# Do you remember miniest rants of September? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 1, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615 "2018-09-01T17:49:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/21 "2018-09-03T16:53:03Z")
I was offered, and accepted, a new position at work. Yay me! Then some people who are like the “mean girls group” got so pissed off that one of them wasn’t offered the position that they all started treating me like shit and secretly training one of their own for the position. There was such drama and bullying that I decided it wasn’t worth it and declined the position. Now the “mean girls group” is even more pissed at me because, when asked by my boss why I was turning the position down, I was honest about who and why. I seriously don’t make enough for this… ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/22 "2018-09-03T16:57:08Z")
nm - wrong thread ---
**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:** [September 3, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/23 "2018-09-03T17:03:49Z")
> [@FloatyGimpy](#): > > There was such drama and bullying that I decided it wasn’t worth it and declined the position. Now the “mean girls group” is even more pissed at me because, when asked by my boss why I was turning the position down, I was honest about who and why. > > I seriously don’t make enough for this… Take the job. Otherwise, you’re letting the Mean Girls be mean. I would hope your boss would say “Oh, suck it up and take the position. I’ll deal with the mean girls…” If your supervisor doesn’t say that, then YOU should. Seriously, within weeks of accepting the job I’m in, someone started trying to get me fired. After a few sleepless nights, I realized that this person (and his cronies) were going to be “mean girls” no matter what, whether I stayed or left, got promoted or turned it down, so I learned to ignore them. It helped that a friend said “Y’know why workplace politics are so brutal? 'Cause the stakes are so small.” I kept repeating to myself “Okay, can they hurt my family? Kidnap my children? Burning my dog? (learned that one here; thanks for the cheap therapy, SDMB!) If not, they can’t REALLY hurt me, can they?” ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/24 "2018-09-03T17:57:39Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > It’s time for the annual pumpkin spice take over of anything edible… So far I’ve seen Cheerios and Twinkies … there will be more and more… Trader Joe’s prides itself on the number of pumpkin spice products it sells. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/25 "2018-09-03T18:06:20Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I just struggled my way to the end of Connie Willis’ “All Clear” - which is about three times as long as it needs to be BTW but I kept on chugging because hey, Connie Willis - and theres a recurring plot point about some Agatha Christie book called “Murder on the Calais Coach”. > > Hmm, think I, an alternate name for Murder on the Orient Express! Is this…a clue? A clue that they’re secretly in an alternate timeline, and not in the real past (of WWII ) that we would know and recognise? > > No. No, apparently not - it’s a bloody _recurring mistake_. A CONSTANTLY recurring mistake, in fact. People! If you’re going to set your entire 600 page novel in Britain then get a bloody British proofreader to make sure you’re not dropping a clanger! > > (And if she did, then I burning their dog for NOT DOING THEIR JOB PROPERLY) Murder in the Calais Coach is the US alternative title for Murder on the Orient Express, because the publishers feared a confusion with another book called Orient Express. > **[Murder in the Calais Coach: Christie, Agatha: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Calais-Coach-Agatha-Christie/dp/B005Z1EB2C)** > > Murder in the Calais Coach \[Christie, Agatha\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Murder in the Calais Coach ---
**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:** [September 3, 2018, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/26 "2018-09-03T19:28:49Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Murder in the Calais Coach is the US alternative title for Murder on the Orient Express, because the publishers feared a confusion with another book called Orient Express. > [https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Calais-Coach-Agatha-Christie/dp/B005Z1EB2C](https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Calais-Coach-Agatha-Christie/dp/B005Z1EB2C) Fascinating, I had NO idea! Now I want to buy the paperback version and sit in a coffee spot with it until someone asks “_What_ is that?” But I’d do that and no one would notice. They already don’t care that I often make my own slipcovers for ordinary books… I read in bars and coffeeshops a lot, and I often look like I’m reading a fictitious book: _“The Giant Rat of Sumatra”_ from Holmes (and _“The Dynamics of an Asteroid”_ by Prof. ‘Jimbo’ Moriarty); _“The Emperor Over the Sea”_ by C.S. Lewis and _“Psmith and Jeeves”_ by P. G. Wodehouse (from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics); _“Prognosis Negative”,_ _“The Making of **Chunnel!