Minor things that bother you

[I-55]

Hotel room bathrooms where they place a full length mirror directly opposite the toilet.  Yeah ... that's the last thing I want to look at while taking a shit ...

For that matter I've been in hotels where the bathroom door either doubles as the closet door, is a sliding door that is easy to see through, or doesn't lock altogether.

[J N Winkler]

I've stayed in a (fairly pricey) hotel where the bathroom door slid in a track instead of moving on hinges, and was so hard to get going and so hard to stop once it got moving that there were visible patches of damage to the finish where other guests had not been able to keep it from crashing into the stop.

Another time my Google-fu failed me when I arrived in a new town, and I ended up staying in a decayed old motel where the bathroom door had a broken knob.  I was very lucky my first attempt to pull it closed all the way failed; if it had latched, I would have been trapped inside the bathroom (naked) until someone came to let me out.

[snowc]

I've stayed in a (fairly pricey) hotel where the bathroom door slid in a track instead of moving on hinges, and was so hard to get going and so hard to stop once it got moving that there were visible patches of damage to the finish where other guests had not been able to keep it from crashing into the stop.

Another time my Google-fu failed me when I arrived in a new town, and I ended up staying in a decayed old motel where the bathroom door had a broken knob.  I was very lucky my first attempt to pull it closed all the way failed; if it had latched, I would have been trapped inside the bathroom (naked) until someone came to let me out.

One of the local hotels (SYR) had a sliding door bedroom with its own bathroom! 
This was at CrestHill Suites in Syracuse (right off New Venture Gear Drive / Former Kinne Street)

[formulanone]

Hotel room bathrooms where they place a full length mirror directly opposite the toilet.  Yeah ... that's the last thing I want to look at while taking a shit ...

For that matter I've been in hotels where the bathroom door either doubles as the closet door, is a sliding door that is easy to see through, or doesn't lock altogether.

I've had a few Hampton Inns that use that setup; usually it's a recent build or re-design.

[GaryV]

I stayed at a place (low-end chain place) where the drain pipe from the bathroom sink was disconnected, and then kind of lined back up so some of the water went down the pipe.  I put a barrier of towels around the spill.

[hbelkins]

I'm bothered when national figures make sweeping generalizations about a place without knowing the actual background of said place. It happens fairly often to Kentucky, where outsiders who know nothing about the political history and makeup of the Bluegrass State spout off.

I wrote a column about it...

https://kentuckyvalleyviews.blogspot.com/2021/09/a-brief-history-of-kentucky-politics.html

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I'm bothered when national figures make sweeping generalizations about a place without knowing the actual background of said place. It happens fairly often to Kentucky, where outsiders who know nothing about the political history and makeup of the Bluegrass State spout off.

Even though you and I agree on virtually nothing when it comes to individual politics, these issues are the ultimate sum of:

-the death and consolidation of local media, resulting in analysis and reporting largely falling to outsiders
-coastal domination of media that has little interest on what happens between I-5 and I-95
-people who demand oversimplified explanations for the things they don't know

[hotdogPi]

I'm bothered when national figures make sweeping generalizations about a place without knowing the actual background of said place. It happens fairly often to Kentucky, where outsiders who know nothing about the political history and makeup of the Bluegrass State spout off.

I wrote a column about it...

https://kentuckyvalleyviews.blogspot.com/2021/09/a-brief-history-of-kentucky-politics.html

From what I understand, these Democrats you talk about (except state legislators representing Louisville and the current governor of Kentucky) are not liberal – they're a remnant of the Southern Democrats that held the South from the two-party system to the 2000s decade for most of the South and 2014-2016 for the last three states to switch: Arkansas, Kentucky, and West Virginia – and it's not fully over in West Virginia.

[hbelkins]

A contract is already underway to replace these signs with more reflective sheeting, eliminating the need for attached lighting. They are prolly doing it because it just creates light pollution.

Using the made-up word "prolly" for "probably." Also, "tryna" for "trying to."

The English language continues to die a slow, painful death.

[zachary_amaryllis]

A contract is already underway to replace these signs with more reflective sheeting, eliminating the need for attached lighting. They are prolly doing it because it just creates light pollution.

Using the made-up word "prolly" for "probably." Also, "tryna" for "trying to."

The English language continues to die a slow, painful death.

don't forget 'finna' or 'finta' ...

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I might have mentioned this before, but restaurants that require you to make an account to use their online ordering system.

More restaurant stuff - places that require you to start an online order just to look at their menu. I've run into non-zero places that I've randomly been interested in scouting out late at night that had closed foe the day and wouldn't allow me to look at their menu on account of not being able to place an order at that time.

[jeffandnicole]

A contract is already underway to replace these signs with more reflective sheeting, eliminating the need for attached lighting. They are prolly doing it because it just creates light pollution.

Using the made-up word "prolly" for "probably." Also, "tryna" for "trying to."

The English language continues to die a slow, painful death.

don't forget 'finna' or 'finta' ...

