is going to be okay when they have limited understading of the situation. I hate that.
Plus the new AD drug(s) (speaking as someone who previously worked on AD drug development) only slow the disease somewhat. This isn’t a small thing, but they aren’t a cure. I wish they were. And their risk/benefit profiles will be very individual to each person w Alzheimer’s.
While I’m on the subject: One of my grievances is pharma companies laying off some of their best people in order to look like they have a favorable balance sheet. It’s the whole chase-this-quarter’s earnings rather than thinking about long-term success.
My actual list of grievances is too long to enumerate, but one of my biggest ones right now is all the petty injustices I’ve been seeing of late.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: AA degree? Not sure what you are responding to.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: We always called it Jewel when I was growing up.
dr. luba
@WaterGirl: It tastes like liquid heaven. Easy to make. I stock up on honey when I’m in Amish country, and then cook the honey in early December.
Also, too: FB page with the snowflake pysanky
https://www.facebook.com/PysankyInfo/posts/pfbid0MAoo68QngTCgbB4gov8XVMx3WP7iWCt8spqtRKQiZDwstaFQwP4CTrDa1q6kAs5kl
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Haha! Nice!
dr. luba
@Glidwrith: I gave a quart to a good friend many years back. He took it home with him, and his mother and aunt loved it. Made me a quilted tree skirt. So I sent up a big bottle each year (a 1.75 liter vodka bottle) and the two would drink it. My friend said they ended up making prank phone calls the last time……
Both are gone now, sadly.
mrmoshpotato
@Villago Delenda Est: I’m ok with that. It’s not sung, and it’s not about having the shits.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
Because that’s its name. :)
mrmoshpotato
@dr. luba: What grain alcohol are you using? Everclear?
frosty
@Alison Rose: In the spirit of the TBogg, my favorite AA degree story: college friend has relocated East for awhile because his company wanted him to. He’s hiring and telling us about a resume he got. The job-hunter says he has a BS from Penn State Abingdon.
Ms F says “No, he doesn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I went to Penn State Abingdon. It’s a 2-year school.”
BUSTED!!!!
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: I bolded your phrase “job hunters”. My comment was about how, when looking for a job, most ads says “Bachelor’s Degree required” and that having an Associate’s Degree doesn’t mean jack shit as far as employers are concerned. So it makes job hunting very frustrating and demoralizing.
Alison Rose
@frosty: Well, he certainly had BS…it just wasn’t in the form of a fancy piece of paper :P
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Sounds like a Kryptonian rabbi.
;)
dr. luba
@mrmoshpotato: Yes, Everclear.
frosty
Six, count ’em SIX edits on the last comment to get the paragraph breaks right in Text not Visual. Commenting sucks today.
frosty
@Uncle Cosmo:The version of the joke that I heard is more wicked: “I want to die in my sleep like my grandpa … not screaming in terror like his passengers.”
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Villago Delenda Est:
No Matter What Shape
mrmoshpotato
@Alison Rose: Nice one!
Alison Rose
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Your linky no worky. Opens a search result which then closes on its own.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Alison Rose: it works for me…
Try this one
“Anything you haven’t tested doesn’t work.” Sometimes even things you have tested.
NotMax
@Alison Rose
Also was for Alka-Seltzer. Here ya go.
Even better, spicy meatball.
karensky
@Almost Retired: Perfect on Kascich!!
Alison Rose
@Mr. Bemused Senior: LOL old commercials are hilarious sometimes
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: I did not know that AA meant Associate’s degree. Where does the second A come from?
WaterGirl
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Yeah, google searches that work for some people does not work in some browsers. So it’s best to click on the item YOU searched for and link to that.
FelonyGovt
Is it too late for my grievance? Bicycle riders who don’t stop for pedestrians and act like they are entitled to the benefit of the traffic rules for both cars AND pedestrians, depending which is more convenient to them.
Scout211
Associate of Arts in most 2 year schools.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: Associate of Arts, similar to Bachelor of Arts for a BA
ETA Scout beat me to it.
WaterGirl
@FelonyGovt: Not to late!
Yes, that is quite annoying. I second your grievance.
Scout211
Ha! One minute difference is a tie on Balloon-juice.
zhena gogolia
@FelonyGovt: Co-sign.
pat
What’s Tivo?
Don’t bother with an answer, I just watch msnbc and pbs on a regular tv and it’s good enough for me, as long as I have a MUTE button.
SW
Whenever we consider reducing the cost of prescription drugs pharma screams that it will limit R&D funding. Yet the industry spends way more on those disgusting ads than they do on R&D. They capture publicly funded research by throwing a pittance into CRADAs with cash strapped research groups and insisting on non-disclosure agreements.
