Someone in our office starting leaving tiny plastic ducks everywhere. They were really cute and everyone enjoyed finding them. So next week, someone else started distributing different little plastic animals. Still cute, if derivative. Now, various people are handing out little critters. You can’t step into the hallway without finding a new batch of them. One lady bought a bagful and went around putting handfuls on everyone’s desks. So, it was a cute idea that has now been beat to death. This is the opposite of special.
It reminds me of something that happened during the pandemic. I live in a small gated community where nearly everyone is retired, knows each other well, and is financially comfortable. So someone put up a Little Free Library, inside the gates. Various people contributed books, which stayed there for months before being thrown out. It’s not that nobody likes to read! It’s that no one wanted their neighbor’s junk, when we were all perfectly capable of going to the real library, or just borrowing from each other. If it had been outside the gates…well, it still wouldn’t have worked because we’re out here in the middle of nowhere. I feel like people want to do nice things, but they don’t understand what makes them nice.
Along the same line, we have a number of ‘blessing boxes’ scattered throughout our small town, where one can leave canned or boxed food for people in need to pick up. Unfortunately, there are a number of folks who think those who are hungry also need spiritual guidance, because there are often religious tracts and books left in those boxes. Of course, they never get picked up, so they sit there until somebody (like me) removes them to the nearest trash can. Unfortunately, that encourages the do-gooders to replace them with their latest propaganda.
I think they are too, in the right place. There’s an active one in a nearby non-gated neighborhood. But the one by me can be accessed by only about 20 people, who really never had any need for it.
Do your taillights come on automatically as well? Because I see a lot of people driving with headlights on (apparently automatically) and taillights that are completely off. From behind, they are all but invisible at night until you are almost on top of them.
Right, reading your link, people are apparently driving around with their daytime running lights on, which are apparently bright enough to see to drive, but the taillights are still off.
Another issue is that modern dashboards are always lit up. Whereas in the old days with manual gauges, if the headlights and running lights were off, the dash would be totally dark as well.
I’m fairly certain that I have not ever changed the light settings from “AUTO” in any of the four cars we’ve owned since 2009. I can’t think of any reason to do that. DRL is on all the time and low beams come on if ambient light is low or windshield wipers are on. Isn’t this universal on cars now?
I can’t remember what the cars we had before that did. I think the 2002 Camry had a DRL setting that was on by default and you had to choose a “DRL Off” position to turn it off (so going beyond the “Off” position)
My 2010 Lexus ES 350 has an auto setting for the headlights, but neither our old 2004 Prius nor the 2013 Nissan Leaf that has recently replaced it do. It’s rather annoying once you’ve gotten used to auto.
I never have, either - but for some reason, mechanics and valets seem to tune mine off whenever they get their hands on my current car. After the second or third time my husband and I were arguing about who turned them off, we figured out what was happening. ( The first couple of times, it happened in the summer and we didn’t notice for a couple of weeks)
My DRL setting in my Camry also illuminates the dash displays, and the DRLs themselves are rather bright, so there have been a few times when I’ve been in my car at night and mistakenly believed my main headlights were on.
It’s probably fairly common, but I don’t know if it’s quite universal. My 2019 Mazda does not have automatic headlights. There is a bump on the dashboard where the sensor would be if it did have them, and they’re mentioned in the owner’s manual, so they were definitely an option, but mine doesn’t have them.
Me neither, for the most part. A few very oddball exceptions like I’m in a parked car at night with the engine running waiting on something/someone and headlights seem like they might be a nuisance to other people.
The one thing I do switch on and off manually are the fog lights. They’re off 99.9% of the time, but I have had occasion to use them in a real ground-level pea-souper on a country-road where they are useful in a very small way.
Oh, that reminds me of something that infuriates me. My house is across the street from a school, and some of the parking spaces in their parking lot point towards my house. And sometimes the school’s night janitor will get in their car at the end of their shift, after I’ve gone to bed, start the engine and turn on the lights (or let them come on automatically), and then sit there for like a minute doing who knows what, probably texting or something. And all this time their headlights are pointed right at my bedroom window, interrupting my sleep. I’m sure they’re completely unaware that they’re doing that, but it annoys me nonetheless.
To offer a new thing that infuriates me. I notice this word occasionally in discussions about gambling:
“Bettor.”
That’s a person who places a bet. A bettor.
This is an absurd spelling. The standard suffix meaning “one who does” is -er. The word should be spelled “better.” Obviously. One who runs is a runner. One who swims is a swimmer. One who drives is a driver. One who bets is a better. This is obvious and undeniable.
But no. Apparently the standard spelling is “bettor.”
I imagine that somebody came up with that spelling in order to avoid confusion with the comparative adjective “better”–as in good-better-best. But this is no excuse.
I will loathe the spelling “bettor” to my dying day.
