Minor things that bother you

[kphoger]

I've never understood what the purpose of produce bags is other than giving you something else to throw away.

Those little plastic bags at the stores, especially grocery stores, are INCREDIBLY handy as mini trash bags, among other many other uses.

Yes, I find that the produce bags are more re-useful than typical plastic grocery bags.  The main advantage is that I've never seen one with a hole in the bottom, whereas probably 50% of the typical plastic grocery bags I end up with have at least one hole in the bottom.  This makes them much more useful as a second-use item—especially when throwing out spoiled food that either has a lot of liquid or is oozy.  Also, I wrap leafy herbs (cilantro, parsley, green onions) in a damp paper towel inside a plastic bag, and I've had better success keeping the items fresh when that plastic bag is a produce bag.

I've shopped at a few grocery stores where trying to fiddle with their bags is equally frustrating,

One downside of mask requirements during Covid while shopping was the inability to lick your fingers to open the produce bags ...

Nasty.

My strategy was to simply use the water on the vegetable I'm about to pick up to help.

He isn't licking the produce, just the outside of the bag.  That's really no less hygienic than biting a fingernail on your way into the store.  At the beginning of COVID-19, I heard multiple people complain about the inability to open produce bags at the grocery store—both from fellow shoppers and in casual conversation elsewhere.

But yes, I quickly adapted to simply touching wet produce instead.  The problem, of course, is that the item I'm buying isn't necessarily wet.  And it does seem kind of rude to touch produce I'm not buying in order to open the produce bag—as in:  go to buy half a dozen cucumbers, touch the parsley on the shelf to get my fingers wet, open the bag, and put my cucumbers in it.

I think "three apples" is the difference.  I usually buy seven gala apples at each weekly shop (one for each night).  And that is only a relatively small fraction of my shopping in the produce area alone.

Yeah, I'm trying to imagine buying a whole family dinner's worth of Brussels sprouts without using a bag to contain them...

I always considered them to be protecting the fruit from whatever nasty that might be in the cart.

This is the primary reason I put produce in bags—especially when it's something I eat in its entirety.  I don't really worry about bananas or lemons, for example, because I'm not eating the outer part.  But I don't fancy the idea of putting apples where, an hour ago, there was a leaky package of pork.



For what it's worth, I only use produce bags on maybe half the items we buy in the produce section—just enough of them to reuse, actually.  We use the self-checkout aisle with a conveyor belt, and I box our groceries up myself.  Most of the produce goes in a small box just for that, and the rest generally fits into a single typical grocery bag.

[ZLoth]

Here is one thing that bothers me from the movie Die Hard:

[jeffandnicole]

Here is one thing that bothers me from the movie Die Hard:

Along those lines, there's numerous movies where company executives are holding in-depth urgent meetings on Christmas Eve evening, oftento meet deadlines for other companies who presumably are also hard at work on Christmas eve evenings.

[JayhawkCO]

Here is one thing that bothers me from the movie Die Hard:

Along those lines, there's numerous movies where company executives are holding in-depth urgent meetings on Christmas Eve evening, oftento meet deadlines for other companies who presumably are also hard at work on Christmas eve evenings.

Well, it is in Nakitomi Plaza, owned by a Japanese company, so a) they wouldn't likely care about Christmas, and b) it would be business hours in Japan.

[Scott5114]

I did business with a company that was kind of a middleman between me and a Chinese manufacturer once. It was balls-to-the-wall through Christmas, because China was still open, and the company I was dealing with was trying to get everything in to the manufacturer before Chinese New Year, because that's when China shuts down.

[kphoger]

Auto-generated text messages from businesses, especially ones that pretend to be more personal than they really are.

The other evening, I picked up some stuff from the dry cleaner.  While I was still sitting in the parking lot, getting ready to back out of the spot, I got a text message that said, "Hey Kyle, It's Dave with ______ cleaners. I want to personally thank you for supporting us, and I was wondering ..."

OK, bub.  Nothing about that message was "personal".  For one thing, there was only one person in the store at the time, and her name sure as heck wasn't Dave—so I'm pretty sure you've never even seen me once in your life.  Secondly, there's no way you typed out a whole screen's worth of text message in the time it took me to walk outside and buckle my seat belt.  Rrrgggh.

[wanderer2575]

Auto-generated text messages from businesses, especially ones that pretend to be more personal than they really are.

The other evening, I picked up some stuff from the dry cleaner.  While I was still sitting in the parking lot, getting ready to back out of the spot, I got a text message that said, "Hey Kyle, It's Dave with ______ cleaners. I want to personally thank you for supporting us, and I was wondering ..."

OK, bub.  Nothing about that message was "personal".  For one thing, there was only one person in the store at the time, and her name sure as heck wasn't Dave—so I'm pretty sure you've never even seen me once in your life.  Secondly, there's no way you typed out a whole screen's worth of text message in the time it took me to walk outside and buckle my seat belt.  Rrrgggh.

At least they got their script correct.  One outfit used to send me messages starting with "Dear {NULL}:"

[DTComposer]

Along those lines, another mis-appropriation is where a young boy looking suspiciously identical to Calvin (from "Calvin and Hobbes") is pissing on a Ford (or Chevy) truck.  I'm sure that wasn't a Watterson creation.

and the contrary one of a fake Calvin praying on a cross.

