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BS: The daily gripe
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Subject: BS: The daily gripe From: Donuel Date: 14 Sep 06 - 03:16 PM gripes you don't want to bring to the kitchen table but need some quick cathartic relief can be posted here... Gripe: Drivers on their cells who take shallow turns into other turning lanes so they won't have to steer with two hands. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: gnu Date: 14 Sep 06 - 03:28 PM Drivers who can't drive. Especially the ones who can't but think they can. Even moreso, the ones who can't but think they can and use a cellphone at the same time. Worse yet... the ones who can't but think they can who have to look at the passengers they are talking with while they are talking on the cellphone at the same time. And.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Amos Date: 14 Sep 06 - 03:30 PM Drivers who learned to drive by playing video games like Smash Nukem Destruction Derby, and treat other drivers as incovenient cartoons on their screen. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Rapparee Date: 14 Sep 06 - 04:02 PM I thought other drivers WERE inconvenient cartoons on my screen. Lawsamercy, you learn something new every day! |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Georgiansilver Date: 14 Sep 06 - 04:16 PM I was driving along this morning...minding my own business...but was so shocked to see a young girl using her mobile phone whilst driving that I dropped my shaver in my cereal. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: kendall Date: 14 Sep 06 - 04:39 PM Other drivers |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bill D Date: 14 Sep 06 - 05:54 PM I'm not sure whether this fits in 'daily', but here in the Wash DC area is the only place I've even seen where, when I see a yellow light, realize I need to stop before it turns red, and see in my rear view mirror someone behind me PULL OUT so they can pass me and RUN THE RED LIGHT! This has happened 4 times in the last couple of years. The daily one is when there is a major intersection with double left-turn lanes, and when MY light turns green, seeing multiple drivers continue to turn left in front of me. It is usually only 2-3 in each lane, but I HAVE seen as many as 9 cars in 2 lanes run the left turn red....and this was ½ block from a police station. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: SINSULL Date: 14 Sep 06 - 06:04 PM Drivers with a cigarette in one hand and a cell phone in the other who turn around and yell at the brat in the back seat who is kicking the seat in front just before she slams on the break as she almost rear ends the car in front. I kept hoping she would finally hit him so I could testify in court. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Liz the Squeak Date: 14 Sep 06 - 06:06 PM My gripe today.... I have toothache, it's my birthday and no-one started a birthday thread for me.... : ( LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: pdq Date: 14 Sep 06 - 06:07 PM happy birthday |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 14 Sep 06 - 07:55 PM Look again Liz... Can you still buy Gripe Water? |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Sep 06 - 08:07 PM My gripe about phones is the people who talk all of the time on their cell phones and ignore the people who they are actually WITH. Parents ignoring babies and small children while in the grocery store, for example. That's the perfect time for one-on-one time with a kid, but they miss the opportunity. And those who stay on the phone while they go through the checkout line. They treat the clerk like the hired help. My biggest grocery shopping gripe, though, is the people who put their kids in carts and don't watch them. I'm sure some of these children are going to fall out and kill themselves. I has happened, all too often, in other places. One day I literally caught a child about to pitch out of the cart and scolded the mother for inattention. She was very nasty back. I should have pressed charges for child neglect. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bill D Date: 14 Sep 06 - 08:25 PM MY biggest grocery store gripe is folks who block aisles...they just stand there, contemplating shelves and ignoring me saying "EXCUSE ME , PLEASE!" ... and they abandon carts in the aisle parked at the most awkward angle they can manage.... This is just subset of the "I'm not the LEAST interested in anyone's convenience except my own, and I can't be bothered to pay attention" syndrome |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: bobad Date: 14 Sep 06 - 08:28 PM I'm with you on that one Bill, why the very thing happened to me just yesterday, as a matter of fact it happens nearly everytime I go grocery shopping. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: JennyO Date: 14 Sep 06 - 08:35 PM Drivers who force their way in from a side street, then slow down in front of you - often to turn off again at the next street. Drivers who sit on a left turning lane waiting to be first out at the lights (going straight ahead), then race to cut you off when the light goes green. I'm sure I'll think of more... |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bert Date: 14 Sep 06 - 08:39 PM Bill, if "Excuse me" doesn't work try "Get out of the bloody way". And move the abandoned carts a long way away. