# Got August Gripes?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 1, 2015, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712 "2015-08-01T07:48:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 8
### Author:  [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/141 "2015-08-10T12:51:00Z")
If you say you’re open at 730, shouldn’t you have someone there answering the damn phone?
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/142 "2015-08-10T14:18:05Z")
> [@eulalia](#):
>
> I just saw some in my local Best Buy yesterday; how far are you from one of those?
'Bout a half hour by bus. I was at that one yesterday and they don’t have the cables in the store any more. Online only.
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/143 "2015-08-10T16:56:25Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#):
>
> But for love of all that is Holy, TAKE A SHOWER! You are in a public place. You are around other people. If nothing else, use a sink and wet towel.
Friday night this guy got on the bus and sat behind me. His breath was so utterly horrifying that I quite literally went “OH DEAR GOD!” and spun around to look at him. His friend (co-worker, whatever) was a bit back in line, got to him and immediately (as in before he finished sitting down) handed the guy an entire package of gum.
So I got to smell minty fresh death the entire way home. :smack:
Yesterday swung by Walmart to buy a quick card for my mom’s birthday. Walked up to the register and the cashier reeked to high heaven of sweat, like he hadn’t bathed in several days… weeks… Manager walked up behind him and said something about his break. _But she didn’t fucking say anything about the smell???_ :eek:
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### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/144 "2015-08-10T17:10:35Z")
I bring deodorant with me when I’m out, and reapply it when I think I need to. I’m not saying that everyone needs to do this, but maybe it might be a good idea for those sweaty/stinky people. (Though I do also shower regularly.)
My rant for today: I went to the grocery store today and some of my time was wasted by the guy in front of me in the 8-items-or-less cash, who either couldn’t read or couldn’t count, and had more than 8 items. Arrgh. Though I’m sure this has been ranted about before.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/145 "2015-08-10T17:19:13Z")
> [@EmilyG](#):
>
> I bring deodorant with me when I’m out, and reapply it when I think I need to.
I’ve done that. Then I started getting complaints about putting on deodorant in public.
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### Author:  [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/146 "2015-08-10T17:19:48Z")
Good frickin’ Gawd - how can insurance companies can advertise that their claims services are so quick and painless? It’s a LIE!
Lady ran a red light yesterday, I smacked her. She admitted fault. My poor Myrtle the Turtle is all smashed up. Bumper barely hanging on.
Called my insurance company - if I go with one of their preferred companies, everything will be easy breezy. Okay, I know the company they recommended, I like the guys there, no problem. Only, they couldn’t answer the damn phone this morning. Called insurance company, said I’m going to go elsewhere - _PROBLEM_ - if I went elsewhere I could schedule an appointment late next week to have my truck looked at OR wait 3-5 days before someone would come look at it. Nope, that doesn’t work, I have to have a vehicle today, since I have a medical appointment at 6am tomorrow.
“Well, I don’t know what you want us to do…”
Really?
I want some value for the money I pay you every month.
She finally listed my truck as undriveable so I could get a rental under my policy and I was finally able to get my car into the preferred shop.
What a pain.
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### Author:  [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/147 "2015-08-10T18:48:11Z")
> [@Chimera](#):
>
> Yesterday swung by Walmart to buy a quick card for my mom’s birthday. Walked up to the register and the cashier reeked to high heaven of sweat, like he hadn’t bathed in several days… weeks… Manager walked up behind him and said something about his break. _But she didn’t fucking say anything about the smell???_ :eek:
Would YOU want a manager to make a comment to YOU about something like that in front of customers?
Didn’t think so. That’s the kind of problem that a good manager handles with some degree of courtesy, by addressing it in private, not by public humiliation. Especially NOT in front of customers.
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/148 "2015-08-10T19:04:56Z")
> [@Seanette](#):
>
> Would YOU want a manager to make a comment to YOU about something like that in front of customers?
>
> Didn’t think so. That’s the kind of problem that a good manager handles with some degree of courtesy, by addressing it in private, not by public humiliation. Especially NOT in front of customers.
Which explains why he’d been there long enough to need a break and nothing had been said yet.
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### Author:  [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/149 "2015-08-10T19:19:31Z")
OK, the manager should have pulled him aside a lot sooner. Not disputing that, just saying that your post read as if you thought the manager should have said something about the problem when telling him to take his break, when he was with a customer at the time.
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### Author:  [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/150 "2015-08-10T19:19:32Z")
Maybe this should go under Workplace Gripes, but it’s going here.
