BS: Things that get up your nose

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 05:56 AM

Mudcat crashing just after I have typed a witty post.

Not being able to remember my witty post after Mudcat is back.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 09:58 AM

**Bill D smugly saved HIS witty post yesterday in a little file, and re-posted it today** ☺

Whoops... smugness may get up gnu's gnose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 08:48 PM

People who work in stores or banks are told to say, "Have a nice day." They don't always want to say it, and it shows.
More often than not I reply, "That started when I met you." It really brightens their day.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 09:14 PM

Now THAT is smooth. Good stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 08:24 AM

I don't say that to everyone, just the women. The plain ones really appreciate it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 12:06 PM

I believe that people watch Fox Noise because they thrive on negative energy. Does this thread indicate this? I used a negative title on purpose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 12:14 PM

People who say mean things about Winona Ryder just to bug me...

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 04:57 PM

Your welcome, LH. Have a nice day.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 06:24 PM

Quite a few years back, as a young lad, I was fishing groundfish longline off Nova Scotia with a salty Icelandic fisherman.

I was hung over. He offered me "snuff" he instructed to be sniffed up deep and later blown out on a hankie. He wagered it would cure my hangover. Begods, it worked and my mind was clear, well at least for the day. Next day I had the woest headache ever, and a sinus infection to boot. That really got up my nose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 08:30 PM

"What would you like for breakfast, my dear",
Said Mum, idly picking her nose,
"I think that I'll have a boiled egg" replied Dad,
"You can't get your fingers in those".

Anon

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 08:49 PM

I hate grocery stores that use flagstones, cobbles, or corrugated carpeting as flooring for the area between where you pick up your shopping cart and the main sales floor. They do it so that you can't tell whether your shopping cart has handling issues until you've already walked so far that you're not willing to turn around and exchange the cart for another one. And even if you did exchange it, you wouldn't know if its replacement was any better until you went through the whole routine again.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 09:34 PM

BWL... those are the same bastards that don't pay the extra for a static electricity chain which would work very well on those flooring types so that I don't get a SNAP every 20 feet. Cheap bastards!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 11:34 PM

People who ask for advice and then don't take it. My wife does this to me all the time.

She can't make a decision without first asking me what I would do. So I tell her, and then she does something different. It never fails.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Nov 11 - 04:04 AM

People who can't let you finish a sentence without interrupting.

I have a certain relative (not my wife) who did that to me repeatedly last summer when we had some important family matters to discuss.

It's not like she doesn't pay attention at all. She pays careful attention to the first half of your sentence, and from that, she figures out what the second half was going to be, and then she can't wait to reply to what she thinks you were going to say.

Even when you point out she totally had the wrong end of the stick, she still doesn't take the hint and apologize.

It drives me nuts.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Nov 11 - 12:50 PM

People who don't follow instructions.

Another relative was staying at our house for a few weeks, and she wanted to use our TV. Our Cable/TV/VCR/DVD setup is kind of complicated, and some of the equipment is out of date—it doesn't have enough places to plug things in—so when you want to switch from watching live TV to watching a DVD, you've got to unplug a cable from the back and plug it in in a different place. So I attached a piece of masking tape to the cable and wrote: "MOVE THIS." Then I stuck 2 more pieces of masking tape on the equipment, each with an arrow pointing to a socket. On one of them I wrote: "PLUG IN HERE TO WATCH A DVD." On the other I wrote: "PLUG IN HERE TO WATCH LIVE TV." I also wrote her a note telling her where to look for the labels.

That should be clear enough, right?

So did she follow instructions? No-o-o-o.

She noticed an unrelated cable hanging loose from the wall—it led to the roof antenna, which we no longer use, since we now use cable—and she called me at work to ask if she was supposed to plug that in somewhere.

What bugs me is the fact that she actually did read and understand the instructions—she just didn't trust them. She figured they had to be wrong somehow, since they didn't mention the antenna cable. After I explained that she should just leave that cable alone, everything was fine.