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Tootler Date: 14 Sep 06 - 08:41 PM One of my gripes is the pathetic sentences handed out over here (UK) to people who kill while driving a car. There was a case featured on the news today of a driver overtaking on the brow of a hill, doing 80mph (speed limit 60) hit another car head on and killed the driver. Not only was this character speeding and overtaking in a stupid place, but he had no driving licence nor insurance. What did he get - 4 years and will probably be out in 2. If he had killed in almost any other circumstances he would have been charged with manslaughter with the possibility of life. (not that that means very much anymore) The ultimate irony was that this character was speeding because he was late for a court appearance! |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bill D Date: 14 Sep 06 - 09:05 PM ...and since no particular limits were set on Today it was a perky young female who read a story about "Eye-rack" where the "tear-ists" were causing problems.....Arrrgggghhh! Don't they TEST these people before they put them on national TV? |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: kendall Date: 14 Sep 06 - 09:44 PM I agree, Bill. How about the ones who can't pronounce "Particularly" or Antarctic. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Donuel Date: 15 Sep 06 - 12:08 AM jeez everyone knows its Ouraq. gripe: Support our troops stickers. "The real meaning was if you hate the war you hate our troops" Support Ouraq Civil War Support our torture Support our secret prisons Support legislation to immunize the white house from war crimes. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Liz the Squeak Date: 15 Sep 06 - 01:21 AM Well I now have a birthday thread but I also still have the toothache! :$ Todays' new gripe.... Unsociable Parkers. People who park their cars so that others around them cannot get into the space or open their car doors. The lady who lives next door to me takes up a space big enough for two cars when she parks. She's not a bad parker, she does it so that they will have room to park their huge delivery truck right outside our house. I've seen her dash out of the house and move her car out so that the truck can pull into the gap left - her husband, the driver, has rung her from the top of the road and got her to move the car as he's driven down the road. She then parks the car in such a way that a space I would have parked two cars in, is taken up by one vehicle... I don't mind a walk to the house - it's good for me after all, but when I am loading or unloading shopping etc, it's a real pain... and why is the van always outside our house and not theirs? Why can't he leave it across the road where he's blocking no view, obstructing no junctions and can still see it from his front windows....? LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bagpuss Date: 15 Sep 06 - 04:49 AM Football commentators who can't pronounce substitute and say subtitute instead. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: gnu Date: 15 Sep 06 - 06:23 AM Next time you encounter an unattended shopping cart blocking the aisle, throw a few extra items in. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Liz the Squeak Date: 15 Sep 06 - 06:47 AM That's a great idea Gnu... maybe if there are two or three together you could swap the babies around too..... one woman nearly took the Limpit away because she was too busy chatting to her mate and grabbed the wrong trolley. She would have got her too if I hadn't had hold of the front end.... D'Oh!!! How stupid was I? LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: jacqui.c Date: 15 Sep 06 - 08:23 AM Driving gripes - drivers who can SEE from a good distance that the traffic is funnelling from two to one lane and who get as close as they can to the meeting of the ways before trying to force their way in. (Some idiot always lets them in - I don't 'see' them, ever). Rubberneckers who HAVE to slow right down to see the result of a crash on the other side of the carriageway. I ended up in a half hour queue of traffic purely as a result of this on the A1. Absolutely no problem on my side of the road, apart from the ghouls who had to see what was happening in the far lane on the other side of the divide. Shopping gripe - all of the above (I just push my way through if the chatterers don't move after being asked three times) plus the ones who wait until all their purchases have been rung up to find their purse and ferret around for cash or card. Also the ones (UK) who insist on finishing packing all their shopping before paying - I've actually snarled at one to pay up and then finish packing (she did!). |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: number 6 Date: 15 Sep 06 - 09:19 AM Goddamnit .... the world is full of idiot drivers .... and shopping at the big supermarket, how do we do it?? .... my God!! It makes ya wanna go out into the wilderness and get away from it all ... live off the land, away from