# Auld Lang Whines (January Mini Rants) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 1, 2019, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038 "2019-01-01T13:02:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/161 "2019-01-28T04:53:31Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > ETA my sweet babies are asleep and purring in the guest cats bed by the stove, as we speak. They have no remorse. Why should they? They’re simply repelling an illegal immigrant. Maybe you should build a wall. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/162 "2019-01-28T05:28:17Z")
Oh, god! I have Republican cats. I think I wanna die. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2019, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/163 "2019-01-28T09:26:29Z")
My customer is a different kind of Republican, being French, but they’ve just found something I’d never before found so late in a project: a whole warehouse! Biggest thing I’d found so far was a wallet full of money (the farmer neighbor had lost it right after being paid for his harvest). I’m not sure if this is worth more but it’s certainly bigger. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/164 "2019-01-29T00:18:02Z")
I want to cut my right let off. I can’t remember the last time I got a good, solid night’s sleep. Just little patches here and there. (Like I’ll sleep three hours, then later on I’ll take a short nap, and then two nights later I’ll manage to sleep, but not as well as I’d like, etc) Anyone else ever had sciatica? How long does it usually last? I’ve been doing various stretches like I’ve read about, but good GOD. I’m sliding down the steps on my butt. I’m taking showers sitting down. I want this to get better, because the History Center just opened up a whole new exhibit on hockey in Pittsburgh, and I’m DYING to go and see it. (Although perhaps it’s better to wait until the crowds die down) ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/165 "2019-01-29T01:37:30Z")
It’s January; I expected the gym to get a lot more crowded and I don’t really mind, but gentlemen please put a lock on your lockers. You don’t even have to actually lock the lock if your that trusting, but I hate opening seeming free locker after locker to find somebody’s stuff in there. :rolleyes: Also the towel returns are the bins right outside the locker-room with towel icons on them; that thing inside the locker-room is a clearly labeled recycling bin that guys have started piling towels on top of. :smack: > [@Thylacine](#): > > Old guys in the pool, could you please remember it is public, mixed space and talk less about what makes your dick twitch and make fewer jokes about how rapey your friends are to women who dare to go by? You make it a very uncomfortable environment indeed. So the other night I went in the hot tub after water robes and there were two guys (I’m guessing 18-20) in there. When they got out one them climbed past me and I did a discrete double take at his bathing suit. Which turned out to be a pair of dark boxer-briefs and not a bathing suit at all. :eek: Then he went in a pooler. So like most YMCAs since the 1970s the pool area is coed and proper swimwear is of course required (the sauna & steam rooms are on the other hand are single-sex, and nudity is fine). Still not the weirdest thing I’ve seen; that would be the girl a couple of months ago who causally got in the hot tub wearing a t-shirt, yoga pants, and shoes while playing on her phone. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/166 "2019-01-29T01:55:57Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Anyone else ever had sciatica? How long does it usually last? There may be a fixable cause for that. I had sciatica for four years. Four years of physical therapy, ortho, sports medicine, even acupuncture. That was also four years of my insurance saying “No MRI, we’ll only pay for X-rays.” Eventually, I had it in both legs, was on crutches and was using handrails like a rope tow. Finally, I got an MRI which showed a cyst in my spine… “the size of a 25¢ jaw breaker”. It was compressing my spinal cord to the width of a pencil lead (felt like 0.5mm one). Was going to get spinal surgery to dig it out, but luckily a non-surgical doc was able to “explode” it with a huge needle full of saline. Got off his table and did a little jig, pain free. Have been ever since, for the last ten years. So I hope you can get full forensic investigation with any imaging you might need. It’d be great to find what’s causing it. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/167 "2019-01-29T02:11:50Z")
Glad you got it fixed, **digs**. And just think, the ins. co. idiots probably spent way more money on all the other treatments that did not work than the MRI would have cost in the first place. My current round of sciatica has been going on since just after xmas but is getting better every day, slowly but surely. I think I’ve only had sciatica a couple of times and never to such a violent extent as you guys, but I have an artificial knee and some of the recommended exercises for sciatica are hard to do with a fake knee, for various reasons. One doctor said the worst thing to do for it is walk, but then another one said it’s ok to walk but take shorter steps and don’t go fast. OK, I think I’ll pick door #2. It’s fun getting old! ---
