Random things you hate

[Snarky Oracle!]

No answer to "where were you last night?"

Grandpa was out getting some air -- are you nagging me??

 

[Willie Oleson]

imprinted (as opposed to printed) expiry dates on medication packaging (not that the printed version is much better).
This is something that actually concerns our health and yet they make it impossible to read it. Do they want us to die from a lethal cocktail of old pills?

 

[darkshadows38]

here's one thing i really detest, since my mom died i've been in the past year going through the cans of food for example and when you look at a can of say baked beans or green beans and you try and look at the damn it expires. well even if you put on really any glasses good or bad and it's unreadable. how can you know when the hell to throw the damn thing out?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Speaking of food...

My little English neighbor (I've known essentially all my life and is approaching 90 --- her, not me --- and incredibly lively --- her, not me.... it must be all that 4 o'clock tea) got back from London a couple of days ago, as she does twice annually (and has since the '60s) and called me this morning at 10 AM to meet her at a little restaurant with overly rich food some 40 miles south of where we live so I could pick her up and, ultimately, drive her home. (Not a sexual metaphor).

I got there in an hour or so, but she was late. (Well, she's ~90).

I'd been to this popular little diner a couple of times before, and while the wait staff are competent and pleasant, I'd forgotten how frankly snooty the female greeters/seaters were. And still are. (You'd think it was a 5-star bistro in Paris, although the entrees aren't bad at all). What a bunch of sh!tty c**nts.

I couldn't control myself taking an attitude.

Once my neighbor (who still drives but her car needed to be serviced) finally showed up with her friend, we sat down and they ordered breakfast/lunch (I only had a diet soda, as my appetite was gone) and although my neighbor ordered a hearty meal, she sat there and picked at it, eating half a waffle and one of the two fried eggs she'd requested, and barely touched the strawberries & blueberries with whipped cream on the side. And when they were finished eating, she didn't request a doggy-bag and just had the waitress take her plates away, the food discarded.

Well, I can understand a near-nonagenarian having a limited appetite, but she does this all the time: orders a sizeable meal and eats a fraction of it, tossing away a significant portion. (Whenever my aunt and uncle used to come into town, we'd go out to some nearby Italian restaurant, and they'd do exactly the same thing).

Then, as it turned out, she had a bunch of luggage with her (for some reason) and we had to squeeze it in, as my vehicle was loaded down with recycling materials I'd planned to haul to the recycling center behind the local hghschool (at least, that's what I always tell the police) tomorrow.

We went thru the pharmacists' drive-in window to pick up a prescription for her, but they were closed for lunch (which added several miles onto the trip homeward unnecessarily).

I had no real problem with most of this, because she's really very nice. (Although her son resentfully claims his mother "delegates everything." And, after knowing her all these decades, I'm guessing that's true).

But what is it with people wasting so much damned food?? It just drives me to distraction.

 

[Daniel Avery]

You'd think someone who lived through the harsh rationing after WW2 in Britain would not waste any kind of food.

 

[darkshadows38]

hell there's people out there who lived through the depression and later in life became hoarders because living through something like that just sticks with you weather you like it or not.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

hell there's people out there who lived through the depression and later in life became hoarders because living through something like that just sticks with you weather you like it or not.

One would think so, but my neighbor was a small child during WW2, so perhaps the memory has faded after eighty years (if there ever was one).

 

[darkshadows38]

i don't think every became a hoarder that lived through it. there's plenty of stories from various people who grew up poor and had nothing and later on as an adult still had issues because of that so, so when they got older and had a good paying job they bought everything they could to make up for it.

 

[Sapphire]

Foodbanks. I used to donate a lot, but now they have a list of items that they ask for. I think anyone who is genuinely stuck for food would accept anything. Foodbanks should appreciate any items of food. I don't donate anymore for this reason. I certainly wouldn't donate toiletries, I work hard for my money so I can afford my own food and toiletries.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

food and toiletries.

Food and toiletries. I loved the musical.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Fear-mongering on local TV weather segments.

There's a large hurricane swirling about in the open Atlantic over a thousand miles away. It's heading northeast, away from not only Florida but the entire North American continent. It's obviously no danger to us, but the hurricane is the lead story on every local newscast. Five, sometimes ten minutes of a local meteorologist breathlessly reporting every aspect of the storm as if our lives are in danger, with huge images of swirling storm bands and colorful graphics. Only after all this hype does he/she quietly point out that the storm is no threat to the American mainland, much less the local area, and they toss back to the news anchor.

They really are shameless.

 

[bmasters9]

Fear-mongering on local TV weather segments.