goddamn PEOPLE, way from unsolicited phone calls, away from big supermarkets, away from crazy drivers (drivers who are perfect like me). Now ... this has got me thinkin ... and goddamn it, I think it's a gripe ... where the hell can one find a wilderness these days that isn't f'n cold, or isn't a goddamned desert. There is no place to get away from all our gripes. Oh well. Grin and bear it ... hey, things are not that bad after all when one thinks about it. sIx |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: WFDU - Ron Olesko Date: 15 Sep 06 - 10:02 AM There is something about being behind the wheel of a car that brings out the idiot in all of us. I am very guilty of this, and I notice from a few of the comments that others have the same issue. We seem to get upset when someone passes us or cuts us off - even if an accident isn't imminent. The example that Bill D mentioned about the driver that passes him to run a redlight. That drives me nuts, but after the fact when I sit back to think about it I realize that no one was in danger. While the other driver was nuts, usually he or she does see that they are clear and not putting anyone in danger. I think all of us have an issue with someone getting ahead of us, and when we are behind several tons of metal we get a sense of empowerment that shakes the morals of even the most dedicated of pacifists. How often I wish I had a flame thrower or machine gun like the old James Bond car to deal with these presumptious drivers. Usually if I just count to 10 and turn up the XM a bit I feel much better and move along at my own pace. My gripe is about people who insist on wearing sweaters wrapped around their neck like some kind of fashion statement. Scum of the earth! |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Big Mick Date: 15 Sep 06 - 10:16 AM Ron, I used to love Gallagher's comedy bit on how to deal with this. Suction cup dart guns with flags that say "Idiot". When someone accumulates too many the cops haul them off to jail. BTW, great lineup for NERFA. And thanks for posting the JOE GLAZER piece on your blog. All the best, Mick |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: GUEST,thurg Date: 15 Sep 06 - 10:31 AM Kendall - What is the mispronunciation of "Antarctic" that you object to? Does it involve the first "c"? Reason I ask: I was taught by a very finicky schoolma'rm in southern Ontario that the first "c" in "arctic" is silent, but I usually hear it pronounced, and any dictionary I've looked it up in gives both pronunciations ... |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Big Mick Date: 15 Sep 06 - 10:40 AM How about interviewers who bring their own biases to an interview and insist on asking the same question, slightly differently until they get what they want? I used to hate Katie Couric on the Today show. If she had a particular bias (which was usually the case) on a given subject, she would literally steer the interview until she got what she wanted. Oddly enough, I enjoy her on the Evening News, but that is because she is just reporting the news. One of the major gripes and problems in 21st century TV is the "news as entertainment" phenomena. Mick |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: jeffp Date: 15 Sep 06 - 10:48 AM Funny, Mick. The times I remember seeing Katie Couric restate questions are when the subject of the interview has danced around and refused to answer the question asked, instead answering the question they prefer to answer (which wasn't asked). |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Big Mick Date: 15 Sep 06 - 10:53 AM Jeff, I can remember times when she was good that way, although I think Lauer was much better at it. But those times, IMO, were far outweighed by the times she had a specific point of view that she wanted to promote. All the best, Mick |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: WFDU - Ron Olesko Date: 15 Sep 06 - 11:05 AM "How about interviewers who bring their own biases to an interview and insist on asking the same question, slightly differently until they get what they want?" IF they get the answer they want, then usually their line of questioning proved correct. I don't know of the specific Couric incidents that you talk about, but I do know from working in a news studio that often the reporter will have solid information and tries to get the subject to confirm. The guest will often be evasive, but a good reporter will get to the truth. News needs to tell a story. A good reporter has their facts and should steer the story in the direction that will tell it. You can see when a guest is either not telling the truth, holding back, or simply does not want to answer. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bill D Date: 15 Sep 06 - 11:16 AM I agree, Mick...When that manhunt was underway the other day, and they 'thought' they had the escapee cornered, the N.Y. trooper at the news conference finally said..."I've answered that question 3 times now." The reporters just keep asking stuff that they have been TOLD there are no answers to yet, or worse, stuff that they have been told is off limits and WILL not be answered. ...and while I'm at it, let me voice my gripe about the interviewers who phrase questions to squeeeeeeeze 'personal' and emotional responses from people. "So, tell us, Mrs. Jones....how did it make you feel when you learned you had cancer and your husband had run off with the babysitter?"