Alison Rose
@SW: Yeah, I don’t even want to know how much money drug companies spend on advertising. It’s always been bizarre to me that they’re advertising the drugs to patients, not doctors. “Ask your doctor about…” Shit, if your doctor is worth anything, THEY will tell YOU about the drug if it’s the right one for you.
SW
@Alison Rose: examples: Pfisor $12 billion sales and marketing $9 billion R&D. Novartis $14 billion sales and marketing $9 billion R&D. Why are prescription drugs so expensive in the U S? 😂
Steeplejack
@Mr. Bemused Senior, @Alison Rose:
Yes, a(nother) minor pet peeve. When you Google something and find what you want, go ahead and click on it to get to the actual address instead of the Google placeholder. Other people’s search results may not be the same. Sometimes it looks like you’re on the actual site, but up in the address bar it still shows a Google address.
Kayla Rudbek
@Jackie: yes it is
Nelle
@Glidwrith: I sometimes leave a gap so that I can switch lanes when the car in front sits for a bit, then turns on his left signal. I swear I can still hear my driving instructor from 1964.
Okay, also drivers who think of they can get their snout into your lane when they are entering the roadway from a parking lot, that you have to yield. When did all the yield signs disappear from merge ramps? Cars barrel on and the existing flow has to scramble or brake hard. Driving instructor still living in my head: “you may not impede the flow of traffic. Enter only when you can do so without affecting others. “
Alison Rose
@SW: It’s all so inane.
KSinMA
@FelonyGovt:
Oh, come sit by me.
Kayla Rudbek
@dr. luba: I need to save this recipe, as Mr. Rudbek bought a bottle of Everclear during the pandemic to use as hand sanitizer and we have not opened it yet
Alison Rose
@Steeplejack: God, this reminds me of something, and I’m not trying to slag on anyone here with this. But when I’d worked as a CSR for a mail-order company and had to sometimes try to offer “tech support” (meaning, how to use The Internet) to people of, let’s say, advanced age…it was all I could do to remain civil. One lady had no idea what I meant by “browser” or “URL” or anything. She thought she was on our website, but she had actually gone to Yahoo and searched “Montessori” or something. It took me like ten minutes to get her onto our actual website. I wanted to be like DO YOU NOT HAVE A YOUNGER PERSON ANYWHERE NEAR YOU WHO CAN HELP.
pat
@Alison Rose:
Well here is an old lady (and an old guy down the hall) who sometimes struggles to figure out how all this ..stuff is supposed to work. I often think it would be advantageous to have a youngster to advise. As it is, I simply refuse to use any “apps” whatever they are, and get along pretty well by going to the bank in person….
pat
Working on the tbogg unit, has anyone else noticed how hard it is to open ANYTHING these days? Glue that should have been used on the Challenger now closes bags that include something that I want to get to, I carry a knife and scissors in my car in case I want a snack while on the road…. I just opened a box of cat litter with a utility knife and it was NOT EASY.
dexwood
@frosty: I had that bumper sticker on the 52 year old truck I sold earlier this year.
Alison Rose
@pat: This is me with paper towels and such. I don’t know why they use like a pound of hot glue to seal it.
cope
Doug Flutie and Frank Thomas selling boner chemicals is on my list of grievances.
Alison Rose
@cope: ANYONE selling them, honestly.
Yutsano
@cope: #waitwhat
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Phys.org – Is your Christmas tree trying to kill you??:
The kids must have been merciless to him in grade school…
So, the answer is – No.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@Nelle: My husband thinks signalling is advanced warning to the enemy (in Ohio it often is) but he has lost his peripheral vision with glaucoma, so he really needs to signal so that they can see him simce nowadays there is a good chance he won’t see them.
zhena gogolia
@cope: I’m so old I remember when Flutie won the Heisman.
Alison Rose
@Another Scott: The trees are getting revenge for the War On Christmas.
Ben Cisco
@pat: Boss sent me a tool for opening packages (he likes gadgets and such). It showed up in a package I could have used the tool INSIDE IT to open 😜
Alison Rose
Minor grievance: My cat chews on my hair sometimes. I guess she likes the grapefruit scent from my shampoo??? Or she’s just weird.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Science.org:
The surgeon lobby and drug company MotUs must be worried…
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
Pet peeve: Newspaper articles insisting that all Hindus/Indians are vegetarian. No they are not. In fact a majority aren’t.
There go two miscreants
I do not have a fresh grievance, but count me among those annoyed by drivers who stop too far from the car in front at a stoplight. Here in NC this is common.
I’ve enjoyed reading the comments too!
frosty
@Alison Rose: Minor grievance: no hair for the cat to chew on. If I had a cat.
Started losing it at 19. Grrr.
