# 'Tis the season to be ranty - December Minirants **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 1, 2014, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028 "2014-12-01T14:11:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/141 "2014-12-10T01:53:30Z")
GOD DAMMIT, EVERY SINGLE PHARMACY IN THE AREA! ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS IF IT’S WORTH MY TIME TO GO TO YOUR FUCKING STORE WITH MY WIFE’S PRESCRIPTION! I am NOT prepared to drive to every pharmacy in the county, just to be told that you DON’T have Norco on hand! The exception is CVS, who were kind enough to tell me that a trip to three of their stores would be a waste of my time. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/142 "2014-12-10T02:50:16Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I was this great comic strip once that really resonated: > > First panel: Girl is toodling along, all is right with the world, birds are singing. > > Second panel: Brain remembers something humiliating and embarrassing the girl did at some point in her life. > > Third panel: Girl is ☹ > > I don’t know why humans do this. I am sure that elephants do not suddenly remember that one time they farted on another elephant’s head in front of the entire elephant student body Okay, this is making me laugh—partly because it’s reminding me of this column that was recently linked to on the “College Misery” blog: [How a lone fart set me free.](http://theorion.com/blog/2014/12/04/how-a-lone-fart-set-me-free/) ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/143 "2014-12-10T08:04:42Z")
Graaaagh, just once in my life I want to be successful in asking someone out. I don’t mean “not getting rejected”, I mean getting to the state where rejection is possible. There’s a great girl I study with (in a group), but I just can’t figure out how to do it. Too many unknowns, too hard to get her alone so I can ask her. ☹ > [@Anaamika](#): > > I was this great comic strip once that really resonated: > > First panel: Girl is toodling along, all is right with the world, birds are singing. > > Second panel: Brain remembers something humiliating and embarrassing the girl did at some point in her life. > > Third panel: Girl is ☹ > > I don’t know why humans do this. I am sure that elephants do not suddenly remember that one time they farted on another elephant’s head in front of the entire elephant student body or the time they trumpeted some stupid insensitive shit by accident and couldn’t take it back. > > Our brains are our own worst enemies, I swear. Dammit, I remember this but can’t find it. I thought it may have been Kate or Die but nope. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/144 "2014-12-10T16:26:00Z")
Why are people so goddamn friggin’ vicious in attitude to those people who are poor/homeless/less fortunate than themselves? ☹ ☹ Next time I’m going to try to avoid reading comments sections of news articles. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/145 "2014-12-10T17:27:29Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > Why are people so goddamn friggin’ vicious in attitude to those people who are poor/homeless/less fortunate than themselves? ☹ ☹ Because Humans are Herd Animals who are both Predator and Prey. People who are seen as weak or ‘less than’ are prey. Even if someone is not a predator themselves, they see that weakness, fear it in themselves, and desire to be away from the prey. You know bad shit is going to happen to them when the predator comes around and you don’t want to be part of it. All that fear and anger and predator/prey bullshit gets mixed up and confused in Humans because we don’t have an active understanding of that process. So then the worst cases of this, where people are absolute stark raving assholes to anyone with the slightest flaw - it is because they’re already so angry at being unable to control the world and make it be the way they want, that they’re afraid of anything that makes them think about their own weakness. And they often turn that fear into anger and strike out at the weak ones, making themselves feel powerful by being the predator for a change. ---
**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:** [December 10, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/146 "2014-12-10T17:34:25Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > Next time I’m going to try to avoid reading comments sections of news articles. ☹ This is a good general policy, on all issues, and on almost all websites. ---
**Author:** ![Calatin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Calatin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calatin)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/147 "2014-12-10T17:52:44Z")
This involves a work setting, but it’s not really about the workplace, so I guess it goes here. We have our Christmas party tomorrow, and I’m not sure if I want to bring the guy I’ve been seeing. We’ve had some dates (one “fancy” one and others meeting for a drink or him coming over) and I like him, but I’m just not sure I want him to come. I’m worried that I’ll spend the whole time babysitting him and I won’t get to socialize with co-workers. I’ve been here almost a year, and while I have a few “work friends,” I was hoping to use this party to get to know them better. But on the other hand, I feel like this is exactly the kind of thing that I _should_ bring him to, and he might be upset if I don’t. ---