** ”_ or _“From Milan to Minsk: the true story that inspired the musical”_ (from movies/plays referenced in Seinfeld episodes). ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/27 "2018-09-03T19:48:44Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Fascinating, I had NO idea! > > Now I want to buy the paperback version and sit in a coffee spot with it until someone asks “_What_ is that?” > > But I’d do that and no one would notice. They already don’t care that I often make my own slipcovers for ordinary books… > > I read in bars and coffeeshops a lot, and I often look like I’m reading a fictitious book: _“The Giant Rat of Sumatra”_ from Holmes (and _“The Dynamics of an Asteroid”_ by Prof. ‘Jimbo’ Moriarty); _“The Emperor Over the Sea”_ by C.S. Lewis and _“Psmith and Jeeves”_ by P. G. Wodehouse (from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics); _“Prognosis Negative”,_ _“The Making of **Chunnel!** ”_ or _“From Milan to Minsk: the true story that inspired the musical”_ (from movies/plays referenced in Seinfeld episodes). +1 ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/28 "2018-09-03T21:29:49Z")
> [@andros](#): > > It’s not a mistake. Connie is not that clueless. She’s read her Christy, she knows how to create a plausible sounding Agatha Christie title that does not in fact exist in our universe. > > That’s the point. Time travel also does not exist in our universe. The entire Oxford series is set in a universe that is not our own. Thus, Calais. No it’s , as Rick subsequently mentioned, the US name. Never used in the actual UK. So this is exactly the sort of mistake a US-based writer would make, through simply not knowing that no copy of the book in 1940’s London would have that name on the cover. It wouldn’t be so bad if the book didn’t start with about 400 pages of time-travellers obsessing about whether or not they’re changing history. They are. But the book title isn’t a clue. If you want something to be a clue, you don’t pick one that looks so obviously like a mistake. ---
**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:** [September 3, 2018, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/29 "2018-09-03T22:45:56Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Fascinating, I had NO idea! > > Now I want to buy the paperback version and sit in a coffee spot with it until someone asks “_What_ is that?” > > But I’d do that and no one would notice. They already don’t care that I often make my own slipcovers for ordinary books… > > I read in bars and coffeeshops a lot, and I often look like I’m reading a fictitious book: _“The Giant Rat of Sumatra”_ from Holmes (and _“The Dynamics of an Asteroid”_ by Prof. ‘Jimbo’ Moriarty); _“The Emperor Over the Sea”_ by C.S. Lewis and _“Psmith and Jeeves”_ by P. G. Wodehouse (from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics); _“Prognosis Negative”,_ _“The Making of **Chunnel!** ”_ or _“From Milan to Minsk: the true story that inspired the musical”_ (from movies/plays referenced in Seinfeld episodes). That sounds fun. I may just steal that idea.🙂 ---
**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:** [September 3, 2018, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/30 "2018-09-03T23:01:55Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > That sounds fun. I may just steal that idea.🙂 Photoshop (and a lack of shame) is your friend! ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/31 "2018-09-03T23:27:29Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > No it’s , as Rick subsequently mentioned, the US name. Never used in the actual UK. So this is exactly the sort of mistake a US-based writer would make, through simply not knowing that no copy of the book in 1940’s London would have that name on the cover. > > It wouldn’t be so bad if the book didn’t start with about 400 pages of time-travellers obsessing about whether or not they’re changing history. > > They are. But the book title isn’t a clue. If you want something to be a clue, you don’t pick one that looks so obviously like a mistake. I now share your outrage in every particular. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/32 "2018-09-04T03:14:08Z")
Apparently while I was out of the country during July, the DMV sent me an emissions inspection notice. But they don’t forward mail, so it fell into a black hole. I’ve received absolutely nothing referencing this until approximately an hour ago when I got a nasty automated email telling me that the inspection was due 8/29 and they’re going to suspend my car registration. I was able to fill something out online and get a 3-month extension, but how was I supposed to know about this? They sent no emails (which they do for registration renewal), no repeat notices, nothing. If I’d known it was due I’d have bloody well taken the car in before the deadline! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/33 "2018-09-04T16:26:53Z")