There go two miscreants
@Another Scott: I have trouble imagining people swallowing a 31mm long pill!
Spanky
@brantl:
“TONIGHT ONLY:
Bare Naked Ladys
With
Explosive Diarrhea”
Another Scott
Meanwhile, it seems to be part of the business cycle where the big players decide to start merging again…. ArsTechnica:
Synergy!!!1ONE :-/
You can bet that if it goes through consumers will be paying a lot more – so I suspect that the feds will watch developments of a proposed merger/buyout carefully…
Cheers,
Scott.
Scout211
Are we there yet?
ETA: yes! 500 comments of grievances. Well done!
Alison Rose
@Scout211: YES.
Yutsano
Another grievance: I want a bonded pair of two black cats. But most places want an exorbitant fee for just one.
EDIT: TBOGG!!!
Ben Cisco
Petty IT grievance: Don’t call for help and argue with me b/c your kid “who is going to school for computers said…”
I learned my craft before YOU were born, let alone the youngling.
Ben Cisco
@Spanky: Explosive Diarrhea is bad.
IMPLOSIVE Diarrhea is worse.
Heard this in a long-ago send up of those drug commercials.
schrodingers_cat
@frosty: Did you check blick’s website they have some good sales right now.
mrmoshpotato
You tbogging bastards! Well done!
Alison Rose
@mrmoshpotato: If any thread on this blog could hit 500 comments, it would be one where we are encouraged to complain about stuff.
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: One of my grandpas had two black cats. He named them Boris and Natasha.
pat
One last complaint: My old (older than me!) dentist retired and he was certainly the last dentist to use a spit sink so now I have to learn to deal with those daftly sucking things. Gaahhh…..
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: No, I haven’t checked their site yet. Thanks for the reminder.
Juju
I’ve just agree with other people’s grievances, but I finally thought of something no one has mentioned that bugs me. Guy Fierri and anything he does. Jeeze that man is an irritating blob of talentlessness and bad hair.
Juju
Agreed. Stupid autocorrect.
BethanyAnne
Goddamit. I know I’m officially An Old, but I’m so fucking tired of new features on my phone. Now the fucking thing wants me to send a “check in” to my friend when I’m driving? “Hi, I can help. Let me help. PLEEEEEEAZE. please. please. just this once, sis. let me help. I can do things for you. Just pay every single goddamn scrap of attention you will ever have and I’ll heeeeellllp. PLEASE! I need to help someone, anyone!” No goddamn way to turn this fucking new abomination off. “A thousand ‘no’s’ for every ‘yes’ ” my fat ass. More like “A thousand ‘fuck it, what are they gonna do, buy Android?’ for every dumb ass idea some 22 year old has”
schrodingers_cat
@frosty: I stocked up on some supplies a grey toned pad by Strathmore, some nibs and inks. Plus gesso. Have you ever tried Sumi ink?
brantl
@Alison Rose: Yep, do that on all four corners of a block and you’ve started epidemic gridlock. In rush hour it can span a 10 x 10 block area in no time.
Scout211
@BethanyAnne: I think you can turn off the voice assist so the phone doesn’t keep asking to help you.
At least you can in iOS 16.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yutsano: I have a Wakandan Terror team of two black cats, brothers and littermates, both pushing six months old. They are currently engaged in destroying one of my blinds. They’re named Reebo and Zooty. If one were female, they’d definitely be T’Challa and Shuri.
cvannatta
Grievances:
BethanyAnne
@Scout211: I have that off. I just meant by popping unwanted prompts up to distract me from what I actually want to accomplish. But ty :)
Soprano2
One of my former bartenders is in the hospital on “comfort care”. She basically drank herself to death. We had to fire her because she was drinking on the job. She has 4 kids, including a girl that’s 3 years old. I don’t think she’s even 40 years old.
Soprano2
@pat: I started using scissors on all the plastic bags. I don’t know if they’re stronger or my hands are weaker. I got tired of them “exploding” when I tried pulling them open.
brantl
@Alison Rose: Not if you have the competence that comes with it.
Another Scott
@Soprano2: I’ve noticed that too. It seems to be brand-dependent – TJs stuff can be fairly easy to open, while Kellogg’s stuff can be impossible. (Or vice-versa.) Which I think is weird because some of the big food processors package stuff for many different brands. (Sometimes when I’m bored I’ll look at the factory code for stuff and compare it to the store brands (e.g. TJ’s organic yogurt quarts are processed in the same factory as Stonybrook) – it doesn’t mean the ingredients and proportions are the same, but it shows there’s some commonality.)
I got some packaged “Mini Chocolate Boston” donuts at Safeway recently. The clamshell package was nearly impossible to open without destroying the contents!!11 Aargh!
Cheers,
Scott.