....They can compose 2 minute, compound-complex sentences designed to give then, (the interviewer), the most possible time on camera just to get a 4 second response from the interviewee. "Well, pretty sad, I guess". |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Big Mick Date: 15 Sep 06 - 11:21 AM I don't have a problem with that, Ron, and I know I am speaking in generalities here. That is borne of watching this show in the morning for years. Again, if I am using the Today Show example, I never had a problem with Lauer's technique. He has pretty well been direct, and refuses to let the Interviewee off the hook. Russert is another one like this. You can try spin with him, but he will make sure the audience understands that well. With Couric, it has always seemed to me, she came at it from the angle of having a bias and then attempting to prove it. Just my opinion. And as I said above, she seems to do well on the CBS Evening News. I tuned in just to watch her debut, and now find myself watching this broadcast, one of many news related shows I watch and listen to. Mick |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: WFDU - Ron Olesko Date: 15 Sep 06 - 11:25 AM I have to admit that I did not watch the Today Show very much (and I was an NBC employee for 12 years!)so I can't really comment on her style. Your points about Russert and Lauer are well taken and I agree. Bill D, I do agree with you about the personal comments. I do not care for the ambulance-chaser style that tries to choke emotion for the viewers. Too much like the film "Broadcast News". However, as to your point about pressing the trooper - I think it the obligation of the reporter to get information. If reporters took "no" for an answer we might not have uncovered Watergate, the Pentagon Papers and so many other issues since then. Reporters have a right and an obligation to search for the truth and answers for their viewers. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Big Mick Date: 15 Sep 06 - 11:34 AM Bill D, I agree completely. What is it with the mandate to make someone cry on camera? I tire of it. I also don't like interviewers who ask a question, and then give their own answer to it, usually ending with a "Doesn't it?" or "Right?". One of my pet peeve comments by Couric was "Most people feel........". Totally inappropriate and a poor interview style. Just ask the question, and make the subject answer it. Do it in an engaging and informed style. Like Russert. Mick |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bill D Date: 15 Sep 06 - 11:37 AM Oh sure, Ron...but Watergate was a different matter and the interviews were not conducted "live" on camera, and there was MUCH indication that information was being hidden. But if it HAD been live, and the guy tells you for the 5th time, "I'm not gonna talk about that", it's time to move on. In the case of the trooper, he was being asked for the 4th time, "....and when the agent approached the suspect, what did the suspect do?" Well, the suspect had turned, raised a pistol, then run away.....the trooper had not been there, and that was all he knew! |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: jeffp Date: 15 Sep 06 - 11:43 AM I do think that Katie had gotten pretty bad in the last couple of years. My wife hated her because she wouldn't let the interviewees get a word in edgewise. All they got a chance to do was agree with the 5-minute question. I do wish that somebody in a press conference would, after the briefer has danced around an embarassing qustion, just ask, "Why won't you answer so-and-so's question?" It would make those bullshit sessions a lot more fun. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: WFDU - Ron Olesko Date: 15 Sep 06 - 11:43 AM "But if it HAD been live, and the guy tells you for the 5th time, "I'm not gonna talk about that", it's time to move on." I guess you are right in terms of a live broadcast. I think the audience would get the point that the guest is being evasive and holding back - and that the host gave plenty of opportunity to allow the guest to answer. Often THAT is the reason why questions are rephrased and asked again. I do see your point about the trooper though. It sounds as if the reporter had air time to fill, saw they were at a deadend and tried to get the answer another way. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Donuel Date: 15 Sep 06 - 03:11 PM I get the willies every time I hear Bush and Cheney say "We didn;t ask for this war!" and "I wouldn;t do a single thing different in prosecuting this war." My other gripe is CABLE TV Once upon a time we bought it to have fewer commercials. Last night I watched 22 minutes of cable TV while surfing from channel to channel to find something other than commericals. I counted 7 minutes of actual programming and 15 minutes of commercials during that 22 minutes. Cable news: THE BIG TEASE - they promise to cover something of importence (weather emergencies etc.). They say its "coming up" and it never comes up. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bunnahabhain Date: 15 Sep 06 - 03:27 PM Media people without the slightest command of the English language, or seemingly any language at all. When it's the proper news and analysis sections of the BBC, it's just not right. If you can't construct a sentence correctly, you don't inspire any confidence in your ability to analyse a situation, or get a straight answer of a professional BTW, number 6, if you want a wilderness that's not a desert, or deep frozen all year, there's a nice big one in Europe. The Chernobyl inadvertant nature reserve...... |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Kaleea Date: 15 Sep 06 - 04:06 PM I do NOT appreciate grapes with seeds! I believe that all journalists who do not agree with me 100% whould be replaced with ones who do--then go after all the politicians who don't agree with me. Why couldn't my neices & nephews have bought me a phaser which actually works as a phaser, instead of just being a remote control device for my tv that makes fun, phasery star trek noises. How come I had to hear on the news instead of finding out in person about the atm machine that gave $20's instead of $5's?! And why is it that in the rare event that I have played the lottery when it got well over $100 million, those dirty *+$%*^#@'s cheated & chose the wrong number?!!!? |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bill D Date: 15 Sep 06 - 05:06 PM modern packaging which keeps food safe, clean, fresh....if only you can get IN the package to eat it. I used to be able to open a package of chip ot nuts without scissors, and usually refold it to finish later. Now, if I pull and tear hard enough to get it open, it rips halfway down, daring me to figure out how to re-seal it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Liz the Squeak Date: 15 Sep 06 - 05:14 PM Ah... I have that problem opening CDs and DVDs.. They're not food products, what's in there that needs to be kept fresh in 2 layers of shrinkwrap and a security box? And why does the bloody stuff cling with static to every surface EXCEPT the waste bin? LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bill D Date: 15 Sep 06 - 05:24 PM "fresh" in not the issue...it's that CDs are small enough to slip in a pocket. They are hoping you won't take the trouble to cut thru all that stuff to steal it. (LP records used to be fairly safe, but I worked in a store where they caught someone trying to smuggle one out in a frozen pizza box) |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Liz the Squeak Date: 15 Sep 06 - 05:35 PM Oh and whilst we're griping... my toothache has spread up my face and made my nose numb... Didn't realise until this morning when I couldn't see properly, only to find my glasses were lopsided due to the swelling... And this is AFTER the treatment.... I reckon that bloody dentist is just aching to get me in for a root canal job... but it's my thread cutting tooth (working on my own tailors notch) and I can't imagine life without it.... LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Bill D Date: 15 Sep 06 - 05:38 PM ???...do check to see it's not an infection! |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: Tootler Date: 15 Sep 06 - 06:07 PM Driving gripes - drivers who can SEE from a good distance that the traffic is funnelling from two to one lane and who get as close as they can to the meeting of the ways before trying to force their way in. (Some idiot always lets them in - I don't 'see' them, ever). I once read somewhere that the Engineers work out the effect of the narrowing from two to one lane on that basis that you should continue in both lanes until close to the narrowing and then merge in turn. The trouble is they never put signs up to that effect so people get over early rather than staying in lane until necessary. What is much worse is when you have two lanes at a junction, say a turn left and turn right and there is a queue in one, so the impatient use the empty lane to queue jump. As you said, there is always some soft idiot who lets them in. There are a couple of places near where I live where that happens fairly regularly. Rubberneckers who HAVE to slow right down to see the result of a crash on the other side of the carriageway. I ended up in a half hour queue of traffic purely as a result of this on the A1. Absolutely no problem on my side of the road, apart from the ghouls who had to see what was happening in the far lane on the other side of the divide. The nearest I have come to an accident was caused by just that on the A1 near Wetherby. The car in front practically did an emergency stop to slow down to look at an accident. |
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Subject: RE: BS: The daily gripe From: alanabit Date: 16 Sep 06 - 04:03 AM Those thugs on the Autobahn, who when you are overtaking lorries, but still maintaining a safe distance from the car in front, tailgate you and flash their lights ordering you out of their way. They have no compunction in cutting inside of you from the inside lane, if you need to keep distance from the driver in front. Why are these yobs let loose on anything more powerful than a bicycle? |
