# Decemberrants: Yule post'em here, plz **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 1, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207 "2013-12-01T14:01:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 22
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/421 "2013-12-17T22:03:10Z")
Fuck you bus company. My husband just called to tell me they’re letting him out about a twenty block walk from our house because of the snow. Fucking assholes. I told him to at least ask for half the price of the ticket back. The ticket price is based on distance partially. If they can’t bring him where they promise, they owe him a partial refund. I hate this company. Stupid, incompetent drivers and greedy owners. I would love to run over there and pick him up but it would also take me half an hour just to dig out the car and the driveway. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/422 "2013-12-17T23:03:40Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I fully endorse this rant, and will add that Xmas lights are only cool when other people do them, and not when my SO nags me about why we should do them (“I don’t want to get up on a ladder to put up lights any more than I wanted to get on a ladder to paint the front of the house. The street slopes!” “But it’s only once a year…”). Still more than a week to go. I just might not make it. > Roddy My Christmas decorations: 1. Take tree out of box 2. Put batteries in tree 3. Turn tree on 4. Put tree in window 5. **Christmas!** It’s a 14-inch fiber optic tree from Big Lots. Fancy! ---
**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:** [December 17, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/423 "2013-12-17T23:27:19Z")
I’ve got you beat, here’s the entirety of my decoration this year: 1. Buy an already decorated wreath 2. Drape wreath over permanently installed flagpole mount 3. Done! ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/424 "2013-12-17T23:33:47Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Wasn’t there any choice which wasn’t heavy and fat-laden? The complain-y person had a bowl of vegetable soup. As did someone else. Several of us had piles of food smothered in cheese sauce and melted cheese. One had an oversized salad–with chicken fingers on top, and took home half for later. One family split a slice of pie three ways. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/425 "2013-12-17T23:51:50Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > \ > I hate Christmas music. I especially hate Christmas music where the words have been changed for a fucking commercial jingle.\ I hate going anywhere and all I hear is, “Jingle bells, jingle bells,…” etc, ad nauseum. I hate turning on the tv and all I hear is, “Jingle bells, jingle bells,…” etc, ad nauseum. At least with the tv, I can mute or fast-forward all the fucking Christmas commercials. Maybe I should start wearing earplugs in the stores and restaurants (but that would make it hard to talk to people). Yeah, the obnoxious and ubiquitous Christmas glurge music is the worst part for me. ETA: Our Christmas decorating this year: - Plugged in outdoor lights that we leave up all year. - Plugged in indoor string of lights that we leave up all year. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2013, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/426 "2013-12-17T23:59:27Z")
My current petty annoyance is hearing yet \*another \*newshead using the word “troops” when they mean “soldiers”. We did \*not \*lose six troops in the helicopter crash, we lost six **soldiers**. GET IT RIGHT. ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/427 "2013-12-18T00:34:47Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > My current petty annoyance is hearing yet \*another \*newshead using the word “troops” when they mean “soldiers”. We did \*not \*lose six troops in the helicopter crash, we lost six **soldiers**. GET IT RIGHT. Have they identified them specifically as soldiers? I didn’t think they’d officially said yet. These days troop is an acceptable generic term until they reveal if the deceased is a solider, Marine, sailor, or airman. It’s still annoying, yes, but I understand why they do it. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/428 "2013-12-18T03:56:45Z")
Try this: 1. Make some prepackaged hot chocolate using milk. Swiss Miss is a good choice. 2. Eat some dark chocolate - really good dark chocolate. 3. Drink the hot chocolate. 4. Cringe at the taste of ass-covered anchovies marinated in brown-ish, vaguely sweet powder. Why the fuck do I keep forgetting this? ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/429 "2013-12-18T04:02:14Z")
One of my Christmas traditions is to shut off all of those motion activated noisy things by the cashiers. They annoy the crap out of me, so I just know that the people working there must hate them. I’m a customer, so I can shut them off with no worry of reprisals. (actually, I shut them off every time I encounter them, but I budget extra time during Christmas) I also try to reverse the batteries. This Christmas, all of the noisy things I’ve turned over have 4 little tiny screws holding the battery cover on. I’m sorry kids, I did the best I could. Oh, and I actually read the sign at the dog park today. I never look at things about kid requirements because they don’t apply to me. There was the usual stuff about not having aggressive dogs, being able to control your dog, you are here at your own risk, no firearms, AND nobody shorter than _mark on a sign_ Of course, I ignored that sign as well because I’m taller than that. I’m really good at ignoring things, its like a talent or something. I can sit on a bench and read a book while bulldozers are shoving dirt around and not even notice them. I can sleep during a Harley run. Hell, I can sleep on the back of a bagger on the freeway. My husband’s snores are a lullaby. Our fucking ceiling fan that only ticks just when I’m dozing off is going to get yanked off the ceiling and thrown out the window if Bill doesn’t do something about it this weekend. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/430 "2013-12-18T04:30:52Z")
The new fare payment system for Chicago’s public transit is called Ventra. It sucks hot cheesy donkey balls. I hate it. It’s slow, and it rejects cards at random. Of course your life is a little easier if you’re a web-based person who can set up an account online. Unless the website is just a little stupid and/or the autopay system screws up and changes your 30-day pass to $100 of plain fare credit. Which you maybe didn’t know because it doesn’t send you an email when it takes that $100 from your account and why (like the old system did, for 13 years of my life until 2 months ago), and why do I want do have to babysit an account by logging into it all the time when I should be able to set it and forget it? Presumably rectified after a 40 minute phone call and escalating to a manager, the negative balance credited back and 30 day pass reinstated, I’m still out 5 bucks I had to shell out yesterday because my card stopped working and left me stranded on the way to work, after the first phone call resulted in them saying they had to call me back, which didn’t happen until the next morning. Sure, I had a workaround that time, I was able to buy a $5 fare card from the old system. What will people do when the old system is finally phased out? What about people who have value on their fare card but no cash in their pocket or in their bank account? I wouldn’t have been able to get to work, there was no way I was going to do the 40 minute walk in the snow. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/431 "2013-12-18T04:35:36Z")
