# Season of the Kvetch (October mini-rants)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Tags:** monthly-mini-rant
**Created:** [October 1, 2025, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563 "2025-10-01T13:25:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 16
### Author:  [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/301 "2025-10-24T19:20:48Z")
> [@InsomniaMama](#):
>
> And that’s ok as long as we are still occasionally remembering to call our congresspeople and protesting.
One out of two. My congresscritter is Andy Ogles, so what’s the fucking point?
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/302 "2025-10-24T19:39:43Z")
People arguing over which calendar abbreviation is correct: BC and AD versus BCE and CE.
To which I say: Who the fuck cares? Seriously, find something actually important to argue about. Either version denotes the exact same information and they could arbitrarily be called Fred and Ethel for all the difference it makes.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/303 "2025-10-24T19:41:57Z")
I prefer OS and LOS.
(Old Shit and Less Old Shit.)
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/304 "2025-10-24T20:13:59Z")
Some people who aren’t Christians care, because even though the dates refer to the (incorrect) birth year of Jesus, for the majority of the world’s population, Jesus is neither the Christ nor “our Lord” (anno domini).
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### Author:  [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/305 "2025-10-24T20:39:30Z")
Meh. They _both_ use the same Jesus-related starting point for year 0. (Yes I know 0 isn’t actually a year but it’s just the dividing line.) BCE is exactly as Christian-coded as BC. I’d wager most general people don’t actually know what either abbreviation stands for, just that it means “ **B** efore 0” or “ **A** fter 0.”
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2025, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/306 "2025-10-24T20:45:15Z")
But the terms BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era) don’t use the _words_ Christ or Lord (in Latin).
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/307 "2025-10-24T20:52:58Z")
Fine, except it isn’t important in the least. It’s trivial. If I were asked to designate something better, I’d keep the same reference point and rename it BE (before epoch) and AE (after epoch), because “epoch” is the generic name for the point where you start the numbering of years. The Hebrew epoch was 5,786 years ago. The French Revolutionary epoch was 224 years ago. Official documents say things like “Done at Washington, DC, in the 249th year of the independence of the United States.”
To make it truly religion-neutral, we should adopt the Julian period, making this the year 6738 JP.
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2025, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/308 "2025-10-24T21:41:20Z")
> [@Johanna](#):
>
> Fine, except it isn’t important in the least.
Isn’t important _to whom_? As I mentioned, there are billions of non-Christians in the world who, for convenience’s sake, all want to use the same calendar without referring to the deity of a minority religion.
And guess what, your proposal is exactly what has been done for hundreds of years, just using the terms CE and BCE instead of AE and BE.
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era):
> The use of CE in Jewish scholarship was historically motivated by the desire to avoid the implicit “Our Lord” in the abbreviation _AD_.[[a]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era#cite_note-nostri-7) Although other aspects of dating systems are based in Christian origins, AD is a direct reference to [Jesus as Lord](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_is_Lord).[[64]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era#cite_note-71)[[65]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era#cite_note-72)[[66]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era#cite_note-Ostling-73) Proponents of the Common Era notation assert that the use of BCE/CE shows sensitivity to those who use the same year numbering system as the one that originated with and is currently used by [Christians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity), but who are not themselves Christian.[[67]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era#cite_note-RelTolrnc-74) Former United Nations Secretary-General [Kofi Annan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofi_Annan) has argued:[[68]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era#cite_note-75)
>
> > [T]he Christian calendar no longer belongs exclusively to Christians. People of all faiths have taken to using it simply as a matter of convenience. There is so much interaction between people of different faiths and cultures – different civilizations, if you like – that some shared way of reckoning time is a necessity. And so the Christian Era has become the Common Era.[[69]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era#cite_note-76)
Oh, and BTW, who exactly is _arguing_ about the use of BCE/CE vs. BC/AD? Some people/publications use it, others don’t. It’s a style choice.
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/309 "2025-10-24T22:02:19Z")
> [@commasense](#):
>
> Some people who aren’t Christians care, because even though the dates refer to the (incorrect) birth year of Jesus, for the majority of the world’s population, Jesus is neither the Christ nor “our Lord” (anno domini).
Yeah, I feel the same way about “Thursday.”
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2025, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/310 "2025-10-25T00:41:29Z")
Guess whose school had an emergency lockdown today?
Guess who freaked out and took off running down the hall? Fortunately another teacher caught him before he could get lost in the halls of the school.
I’ve talked to the people who were taking care of him in the afternoon child care thing. They said there were four police cars and we’ll get an email.
Yay.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2025, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/311 "2025-10-25T03:37:46Z")
Conservapedia for one. Noticed that in the recently bumped up Pit thread about it. Some commenter on Facebook the other day was offended because a post used BCE and CE. That’s why I say find something that matters to argue about. Taking God out of the name doesn’t change the fact it’s still the Christian epoch that the whole world is using. I’m not Christian but I don’t care, it’s just a convention. Like Miss Manners says, calling someone “dear” in the salutation of a letter doesn’t mean they’re your darling, it’s just a damn convention. If someone raises a fuss over taking “dear” in a salutation literally, they should be told: Get over it. I use either set of abbreviations indifferently.
