# April Annoyances (mini-rants) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 1, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516 "2015-04-01T16:57:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/361 "2015-04-22T15:24:30Z")
This sucks, really sucks. The one friend I have at work just told me she is leaving. Not close to anybody else there and she makes the day better just by being there. I have a hard time making friends and this is one of the few people I can be really actually comfortable with and was hoping to progress to outside of work friends soon. Now, I just don’t see it happening. I am losing a really important part of my work life and I am numb and saddened. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/362 "2015-04-22T16:07:51Z")
Thanks, **purplehorseshoe**. I find it helps when people point out the things that I do, because I often don’t realize it myself. Maybe I’m being a stereotypical apologetic Canadian? 😛 I admit to not having heard the term “the ask” before. I tried googling it to see what it meant, but didn’t get very far. Maybe it’s mostly used in the business field? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/363 "2015-04-22T16:21:57Z")
> [@howye](#): > > This sucks, really sucks. The one friend I have at work just told me she is leaving. Not close to anybody else there and she makes the day better just by being there. I have a hard time making friends and this is one of the few people I can be really actually comfortable with and was hoping to progress to outside of work friends soon. > > Now, I just don’t see it happening. I am losing a really important part of my work life and I am numb and saddened. I know exactly how this feels, and I sympathize utterly. I was relatively lucky to work in a fairly large office where it seemed there were always choices of someone to talk to, but the pickings got pretty slim in the last few years to the point where I was down to one so-so person. But when you find out someone you really like is leaving, it takes a while to get over it. Good luck to you, I hope you can find a new person to interact with. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/364 "2015-04-22T16:47:14Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Originally fried in beef tallow they were very good. But the idea of how they were fried- thin, and kept fairly fresh- was copied. So now, Mcd’s fries are by no means special. They are just adequate. No, the reason they’re not very good now is that the namby-pamby-sissy-hippie vegans got all butthurt when they found out what the fries were being fried in and McDonalds being all pussy cow-towed to the four people throwing a bitch fit and changed it to some crap-ass non-tasty oil. That’s why I make my own fries now at home. I fry them in steaks and they are fucking delicious. ---
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/365 "2015-04-22T17:08:07Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I know exactly how this feels, and I sympathize utterly. I was relatively lucky to work in a fairly large office where it seemed there were always choices of someone to talk to, but the pickings got pretty slim in the last few years to the point where I was down to one so-so person. But when you find out someone you really like is leaving, it takes a while to get over it. Good luck to you, I hope you can find a new person to interact with. Thanks. Spoke with her a bit and she is going to a good job, and I am very happy for her. We also talked about how I was thinking about shadowing her role, and really I could take her role. There would be a learning curve but I would have a little better working situation and better career prospects. And she does want to stay in touch after she leaves and she demonstrated what a good person she is. She is younger and more experienced in our career field. Very few people I respect to the degree I do this coworker. I am happy that I told her that. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/366 "2015-04-22T17:09:39Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > No, the reason they’re not very good now is that the namby-pamby-sissy-hippie vegans got all butthurt when they found out what the fries were being fried in and McDonalds being all pussy cow-towed to the four people throwing a bitch fit and changed it to some crap-ass non-tasty oil. > > That’s why I make my own fries now at home. I fry them in steaks and they are fucking delicious. Not quite right. It wasn’t a vegetarian thing. It was a saturated fat thing, screamed about by the “healthy” crowd. Not the veggie crowd. McD’s fries are NOT vegetarian even today, as “beef flavor” is added. And for a real treat, add a little bacon fat to your fries! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/367 "2015-04-22T17:14:27Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > Apparently you aren’t allowed to say that the systematic slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians 100 years ago by the Ottoman Empire was a a “genocide”, according to Turkey: > [Turkey summons Vatican ambassador over Pope's genocide comment - The Jerusalem Post](http://www.jpost.com/Christian-News/Turkey-summons-Vatican-ambassador-over-popes-genocide-comment-396833) > > All this despite the United Nations, the European Parliament, 23 countries as well as a post WW1 tribunal recognizing it as such. FUCK YOU Turkey. > [@Mince](#): > > Yeah, fuck. Even Germany acknowledges its transgressions. It occurs to me to wonder if Turkey’s refusal to accept the term is driven at least in part by a fear that demands for reparations would follow any such admission. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/368 "2015-04-22T17:15:34Z")
> [@overlyverbose](#): > > **EmilyG** , if it makes you feel better, our big corporate buzzword lately is “the ask.” It makes me stabby. 🙂 > > Seriously, I’ll be on a call and someone asks me, “What’s the ask?” It makes me want to beat the shit out of someone. It’s one of the douchiest misuses of language I’ve heard in a long time. Should it be “What’s the _aks_?” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/369 "2015-04-22T17:17:54Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > _This advice is brought to you by an anonymous internet stranger who’s never met you, and is worth exactly what you paid for it. I am not your doctor or lawyer. If your erection lasts more than four hours, seek medical attention. If you are pregnant or nursing, consult your healthcare professional before taking. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. **Killing a million and a half people at once probably counts as genocide unless they changed the meaning of the word yesterday.** _ How do you kill half a person? ---