We took some of my gf’s relatives out pontooning this weekend. When we stopped for gas her 16 y.o. nephew informed me I was being “ripped off”. I could see how he might think that, as I was paying $5.50 a gallon, while most gas stations here are around $3.10. So, I explained to him that the gas I was buying was ethanol-free. Boat outboard motors do better burning gasoline without ethanol. I then pointed out the technical difficulty in having a gas station right on the river. Furthermore, I explained, the attendant has to run down from the Marina store, pump gas, then run back. He replied, “yeah, well, I still say you’re being ripped off”. ☹ ---
**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:** [September 4, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/34 "2018-09-04T17:08:05Z")
Can someone explain to me why an oven door has to have four (count them, 4) layers of glass, every one of which is exposed to oven gases and every surface of which somehow gets dirty? And, bonus question, why they make it so you have to take the door off the oven and disassemble the door in order to clean said glass? We have a “self-cleaning” oven. Hah! I say Hah! ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/35 "2018-09-04T17:15:12Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > He replied, “yeah, well, I still say you’re being ripped off”. ☹ Buy him a boat; then he’ll understand. I remember marine diesel being well over $5 a gallon when road diesel was like a buck and a half (this was some decades back). > [@](#): > > **Boat:** A hole in the water into which you throw money. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/36 "2018-09-04T17:29:53Z")
It’s amazing how unreliable our technology is right now. We have phones that certainly can’t be relied upon to make phone calls. Mine drops calls all the time, or just refuses to even connect. When I do, it’s often bad voice quality. No wonder people mostly text. The browser on my tablet, built by a certain fruit company, keeps getting hijacked by “Congratulations Am\*\*n User!” redirects. Funny how that doesn’t ever happen on my desktop computer, which I’m graciously “allowed” to customize in ways the tablet is not (to my knowledge). Every rental car I get into is an adventure. One of them had no obvious way to turn off the radio, which somebody had left on at high volume. Pressing the few buttons near the screen did nothing. You had to go several layers into the menu, or it turns out, press a button on the center console that had no markings suggesting it controlled the radio. You might say this is unfamiliarity. I say it’s shitty engineering and ergonomics. Touch screeens are great for some purposes, but I think they’re terrible in moving vehicles. Let’s get back to dedicated buttons and label them properly. I am not a technophobe or phile. I believe in good tools for the job, and right now I think as capability goes up we are seeing quality, usability and reliability go down. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/37 "2018-09-04T17:32:34Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Can someone explain to me why an oven door has to have four (count them, 4) layers of glass, every one of which is exposed to oven gases and every surface of which somehow gets dirty? And, bonus question, why they make it so you have to take the door off the oven and disassemble the door in order to clean said glass? > > We have a “self-cleaning” oven. Hah! I say Hah! I feel you. I bought my latest oven with no glass for that very reason. It’s aluminum, in which every handprint and smudge shows. Equally pissed. Now I must go clean it. (Why? ’ Cause it’s there). ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/38 "2018-09-04T22:47:55Z")
The latest on my son is that all of his vitamin testing (and his MRI) also came out normal. His regular optometrist (not the one who diagnosed the optic nerve atrophy) examined him and showed me comparison pictures of his eyes from last week and from two years ago, and they are very similar. I saw the pediatrician today and she gave me a referral for an ophthalmologist. In other news, I just started drinking the disgusting stuff for my colonoscopy tomorrow. Joy. ---
**Author:** ![Wallet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@Wallet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallet)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/39 "2018-09-05T02:52:30Z")
> [@ENugent](#): > > The latest on my son is that all of his vitamin testing (and his MRI) also came out normal. His regular optometrist (not the one who diagnosed the optic nerve atrophy) examined him and showed me comparison pictures of his eyes from last week and from two years ago, and they are very similar. I saw the pediatrician today and she gave me a referral for an ophthalmologist. That’s wonderful news! 🙂 I’m so glad that things worked out well for him. \>\>In other news, I just started drinking the disgusting stuff for my colonoscopy tomorrow. Joy\<\< Best of luck! ---
**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:** [September 5, 2018, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615/40 "2018-09-05T03:26:34Z")
You may need to ‘Just start drinking’😉 and stop there. I am kidding. Good luck with your test. That prep is brutal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-miniest-rants-of-september/820615.md?page=3)