There's a large hurricane swirling about in the open Atlantic over a thousand miles away. It's heading northeast, away from not only Florida but the entire North American continent. It's obviously no danger to us, but the hurricane is the lead story on every local newscast. Five, sometimes ten minutes of a local meteorologist breathlessly reporting every aspect of the storm as if our lives are in danger, with huge images of swirling storm bands and colorful graphics. Only after all this hype does he/she quietly point out that the storm is no threat to the American mainland, much less the local area, and they toss back to the news anchor.

They really are shameless.

Which is why, when one of those videos is on YouTube, I don't touch hide or hair of it.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Fear-mongering on local TV weather segments.

There's a large hurricane swirling about in the open Atlantic over a thousand miles away. It's heading northeast, away from not only Florida but the entire North American continent. It's obviously no danger to us, but the hurricane is the lead story on every local newscast. Five, sometimes ten minutes of a local meteorologist breathlessly reporting every aspect of the storm as if our lives are in danger, with huge images of swirling storm bands and colorful graphics. Only after all this hype does he/she quietly point out that the storm is no threat to the American mainland, much less the local area, and they toss back to the news anchor.

They really are shameless.

I've noticed that very thing regarding this storm. Even on the Internet.

I just assume they're trying to distract us from something else.

 

[Daniel Avery]

No, I don't think it's gone that far. There is still a decent-sized (if unspoken) line between the news anchors, the meteorologists/weather people, and (where they have them) sports anchors...at least in the local channels I watch. The weather guys/gals sometimes have to stifle the urge to comment on a story that had just aired, which is kind of funny sometimes (to see them deftly avoid the subject) but is the professional thing to do. It's the news anchors who can't resist the urge to inject their own opinions.

Hurricanes are big business in Florida media, obviously, but I think this over-reporting/"drama-tizing" of them is just the weather departments at competing stations trying to out-do one another. If they can convince the locals that they have the best weather team, the most souped-up graphics and the like, then they will (in theory) get those people to watch "when it matters" (as a hurricane heads for the area). And it's like an arms race as they all try to outdo one another. Since local news (and network TV in general) is in financial decline I guess they will need to compete for every viewer, even those hiding under their beds in the fetal position due to all the over-hype.

Another thing I hate is how (after a weather event) they will produce nauseating ads where they brag about how much better their team reported than anyone else, which is laughable since all the TV stations take the same info from the same sources off the same computers (National Weather Service, etc.) to report. It's not like Channel 11 launched its own satellite that flew over the hurricane to report "exclusives" no one else could. It's just an exercise in kissing their own asses.

 

[bmasters9]

Another thing I hate is how (after a weather event) they will produce nauseating ads where they brag about how much better their team reported than anyone else, which is laughable since all the TV stations take the same info from the same sources off the same computers (National Weather Service, etc.) to report. It's not like Channel 11 launched its own satellite that flew over the hurricane to report "exclusives" no one else could. It's just an exercise in kissing their own asses.

And, basically, in Houston, for instance, ABC13 KTRK Eyewitness News may claim to be "Houston's News Leader," but they're still just as much in the race with KPRC and KHOU (like you said, with severe weather down there, all three get the info the same way).

 

[Rove]

Fear-mongering on local TV weather segments.

Reminds me of a since retired weatherman here in Australia. Newcastle - just a few hours north of Sydney - could soon be wiped off the face of the Earth but because Sydney is receiving a sprinkling of rain and puff of wind it's Armageddon.

 

[Daniel Avery]

When I lived in Savannah, GA there was a veteran weatherman who was beloved by the community. His word was considered the Gospel in these types of situations. In 1999 we had Hurricane Floyd headed for Savannah and he apparently lost all his composure on the air and basically told viewers we were all going to be wiped off the map by the hurricane, recommending everyone in a 100,000+ city to run for their lives (not his words, but you get the idea). My mom called me at work and convinced me to evacuate; five of us loaded up in her car and drove half-way to Macon, only for the "ferocious hurricane" to barely cause a ripple. The lights didn't even go out at my house while we were away.

I was at work when he had his on-air meltdown so I only have the stories told to me by my relatives and friends who still look back on it as the day he caused a panic over a storm that was hardly worth the attention. And he never did recover his credibility.

 

[Seaviewer]

The way politicians greet each other in public. Once upon a time they would approach each other and shake hands like normal people while the event was recorded for posterity. Now, they clasp hands and mug directly to the camera almost ignoring each other entirely.

 

[Rove]

The way politicians greet each other in public.

To them it's all theatre...on our dime. They greet, mingle and keep up the pretence what wonderful things they are accomplishing for their people minions while spewing venom about the upcoming apocalypse (climate change) as they hoon around the world in a private jet to meet - you guessed it - another world leader. Seriously. Have these muppets not heard of Zoom? How about revisiting old technology...email.

 

[Seaviewer]

Why do people tack the phrase "to be honest" on to every other sentence these days?
It used to be used as an apology for being blunt or possibly offensive. Now it seems to carry no connotation at all - unless it means that being honest is unusual for them.