Pepper Mill now absolutely refuses to consider going to midtown Manhattan during the Christmas holidays. I’d do it, myself – I’ve done it all my life – but I see her point. The crowding there in recent years has become absolutely outrageous. When we got to Rockefeller Center we literally – and I do mean literally – could not move without shoving people out of the way. It was wall-to-wall people, with no space between. And it was little better all the way up 5th Avenue to Central Park. The line for American Girl (which MilliCal wanted to go to) went all the way around the block.
Chuck E. Cheese. I took my cousin’s kid there once while her folks were out of town. It was a madhouse, with grease on cardboard masquerading as pizza. I got a nasty headache that lasted the rest of the evening.
Norm’s. It’s always crowded, but the food is crap. Why, why, why do people eat there? I just wanted to try it because people were flocking to it, but it was a real downer.
Massachusets - I just don’t like “Nannystates”, I’ll drive through it to go somewhere else, but won’t drive to a destination there
come to think of it, any and all Nannystates are right out, California, Connecticut, Illinois, etc…
Texas
I was going to say Mississippi, but I am going with Texas. Both are about the same in terms of ignorance, mismanagement and stifling humidity. However, Texas takes a slim lead by adding unjustified pompousness to the mix.
Those 10 1/2 Johnston & Murphy brown cap-toes. The damn things are never gonna stretch.
I’m sure it’s not nearly as bad, but for similar reasons I will never again go to the inner harbor (Baltimore) for the 4th of July fireworks. Good grief what a madhouse.
Another one for me is Air Tran Airways, simply because their seats are so uncomfortable. I flew with them several years in a row for my annual “visit my parents for Thanksgiving” trip, because they were always the cheapest on expedia or travelocity or whatever. But you know what? I can afford to spend a bit more to fly with a different airline and not have my back in agony when I land.
What’s a nannystate?
I think it means states with high tax rates and wider social programs.
I’ll bet the roads going through those states are pretty nice.
You’d think, but - not.
Yesterday, Mr. Ko and I drove past this place in Tonopah, Nevada. It probably doesn’t count because I’ve never actually set foot in the door in the first place, but FWIW, I can confidently assure this thread that I never intend to.
Rookie mistake: The natives know that Fiesta is the reason NOT to go downtown.
But you should go to the St. Mary’s University Oyster Bake, which kicks off the week’s festivities. (Class of '93) 
I see your point!
wow. I would sleep in the car-safer there.
Dude, are you sure you’re not me talking about rural Pennsylvania? Because you just described my impressions of that area right down to the five years I spent in one of the shittiest, most backward towns it had to offer.
I will never set foot in rural PA again. If my relatives want to see me that badly, they can drink and drive to Boston. And speaking of Boston . . .
Heh. Not in Massachusetts. But I love MA, and I love Boston. I’m teaching English in South Korea for the next 11 months or so, but I miss the HUB already and can’t wait to get back.
The Churchill Arms, Notting Hill Gate, Kensington. I and a friend were served an extremely aged ale and when we complained we were told that the beer was perfect and should taste like that. We left our unfinished glasses on the bar, never to return.
Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt…in fact N.Africa as a whole.
Flies the size of baby bats…millions of the fuckers.
Beggars everwhere you go outside of the hotel complexes
Robbing bastard cab drivers
All in all North Africa is one huge shithole
Florida. I spent a decade there one year. Between the people, the weather, and the general culture shock, I couldn’t stand it. (The fact that I did boot camp down there has nothing to do with it. It was the fact that the whole fucking state closed for an eighth of an inch of snow that pissed me off. After listening for months to assholes claiming that ‘Florida Ice’* was just as bad as snow or glare ice.)
The Caribbean. The rampant poverty, having to drink Red Stripe for something that’s not going to cause illness, the stunning dichotomy between the tourist areas and where the sepoy live, the weather, and the fact that I seem to be allergic to something down there.
*This was a term used by several natives to describe the way that rotting leaves and dust on the sides of the roads could reduce traction in the presence of rain. Which is not exactly unheard of in Florida.
Just want to chime in with an Amen! for both South Carolina and for PHL. Sadly, I’ve spent way too much time in both and I’ll doubtless set foot in both again.
I’ve probably changed planes in “effing Philly” more than a hundred times. You get used to the grime, the surliness, and the 24 planes waiting in line to take off before you. But they would always come up with some new and innovative way to drive the customer experience off the bottom of the chart. My favorite memory: waiting to deplane on the F concourse and watching as a couple guys offloaded luggage from the plane next to me. They were using a hooked pole like a fishing gaff to pull the luggage out by the handles. And then, I swear this is true, they were yanking the luggage out and slamming it to the tarmac like tuna. WTF you say? Nah, WTPh – Welcome to Philly!
As for South Carolina…well, this is why I always say that Abraham Lincoln is the worst president the US ever had. In 1860 South Carolina voluntarily seceded from the Union, instantly raising the average IQ in the US by 50 points. We could have been rid of the place once and for all. But nooooo! Old Honest Abe and his high ideals had to bring it back into the Union. No good do-gooder!
Captain D’s seafood restaurant is the one place I’ll never set foot in again. My wife and I both came down with a righteous case of flu or food poisoning or some vile pox the last time we ate there. The symptoms came on slow, peaking the following day – when she was home in bed and I was on an airplane. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt sicker in my life. Crawled off the plane, cancelled my appointments, and slept for the next 24 hours. What does that “D” stand for anyway, Captain? Dysentery?
There’s a Chinese restaurant near my school that I used to order for delivery. It had pretty good orange chicken. Then we learned that one of their delivery drivers hit my roommate’s car and drove off without exchanging info. Roomie was okay; he was sore for awhile and had a wrecked bumper, but nothing major. Still, my other roommate and I decided we’d rather not patronize that particular restaurant again.
In retrospect, I should have gone to the management and complained, but we didn’t find out what restaurant it was until weeks afterward (since roomie couldn’t remember its name). Eh. Whatever. There are better Chinese places around here anyway.
I’ll never set foot in ever again:
–South Carolina;
–Winnepeg
–My home town.