**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:** [December 10, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/148 "2014-12-10T18:00:43Z")
> [@Calatin](#): > > This involves a work setting, but it’s not really about the workplace, so I guess it goes here. > > We have our Christmas party tomorrow, and I’m not sure if I want to bring the guy I’ve been seeing. We’ve had some dates (one “fancy” one and others meeting for a drink or him coming over) and I like him, but I’m just not sure I want him to come. I’m worried that I’ll spend the whole time babysitting him and I won’t get to socialize with co-workers. I’ve been here almost a year, and while I have a few “work friends,” I was hoping to use this party to get to know them better. But on the other hand, I feel like this is exactly the kind of thing that I _should_ bring him to, and he might be upset if I don’t. Why don’t you say to him exactly what you’ve just said to us? I’m a guy, and if you and i had only recently started going out, i would not be at all offended if you explained your concerns to me. I would then, depending on how i felt at the time, either say, “Hey, it’s cool, i can take care of myself at social gatherings,” or “If you want to get to know your office buddies better, i’ll just skip it and see you later.” ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/149 "2014-12-10T19:23:29Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I woke up this morning with two huge pimples on my face. This is fucking ridiculous. I’m 39 years old this year. I colored my hair recently and was really impressed to see the amount of gray hairs. No one ever told me there’d be gray hair _and_ pimples. Yup. I didn’t even have pimples as a teenager. But in my mid-30s…boom! Seems it was peri-menopause starting. Pimples and hair loss! Finally I’d had enough after the third acne cyst in a month. My GYN did some blood work, figured out that my male hormones were running amok, and gave me some Aldactone. My dermatologist told me to wash with 4% benzoyl peroxide, and gve me some samples of Aczone gel for any strays. Problem solved! Hair growing back and only the occasional little pimple, which clears in a day with the Aczone. /sales pitch. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/150 "2014-12-10T19:29:27Z")
My rant: I get Botox for chronic migraine every 12 weeks. The Botox actually works for about 9 of those weeks, which means that if, during weeks 10-12, a weather trigger (i.e., storm) occurs, I’m miserable and the migraine doesn’t go away until the weather event is over. It’s week 11. We have a winter storm that won’t move off the coast. I’m on day 3 of a migraine. It won’t go all the way away, and I’m pretty medicated. Luckily, I can work from home \*\*\*and \*\*\*have a very understanding boss (his wife has migraines and fibromyalgia, poor woman). But, really, I’m ready for this head pain to stop. I’m also ready for it to be 4 pm so I can take some heavy-duty meds and lie down. And I can’t wait for next Wednesday, when I get blessed Botox. And it has a great side effect – I look 10 years younger because of the stuff. (I deserve this nice side effect; the first 8 preventative meds we tried caused me to gain 100 pounds.) ---
**Author:** ![Hopeful\_Crow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/da6949/32.png) [@Hopeful\_Crow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hopeful_Crow)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/151 "2014-12-10T21:14:09Z")
> [@slalexan](#): > > Brain, we’ve already been through this. We are not worthless so quit saying that! We are valued and needed and do not need to spend our timing dwelling on all our mistakes and flaws. So quit it! This. And how! My other, very minor rant is about the price of (formerly) live Christmas trees. In all the years I’d lived alone I never bothered buying one just for myself so I’ve been out of touch. But Scrub Jay likes having one and had been eying those at our local one-stop-shopping store. So off we went to pick out the perfect one. The smallest, thereby cheapest, were about three and a half feet tall, including the ten-or-so inch leader. There were about a dozen of them. Some were quite decent and some were were so uneven they were bordering on being Charlie Brown trees. Each one of them cost twenty five bucks. Wow! What the heck are the fertilizing those things with? We narrowed our selection down to two specimens and after about five minutes of hemming and hawing, went with a different one entirely. It’s all set up and does look quite pretty with all the ornaments and lights, even if I do say so myself. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/152 "2014-12-10T22:05:46Z")
My lower eyelid won’t stop twitching. It’s driving me mad. Mad, I tell you, mad! ---
**Author:** ![Calatin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Calatin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calatin)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/153 "2014-12-10T22:35:32Z")
A few friends normally come over every Wednesday night to watch American Horror Story. Got a text from one of the friends to let me know that he wasn’t going to be able to, because he rearranged his schedule today to go with one of our other friends when he got his MRI. I asked my roommate about it via email, and found out that the friend in question has been suffering from inability to focus / concentrate, headaches, and blurred vision, but I’m not sure if this is something I’m “officially” supposed to know. I don’t hang out with them as much, because our schedules don’t sync-up. But I still consider him a good friend. I want to send him a message of support, but if my roommate broke some sort of code of confidence, I don’t want to get the roommate in trouble. I know the friend had been complaining about his eyesight and a few issues lately, but I didn’t know it was “MRI-serious.” ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/154 "2014-12-10T23:22:09Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > My lower eyelid won’t stop twitching. It’s driving me mad. Mad, I tell you, mad! I once had an eyelid twitch that lasted more than just a few days. It was maddening! I hope yours doesn’t last that long. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. Well, maybe my \*worst \*enemy… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/155 "2014-12-11T00:12:25Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > My lower eyelid won’t stop twitching. It’s driving me mad. Mad, I tell you, mad! Are you scrawling “Kill Clouseau” in pink magic marker on the walls? ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/156 "2014-12-11T01:19:39Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > **{{{{LavenderBlue}}}}** > [@kayT](#): > > I’m so sorry, **LavenderBlue**. And sorry too that the meeting is so far off; I know it’s going to be a long time for you until Thursday. Fingers crossed. And bear in mind that there are always second opinions. > [@Nava](#): > > How do you see her, in comparison with siblings and cousins? The next days are going to be horrible no matter what, but she’s three - it wouldn’t be the first or the last three-year-old who gets misdiagnosed as “slow” on account of being more of “in a different track”. > [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > I’m so sorry ☹ > [@aruvqan](#): > > Well, I won’t give you the I’m Sorry you expect - you have a child you love and that is never something to be sorry about. I will apologize in advance for all the idiots who will tell you it is because you vaccinated the kid, however. I do wish you luck in getting help from the assorted Powers That Be - being grateful that it is now actually possible to get help. Back in my day people were still putting kids into asylums for cognitive issues. > > And if they do tell you there is nothing they can help you with, come back here and you will find that there are people here who will turn the internet inside out looking for references for help that may work for you.The whole it takes a village to raise a kid has been changed to the world, thanks to the internet. > [URL=“[http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] Thank you all. We have a school meeting tomorrow to discuss the situation. I’m trying to be as hopeful as possible that they can offer her the services she clearly needs and those services will help her. I’m in a panic over this one in part because of my younger bro. He’s 40, lives at home with my dad, works a menial job, was left back in third grade, barely graduated from high school and has no meaningful personal relationships. He’s into religious fanatic Judaism and stupidity like calling himself a pick up artist. This is probably because he was hospitalized as a baby for dehydration but it is not easy to be around. The lingering lack of judgment since then reminds me of someone with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. I can barely deal with younger bro on a good day. He’s belligerent, dumb, arrogant, gullible, lazy and has essentially not progressed beyond the level of the average fourteen year old mentally or emotionally. I worry this will be my own child decades from now. That feeling has haunted me since I opened the package. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/157 "2014-12-11T01:35:33Z")
When did my friends all turn into pod people, as indicated by the Facebook feed full of nothing but baby pictures and Christmas decorations and talk about buying fucking real estate? Does no one do anything interesting anymore? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/158 "2014-12-11T01:57:39Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > When did my friends all turn into pod people, as indicated by the Facebook feed full of nothing but baby pictures and Christmas decorations and talk about buying fucking real estate? Does no one do anything interesting anymore? They’re all buying _picaderos_? Wouldn’t it be more logical to pool up resources? (_picadero_ = a piece of real estate used exclusively for purposes of fucking) ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/159 "2014-12-11T01:58:52Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > GOD DAMMIT, EVERY SINGLE PHARMACY IN THE AREA! ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS IF IT’S WORTH MY TIME TO GO TO YOUR FUCKING STORE WITH MY WIFE’S PRESCRIPTION! > > I am NOT prepared to drive to every pharmacy in the county, just to be told that you DON’T have Norco on hand! > > The exception is CVS, who were kind enough to tell me that a trip to three of their stores would be a waste of my time. Could you ask for a hydrocodone prescription instead? I think it has less codeine than Norco, but it has better availability. Less is better than none! ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028/160 "2014-12-11T02:20:54Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > They’re all buying _picaderos_? Wouldn’t it be more logical to pool up resources? (_picadero_ = a piece of real estate used exclusively for purposes of fucking) Man, I wish. That would be way more interesting than “here is my suburban townhouse! Peep my beige carpet and miniblinds and oh look we put up family photos and a Christmas tree.” Who are these people and where are my interesting friends who do interesting things? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tis-the-season-to-be-ranty-december-minirants/706028.md?page=9)