From the evidence in this thread: entitlement. The assumption that my needs or wants override those of the many. That whatever I hang my ‘precious snowflake’ hat on, the world needs to accommodate without questioning.
The thought that ‘I am out of step with the world, which I’m fine with but understand I will have to make allowances for the majority who aren’t’ seems to have more or less disappeared in the western world. The fact you have chosen to inhabit, to live by, to define yourself by this difference precisely because it makes you special does not seem to imbue you with any sensibility that you are the one who needs to understand that the world isn’t like you, and cope accordingly.
You can’t be affectedly difficult and different yet expect the world to behave as if that’s unnoticeable - because you wouldn’t want that either.
Be as ‘individual’ as you like in terms of your dietary or other such lifestyle choices or proclivities. But don’t then get offended that people who are perfectly OK with normality don’t automatically go out of their way for your peculiarities - which you value precisely because of their peculiarity.
Some geniuses in my home town tried that with a gas station. The judge dismissed the suit with extreme prejudice and warned the lawyer to not bring such frivolous suits to the court’s attention ever again Or Else.
Not asking this to be a jerk, just seriously wondering, if these “friends” are so annoying - and it certainly sounds as though they are - why bother putting yourself through the frustration of having dinners with or walking your dog with them at all? They sound terrible!
You should agree but then say “of course first we have to go to your house and toss it for any kind of gluten. My child has a severe gluten allergy and I’m terrified you may track it to our house, contaminating it. I’ll show up whenever I want to help you clean, and any gluten I find will go straight in the garbage. Sound good?”
When I was cooking in the convention business, I came to the conclusion that some people with “allergies” were nothing more than attention whores who can’t bring themselves to simply eat what the other 500 people are eating. I realized this during the event where one woman provided the kitchen with an itemized list of everything she was “allergic” to, broken down by the menu for each meal we would be serving. At first, I thought this was helpful because it prevented last-minute revelations about “I can’t eat this”. But when I looked more closely at her list, I realized it contradicted itself from meal to meal as to what she was “allergic” to.
On a city street some months ago, three lanes and I am in the left lane because I will be making a left down the way. Some guy in a tall Jeep gets behind me and starts flashing his headlights like this is the Autobahn. Since it is a Sunday, the 2 other lanes are empty. I proceed to continue well past my turn since it is my solemn duty to NOT reward asshole behavior and he never does go around. What?
On the highway, 5:30 AM, I am in the right-most lane with the cruise control set to the actual gee whiz speed limit. Guy in white truck pulls same shit. Flashing lights then proceeds to tailgate. I respond with tapping the brakes turning the cruise off and letting the car slow so that Mr Important will simply move into any of the three other empty lanes and simply go around. Evidently, this was not going to work for him and he pulls up and attempts to yell at me from the drivers side of his truck. Gee, you think I can hear you or care what you have to say? Fortunately, I have a dash cam and simply removed it from the windshield and allowed him his moment of glory soon forwarded to FL Highway Patrol.
Lastly, when someone else makes a mistake and does something incredibly stupid on the highway, when did the most common response become the bird as if I did something that stupid?
Common sense? In a car? When you, Mr. Emperor of the World are driving? Think again.
If people used common sense they wouldn’t try to change a CD while driving, then look up, see my father on his motorcycle, and rear end him into the vehicle ahead. But that music was important enough to kill a man for!
If I am on the highway in the left lane cruising at the speed limit, I think it understandable that others might take offense at that. I mean, they do put up signs saying slower vehicles to the right and all. However, the right hand lane is pretty much designed for fogies like me listening to NPR and doing the speed limit.
Just now watching someone sit in the left turn lane clearing planning to get back into traffic and going through an entire light cycle block everyone else. In my world, if I make that mistake, I make the left and turn around later rather than block the whole world.
I just love you both to death. Me? I really hate bums, the so-called homeless who would rather lay on the sidewalk swilling cheap booze and begging than work. I like to get some cheap McDonalds hamburgers and pretend to drop one on the sidewalk as I walk by. Of course, I have removed the wrapper. I pick it up and say, “here, you can have this”.
Wonderful feeling I get from that. I get a special glow if the sidewalk is filthy.
We could form a club. Don’t you just hate those people with sunglasses and white canes who always try to cross against the light?
Where is this stuff coming from? When I was a kid nobody we knew of was deathly allergic to peanuts or gluten. Every kid I knew had peanut butter sandwiches in their lunch box at least a couple days a week!
And I just heard of this gluten thing about 2 years ago. WTF? Are we deevolving into a pussy species or what? Have any of you tried gluten free beer? I’ve had like 4 different kinds of it. Each one was worse that the other. Blech!
My problem is with drivers who think that any space between them and the vehicle in front of them must be closed. That is, if city traffic is moving at 25 MPH, and there are a hundred yards between me and the car in front of me, I should accelerate and close that distance so that I’m right behind that guy. At least that’s what the guy behind me seems to think. I’ve got this car in front of me, and speeding up to catch that car is completely pointless. I know how the damned lights work here (probably due to the years I spent as a pedestrian). Riding that guy’s bumper is not going to get me where I’m going any quicker, and I simply don’t see any point in racing to the next red light. In fact, I like having space between me and the car in front of me. Why race to close the gap, when I know damn well when the lights change?
I remember years ago, when I was driving a 1972 Oldsmobile Toronado. An utter tank of a car. I found myself one day with some guy in a Mazda Miata riding my back bumper. I was begging him to get closer so that I could slam on my brakes … yeah, enjoy that “following too close” ticket Assuming you survive the collision. While your insurance company pays for the damage to my car.
Gluten intolerance has been around a long time, it’s just in the past people with it didn’t know why they were sickly and having diarrhea all the time, along with any other symptoms.
2,000 years ago (give or take a few) Aretaeus of Cappadocia described a man with symptoms entirely consistent with celiac/gluten intolerance. At the time, no one knew what caused him symptoms. The disorder was formally identified and named in the mid-19th Century.
The term “allergy” was coined around 1905 or 1906. The syndrome cropped up from time to time before that. Hippocrates - who lived quite a long time ago - described patients who developed hives after consuming milk. In other words, people who had food allergies around 300 BC.
Yes, the incidence of these conditions seems to be rising. That’s partly because we’re better at identifying them. It’s also because people might not be dying of them, or of secondary problems linked to them, quite as often as before.
Neither celiac nor allergies are new syndromes, they’ve been around a long time.
