# Happy Cranks-giving! (November mini-rants)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Tags:** monthly-mini-rant
**Created:** [November 1, 2025, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477 "2025-11-01T14:32:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 10
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/181 "2025-11-15T02:39:14Z")
> [@Spiderman](#):
>
> > [@needscoffee](#):
> >
> > Get their phone number and text them when you get their package.
>
> It’s literally quicker to walk it over to them than to pull out my phone & contact him. I’m pissed that someone _inappropriately_ put a tripping hazard on my porch late at night.
>
> > [@LSLGuy](#):
> >
> > And _always_ provide feedback to Amazon. Good or bad, but especially bad
>
> How can I leave feedback as a non-customer? I don’t even know the order # as I didn’t order anything from them.
If you bring the packages over to your neighbor without telling them it was mis-delivered to you, they can’t provide negative feedback and it’ll keep happening.
Likewise going the other way. You do you, but I know what I’d do.
---
### Author:  [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/182 "2025-11-15T04:11:15Z")
I just got a nice set of markers from Michaels. It has a nice zippered case, which is damaged. They don’t have any info about what to do in this situation. I tried to use their live chat, which said it was connecting me to a real person. I waited for a while, but then I found out that they all stopped working half an hour ago. 😡
---
### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/183 "2025-11-15T05:07:22Z")
Around here, Amazon deliveries are by a third-party that they outsource. At least I assume so because the distinctive white van that delivers my packages and that I often see around here has no Amazon markings on it. I believe there may have been a time when they didn’t provide a photo when leaving a package on the porch, but it was a long time ago. They almost always do.
On a different topic, I am currently engaged in an intensive course of self-study that I haven’t done since my college days when cramming for an exam. I am perusing the formidable multi-hundred page Owner’s Manual of the new-to-me Camry. Suffice to say that I have never before owned a car whose owner’s manual used the term “AI” (which they spelled out for the uninitiated as “Artificial Intelligence”). I fear that the car is judging me every time I drive it.
> [@Atamasama](#):
>
> Typing with hands sticky with webbing is a major challenge.
Typing with furry paws is **a lot** more challenging! Yet some of us manage.
---
### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/184 "2025-11-15T11:56:33Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> If you bring the packages over to your neighbor without telling them it was mis-delivered to you, they can’t provide negative feedback and it’ll keep happening
In this case, he got the package. When I spoke to him, he said he was in bed when he got the delivery notification & left it for the morning. In the morning, when it wasn’t on his porch, he looked on the app, saw the picture, recognized my house & got it off my porch; not terribly inconvenienced. I fully realize this is not his fault so i couldn’t rip him a new one, but he was like, “yeah, they suck, har, har” & didn’t seem included to do anything about it; especially going on to the app & leaving negative reviews which will cost him _more_ time than his minor inconvenience of a couple of seconds.
I can’t force him to leave negative feedback but then I can’t do so myself, either. Even if he did complain what would Amazon do about it; these are gig worker delivery drivers, they’re a dime a dozen. If they fire that one there will be two more the next day. No sweat to them, either.
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/185 "2025-11-15T14:15:13Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> Around here, Amazon deliveries are by a third-party that they outsource. At least I assume so because the distinctive white van that delivers my packages and that I often see around here has no Amazon markings on it.
Around here Amazon seems to have three tiers of delivery folks.
- Folks in Amazon uniforms driving Amazon branded company trucks akin to UPS vehicles using Amazon branded carts and tubs and such.
- Folks in civvies wearing Amazon vests driving unlabeled (usually smaller) vans using their own package-handling gear.
- Folks in civvies driving ordinary passenger cars carrying just a couple of packages by hand. Sort of Uber Eats for Amazon packages.
---
### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/186 "2025-11-15T15:31:35Z")
Just spent an hour helping my dad try to log into Social Security with the new, secure dual-factor authentication. Between his impatience, their glitchiness (everything works, just… not each time), and the general pointlessness of it all, he has not been able to log in even though everything is set up correctly. We’re taking a break, but if something is so secure that no one can use it, what’s the point?
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/187 "2025-11-15T15:32:24Z")
Here’s a micro-rant:
A couple of days ago I learned that you can both boil and burn peanut butter in a microwave. The scent is both strong and linger-y. Uggh.
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/188 "2025-11-15T15:36:08Z")
There are two login systems; `Login.gov` and `ID.me`. I use the former for SSA and have since it was introduced a few years ago now. I just tested it and I logged in just fine with my username and PW along with the typical SMS code to my phone. No glitches.
I have the `ID.me` for other federal websites but haven’t every tried it at SSA.
---
### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/189 "2025-11-15T15:42:44Z")
The glitches we experienced were:
1. the texts would sometimes not send, queue for ten minutes, then come in all at once
2. his phone camera could not take good enough pictures (we used mine once we worked this out)
3. they dropped the connection making the video call to verify him the first time, and we had to start over
4. the system sometimes just says “can’t do it now,” but will the next time—too much traffic on the server?
5. we didn’t find out you needed a second ID until late in the game, and then had to go dig out a passport
None of these are individually a big deal, but frustrated elderly people trying to manage multiple devices, technology, and a brand-new system… not a great combo.
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/190 "2025-11-15T15:49:36Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> None of these are individually a big deal, but frustrated elderly people trying to manage multiple devices, technology, and a brand-new system… not a great combo.
Wow! That’s a mess. And as you say, overwhelming for the elderly. I recall my `ID.me` account setup was similarly thorough bordering on arduous, but I don’t recall it having all these IT failures. That was a couple years ago though.