What's the use of being careful to make sure you're right, if people don't believe you anyhow?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 12:49 PM

This morning had yet ANOTHER call from an insurance company (unsolicited and unwanted) Hello, ... (my Christian name) and how are you today?" "Who's calling, please?" "My name's Chris. How're you doing, ...?" (Christian name again) "State your business please." "It's nothing to worry about...(name again), I'm just checking on how you are today, and wondering if you have Life Insurance?" "This is an Ex-Directory number, you are not to call me again, and if you do, I'll alert the Police. I do NOT want insurance. This is harrassment!" "Well, ...(name again) have a very nice day." I felt absolutely murderous, this is the fourth time this person has called! My old, late friend used to shout "Piss off!" down the phone, she didn't bother with manners, and they never called her again!. Perhaps I should do the same?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 12:56 PM

They are the worst of the bunch.

When we first moved here the phone company gave us the phone number of a deadbeat who moved away. Call after call asking for this clown nearly drove me to distraction. I told them time after time there was no so and so here. Either they didn't hear or didn't care they kept calling until the last time when, out of sheer desperation I shouted, "Call Hell, he went crazy and I shot him."

No more calls.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 01:40 PM

Those calls that pretend like they're doing you a favor - I'd love to be able to deliver a small shock through the line, short out their phone. :)

BWL, I agree. No way to assess the wheel status on the cart in that cobbled area. I have begun testing carts in the lot, because usually if they made it all the way out someone could stand to push it. I bring it into the store with me, don't wait till I get there.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 03:06 PM

SRS... me too. I park as far away from the door as possible so there are more cart corrals between me and the door.

Eliza... best not to yell... they have your number.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 04:14 PM

You're right, gnu. I don't want to provoke any retaliation. As they're paying for the calls, I suppose I can just quietly hang up each time until they get bored!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 04:36 PM

How to deal with junk phone calls:

Phone calls from solicitors usually give themselves away by the fact that there is a delay of around 3 seconds after you say "hello" and before the person on the other end replies. That's because the dialing is done automatically by a computer, and they even use the computer to detect that there is a real person on your end (as opposed to an answering machine or fax), before they match your call up with the next available agent. This takes some time. They might even be calling from India, which adds more to the delay.

So if I hear 3 seconds of silence after I say "hello" I immediately hang up. No use wasting any time or energy on these things.

Once in a while, it's a real person from the get-go; there is no automatic dialer and so no delay. So then as soon as I realize the call is a solicitation from someone I don't want to talk to, I say "No, thanks" and hang up.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 04:58 PM

There was a thread about telemarketing... good advice there.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 12:52 PM

Another thing that pisses me off: people who refuse to apologize when they should, or who only offer mealy-mouthed, equivocal, obviously insincere apologies.

"I'm sorry if you were offended..." Translation: "I'm not sure you were really offended. I think you might be faking it."

"I want to apologize to anyone who was hurt by my actions...." Translation: "...but I'm not sure such a person really exists. I certainly couldn't name one."

"I'm sorry that you were offended by my remarks...." Translation: "...but I'm not sorry I made them. I'm only sorry you heard them."

"My remarks were taken out of context...." Translation: "...and the proper context was: a room full of people who totally agree with me."

"I didn't mean.... What I really meant was...." Translation: "Let me take this opportunity to say something different but equally offensive." For example: "I didn't mean your haircut was ridiculous. All I meant was, it's too bad you didn't go to a licensed barbershop."

It occurs to me I have probably undermined my own position by making my examples too funny. In real life, they are seldom that funny.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 07:03 PM

"No, you are not sorry. If you really cared at all you would have taken care not to be rude in the first place. If you were rude by mistake then you are an idiot or infirm. I'd suggest you opt for infirm if you can pull it off."

Depending on the circumstances, I sometimes add... "...idiot."

Rude people REALLY get up my nose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 07:09 PM

"Nothing is bad, or good; thinking makes them so." (W. Shakespeare)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 07:18 PM

Kendall... here's what I thought when I jammed the bitch's grocery cart into some canned goods today... fuck you ignorant bitch... you walked in front of my 85 year old almost blind mother and ignored her and blocked her way when you didn't have to do that? BillyBob woulda done the same.

Sorry to keep talking about the very same thing but it happens EVERY time I take her out for her walk. People are SOOO rude. I just hope that when they get old, some younger rude twit treats them as rudely.

