# April Sours... (Monthly Mini-Rants) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 1, 2025, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445 "2025-04-01T06:45:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/361 "2025-04-28T09:29:24Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > Toner is expensive. I know it’s a joke… but 20 years from now someone might read this and not know that toner is highly poisonous. Then again, 20 years from now the only life left on earth may be cockroaches which might be able to chug toner and live. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/362 "2025-04-28T13:57:30Z")
Anti-rant: I love living in this commie socialist state of Canada! Aside from benefits from the Canada Pension Plan, which is indexed to inflation, and Old Age Security, which is also indexed to inflation, I just got a notice that because of my decrepit old age, my OAS has just been increased by 10% for no particular reason. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/363 "2025-04-28T15:06:00Z")
Just got off a conference call with Medicare and Social Security. As I had suspected, when they set up my benefit payment account I was given a new Medicare account, with premiums being deducted from my monthly benefits. For some reason this was not linked to my prior Medicare account, so I wasn’t given credit for the premium payments I had previously made. Instead, they deducted over $14,000.00 in past due premiums from my retroactive benefits. This did cause an automated alert because of the excessive premium due, so an investigation was already underway. I was also told that there was a payment issued to my bank yesterday for the back benefits less Medicare premiums. I need to check to see if it was received by the bank, and if not check my SSA account to verify they have the correct bank data. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/364 "2025-04-28T20:04:04Z")
Yanno, I love living in a country where I don’t even **understand** this stuff! ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/365 "2025-04-28T20:10:49Z")
Hey, I used to _work_ for Social Security and I _still_ don’t understand how they managed to do this. I’m just glad I wasn’t dependent on these benefits to pay my bills. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/366 "2025-04-29T15:14:56Z")
**E-Z Pass** So in America we have an international road network. Anyone can easy and quickly go wherever they want for free, paid for by taxpayers. Unless you happen to drive on the few highways that predate this system and then you must pay for the privilege. The companies that own these roads want to maximize profits so they don’t stock the toll booths with many people so there are long lines or on off hours there is no one in the booth at all. If you lived in this state you’d have a EZ card for that State that you settle the balance on every month. If you don’t want to wait in long lines or cannot find anyone to actually pay it’s alight say the signs, you have up to 14 days to pay any toll fees online. The fuck you do. I got home from my road trip out east and set about calling the states I owed. They have no incentive to make this possible, they have the cameras so they got your plate, they WILL send you the bill with the additional late fees attached so you’re paying $68 on a $6 toll. But that’s one toll, for one state, it adds up fast if you’ve driven all over New England on vacation. Thievery protected by a wall of willful bureaucracy and complacency. ---
**Author:** ![MW\_Degen\_Gamblr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ec9cab/32.png) [@MW\_Degen\_Gamblr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MW_Degen_Gamblr)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/367 "2025-04-29T20:54:25Z")
I can’t focus long enough to complete my errands and prepare for my upcoming job interview, yet I can focus on debating with strangers on the internet for four hours straight. Midwest Degenerate Gambler -The devil is busy! ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/368 "2025-04-30T02:46:46Z")
The best part of this April coming to an end ( other than Canada telling Rump to go f-ck himself ) will be flushing your post(s). ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/369 "2025-04-30T03:13:59Z")
One more day of April. This evening in Western PA we had an intense microburst. Trees are down, power lines and poles are down, roofs are missing. It was incredible. Estimated 80 mph winds swishing around with some lightning and heavy rain. It almost blew my front door off. Will need to get that checked eventually but it seems to be working ok for now. So I am getting ready for bed and look out my back window and there is a tree down in my yard! I have no trees so it’s from my neighbor’s yard. I called her and she said she would take care of it as I am leaving Thursday of Friday for a week long trip to Virginia. Every time I plan a trip I have some kind of major or minor disaster. This is minor thankfully. ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/370 "2025-04-30T03:44:49Z")
The last day of April tomorrow is our city-wide cleanup. I bid farewell to an old friend. A section of heating duct 2-3 ft long that has been in my basement since I bought this place 36 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/371 "2025-04-30T12:47:31Z")