> [@Eureka](#): > > The complain-y person had a bowl of vegetable soup. As did someone else. So, not only were there “light” choices, they’d actually taken one? Which means what they actually were complaining about was “damnit, I’d love to have some fried fat but I can’t and whaaaaaaaa”? _hands **Eureka** a 2x4 to hit the moron with_ I’ve got Christmas decorations! One of my ladies at work happened to have a box of felt cutouts stashed away and they gave me one. There’s a geometrically-correct snowflake\* hanging from my computer monitor, I’m all decorated! - It has 6 branches. I’ve been seeing too many with other amounts. ETA: it’s _ad nauseAm_, people. You know, like nausea but with an m at the end? Shouldn’t be so difficult! ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/432 "2013-12-18T05:14:08Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I hate going anywhere and all I hear is, “Jingle bells, jingle bells,…” etc, ad nauseum. > I hate turning on the tv and all I hear is, “Jingle bells, jingle bells,…” etc, ad nauseum. At least with the tv, I can mute or fast-forward all the fucking Christmas commercials. Maybe I should start wearing earplugs in the stores and restaurants (but that would make it hard to talk to people). > > Yeah, the obnoxious and ubiquitous Christmas glurge music is the worst part for me. The neighbors across the street have Christmas lights that play music. Which is cute the first 500 or so times I hear Jingle Bells or Silent Night played in a tinny sort of way. But after three years … :eek: ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/433 "2013-12-18T05:22:13Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > I also try to reverse the batteries. This Christmas, all of the noisy things I’ve turned over have 4 little tiny screws holding the battery cover on. > > Our fucking ceiling fan that only ticks just when I’m dozing off is going to get yanked off the ceiling and thrown out the window if Bill doesn’t do something about it this weekend. I wonder if you could cut some squares of electrical tape, stick them to waxed paper and fold up small to carry easily. Take out and stick a square to the motion sensor while in line at the store. And the tiny, little, mostly quiet, repetitive noises like your ceiling fan? Exactly the stuff that drives me batshit crazy. I use a white noise machine for very good reason, my sleep and sanity! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/434 "2013-12-18T05:28:26Z")
[QUOTE=Nava;16939564\ ETA: it’s _ad nauseAm_, people. You know, like nausea but with an m at the end? Shouldn’t be so difficult![/QUOTE] Yeah, but it makes me nauseumated! > [@curlcoat](#): > > The neighbors across the street have Christmas lights that play music. Which is cute the first 500 or so times I hear Jingle Bells or Silent Night played in a tinny sort of way. But after three years … :eek: I would seriously move over that. A month of Christmas music in stores a couple of times a week is driving me crazy - all the time would, well, make me move. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/435 "2013-12-18T05:52:32Z")
> [@eulalia](#): > > Maybe that was the earlier bus that was actually running really late. [snicker] This is plausible, really. Morning commute today: EVERY vehicle I was on was running slow. Barely made the train, train missed my planned bus. Good thing (for a very narrow definition of that phrase) I had enough time that I could get the next bus half an hour later and still be on time. That bus was running slowly, but did get me there on time. Evening commute: bus seemed a little late, but we still made the train. Train seemed a little slow, but I made my bus and got home in time. Good thing, too, since I had about 20 minutes to feed the cat, change clothes, etc., before I had to leave for a church event. I barely made that in time, but that was the fault of the idiot “drivers” I had to deal with. ---
**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:** [December 18, 2013, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/436 "2013-12-18T07:01:25Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > 5 minutes away from the holiday luncheon at work. > > Which means that I will have to make an excuse to not be there right at the beginning, because there will be the inevitable prayer led by the big boss man. > > I work for a government agency. > > Guess I’ll pretend to be on a phone call now. I realize it’s too late to make a difference now, but you could always have messaged someone on the Dope to call you for reals… ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/437 "2013-12-18T12:33:13Z")
Some fucker in this house keeps stealing my Coke Zero. I will find him and strip the flesh from his bones. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/438 "2013-12-18T13:38:26Z")
Gah. When I login to the New York Times I do so to read the paper, not take a survey. Especially the kind of surveys they want me to fill out with no compensation of any kind. Why do so many people feel literally entitled to ask for people’s labor and time without offering any compensation in return? ---
**Author:** ![SerafinaPekala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SerafinaPekala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SerafinaPekala)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/439 "2013-12-18T14:24:50Z")
FFS could you get your $%#¢\*&!! muffler fixed, NeighborFromHell! Its bad enough your loud truck wakes us up at 0700 when you promptly fire it up to go get your daily beer, Dorito and cigarette fix but when you let it idle to warm it up (to go 4 blocks), the fumes waft up into our bedroom windows and damn near asphyxiate us. Save some of that beer money and fix your truck, AssHat. Or walk - the exercise would do your fat azz good. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207/440 "2013-12-18T14:34:09Z")
Dear train driver, Yes, I know it’s nearly Christmas and you are enthusiastic about that, but please don’t feel like you have to turn on the intercom and sing Christmas carols to all of the passengers. Yes, you do have a passable baritone singing voice, but at 6:00 in the morning while I’m still half-asleep I just want to be left alone. Thank you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207.md?page=21) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/decemberrants-yule-postem-here-plz/675207.md?page=23)