# New Mini-Rants for 2007 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 5, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859 "2007-01-05T20:36:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [January 6, 2007, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/21 "2007-01-06T02:37:27Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] \just what is our particular problem?! [/QUOTE] Well, we didn’t want to bring it up, but you kinda smell. 😃 My mini-rant du jour (which has me maxi-pissed off) is that my city has finally passed a non-smoking bylaw (mostly - they’ve left a few exceptions like casinos, but even those just for another year) that applies to all bars, pubs, restaurants, and nightclubs. The first bastards are the owners who aren’t honouring the new bylaw; the second bastards are the smokers who aren’t obeying the new bylaw, and the third bastards are the bylaw officers who aren’t enforcing the bylaw - they haven’t written one fine yet, and people are apparently smoking in non-smoking bars all over town. They had the head of the bylaws department on the news tonight, and he said that the non-smoking bylaw was not a priority. I want to email this guy and ask him for the complete list of bylaws that aren’t enforced, so I’ll know which laws I can break with impunity. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: ---
**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:** [January 6, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/22 "2007-01-06T02:41:38Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] \ Nitpicking is almost always annoying\ [/QUOTE] But we do love it so here. ---
**Author:** ![metonymic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@metonymic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metonymic)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/23 "2007-01-06T05:54:48Z")
1. Arghh, I hate you TD. How can it possibly take you 15 business days to cash a USD cheque in my Canadian account? I could deal with 10 days. But 15?!? Do you have to walk it down to the States and back? 2. Apologies, this one is whiny. Being very broke for the holidays (see #1), I made most of the gifts I gave. I recreated a tshirt (by stenciling a purchased one) I used to love that a friend of mine really liked and frequently borrowed (until it was reclaimed by its rightful owner, my sister). It turned out perfectly, and I thought it was a very thoughtful and cool idea… My friend recently moved out of town, so I mailed the package. I heard nothing, even after emailing – not even that the package got there okay (I know it did, because I tracked it online). just to hear anything would have been nice. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/24 "2007-01-06T06:31:36Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] Or have bags with code stickers available at each bin, so the cashier can scan the bag, and I don’t have to peel little stickers off every one of my apples. [/QUOTE] Because you then get people putting the cherries (2.99 a pound) in bags that are for the red delicious apples (on special for .79 a pound). -Joe ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/25 "2007-01-06T07:46:55Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] Well, why not get familiar with the produce? Although in a family-type store, you don’t want to get _too_ familiar. Or have bags with code stickers available at each bin, so the cashier can scan the bag, and I don’t have to peel little stickers off every one of my apples. [/QUOTE] Did you know those stickers are edible? ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/26 "2007-01-06T07:56:55Z")
People who, when entering the freeway, expect YOU to slow down to their speed rather than adjust their speed up or down to merge properly. Usually done by people going too damn slow. If one is getting on the freeway, one should freakin’ step on it! Unless you’re using one of those old-timey onramps, you should be to 65 by the time you have to merge. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/27 "2007-01-06T08:18:12Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] Here’s a Board-related one: The fact that you put a nitpick in fake code – “[nitpick] blah blah blah [/nitpick]” – doesn’t mean you’re not picking nits, with all the annoyance value that contains. Gratuitiously correcting someone else’s spelling, grammar, or other very minor mistakes doesn’t become any more attractive just because you’ve bracketed it with **an cutesy** fake-code “announcement” of what you’re doing. This is _especially_ true if the entirety of your post is the nitpick, with nothing of substance added. If something merits correction, correct it; if it doesn’t, then let it go. Nitpicking is almost always annoying, and you get no extra credit by acknowledging that you’re being annoying as you do it. [/QUOTE] [nitpick] That’s “_a_ cutesy.” [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![lowbrass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@lowbrass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowbrass)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/28 "2007-01-06T09:00:07Z")
4-way stop signs: learn it - live it. You stop. You look both ways. If nobody else is at the intersection, you FUCKING GO. Right away. Not 2 minutes later, not next week. NOW. I am coming down the cross street. I am still 1/2 mile away from you. You do not - I repeat DO NOT have to wait for me to traverse that 1/2 mile and come to a complete stop before you even START to enter the intersection. I’m tired of having to wait forever for you to grow a fucking pair of balls and actually send a nerve impulse down to your foot to press the god damn gas pedal. If you are that timid and frightened of the world, just stay home and cower under your bed. ALSO, when the traffic light goes out, and it’s blinking red, you stop, then you let ONE car from each direction through from the cross street, then you go. It is not required that you let 4 or 5 cars go through for every one car of the lane you are in. Yes, it means you have to actually put down the cell phone, open your eyes, and take note of who got to the intersection first. I know it’s horribly frightening and confusing to you, but driving is a _privilege_, and if you’re not up to the task, don’t do it. ---
**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:** [January 6, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/29 "2007-01-06T19:21:08Z")
**lowbrass** , we have a lot of problems with 4-ways here, too, but it’s the opposite problem - it’s hard to tell who stopped first and who gets to go first when NOBODY FREAKIN’ STOPS!!! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/30 "2007-01-06T19:53:19Z")
People who don’t keep their shoelaces tied. Kill them. Kill them all. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/31 "2007-01-06T20:18:12Z")
