# Vent your spleen thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 1, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818 "2013-11-01T04:49:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/21 "2013-11-03T08:28:28Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Also, I want the word “awesome” to be put back in the vault and reserved for those rare occasions (possibly even a singular occasion) when it is appropriate, like maybe the Second Coming of Jesus. > > One that’s running a close second in overuse is “amazing.” It’s so generic, it really doesn’t say anything. It’s a content-free word. Amazing-good? Amazing-bad? Amazing because your experience of the world is so limited that \*anything \*would “amaze” you? It doesn’t say anything. Maybe that’s okay with you. Oh yeah, add “iconic” to that list. For Pete’s sake, a few years ago you never heard this word- now it’s everywhere. Give. It. A. Rest. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/22 "2013-11-03T11:02:54Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > As far as checkout lines go, I really would like stores to put in some cash only lanes again. I’m always getting stuck behind women who wait for everything to be rung up before digging into their shoulder bags for a wallet from which they must then sort through twenty different cards for the right loyalty card and then begin a search for their checkbook- > Card swipers are usually no faster, in my experience. I can swipe my debit card while the cashier is ringing up my order. The store’s computers talk to my bank’s computers and get the OK before my order is rung up and I’m waiting on the cashier to finish. I start grabbing my bags and put them into the cart and all I have to do is wait for the cashier to tear off my receipt and hand it to me. Much faster than paying cash, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/23 "2013-11-03T11:31:14Z")
I am tired of this stupid mp3 player not uploading songs correctly and making me load songs 4 or 5 times before it’s listed correctly and plays all the way through. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/24 "2013-11-03T19:58:50Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Oh yeah, add “iconic” to that list. For Pete’s sake, a few years ago you never heard this word- now it’s everywhere. Give. It. A. Rest. Let’s not forget ‘reaching out’. Last week I had a lawyer tell me he’d ‘reach out’ to me after he got the information I needed. I’ve been hearing it so much I almost said it. Fortunately I caught myself before that hated phrase passed through my lips. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/25 "2013-11-03T21:46:49Z")
> [@Sahirrnee](#): > > Let’s not forget ‘reaching out’. Last week I had a lawyer tell me he’d ‘reach out’ to me after he got the information I needed. > I’ve been hearing it so much I almost said it. Fortunately I caught myself before that hated phrase passed through my lips. …and “it is what it is”. Unless you’re Popeye “i ams what i ams” the Sailor man and actively tooting jig from a corncob pipe up your spinach-crammed rear, this should never be said. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/26 "2013-11-03T22:49:23Z")
> [@Sahirrnee](#): > > Let’s not forget ‘reaching out’. Last week I had a lawyer tell me he’d ‘reach out’ to me after he got the information I needed. > I’ve been hearing it so much I almost said it. Fortunately I caught myself before that hated phrase passed through my lips. Blech. Makes you want to break right into a chorus of Kumbaya, don’t it. 😛 ---
**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:** [November 3, 2013, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/27 "2013-11-03T22:53:16Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > What, the mini-rants thread ain’t good enough for you folks? 🙂 Maybe this is the politics/religion-free version of the mini-rants thread? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/28 "2013-11-03T23:12:53Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > My husband and I aren’t drinkers, so we feel a need to stay safely home and indoors on the big drinking holidays. My husband and I are; we stay in those days to avoid the amateur night performances by people who suck at controlling their drinking. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/29 "2013-11-04T04:50:19Z")
BTW, I never go to the Pit. So I wasn’t even aware of the mini-rants thread. This thread works better for me. My rant of the day - we had pub trivia tonight. It was their yearly fundraiser. Going into the last round, we were in second place, down by two points. But because they were raising money, they decided to let everyone buy points up to one out of first place, at a cost of $1 per point. So instead of being in a very solid second place by ourselves, we were in an eight way tie for second place. The first six rounds turned into a contest for how much money people donated, not how good they were at trivia. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/30 "2013-11-04T20:18:08Z")
People who launch a thread on the SDMB that leads to a lively discussion including questions for the OP, and they never come back. Grrr. ---