Gosh! Where have all the manners gone?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Clontarf83
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 07:28 PM

My CPAP machine (in a good way of course--saved my life not to mention my marriage--no more snoring)

In a bad way: Timeshare Sales people--especially the Mexican variety

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 08:07 PM

Another way to deal with junk calls is to pretend that you are interested and keep them talking and don't buy anything. You get taken off their call list immediately.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 09:54 PM

People who complain about heavy traffic, crowded stores, long lines, etc. as if they think they have a right to be there and no one else does.

They don't seem to realize that, just by being there, they are helping to create problem just as much as anyone else is.

The old adage "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" couldn't apply to any situation more clearly than it applies to crowdedness.

If crowdedness is a problem for you, you need to figure out when the off-peak hours are, and arrange to do your shopping/traveling/commuting at those times. That's how you become part of the solution. If you don't do this, it's your own fault you are inconvenienced by crowds.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 03:28 PM

Noisy restaurants. I can't even think of a time when my husband and I went to a nice restaurant and it was peaceful and pleasant to be there.

Remember how, in black and white movies, there'd be a scene in a restaurant? A man and a woman, a luxurious white tablecloth, a piano playing sophisticated music in the backgroudn, and the occasional clink of cutlery against china?

Now it's like dining in an anvil factory. Management plays loud, ugly music and the customers talk loudly to be heard over it.

I was at a restaurant in the Plaza recently where the waitress had to get about three inches from me to hear me.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 03:49 PM

"Nothing is bad, or good; thinking makes them so." (W. Shakespeare)"

Hmm...methinks Bill was reading the Bible.

Romans 14:14

English Standard Version (ESV)
14:I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean."

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 03:51 PM

and in line with that, what gets up my nose is folks who WANT there to be absolute standards... and who assume that their definitions are the only ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 07:40 PM

People who talk on cell phones while driving. We saw one just today, ran a red light while gabbing. Glad no one was in the cross walk.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 09:27 PM

kendall... people who drive and talk on cell phones... when it is AGAINST the law here for months now. Saw a guy mess up today... nearly hit a bus. A BUS! How can you not see a bus? Apparently by being on a cell phone while driving? Unreal. Stunned as me arse.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 10:49 PM

How about clerks that ignore you (even when you are first in line) to answer the phone?

Don't blame the clerk. He/she probably doesn't like it any more than you do. Blame the manager—the clerk's boss—who decided that the same person who waits on customers at the counter should also answer the phone, when there are other employees who could do it—including the boss himself, who'd rather have the clerk screen his calls for him, because he doesn't like being interrupted while he plays solitaire.

I often ask why an unknown voice on the phone is more important than a live customer. That makes them think, which they are not programed to [do].

No, Kendall. You're not making him think. He thinks plenty already. You're making him bite his tongue. Otherwise he'd tell you to fuck off, since you obviously have no idea how hard his job is. He knows perfectly well that waiting on customers makes more sense than answering the phone, but if he ignores the phone, or if he is rude to the caller, or if he puts the caller on hold for too long, that person will next call the clerk's boss and complain about him. And the boss, who hates more than anything to get calls like this, will take it out on the clerk.

Have you guessed that I've actually had a job like that?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 01:54 AM

Not my problem. I went to buy a stove and the salesman walked away to answer the phone. He talked for a while and I started to walk out. He came running and asked where I was going. I said "Somewhere to buy a stove." I did and he lost a major sale.

I don't give squat for their company policy. If I'm talking to you and some stranger buts in with his own agenda that is rude. So is ignoring me to talk to some "Johnnie come lately".
I'm not a sheep and I will not be treated like one.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 04:49 AM

BillD ~ no, he had it right ~~

Hamlet:
Denmark's a prison.
Rosencrantz:
Then is the world one.
Hamlet:
A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and
dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.
Rosencrantz:
We think not so, my lord.
Hamlet:
Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or
bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.

Hamlet II ii

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 07:14 AM

Or did you mean that Will [not Bill!] derived his formulation from The Bible? Don't know the previous translations entirely; but the AV, which you quote from, was published later than Hamlet.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 10:41 AM

Well... the basic text is/was older than Hamlet, and I was merely noting the similarity of the concepts (as we ex-philosophers are wont to do), which led me to wonder IF ol' Bill adapted it.

