Bzzz. That is a real gripe. Expensive safety equipment should work; that is a significant design flaw, and you should complain to the car company. Every time it happens.
I do it a lot; it was helpful where I’m from, when done correctly. But I will stop, just for you.
(Actually, I will stop because no one around here does it - traffic is too light - and it does confuse everyone)
I also do this, so you notice that I am slowing down, three or four quick taps to flash the lights. On the other hand, please stop downshifting to slow down. It surprises the people behind you, and it’s hell on the clutch. Use your brakes, as God and Ford intended.
Chef judges on cooking shows say"mouthfeel", and OK, fine. It’s when they say something is “toothsome” that I start yelling at the screen, “that word doesn’t mean what you think it means!”
Speaking of cooking contests and mascara, I hate when Top Chef shows the contestants putting on makeup in the morning. How is this in any way relevant to their skills as a chef?
What is the error you’re hearing? People using “Dutch” as shorthand for “Pennsylvania Dutch”?
While we are talking brakes: if you stop at a red light, and you’re one of those drivers that then releases the brakes to roll forward 3”, then does it again every 5 seconds, tell me WHY. Why not just keep your foot on the brake? What are you thinking about when this happpens? How can I make you stop, and stay stopped?
Grocery store checkout, or any store with lines waiting for cashiers:
People, usually my age or older, and usually female for whatever that’s worth, who wait until the cashier tells them the total for their purchase.
Then they flip open their checkbook (remember checkbooks?), and in the slowest possible handwriting possible begin to painstakingly write out
the store’s full name, in curlicued 1940’s grammar school script;
the numeric amount goes quickly enough, but then they have to laboriously squeeze out “Seventy-seven and thirty-five one hundredths ----------------------------” Dollars;
god knows what goes in the memo corner, but they make sure to write it
their signature, even more slowly than everything preceding it because one must make a good impression.
Satisfied, they lean back and relax for two seconds. You breathe an infuriated sigh of relief.
Then they carefully fold the check back, then forward again, and VERY gently tear it off the pad. Three - perforations - at - a - time. zzt…zzt…zzt…zzt…zzt…zzt…zzt…zzt…
Having apparently completed this Herculean feat, they then copy the entire check into the register book, because carbon backed checks must be too new-fangled for them.
By the time they hand their masterwork to the cashier my head’s about to explode, partly because I’m irritated with myself for letting such a trivial vexation tie me in knots. And of course if I sneak a peek at my fellow victims waiting for this person, I always seem to be the only one with pursed white lips and a purple face.
Thank you. I feel better now.
“Grizzly” for “grisly”
“Taken for granite”
“Escape goat”
I chuckle when I encounter these in my undergrads’ essays, but writers for the likes of Slate, HuffPo, and Politico should know, for chrissakes, that bloody crime scenes are “grisly,” not “grizzly” (unless, for example, a bear shot an escape goat in a bank robbery: “Grizzly Kills Local Goat, Grisly Details at 10pm on WKOB News 7 with Gary Granite.”)
I’ve never come across that one, but I think the etymology really is escape+goat, so it makes perfect sense. The thing that gets the blame, while I escape Scott free.
Cool.
It’s the danger that bothers me. Ceding the right of way introduces unnecessary uncertainty. For example, sometimes there is glare on the windshield that doesn’t let me see in–is someone motioning, or are they daydreaming and about to hit the gas?
One of the worst scenarios is when someone on a multi-lane road waves a driver through a gap in stopped traffic: the driver goes through the gap and gets clobbered by a car coming up the adjacent lane. This one shows up two or three times a week in those YouTube car crash videos.
YMMV…I don’t like this when it happens in busy NJ traffic.
It’s of a different etymology, I recently read it somewhere and can’t remember where. It might be related to a skin disease called scrapie(?). I’ll bird dog it down.
Heh, my sister once came in second in the regional spelling bee. This is the word that tripped her up.
One thing that I’ve been noticing lately is how many people Randomly capitalize words in Sentences. This practice isn’t peeving me just yet but it has potential.
Another grammatical peeve: Seeing a sign that says, “Apple’s and Pears,” or something along those lines. I can see that some people don’t understand the function of an apostrophe but why would someone use one in one pluralized item and not the other? Why can’t they at least be consistent? Is that too much to ask? Apparently so. :dubious:
Whenever I go out to eat and the food quality is poor, browned eggs, over cooked fries, slopped on the plate. Did you not look at this before you gave it to me? Do you expect me to eat it? Why do you not care that what you’ve given me is inedible? I try to cook at home more these days.
People who don’t care if they misspell words. “You know what I mean!” Yes, but you still look dumb.
I did it on the east coast. Let some one turn right into the space ahead of me, let some one take the left in front of me when traffic was backing up behind them, direct someone to take a left in front of me when the lane was clear. I was good at it. But here, people roll down their windows and ask if I’m having car problems.
Ah, minor irritation from my former life - people who crept out very, very slowly when I let them take a left in front of me - do I look like I’d direct you into on coming traffic?
That’s the key, it’s appropriate in specific safe circumstances. If you’re in a crawling jam of traffic, allowing someone to enter from a side street or lot if they are signaling a right turn to pull in front of you is usually safe and polite. Even then, check your right mirror for cyclists. Doing the same for a left turner can be dangerous, because you have no control over what’s left of you.
What’s a really bad idea is to attempt to cede right of way at any kind of multiple-entry junction. I often see people try to forego the natural sequence at a busy 4-way stop to be “polite”. It just causes even more confusion than those godawful junctions usually cause. And I have even seen someone approaching a green light at a crossroads stop to allow someone coming the opposite way to make a right turn. That’s insane.
Also, when receiving change, put out your hand palm down to take the bills and maybe the receipt. (If the cashier is quick enough to dump the coins on top, at least make some little effort to dump them back.)
About cashiers, No I don’t want your happy banter, or your questions. I am not gonna tell you what I am gonna cook with the odd assortment of stuff in my cart. It’s my secret. And don’t give me a dirty look if I buy alot of chocolate. It’s my business and my money. I am a shy, introverted person who doesn’t want to talk to you at all, just shut-up and do your job. Or I will and have changed stores if I feel to put upon. So there.