Using “AD” doesn’t put you on the side of the Christians. Using “CE” doesn’t make you anti-Christian (though some claim it does, but they’re nuts).
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/312 "2025-10-25T16:39:13Z")
I never post to these threads, but I’ve just read a couple of claims on HealthEquity. Here’s what I had to do:
1. Click link in email to log in.
2. Attempt to log in.
3. Per instructions, open app on phone (which is not attached to my body).
4. Open Settings.
5. Turn Passcode on
6. Enter passcode a second time.
7. Go back to the app to approve.
8. go back to the computer.
9. Read message, ‘We didn’t hear from you,’ (because it takes so long to go through all of that other rigmarole).
10. Go back to the email and click on the link.
11. Attempt to log in.
12. Click the ‘Approve?’ popup.
13. FINALLY get logged in.
14. Read the claims.
15. Go back to Settings and turn Passcode off.
16. Enter passcode a second time.
17. Close Settings and the app.
I can see why they say Passkey is more secure. Because it takes ten minutes to log in! With my username and password, I could log in in seconds.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2025, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/313 "2025-10-25T17:52:52Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> Read message, ‘We didn’t hear from you,’ (because it takes so long to go through all of that other rigmarole).
This is a pet peeve of mine, when a system requires some sort of multi-factor authentication, but that MFA process is time-consuming, and meanwhile you have a short window to put it in. It’s total bullshit and such an awful design. Let’s make the customer stress out and have to hurry up to authenticate. All in the name of “security”.
You don’t make things secure when you rush and stress out the person who you are supposed to be protecting. People who are in a rush and stressed out make mistakes. People who make mistakes aren’t being secure. Putting people in a panic is what _bad actors_ do in order to scam them. A proper security system should be one that encourages people to be deliberate and thoughtful. Such as a system that has you enter a long password that can lock out briefly if you make too many mistakes; that teaches people to slow down and be more careful about doing it accurately.
It’s like those home security systems where you open your door and have to run to a panel to quickly type in a code to prevent an alarm from going off, waking up the neighbors, and summoning the authorities. For fucks’ sake. Just absolutely stupid design.
Not to mention, you just make people hate your product. You should not design things people hate to use. That seems like common sense, but it’s not common enough.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/314 "2025-10-26T17:03:53Z")
Yay!! As I continue to get familiar with the Camry, I’ve discovered that the moon roof, which I had previously believed to be just a fashionable tinted glass roof panel, can do tricks! It can, like, open! It has power buttons to open, close and just tilt it.
So when the weather is warm again next spring, I will have “almost a convertible”, with the wind blowing through my perilously thinning hair!
On the downside, someone (probably my son) broke off the seat belt stopper button on the driver’s side seat belt, which has been a damn nuisance. I just got a set of 10 buttons from Amazon and will replace it later.
If you don’t know what a seat belt stopper is, consider why your seat belt latch, which slides easily all over the place, is always at convenient approx shoulder height when you need to grab it. The stopper prevents it from sliding all the way to the goddam floor when the seat belt is retracted.
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### Author:  [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2025, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/315 "2025-10-27T04:50:40Z")
This impressionist painting looking thing is a frame grab and crop from a video of my dog carrying a dead skunk. How is your evening going?
[ ](https://i.imgur.com/aWjjQyi.png)
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2025, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/316 "2025-10-27T05:29:07Z")
> [@echoreply](#):
>
> How is your evening going?
Omgosh, you win! Good luck with that!
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2025, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/317 "2025-10-27T05:37:01Z")
Coulda been worse. Coulda been a live skunk.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/318 "2025-10-27T12:57:44Z")
Indoors.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2025, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/319 "2025-10-27T13:03:45Z")
No, what would really be worse is if you had, let’s say hypothetically, a large hairy dog like a thick-furred Bernese Mountain Dog, and that Bernese Mountain dog let’s say hypothetically got into an argument with a skunk and got thoroughly sprayed, and then when called in from the back yard bounded cheerfully into the house, apparently unperturbed. That would be horrible if that ever happened (ask me how I know!).
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/season-of-the-kvetch-october-mini-rants/1023563/320 "2025-10-27T13:52:03Z")
I put the kettle on this morning to make some tea. When the burner started heating up, something under the kettle started popping and smoking. I thought there must have been some food or grease on the burner, but when I picked up the kettle I found a stink bug roasting on the stovetop. So now the whole house smells like burnt stink bug. 🤢
The damn stink bugs have been everywhere this fall and we can hardly open the door to the back deck without having one flying into the house. Sometimes they hitch a ride on one of the cats. I can’t wait for winter to get here.
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