Scholars will no doubt differ, as scholars are wont to do. ☺

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 10:48 AM

Indeed, Bill. I don't think Will would have claimed it as other than an appropriate commonplace.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 12:11 PM

Faddish statements that don't make sense:

"I could care less"

"One of the only ..." What?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 01:35 PM

I really find it hard to fathom why people who make grammatical errors are considered to be in the same league with dangerous drivers, tyrannical bosses, whining complainers, lying politicians, telemarketers and the like.

Grammatical errors don't harm you or inconvenience you in any way. What's the big deal?

I guess one of the things that get up my nose is—people who complain about other people's grammatical errors.

Oh, I know, this could get recursive, and could go on forever: "I hate people who complain about people who complain about grammatical errors." – "I hate people who complain about people who complain about people who complain about grammatical errors." Etc.

Let's not. I promise to get a life sometime soon.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 02:12 PM

Software applications that don't put a file back in its originating folder, and you have to search the whole bloody hard drive to find the updated version.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 02:20 PM

Ah, Bert! That triggers one of MY complaints. Pages that use/require javascript to display images, play videos...etc... but who make NO effort to note this fact!

They seem to assume that most people will make no attempt to control intrusive popups or ads, so they make you look at the ads in order to see the content. I can handle that, if only they TELL me, so I can turn it on temporarily IF I CHOOSE!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Don Firth
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 05:15 PM

So I'm cruising down the sidewalk in my local shopping district in my battery operated wheelchair. It'll do a good 6 mph, but when on well-traveled sidewalks, I keep it at a regular walking pace and stay to the right.

Two things in particular get up my nose:

1. That old bugaboo, people with cell phones. I usually can't go more that half a block without having to yell at someone who's walking toward me, jabbering away, and gazing off into space. If I don't, they'll wind up in my lap! I look forward to that occasional time when they get so engrossed in their conversation that they walk, forehead first, into one of the metal light standards lining the street. It makes such a pretty "bong!!" sound.

2. Kids on skateboards—or people on bicycles who are not supposed to be using the sidewalks—who think the curb-cuts (short ramps on every corner put there expressly for people in wheelchairs) are exclusively for their convenience. More than once I've been zipping down a curb-cut to get across the intersection while the light is green when some mouth-breathing cretin on a skateboard with his pants at half-mast swears at me for getting in his way as he (illegally!) surfs the sidewalk.

Small triumphs:    I'm cruising down the aisle of a large, supermarket-sized drug store at a normal walking speed when some guy behind me apparently felt I wasn't going fast enough for him. I didn't know he was there until he tried to shove by me. Unintentionally, one of the drive-wheels went over his foot. I don't know how much the chair weighs, but it's solidly build and it's powered by two marine batteries. He wound up hopping on one foot, holding the other, and going "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" Sorry about that. But if I'd been walking, he would have at least said, "Excuse me" before he tried to shove by me.

While driving my car, I learned this little tactic and it works every time. I'm on the freeway moving along fast in the left lane. My off-ramp is coming up, so I move into the middle lane well ahead of time, then prepare to move into the right lane to take the off-ramp. I glance over my right shoulder and there's some gink hanging right off my right rear quarter panel. I turn on my turn signal and he stays right there. I speed up, he speeds up. I slow down, he slows down. So—I really punch it and spurt ahead of him, and HE punches it. I suddenly slow down, he shoots by me, I whip over behind him into the right lane, and take the exit I want.

Are guys like this incredibly competitive, mean-spirited, just plain stupid, or all of the above?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 05:46 PM

People who make incomplete

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 06:01 PM

or finish them for you.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 06:15 PM

People who tell me to click here without telling me why.

I'm supposed to just trust you then, that this experience will be worthwhile? You vastly overestimate the value of your recommendation.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 06:28 PM

""I guess one of the things that get up my nose is—people who complain about other people's grammatical errors.""

If you really feel that correct grammar is of no importance Jim, I can only hope that you never have a solicitor who is of the same opinion carry out the conveyancing on your house purchase.

You might find that it isn't your house, that its value is reduced, or that you are unable at a later date to sell it on.

And that is just one way of the many in which bad grammar can wreck the even tenor of your life.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 06:34 PM

Drivers who, on turning left, will slow down in the fast lane and completely ignore the clearly marked turning lane.