# Tiny, unimportant things that folks get all bothered about **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 22, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271 "2022-04-22T19:24:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/261 "2022-05-17T01:03:23Z")
Also true for dietary and beverage preferences that are felt to convey moral and social superiority (without being a part of religious beliefs). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/262 "2022-05-17T01:21:02Z")
If I was teaching an early morning class, I’d come in early and write something on the board to get people to wake up. My favorite was a Venn Diagram with three circles: VEGAN • CROSSFIT • DOESN’T WATCH TV. I left the center blank til everyone got there. Then I wrote “NEVER STOPS TALKING”. . One day I wrote “NASCAR is NOT a sport”. THAT got all the “Seed Cap Yahoos” to wake up and defend their heroes. So I asked “Would you call [Kyle Busch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/TSM_-_Kyle_Busch_-_2015_-_Stierch_-_07.jpg) an athlete?” and the fight was on. One student said [Ty Gibbs](https://sportsnaut.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NASCAR-prospects-748x420.jpg) looks even less like he plays a sport. By the time we were done, we’d made a continuum using two walls of whiteboards. Curling and Poker (my two favorites): were at one end, Soccer and Rugby at the other… and half our class time was shot. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/263 "2022-05-17T10:53:44Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > The cashier said something about not having to say “no cheese” then turned around and asked me if I wanted cheese. You didn’t have to say “no cheese” because she was going to ask you if you wanted cheese 🙂. You’re messing with the order flow. And yeah, she shouldn’t have asked you about cheese 5 seconds later, but a lot of any job is muscle memory, particularly if the terminal is prompting you along (“do you want fries with that?” “make it a large?” “cookie?”, etc). ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/264 "2022-05-17T13:11:20Z")
I’ve observed this as well, at drive-through windows and such. It seems to throw the cashiers off a bit if I try to anticipate any of their routine questions about my order. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/265 "2022-05-19T23:24:08Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > And there was almost a [I-480 in San Francisco](https://www.aaroads.com/guides/i-480-ca/) - the Embarcadero Freeway, which was damaged by the 1989 earthquake, and eventually removed. Was any of that still there into the early 1990s? I remember walking underneath a freeway overpass, on what was probably my first trip to San Francisco. And I didn’t go anywhere except the Haight, the Embarcadero/piers, and North Beach. It recently occurred to me that I hadn’t seen it on later visits and I was wondering what happened to it. Good riddance anyway. I knew about the Nimitz freeway, bu I thought that was the only one that came down as a result of the quake. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2022, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/266 "2022-05-21T22:18:33Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > You know, I’ve never seen someone have a reaction to someone simply not owning a TV or not owning a smartphone or not watching TV. I only see the bad reaction in response to something a little different - when the person seems to be judging those who do have a TV or smartphone or who do watch TV Here I am. I don’t own a TV. I have gotten many, many incredulous responses to this discovery. I don’t mention it mainly because people whom I have mentioned it to in the past, react like I’m being a snob. I’m not. I had choices to make and decided that a TV was too expensive and time-consuming. I decided this almost 40 years ago. And I don’t really regret it. Very occasionally I do. When forced to explain myself I say that I don’t watch trashy TV shows (or other TV shows) because it detracts from the time I set aside to read trashy books. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/267 "2022-05-22T00:17:28Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Was any of that still there into the early 1990s? I remember walking underneath a freeway overpass, on what was probably my first trip to San Francisco. And I didn’t go anywhere except the Haight, the Embarcadero/piers, and North Beach. I have no recollection of when it was torn down. I’m kinda wanting to say it was long before the Loma Prieta earthquake, but @snowthx says, above, that it was after than and because of that. From your description, it does sound like the Embarcadero Freeway (SR-480) is the one you saw, since it ran alongside a portion of the Embarcadero. For a few weeks after they shut it down, but before they tore it down, they opened the upper deck to pedestrians. Lots of people were roller-skating there. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/268 "2022-05-22T00:32:01Z")
Yeah, it was torn down in 1991. The residents had already been lobbying to have it removed anyway, and to cancel any additional freeway plans through SF. One of the main defenders of the Embarcadero Freeway was some of the merchants in Chinatown, which, evidently, the offramps from the elevated freeway fed into, so there was always a steady stream of cars. I think the feud between the businesses and other residents affected the mayor’s office (Agnos?), who sided with those wanting to remove the freeway. The earthquake in 1989 damaged the structure and closed it to traffic, and sort of gave momentum to the removal team. If you walk along the waterfront today from the Bay Bridge north to through the piers you would never know that monstrosity ever existed - it was replaced with a widened boulevard and parks, benches, bike lanes, etc. as well as opening up the views of the bay and Ferry Building. They did the right thing. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2022, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/269 "2022-05-22T05:01:33Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > If you walk along the waterfront today from the Bay Bridge north to through the piers you would never know that monstrosity ever existed - it was replaced with a widened boulevard and parks, benches, bike lanes, etc. as well as opening up the views of the bay and Ferry Building. They did the right thing. The _Right thing_ would be forcing SF, as we did with Santa Barbara to let 101 freeway run through the city as a freeway, instead of travelers wasting gas and time trying the drive through. ---
**Author:** ![Honolulu\_Lulu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/87869e/32.png) [@Honolulu\_Lulu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honolulu_Lulu)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/270 "2022-05-23T15:29:24Z")
> [@teelabrown](#): > > Using or not using the word “the” before a highway number. The only time that bothered me was a TV show that was set in Richmond, VA, but obviously filmed in Southern California. They use “the” before the highway numbers on at least 2 occasions that I caught. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2022, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/271 "2022-05-25T15:19:12Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Errors at restaurants get people way to(o) upset. I’m already over the goof at the pizza place last night. My takeout was supposed to be a meat lover’s pizza. When I got it home, there was nothing under the scanty top layer of cheese but a thin crust. No meat. I brought it back, and they tried to argue that it was what I ordered. No apology. Did eventually get a refund. Those yahoos will pay! 👹 ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/275 "2022-05-26T16:59:33Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Elbows on the table; that was a huge thing for my father. Makes no sense to me. Supposedly, this was a medieval taboo that was sensible back in the days when tables were generally of trestle construction. Put your elbows on a trestle table, and you risk knocking the boards onto the floor. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/276 "2022-05-26T17:08:02Z")
The story I heard is, you didn’t want to get food stains on the elbows of your expensive wool jacket. You wanted the stains to be on the cuffs of your linen shirt, which was easier to launder, and less expensive to replace. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271/279 "2022-05-27T14:12:32Z")
Or maybe it’s for the reason I keep telling my husband to get his elbows off the table. It’s not because of the etiquette rule, or because he might knock the boards off or because he might get stains on his jacket. It’s because when he puts his elbows on the table , he isn’t doing [this](https://www.rd.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/elbows-on-the-table-scaled.jpg?resize=768,584) , he’s doing something more like [this](https://www.tastingtable.com/img/gallery/the-reason-putting-your-elbows-on-the-table-is-considered-rude/intro-1645684143.webp) and leaning on his elbows - which means the table moves as he moves his elbows on and off the table to put the sandwich down and pick up the glass, etc. . [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-unimportant-things-that-folks-get-all-bothered-about/963271.md?page=13)