Will do, **Gukumatz**. Thanks for the guidance! New rant for My Innards: Calm the hell down. I know, I know. I ate too much fibery goodness. Couscous… red beans and rice… granola… burritos… all too much. I agree. But for the love of all that is holy, please quit rumbling all the damn time. I am tired of the view from the toilet seat. ---
**Author:** ![lowbrass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@lowbrass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowbrass)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/32 "2007-01-06T20:30:21Z")
Tmi ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/33 "2007-01-06T20:32:35Z")
Completely minor rant. My dad (who is 82 and I never would say this to) keeps dripping coffee on the floor by the trashcan, from his single serve coffee bag. Every frickin’ day I clean it up. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/34 "2007-01-07T04:30:41Z")
Pick up you feet when you walk! I’m sick of hearing ‘shuffle shuffle shuffle…’ ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/35 "2007-01-07T04:57:30Z")
Rude people should be euthanased. Dumb rude people should be killed twice, just to make sure. Coming home on the train from work today, there was a young couple with a screaming baby in a pram. They decided it was the height of cool funniness to call out to people based on the colour of their skin/shape of their eyes, cracking up into manic laughter, then getting shitty when their, “Hello little Japanese people”, and “Hey, you, Abo” was not responded to. Freaked the whole train carriage out…but as they were probably drug-fucked, nobody was feeling brave enough to take them on. I certainly wasn’t. ☹ Seriously, my mind boggles at how some people can be so fucking bereft of brain matter and still remember to breathe. Do the world a big favour, and just forget sometime will ya?? Oh, but dump yer’ kid at the nearest orphanage first, just to give him _some_ chance in life. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/36 "2007-01-07T05:59:53Z")
[QUOTE=kambuckta] Rude people should be euthanased. Dumb rude people should be killed twice, just to make sure. Coming home on the train from work today, there was a young couple with a screaming baby in a pram. They decided it was the height of cool funniness to call out to people based on the colour of their skin/shape of their eyes, cracking up into manic laughter, then getting shitty when their, “Hello little Japanese people”, and “Hey, you, Abo” was not responded to. Freaked the whole train carriage out…but as they were probably drug-fucked, nobody was feeling brave enough to take them on. I certainly wasn’t. ☹ Seriously, my mind boggles at how some people can be so fucking bereft of brain matter and still remember to breathe. Do the world a big favour, and just forget sometime will ya?? Oh, but dump yer’ kid at the nearest orphanage first, just to give him _some_ chance in life. :mad: [/QUOTE] Good Lord. I would seriously have considered hitting the Emergency Panic Button alarm strips along the car. The ones in Toronto have signs that specifically say they are to be used in situations of harassment. Failing that, I would have called the emergency number on my phone and reported it. And yes, I’ve been in such a situation. I didn’t press the alarm, but I was one of the witnesses speaking with the police. What the average passer-by needs in these situation is some sort of training on telling how drug-fucked someone is and what their reaction is likely to be, so the he or she can at least know whose butt would get kicked during the intervention. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/37 "2007-01-07T06:21:48Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] Good Lord. I would seriously have considered hitting the Emergency Panic Button alarm strips along the car. The ones in Toronto have signs that specifically say they are to be used in situations of harassment. Failing that, I would have called the emergency number on my phone and reported it. [/QUOTE] They weren’t physically harrassing anyone, so I doubt the police or transit officers would have been particularly impressed if I had rung as an emergency. Nah, it’s just something you learn to live with in most major metropolitan areas I guess. Shouldn’t have to of course, but most folks have a degree of decency and decorum as to how to behave in public places. It’s the small minority who need killing. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![by-tor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/by-tor/32/266_2.png) [@by-tor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/by-tor)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/38 "2007-01-07T09:44:15Z")
Thou, thee, twas, tis, what say yee? Leave it at the renaissance fair lamer. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/39 "2007-01-07T19:14:31Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] 1. People who insist on backing their cars into parking spots but don’t know how to do it right…grrr. So they end up sticking out all over the place and over dividing lines. [/QUOTE] Corollary: If you park facing outwards by pulling through to the empty space on the other side of the row, YOU SUCK. Especially if you do it in a crowded lot. ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859/40 "2007-01-07T19:59:32Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] Here’s a Board-related one: The fact that you put a nitpick in fake code – “[nitpick] blah blah blah [/nitpick]” – doesn’t mean you’re not picking nits, with all the annoyance value that contains. **Gratuitiously** correcting someone else’s spelling, grammar, or other very minor mistakes doesn’t become any more attractive just because you’ve bracketed it with an cutesy fake-code “announcement” of what you’re doing. This is _especially_ true if the entirety of your post is the nitpick, with nothing of substance added. If something merits correction, correct it; if it doesn’t, then let it go. Nitpicking is almost always annoying, and you get no extra credit by acknowledging that you’re being annoying as you do it. And this isn’t directed at one particular poster; I’ve seen this like three times in the last few days. [/QUOTE] [nitpick] It’s “Gratuitously.” 😃 [/nitpick] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-mini-rants-for-2007/386859.md?page=3)