Yea, but watcha gonna do?

[texaskdog]

anyone seen the movie idiocracy?  "Jack Inna Box"  this is how it starts.

[Max Rockatansky]

Has anyone ever tried to read Old English?  As much as I hate "Textese"  it certainly is way easier to understand than the outright gibberish that is Old English.

[abefroman329]

Something that bothered me this past week: Smart televisions and the expectation that you enter in the password such as p1!V0$AovF&V,ybTm82g to access the streaming service utilizing the television remote instead of displaying a code that you can enter through a web browser. At least I can use the Roku app to paste the password in, but the SiriusXM app on Roku doesn't even allow THAT! Can I at least view the password on the screen? Noooooo...

I'm not sure if you were aware of this, but if you use the Roku app on your phone and go to the remote screen, chances are, you'll be able to enter the password using a keyboard on your phone.

[J N Winkler]

Has anyone ever tried to read Old English?  As much as I hate "Textese"  it certainly is way easier to understand than the outright gibberish that is Old English.

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum;
Si þin nama gehalgod
to becume þin rice
gewurþe ðin willa
on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.

[tolbs17]

I went into a house with a bathroom in a living room. That was so weird

[Scott5114]

I went into a house with a bathroom in a living room. That was so weird

I assume you mean the bathroom was a separate room off of the living room and not that the toilet was actually in the living room, which would be a lot more weird.

Houses of a certain size and price point tend to assume that the owners of the house will regularly have guests over, and thus will include a bathroom specifically intended for guests. This is done both for ease of access, and to discourage guests from wandering into the parts of the house containing more private areas, such as bedrooms. I have seen houses set up to have the bathroom in the main entryway, for example.

Smaller houses tend to locate bathrooms in a more utilitarian location. For example, my house has one of its two bathrooms off of the main hallway, in between the second and third bedroom. (The other bathroom is located off the master bedroom and thus is not accessible to guests.)

My parents' 2 bed/3 bath house has only one toilet not accessed through a bedroom, and that is located in the laundry room, which is an odd choice, since most people wouldn't want their guests to see their washer and dryer or any laundry left in there. More oddly, the room contains no sink–there is one in the hallway, however (which also leads to the garage, meaning someone coming in from outside can easily wash their hands, if necessary, before entering the main body of the house).

[1995hoo]

The powder room in our house is right off the living room/dining room. It's the only bathroom on that level. It's the only logical place for it on that floor, though I admit it's not always an ideal location (when my father was in his last months and his kidneys were failing, it was not the most pleasant thing to hear him in there when he'd become stricken with the need to go have a seat on the toilet during dinner–but, on the other hand, his medical condition at the time combined with trouble climbing stairs made it that much more important for that powder room to be so conveniently located).

[Scott5114]

I suppose if having to hear someone conducting a transaction in the lavatory at inopportune times was disturbing enough and frequent enough, one could expend the resources to install some degree of soundproofing of the room. This might be difficult or impossible depending on the particulars of the bathroom, however. For example, many things that are excellent at absorbing sound waves would also promote growth of mold in high-humidity conditions (for the very same reasons they make good sound dampers), so they could only be used in a half-bath.

[J N Winkler]

My parents' 2 bed/3 bath house has only one toilet not accessed through a bedroom, and that is located in the laundry room, which is an odd choice, since most people wouldn't want their guests to see their washer and dryer or any laundry left in there. More oddly, the room contains no sink–there is one in the hallway, however (which also leads to the garage, meaning someone coming in from outside can easily wash their hands, if necessary, before entering the main body of the house).

In my experience of this local area, it's pretty common for there to be a half-bath located off a laundry room that doubles as a mudroom for the door to the garage.  My parents and both sets of grandparents have all lived in such houses.

I can think of three motivations for this particular design choice.  It allows one hot water pipe to be run to serve two distinct types of uses, and thus reduces the amount of lukewarm water that has to be flushed through the tap to get hot water.  Also, it permits a rectangle of space to be carved into the laundry room, the bathroom, and a storage room of some kind (the pantry in my parents' house, and a closet off the garage in both grandparents' houses) without any voids.  And finally, it increases privacy by putting another room between someone using the toilet and other occupants of the house.  It's not just a question of not wanting to be heard through a hollow-core door by people in the next room:  even if there is an exhaust fan, defecating with other people so close means sharing intimate information about diet and bowel function.

[texaskdog]

Hotel room bathrooms where they place a full length mirror directly opposite the toilet.  Yeah ... that's the last thing I want to look at while taking a shit ...

I just think damn he looks good, wait am I gay?  No, that's just me!

[hbelkins]

Government agencies that use Weather Channel winter storm names in their press releases.

[cl94]

Government agencies that use Weather Channel winter storm names in their press releases.

Oh god. Those stupid Weather Channel names can burn in a fire.

[kkt]

Government agencies that use Weather Channel winter storm names in their press releases.

Weather Channel making up their own names for storms.