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| Things that Cheese Me Off... FYI |
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| Cancellation of quality television ~ Need I say more? 3/30/06 Language Usage Violation: "Troop(s)" ~ Per Webster: 1. a group of people, animals, or things. 2. A group of soldiers. 3. troops. Military units: SOLDIERS. 4. A unit of at least five Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts under the guidance of an adult leader. 5. A great many. The meaning of "troop" would seem to clearly indicate a group. It's a collective noun, like "flock" or "pack" or "herd". So can anyone give me a good reason why journalists, who know better, insist upon using "troop" to indicate a single serviceperson? "Two troops killed today in Iraq." Oh, really, and how many were in each of those troops? It's sloppy and it makes me insane. Stop it, stop it now! There are plenty of good words to indicate an individual in military service: soldier, sailor, airman/woman, marine, serviceman/woman, trooper.... 7/8 File Folders. Specifically, the way that they come in a box with all the lefts clumped together, and all the middles clumped together and all the rights clumped together. That's mildly irritating. But what makes me completely NUTS is that people will just take them out of the box in that order, and use them in that order. So the file drawer is filled with 37 left cut folders and 3 rights and a middle. And they're not even bothered by it. They just look at you like you grew an extra head if you mention that it's a little weird to file like that (the cuts are there, after all, so that you can better read the file labels, thanks to the staggering). Then, there is me, who takes a brand new box and collates all the folders into their correct order, and then hoardes the box at my desk so that all the people who are anal about it like me can use them without aggravating our individual OCD tendancies! 5/10 Credit Card Solicitations. The just come so thick and fast. I've seen 'em all, but Discover Card is the worst offender. However, I have a plan that would qualify for the sister to this page, things that amuse me: taking some part of the solicitation that doesn't have my name or address on it -- those parts get shredded -- (like the faux plastic card they send you, in case you're not sure what this thing called a "credit card" might look like; or their insert full of disclaimers/terms/conditions), stick it into their business reply envelope, and then send it back to them at their expense (which is the nature of the business reply envelope -- they pay for the ones that they receive back)! Clever, no? I urge everyone within the view of my page to undertake the same policy! 3/25 Litterbugs. Any type, really, but most especially: those who drop their still-lit cigarettes wherever the mood strikes them. I've resolved to begin calling people out on the matter rather than just shake my head and keep my disgust to myself. I just wonder what they are thinking that the whole outdoors is their personal ashtray! Their mothers must all be very proud.... 3/17 Can I just say if I never hear the word "brackets" or the phrase "Big Dance" again, I'd be just fine with that?! People who don't recycle ~ mostly, it's sheer laziness. How hard is it to put the can in the container over HERE instead of the garbage over THERE? I mean, seriously? It made me laugh, and yet with a certain degree of bitterness, when I was in college, to observe that my classmates, many of whom would turn out to protest just about anything, good libs that they were, couldn't be bothered to walk their cans and bottles out of the classroom and drop them in the collection containers that they HAD TO PASS ON THE WAY OUT ANYWAY!! Me, Republican-leaning as I am, would take the wastebasket out of the classroom with me, put the 10 glass/plastic/aluminum containers into the recycling, and then return the wastebasket to the room. People have not gotten better in the years since. Oy!! Bad drivers, particularly those who do not grasp the concept of turn signals People who confuse tasteful and/or classy with 'boring' ~ this is my special Academy Awards Red Carpet peeve! Paying for extended warranties ~ You mean <insert manufacturer here> is only willing to stand behind their product past the 90-day mark if I pay them more for it? It's acceptable to them that their product might break down on day 95? I really don't think so. If we all forced them to just guarantee the thing would work, without being extorted over it, they'd have to do it. Inheritance taxes ~ that money has already been taxed 18 times by the time I kick the bucket and want to pass it on. Leave it alone. Reality TV whose purpose is to show just how little pride/shame people have when there's a promise of money. Ick! Michael Moore ~ I can't even talk about it; luckily, Christopher Hitchens can (and he's a leftie from way back). Moore's up there with Jane Fonda on my Sh*t List. I can't abide that he is taken even vaguely seriously. |
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