Don’t throw it away! You might need it. Just kidding. I find it so satisfying to jettison stuff I’ve owned forever “just in case”. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/372 "2025-04-30T13:03:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I find it so satisfying to jettison stuff I’ve owned forever “just in case”. Ah, yes, the “just in case” syndrome. I have the extraordinary superpower of carefully hoarding things that turn out to be totally useless, while constantly losing things that are actually really important. It’s actually amazing that I’ve survived in this world as long as I have. In terms of documents and information, computers have been part of my salvation. Here I can hoard useless junk to my heart’s content, but among the immense digital clutter will usually be stuff I actually need, though I may have to do a deep content-based search to find it! > [@dougrb](#): > > I bid farewell to an old friend. A section of heating duct 2-3 ft long that has been in my basement since I bought this place 36 years ago. 36 years would be a record even for me! 😉 I recently was able to throw out two ancient desktop computers during electronics collection day here. Though I should mention that besides my three laptops, including one new one with Windows 11, I also have a really ancient one somewhere that I think was running the latest Windows at the time, I think Windows 3.0. Yanno, just in case! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/373 "2025-04-30T15:03:25Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > How is it irrelevant? I was having major problems standing and walking. I stayed in line _to avoid losing my place_. She had no obviious trouble standing and walking. She made no attempt to explain why she sat down. She just sat down. Are you from the planet Krypton? Did you send away for & where you wearing those magic X-ray specs that were advertised in the back of comic books when I was a kid? If not how could you see the potential scars she had from back surgery or the possible herniated disc she was currently dealing with? > [@DocCathode](#): > > It is not only that she didn’t clear it with me. She made no attempt to give a reason, ask if I would save her place in line, or that it was okay with all the people behind me in line. > > > [@needscoffee](#): > > > > (because she was somehow supposed to know this? > > Because that is the way standing in line works in this country in general. It may or not be the same way standing in line works in Haiti.I honestly don’t know. > > Yeah, she sat down assuming that. That was a mistake. Again, she never attempted to give a reason for sitting down. So someone who, according to you, was obviously from another country, who had a language barrier, & who may have different cultural norms didn’t clear sitting down with you she lost her place? Maybe she didn’t get the memo that you’re in charge of society in this country. She’s not the only one who didn’t get that memo. If she had sat, in line, on the (dirty) floor would you have also deemed her to have lost her place? What if she had a folding chair or one of those folding [cane-stools](https://i5.walmartimages.com/seo/Cane-with-Seat-2-38lbs-Lightweight-Walking-Stick-Foldable-Walking-Aid-with-Comfortable-Stool-for-Elderly-Travel-Outdoor-Support_74ed9d5d-bc91-4c48-b948-231c2d00f8f5.cb45ada4d21c0c002df9be07750f4950.jpeg); would that have negated her place in line, as well? > [@wolfpup](#): > > > [@dougrb](#): > > > > a simple paper map of what is in each isle. > > A friendly nitpick from a voracious pedant: Bodies of land have “isles”, small islands like the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. Grocery stores have “aisles”, walkways between shelved merchandise. Nitpicking your nitpick; there _used_ to be a wide east/west aisle between all of the north/south aisles & the cold stuff ringing the outside of store or the checkout lanes up front that is now filled with small areas of merchandise, which means there hardly anywhere to pass granny toodling along. The one up front is just a folding table with impulse purchase B2/G2 candy bars. Those are isles among the aisles! 😉 > [@wolfpup](#): > > Because terrors lurk in the night. Pepe Le Pew. Le Skunke. The Striped Stinker. Just why does a middle-aged woman who hasn’t been to the hair dresser in a while smell so bad??? 🤪 I’m taking a class, 35 or 36 students. We had a 100 multiple-guess question test last night. I was the third one finished (not trying to brag, just painting the scene). The second guy got up when I was just getting to #96, so just a minute or two ahead of me; reasonable enough. The first guy? I was on question #61. WTF; did he even read them or did he just play Genesis’s ABACAB on his answer sheet? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/374 "2025-04-30T16:53:52Z")
More likely he was an ABBA fan. Their songs are much more up-tempo, and you don’t have to move your #2 pencil as much. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/375 "2025-04-30T17:23:36Z")
Fox News, proper news, and even Stephen Colbert should begin with this phrase. “This is what our officials have done lately to divide us and the following is how I will make you anxious and upset in some measure in order to best profit from it.” They are all not equal, but that they are all doing it is depressing. ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/376 "2025-05-01T01:29:25Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > “just in case” syndrome At least I had my priorities straight. Multiple computers and TVs gone. But I saved one (of 2) broken coffee makers just in case. I CAN fix it if it comes to that. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445/377 "2025-05-01T05:14:05Z")
New month of rants: > [@...Bring May Glowers (Monthly Mini-Rants)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bring-may-glowers-monthly-mini-rants/1017737): > > Continuing the discussion from [April Sours… (Monthly Mini-Rants)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445): We’ve been in this house for almost 13 years now. We bought it new; in fact, we bought the house before it was built and got to visit it at various stages of construction to follow its progress. It was a patch of dirt when we bought it. A few years after buying it, my wife really wanted air conditioning and better heating so we got that installed. And then later we paid an HVAC company to do regular maintenance. Last year th… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-sours-monthly-mini-rants/1016445.md?page=18)