Oakland, Ca., renamed a major boulevard after Martin Luther King Jr.
I have no idea if the original name is still used much, or if anyone even still remembers it. The street was renamed many years ago. I don’t remember the original name.
Sometimes they build a new road not far from an old road and name the new road what the old road was, and give that old section of the old road a new name. It’s must still be a real bother for all the residents or businesses there to have to change their address records everywhere. They did this in the San Fernando Valley in the early 1960’s with Woodman Avenue – built a new alignment, and renamed the original section to be Ventura Canyon Av. More recently, when I lived near Paso Robles, they did something similar there.
I work at a community college and am asked for directions to a certain building by visitors on a daily basis. My pet peeve is when I’m only halfway thought the directions and they’re already walking away from me. If they’re asking for directions, then why not stick around for the directions?!
I can’t turn the sound off, though. My little one is away with my ex and I have to be immediately available in case of emergency. It’s off when it’s my time, but not his. So “I’ll just text FR at 4 am even though she’s kid-free today!” is super annoying.
Passengers who act like driving instructors and/or map readers. I have my own pattern for getting from A to B, thank you very much. I’ve been following that pattern for the 25 years I’ve lived here. I’ve been driving for 40+ years without an accident or a ticket. If you don’t like my driving, don’t ride with me. If you do ride with me, STFU.
These types of timid drivers need understanding and guidance, not derision.
If you are directly behind such a timid driver, you are in the perfect position to help and so it is your duty as a citizen to do so. Think of yourself as a momma bird “pushing” her baby bird out of the next, so that he can spread his little wings and soar in the wind!
What I do in these circumstances is to gently contact my car’s front bumper to the timid driver’s rear bumper, so softly that he doesn’t even realize my car and his are touching (it’s like a tender kiss). Placidity is the name of the game. Then, I put the pedal to the metal and push the timid driver’s car out into the intersection. Flap your wings, little bird, flap your wings and fly!
Sure there will be some squealing brakes and smoking rubber which may momentarily panic the timid driver, but, remember, little birds pushed out of the nest for the first time do a lot of squawking, too…put, ultimately it’s for their own good—you can’t stay in your nest forever.
Heck, I even push timid drivers into red lighted intersections if I think they can somewhat safely make a left on red and I don’t see any cops around.
You need to do this exact same technique for timid drivers in front of you at railroad crossings, too. Unless the speeding train is actually passing before your eyes through the intersection and the gate arms are not completely down, or may be negotiated around, there is simply no good reason to yield to a train. Some of those trains are long and you could be stuck waiting for minutes!
Indeed, Mr. Timid RR crossing driver just needs a little push onto the tracks (don’t push him all the way across the tracks, or you could put yourself in harm’s way). He’ll get the message rather quickly and scamper all the way across the tracks—and, if there’s an extra millisecond or two available, you can tailgate across right behind him.
This doesn’t just apply to automobile drivers; sometimes inner city pedestrians need a little baby bird push out of the nest, too.
Let’s say you’re on the corner of 34th street & 7th avenue in Manhattan, in the middle of a gaggle of pedestrians waiting to cross the street. Directly in front of you, at the head of the pack, is a little octogenarian with a 4-post walker. There’s hardly any cross traffic approaching, just an 18-wheeler barreling down the road, but he’s a good 50 feet from the intersection. The electronic walk sign says DON’T WALK. Don’t be a wimp and do everything you’re told.
Hells bells, grandma, it’s not like DON’T WALK is a law or anything…it’s just a suggestion; get your wrinkled ass across the street. Then goose the ol’ gal off the curb and across to the opposite curb—it’ll be like coaxing a baby bird to soar from one tree branch to another—beautiful. And, if she pistons her walker double or triple time, she’ll have no trouble getting across without ending up mangled in the truck’s wheel well.
And, don’t even get me started about little kids frozen with fear at the head of roller coaster lines…
When I am at Starbucks waiting for the lady to ask what she can get started for me, only I can’t pull up to the speaker because the asshat ahead of me has left half a car length in his front, and so has the one in front of him. That, my friends, is a whole car length which could be used by, I dunno, a CAR?
Again, situational awareness. People don’t pay attention to the fact that they could be preparing 5 peoples’ orders instead of 4, or at least getting to each order a minute sooner. A minute in the drive through, times 4 cars ahead of me, is the difference between getting to work on time or being late.
Don’t tell me to wake up earlier. Been working on that my whole life and it isn’t going to happen. Just pull forward 6 feet. What the hell are you trying to prevent at 0-2 miles per hour?
When, in a pub or a restaurant where there are few patrons and lots of empty space: people come in, and choose to sit at a table adjacent to that at which I and my companions are sitting. Perhaps I and the people I know, are anti-social; but we prefer a modicum of privacy, where possible – and would rather not have our neighbours able to overhear our conversation, and would prefer not to overhear theirs.
You folk would hate to live in Australia. People there are extremely fond of making -ie or -y diminutives of all manner of nouns, and have been doing so “since forever”.
Similarly, something that annoys me is when I’m in a place (food court, cafeteria, restaurant, pub, or the like) where there are not many people and there’s a lot of empty space, and I’m sitting by myself at a table, and then someone comes in and sits at a nearby table in such a way that they’re facing me (and I’m facing them.) So that if we’re both eating food, and we both happen to look up from our food at the same time, we accidentally make eye contact. It weirds me out and makes me feel like I’m being stared at (though I am sure the other person never actually intends to be creepy and stare at me.) Sometimes, if someone sits down in such a position, I actually get up and sit facing the other way at my table so I’m no longer facing the person.
And yes, I am aware that admitting this makes me sound really weird. I guess I’m just a naturally very shy (and weird) person.
No, both of you guys are normal, it’s the weirdo extroverts that always HAVE to sit next to someone that are annoying. And the waiters, who, upon seeing 25 empty tables, can’t even seat you one table away from the next people. Though in such cases I do ask if it’s ok to move down.
Actually I’m in the UK – know about the Aussie habit, only second-hand. For all that, I’ll bet that one of the unsatisfactory behaviours which caused us to ship many London low-lifes off to Aus. a couple of centuries ago, was their passion for -ie/-y diminutives – that, and the rhyming slang…
Trying to understand the “weirdo extroverts”, and hoping that either they’re just oblivious, or their intent is essentially benign: I wonder whether lurking in their minds at some level, is a notion from bygone ages, to the effect that the proper thing for people of the overall same kind to do, is to huddle together – “safety in numbers” against fierce beasts / hostile tribes?
Regarding “pacific” instead of specific:
When I was in college and in the student government we frequently met with the Dean of Students who always said “pacific” instead of specific. One time we were being especially smart-assy and when she said “let me be pacific” and we started chiming in “sure, but I want to be Atlantic!”, “I guess I’ll be Indian”, “damn, do I have to be the Arctic?”. She had no idea what we were talking about. To be fair though, when you are a representative of a higher learning institution we really expect you to get words correct.
I agree with most of the peeves, especially all the grocery store ones, especially the feral children. I can’t tell you how many times kids have walked or run into my cart because they weren’t watching where they were going. I have even stopped and walked backwards and shouted “look out” when I see it about to happen but they still do it.
Here’s one I experienced again last night. Why pay $35 to go to a concert when all you’re going to do is stand around jabbering with your friends all night? I’d like to actually listen to the band that’s playing, so please move or STFU.