I suspect there’s quite a logjam bursting loose all over the federal government this week. If only we had sane politics, but that’s a whole another page full of rant threads.
---
### Author:  [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/191 "2025-11-15T16:11:13Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> > [@Dr.Drake](#):
> >
> > None of these are individually a big deal, but frustrated elderly people trying to manage multiple devices, technology, and a brand-new system… not a great combo.
>
> Wow! That’s a mess. And as you say, overwhelming for the elderly. I recall my `ID.me` account setup was similarly thorough bordering on arduous, but I don’t recall it having all these IT failures. That was a couple years ago though.
>
> I suspect there’s quite a logjam bursting loose all over the federal government this week. If only we had sane politics, but that’s a whole another page full of rant threads..
I had the absolute worst experience trying to get into the Social Security website after they got rid of the username/password login protocol.
I am old but I am fairly computer fluent and this system made me want to tear my eyeballs out individually. I actually locked myself out and had to get the local SS office to send me access codes twice.
I finally got in at the beginning of 2025. Somehow I set up the [login.gov](http://login.gov) system on my home computer and the ID Me log in at my work computer.
I have only vague recollections of how this was done but apparently I can only use those specific login protocols on those individual computers.
I have not even tried to access via my cell phone.
It is/was totally maddening.
It is NOT user friendly and should be totally reworked to make it accessible.
Now that I have to actually deal with the SS office to get registered for Medicare next month I will be using the phone and going up to their office for most transactions.
---
### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/192 "2025-11-15T16:19:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> Here’s a micro-rant:
>
> A couple of days ago I learned that you can both boil and burn peanut butter in a microwave. The scent is both strong and linger-y. Uggh.
I don’t know why that post made me so cheerful, but it did.
---
### Author:  [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/193 "2025-11-15T16:41:36Z")
Years ago my husband was cooking something in a slow cooker that had peanut butter as part of the sauce. He’d done this recipe before but this time it went wrong. We left home for work and came back to the smell of burnt peanut butter and it was overwhelming. The food was inedible of course, and both of us feel queasy 15+ years later at the thought of it. We’ve never made that recipe again (I don’t even remember if it was chicken or pork, just thinking about it just brings the memory of that smell back!)
We ordered pizza instead. That’s our rule for new or botched recipes; if it’s bad, we get pizza. That was one of the few times it was invoked, my husband is a really good cook in general.
---
### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/194 "2025-11-15T16:50:01Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#):
>
> We’ve never made that recipe again
Same as when I left that cake out in the rain.
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/195 "2025-11-15T16:58:36Z")
The only way to rescue soggy cake is coffee. It needs coffee. 😉
---
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/196 "2025-11-15T17:01:30Z")
> [@Ellecram](#):
>
> It is NOT user friendly and should be totally reworked to make it accessible.
Making something easy enough for elderly Americans but too hard for professional spy agency hackers and organized criminals to break into is a rather tall order.
---
### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/197 "2025-11-15T17:21:09Z")
Exactly: so perhaps we should have local staffed Social Security offices all around the country.
---
### Author:  [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/198 "2025-11-15T18:10:02Z")
I made some kind of peanut chicken in my crock-pot years ago. My crock-pot was old and must have fritzed out because the peanut butter was burned after only a couple of hours. I had gone out to run some errands and also came home to the smell of burnt peanut butter. I looked in the crock-pot, put the lid back on, unplugged it, and took the whole thing out to the dumpster.
---
### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/199 "2025-11-15T20:02:54Z")
I’m married to a man with a very large, mostly very wealthy, extended family. My husband’s elderly grandma has decided - and I think this is pretty cool, actually - to throw herself a giant birthday party next weekend. Good for her! But it is an _event,_ and preparing for it has been exhausting and expensive. It’s also been very last-minute.
There will be photographs of everyone, and formal clothing is required. I’ve spent hours trying to find the right bra, the right makeup, the right hairpiece, the right shoes. I have scheduled professional hair and makeup for the day of the event. Meanwhile my husband has been scrambling to get stuff for the kid and himself to wear. We are way over budget, but I guess it’s my fault I didn’t put more money into that budget category. These formal events are periodically required. We even have a word for this. It’s called the “[insert Surname] Tax.”
You have to understand, I’m a sweatpants and athleisure kind of person. I wear makeup _occasionally._ I wear the same shirts and pants every day for years. This stuff is and has always felt like playing pretend. This is me pretending to give a shit about hair styles. This is me pretending to give a shit about dress shoes.
So today we took the kid to get his suit pants tailored and he got confused and overwhelmed and started freaking out in full view of other customers. I think he thought they were going to cut his pants while he was wearing them. Worse, he kept loudly insisting he wanted to use my husband’s phone to see the calculator, which made it seem to everyone watching, I’m sure, that he’s on the phone all the time instead of being properly parented. It was super embarrassing.
We ended up getting him through it by letting him use the calculator while he was being measured. He continued to whine and throw a fit on the way home, though.
It’s a lot to deal with for a birthday party.
And that’s not even the only thing going on next weekend! We are having my FIL over to help decorate the Christmas tree, which means I have to clean the whole house too.
And on top of all that, I have a bazillion grants to write this week before I finally get to go on vacation.
There’s such thing as “too much.”
---
### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477/200 "2025-11-15T20:18:23Z")
I think we skipped the Thanksgiving season and went right into the endless hype over Wicked season. Enough already!
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477.md?page=9)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-cranks-giving-november-mini-rants/1024477.md?page=11)