**Author:** ![TheFaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TheFaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFaerie)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/370 "2015-04-22T17:27:46Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > How do you kill half a person? You do a half-assed job. Spent 4 days in Chicago. Never been there before, had a great time. Came home with a cold and a strained Achille’s tendon. ---
**Author:** ![InsomniaMama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@InsomniaMama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InsomniaMama)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/371 "2015-04-22T19:13:08Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I admit to not having heard the term “the ask” before. I tried googling it to see what it meant, but didn’t get very far. Maybe it’s mostly used in the business field? Yes. Like most of the recent painful updates\* to our language, yes. \*Or, as I once saw in a business document, “updations.” ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/372 "2015-04-22T20:14:30Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > I first got mail from them at 28. I think I was in my thirties. They must get really cheap bulk rates. My mail-related complaint may have been posted before. But probably not this month (mind like a steel sieve). It includes dead relatives. If you submit to the post office a change of address card for your dead relative, so that you can deal with their estate, the post office will notify magazines and billers and fundraisers and anyone else who asks that the address has been changed to X. I am still getting hunting magazines in the name of someone who died in 2005. I have to assume that they make their money off of their ads, rather than subscriptions. A bigger deal was the insurance company that cancelled the insurance on Mom’s house because they do not cover unoccupied houses. Apparently that’s a specialized and expensive sort of insurance. And we know it was because of the USPS notifying them that the bill was going to an out of state address. The local agent got chewed out because it was a small enough town that he should have known. (And if he did know, and left it lying, bless him.) > [@Seanette](#): > > [retch] That phrase needs to be removed from the language with extreme prejudice. > > Has basic grammar become obsolete? Grammar changes because: reasons. You know who else used verbs as nouns? Shakespear. (The other guy may have, too. I haven’t read any of his stuff.) It really can’t be frozen. That said, I haven’t heard “the ask” and would have to ask for clarification, to be sure I was interpreting it right. [After googling, I’m [still not sure](https://lvgaldieri.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/maddening-jargon-jargon-madness-another-note-on-the-ask/). Although there [seem to be](https://lvgaldieri.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/ask-is-a-verb/) shades of “let’s cut to the chase” and “forget reasoning, what does the boss want?”.] In my googling, I also ran across “punch a puppy” and “pain point” as horrible jargon in 2013. I’m not sure I want to know. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/373 "2015-04-22T21:00:57Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > I’ve been stalked and harassed by AARP for five ears now. It started a couple of weeks before my 50th birthday. I wish I knew how to make them stop. My daughter just got her first invitation to join AARP. She is eleven. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/374 "2015-04-22T21:09:04Z")
Now I just noticed I said five ears when I meant five years. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/375 "2015-04-22T22:55:45Z")
First world problems ahead: The last time we ordered Chinese delivery, I got cashew chicken. Very tasty, but I really wanted snow peas with it, and no mushrooms or celery. So this time I ordered chicken with snow peas, add cashews. They charged me $1 extra for about 12 nuts, and was in white sauce instead of brown sauce (my mistake). Boo hoo. ☹ Next time I’m just getting shredded pork in spicy garlic sauce. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/376 "2015-04-22T23:22:40Z")
> [@InsomniaMama](#): > > Yes. Like most of the recent painful updates\* to our language, yes. > > \*Or, as I once saw in a business document, “updations.” Saw that one once, from an outsourced worker in India. At least he/she had the excuse of probably not having English as a first language. ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/377 "2015-04-23T00:53:40Z")
> [@Avarie537](#): > > First world problems ahead: The last time we ordered Chinese delivery, I got cashew chicken. Very tasty, but I really wanted snow peas with it, and no mushrooms or celery. So this time I ordered chicken with snow peas, add cashews. They charged me $1 extra for about 12 nuts, and was in white sauce instead of brown sauce (my mistake). Boo hoo. ☹ Next time I’m just getting shredded pork in spicy garlic sauce. If you ever wander through Grand Junction, CO, give me a shout and I will take you to Chinese Food Heaven where the owner/chef will make you anything you want the way you want it. Even if it’s not on the menu. (Within reason of course. Your custom Cashew Chicken would be entirely within reason. And have the wonton soup. Seriously.) ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/378 "2015-04-23T01:29:20Z")
> [@InsomniaMama](#): > > \*Or, as I once saw in a business document, “updations.” How has the person who wrote this not been strangled by an irate co-worker? That’s just as bad as “conversate.” There’s already a perfectly good word that’s shorter!! Why?!! ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/379 "2015-04-23T05:09:50Z")
Nm! Ninja’d! ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2015, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516/380 "2015-04-23T06:13:46Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > It occurs to me to wonder if Turkey’s refusal to accept the term is driven at least in part by a fear that demands for reparations would follow any such admission. Maybe, but its not the same government that committed the crimes; it was the Ottoman Empire. You have a stronger argument for the United States paying reparations to black people for slavery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-annoyances-mini-rants/716516.md?page=20)