My coworker brought his foster son in today. It’s the last day before school starts, and he didn’t have anywhere else for him to stay. The foster son is 8 (or 9, I don’t remember exactly). He is really a good kid, but he’s playing with his classic Game Boy…so somewhere behind me is the beep beep tinny music of the game he’s playing. It’s not loud enough to keep me from working, but it’s like that little beep you can hear through walls or something. Annoying. Very, very annoying.
And of course, as the afternoon goes on, the little sprog gets restless and starts either singing along to the music or talking to the game. Pokemon, I think. Again, not bad enough to really disturb things, but annoying.
I feel like a grinch if I say anything. It’s not like it’s stopping me from working. Grrr.
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### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/151 "2015-08-10T19:32:53Z")
> [@EmilyG](#):
>
> I bring deodorant with me when I’m out, and reapply it when I think I need to.
> [@Skywatcher](#):
>
> I’ve done that. Then I started getting complaints about putting on deodorant in public.
I find a public washroom to do it in.
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### Author:  [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/152 "2015-08-11T00:25:36Z")
Not a rant! I’m stoked I got three other geeky friends to go with me in the middle of the night to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower. My aunt and uncle’s place in the country has been volunteered, and though they’ll be sound asleep we can have the run of their back yard, which is also a cornfield. Perfect!
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### Author:  [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/153 "2015-08-11T02:44:48Z")
So you’re being sent to the cornfield? Have fun with that!
ETA: Okay, so I might be showing my age just a little bit.
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### Author:  [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2015, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/154 "2015-08-11T02:53:50Z")
Herk. Well, it’s a proper yard right up to where the corn starts anyway. We’ll be putting blankets out by the bocce ball court.
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2015, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/155 "2015-08-11T03:12:50Z")
Yes, I am well aware I will not melt in the rain. I still don’t have to like it, I really don’t like looking like a drowned sewer rat at work or on an dinner date
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### Author:  [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/156 "2015-08-11T04:41:35Z")
Psh. Rain. As if there really were such a thing.
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### Author:  [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/157 "2015-08-11T14:52:31Z")
Gah, last night my peripheral vision in my left eye was going! It was a migraine symptom, and went away after I took my migraine medicine, but it was terrifying. I’ve never had that symptom before, so while I knew vision stuff can be a migraine symptom, not having experienced it before then and suddenly having a major deficiency in your vision is really, really freaky.
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### Author:  [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/158 "2015-08-11T15:08:21Z")
Oh, isn’t that a horrifying moment? I remember the first time I had a scotoma - I was sure I was going blind and actually went running to my mommy. (Even though I was actually in my twenties at that point.)
Actually, I’m not sure how reassuring it is to learn that No, you’re not going blind, it’s just your brain going wacky on you…
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### Author:  [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/159 "2015-08-11T15:15:21Z")
Got an email from my editor regarding a book I wrote that is about to go into production.
“Need you to revise some of the bibliography entries. In every case, we must have the name of the publication and the date of publication. See the proofer’s note on the pdf of the book. Need this asap!”
There was of course no proofer’s note on the pdf, but more to the point: This is a kids’ nonfiction book, very short, with an equally short bibliography that consists of about six magazine articles, all of which can be found online. It’s true that I should have included the name of the publication and the date along with the web address, but how much time would it have taken her to copy and paste the URLs into her browser and record what comes up?
Especially when one of the URLs is (I am not making this up) [Driverless cars could mean fewer cars on the road | Fortune](http://fortune.com/2015/02/09/driverless-car-study/) ?
[That was a rhetorical question, but I’ll answer it anyway: only about twice as much time as it took her to compose and send the email, and several magnitudes less time than it took waiting for me to receive the email, do the work, and send it back. People!]
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### Author:  [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-august-gripes/726712/160 "2015-08-11T15:15:56Z")
My husband is sick. He’s had a fever over 102 for the past almost three days now. I’m going out of town tomorrow and I don’t want him miserable and alone with two young children while I’m gone, so I’ve finally convinced him to let me take him to urgent care and am considering canceling my trip.
The thing is, I have a really important meeting and he wants to go smack dab in the middle of it (I’m working at home today). AND, my boss will be irritated if I miss this trip. Hell, I’ll be irritated. The whole reason I’m supposed to be on this call and going out of town is to talk to the federal government about a law and putting it in place. I don’t often get the opportunity to go to the Hill, but of course, I might get to miss it thanks to another motherfucking illness. Yes, my husband is more important than the most important of meetings and any business trip, but goddammit, it’s like family crises and illnesses are inevitable when I have a career-changing business trip or meeting. This will be the third fucking time in a motherfucking row.
So I wind up missing the meeting or not being able to go on my trip, all the while biting my tongue and feeling like a giant bitch for being annoyed that I’m missing them because I know it’s not their fault. Fuck. Rhetorical question: why the fuck can life not operate on my schedule?
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