**Author:** ![James\_Toothpaste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@James\_Toothpaste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Toothpaste)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/31 "2013-11-04T22:11:15Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > BTW, I never go to the Pit. So I wasn’t even aware of the mini-rants thread. This thread works better for me. > > My rant of the day - we had pub trivia tonight. It was their yearly fundraiser. Going into the last round, we were in second place, down by two points. But because they were raising money, they decided to let everyone buy points up to one out of first place, at a cost of $1 per point. So instead of being in a very solid second place by ourselves, we were in an eight way tie for second place. The first six rounds turned into a contest for how much money people donated, not how good they were at trivia. Sigh. This sounds awful. Sorry about that. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/32 "2013-11-04T23:54:34Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > If you are afraid of driving in the lane next to a concrete barrier on the freeway, or if you are incapable of doing so without partially occupying the adjacent lane for other reasons (such as you have no actual sense of the width of your vehicle), please do the rest of us a favor and GET OUT OF THAT LANE. Cheers! I take it you’ve never seen them erect such barriers that one lane has a barrier to the left, and the other lane has a barrier to the right? Because I have. That was real fun… ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/33 "2013-11-04T23:58:01Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > One that’s running a close second in overuse is “amazing.” It’s so generic, it really doesn’t say anything. It’s a content-free word. Amazing-good? Amazing-bad? Amazing because your experience of the world is so limited that \*anything \*would “amaze” you? It doesn’t say anything. Maybe that’s okay with you. I am so utterly sick of Gordon Ramsey telling contestants on Masterchef or Hell’s Kitchen that whatever they have to use for the next challenge is “thee most amazing [whatever]”. No, it’s not. Not even if it’s a Walmart Steak[sup]TM[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/34 "2013-11-05T00:52:30Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > I take it you’ve never seen them erect such barriers that one lane has a barrier to the left, and the other lane has a barrier to the right? Because I have. That was real fun… It sounds easy, actually — no decisions to make, and nowhere to stray. In fact, if we could confine all such drivers to this dual-barrier system, I think everyone would be better off. ---
**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:** [November 5, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/35 "2013-11-05T01:26:54Z")
It’s called a _blog entry_, not a blog! A blog is a _collection_ of blog entries. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/36 "2013-11-05T01:42:42Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > It sounds easy, actually — no decisions to make, and nowhere to stray. In fact, if we could confine all such drivers to this dual-barrier system, I think everyone would be better off. Oh my, you’ve never come across one then. You’re driving along and all of a sudden the road veers at a 45 degree angle to the other side of the highway (using one of their lanes) and you find yourself staring at your exit as it goes by. What makes these things extra special is rain. They grind off the old white lines and paint new ones only now the ground off line reflects with the same intensity and it appears like you just drove into a Mad Max movie segment. They then MOVE this lane change down the road a bit so all the lines are ground off and repainted in a crisscrossing mess. Bleary eyed out of towner’s don’t have a clue where the lanes are and chaos ensues. Oh, and the “road narrows to one lane ahead” sign is ALWAYS located past the last useful exit a person could take to avoid the whole mess. you’ll be able to tell I’m there in line because I can’t get out all the expletives out in a coherent manner. Every word of grievance flows out in no particular order. ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/37 "2013-11-05T16:02:16Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Blech. Makes you want to break right into a chorus of Kumbaya, don’t it. 😛 Or I get this earworm [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FjYWS3Enwk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FjYWS3Enwk) There are worse earworms but any earworm is still an earworm ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/38 "2013-11-05T22:16:07Z")
This is an English-speaking country. Ballots should not be in Spanish. Neither should announcements on the buses. Neither should signs, labels or anything else not specifically directed toward the Latin-American community. When my ancestors came over, nobody put up signs in Gaelic for them. Why should today’s immigrants have it any easier? ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/39 "2013-11-07T00:17:16Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > It sounds easy, actually — no decisions to make, and nowhere to stray. In fact, if we could confine all such drivers to this dual-barrier system, I think everyone would be better off. No, it’s quite awful, you get people in both lanes afraid of the barriers drifting towards the middle. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818/40 "2013-11-07T00:28:29Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > No, it’s quite awful, you get people in both lanes afraid of the barriers drifting towards the middle. No, I meant a single, barrier-enclosed lane for those people. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vent-your-spleen-thread/672818.md?page=3)