**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:** [January 29, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/168 "2019-01-29T02:30:56Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > My customer is a different kind of Republican, being French, but they’ve just found something I’d never before found so late in a project: a whole warehouse! > > Biggest thing I’d found so far was a wallet full of money (the farmer neighbor had lost it right after being paid for his harvest). I’m not sure if this is worth more but it’s certainly bigger. That’s so intriguing just on its face that it needs to be elaborated on in the workplace griping thread. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/169 "2019-01-29T03:10:26Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Anyone else ever had sciatica? How long does it usually last? I’ve been doing various stretches like I’ve read about, but good GOD. I’m sliding down the steps on my butt. I’m taking showers sitting down. Only secondhand, but it’s enough to tell me that I never want to try it firsthand. From what I’ve seen it can last from a couple of days to weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/170 "2019-01-29T05:50:52Z")
My mother had it, and she said it was only for a few months. I hope it’s only that, because good GOD, it fucking sucks! If it’s not better by March, when I go to my annual check-up, I’ll definitely mention it, although I hope it’s okay. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/171 "2019-01-29T07:32:53Z")
Even if it’s better, do mention it. Dad only had a few attacks (none of which lasted more than three days), but they turned out to be mainly posture-related: stuff such as “don’t play macho about wearing your sweater in the office, move occasionally and make sure you sit up correctly” avoided them. Mom’s had attacks now and then for decades despite having received similar instructions, but she’s the kind of person who only follows instructions in a stopped-clock kind of fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/172 "2019-01-29T10:01:32Z")
I had sciatica bad enough to require a microdiscectomy- basically I had a disc that has herniated and was pressing on the spinal cord, and it’d got bad enough it wasn’t going to fix itself, it needed removing. At the worst point, I couldn’t stand up for about a month, but it wasn’t consistent- at one point it almost totally went away for about 2 months. It took 6 months to get an MRI, because it’s apparently really unusual for the demographic I was at the time, so everyone assumed it was just a muscle problem or maybe a really minor disc issue. It actually turned out to be, according to the specialist, the worst one in the South West of England at the time (I didn’t get a sticker, but I did get to skip the waiting list). I would get a scan if you can, if its getting worse or just not getting better after a while. If I’d left mine much longer, I was told I’d be risking permanent nerve damage, even paralysis. It’s rare, but it can happen. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/173 "2019-01-29T12:05:58Z")
The best thing I know for sciatica is don’t sleep in bed. Sleep in a recliner if you have one, or a narrow couch. Anywhere where there’s no chance you’ll go over on your belly. And I was always told not to do stretches. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/174 "2019-01-30T00:36:11Z")
> [@DummyGladHands](#): > > The best thing I know for sciatica is don’t sleep in bed. Sleep in a recliner if you have one, or a narrow couch. Anywhere where there’s no chance you’ll go over on your belly. > And I was always told not to do stretches. My mom sleeps in a recliner that will lay all the way flat due to her sciatica. She blames me for the sciatica, she says I sat on the nerve while she was pregnant with me and she’s had problems with it ever since. Sorry, Mom! ---
**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:** [January 30, 2019, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/175 "2019-01-30T03:35:59Z")
Don’t let her put a guilt trip on you! When **kaylasmom** was carrying Kayla, the nurse who came over to do well-fetus checks would sometimes find that Kayla was sleeping curled up in the corner of the uterus (or something) and would tap on **kaylasmom** ’s fundus with the back of a soup spoon until Kayla woke up and moved. If they knew to do that twenty-three years ago, they surely knew twenty-four years ago. You ARE twenty-four, right? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/176 "2019-01-30T08:00:42Z")
If my Dad’s sciatica was caused by pregnancy, I’ve got some hard questions that need asking. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/177 "2019-01-30T08:12:31Z")
My middle child stayed up in my left side for the last trimester to the extent my ribs were stretched and bruised. I complained about it at every doctor visit. My doctor attempted to move her down especially when it was time for her turn and move to the head down position. Her stubborn butt stayed put. She was born breech. Big baby 9.5. Lbs. When I get a twinge in my ribs now I make a point to call her and make her feel guilty. I’m a fun Mom like that. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/178 "2019-01-30T15:29:59Z")
Back on the subject of things going missing… In my house, when something goes missing, I usually blame my wife. She has a habit of picking things up and putting them somewhere else – not put _away_, just somewhere other than where I set them down. Then she will either (a) deny that she ever touched it, or (b) remembers moving it but doesn’t remember where she put it. It’s only very rarely that I eventually find what I’m looking for and then remember that _I_ was the one who put it there. And as for clothes, I have a pair of dark gray slacks that I can’t seem to find. They are my “dressy” slacks that I usually keep on the same hanger with my sport coat, but they’re not there, or anywhere in my closet. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/179 "2019-01-30T17:21:58Z")
Not sure where to put this: the theatrical show Hamilton has been cancelled in Chicago for a few days due to cold weather. So brrrrrrr kills Hamilton again. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038/180 "2019-01-30T17:37:53Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Not sure where to put this: the theatrical show Hamilton has been cancelled in Chicago for a few days due to cold weather. So brrrrrrr kills Hamilton again. I appreciated this. Funny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auld-lang-whines-january-mini-rants/827038.md?page=10)