Watterson was unique among cartoonists in that he refused to license his creations for merchandising (other than the books), stating that he wanted the legacy of "Calvin and Hobbes" to just be the strips themselves. I just saw an interview that talked about the licensing person at Watterson's syndicate - saying Watterson could have made millions more if he even just allowed a plush Hobbes. This is compared to Peanuts, who were selling everything from snack cakes to insurance and had TV specials, movies, theme park characters, and stage shows extending their presence well beyond the strip's end in 2000 (and arguably decades beyond the strip's peak of creativity and influence in the medium).

On the flip side, the interview also said Watterson did not care to go after people who used those characters illegally, so you saw t-shirts, posters, and yes, the car decals all happening without consequence.

I think the (unintended) consequence will be that Peanuts has, and will remain part of the cultural zeitgeist for some time to come (even if just as marketing shills), while Calvin & Hobbes, once Gen X starts to pass, will almost solely be remembered for the kid pissing on the back windows of people's cars.

I don't know about that. Calvin & Hobbes has a reputation for being a good comic strip beyond just the nostalgia trip. (Though I've never sat down and read the entire run, I enjoy it despite having little nostalgia for it; it ceased production a year or two after I learned to read.)  I see Gen Z folks posting strips they enjoyed on social media from time to time.

Don't get me wrong, I think Calvin & Hobbes is one of the greatest newspaper comic strips ever produced - I grew up in a mini-Golden Age, reading that, The Far Side, and Bloom County in their original runs - but its relatively short (10 year) run, plus its lack of merchandise to keep it in the public eye - makes me fear that it will, within a couple of generations, become something like Pogo - hailed for its creativity and innovations, but largely unread by the general populace of future generations. I would love to be wrong about that.

Reaching back a week, but an interesting article about Snoopy gaining new traction with Gen Z:
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/15/1219512092/puffer-snoopy-gen-z-obsessed

I have seen Calvin & Hobbes strips getting some love on TikTok as well, which is fantastic.

[ZLoth]

I'm also challenged because a 18TB External Hard drive which I had ordered on special on November 18, 2023 for backup purposes with the original delivery date of December 2nd is now expected December 22nd - 28th.

Just as an update... the 18TB arrived today, and within a few minutes of receipt, it was placed into use for backup and replacement of the 12TB drive. As of this writing, the backup has been running eight hours, and will run for another 22 hours.

[wanderer2575]

Apparently $19 per month is now the magic number for all charitable organizations.  (I know, it's an old marketing gimmick that it appears less costly than $20.)  And all their TV commercials look exactly the same.

[algorerhythms]

Apparently $19 per month is now the magic number for all charitable organizations.  (I know, it's an old marketing gimmick that it appears less costly than $20.)  And all their TV commercials look exactly the same.

I was talking about this with my sister while watching TV, and then there was a commercial for saving elephants (don't remember the name of the organization). I said, "let me guess, $19/month?". Turns out elephants are cheap, at only $12/month.

[thenetwork]

I can't stand the commercials that look/act like a news report (complete with green-screen making it look like they are in DC), a PBS fund drive (there is a generic lawyer 800 number commercial that does this) or commercials that start with, "Welcome back, my next guest is..." (usually a segment from a full blown infomercial).

I would never invest a penny in their shady products/services, either.

[Big John]

I can't stand the commercials that look/act like a news report (complete with green-screen making it look like they are in DC), a PBS fund drive (there is a generic lawyer 800 number commercial that does this) or commercials that start with, "Welcome back, my next guest is..." (usually a segment from a full blown infomercial).

I would never invest a penny in their shady products/services, either.

There is a local TV station that for the last few minutes of the noon news show put in an ad disguised to be a news segment.  "Ask an expert", where their area of expertise is in salesmanship.

[kphoger]

Why do so many TV/movie characters drink from a coffee mug while holding the side of the mug with no handle?

[kphoger]

So...  I was at church on Christmas Eve, and I looked out the window from the hallway.  Across the river, I saw, there was a huge Hanukkah menorah all lit up, which had apparently been installed by the city of Wichita.  This bothered me.  Why? you ask...

It's not because I think Murrica is a Christian nation and therefore no other religion's decorations should be erected by the government.

It's not because I think the government shouldn't be in the business of religious decorations at all.

It's not because I'm anti-Semitic or whatever.

It's not even because it was a particularly ugly decoration.

No, it's because Hanukkah had been over for nine days at that point.  It doesn't bother me when people or businesses or government bodies strive for cultural and religious sensitivity and inclusion.  But it does bother me when they only pretend to actually care—to the point that they can pat themselves on the back for having a Hanukkah menorah along with a Christmas tree, even though they haven't done even the most basic task of finding out when Hanukkah is to begin with.  (I wonder if Jewish people are bothered by this kind of thing too.)

[formulanone]

So...  I was at church on Christmas Eve, and I looked out the window from the hallway.  Across the river, I saw, there was a huge Hanukkah menorah all lit up, which had apparently been installed by the city of Wichita.  This bothered me.  Why? you ask...

It's not because I think Murrica is a Christian nation and therefore no other religion's decorations should be erected by the government.

It's not because I think the government shouldn't be in the business of religious decorations at all.

It's not because I'm anti-Semitic or whatever.

It's not even because it was a particularly ugly decoration.

No, it's because Hanukkah had been over for nine days at that point.  It doesn't bother me when people or businesses or government bodies strive for cultural and religious sensitivity and inclusion.  But it does bother me when they only pretend to actually care—to the point that they can pat themselves on the back for having a Hanukkah menorah along with a Christmas tree, even though they haven't done even the most basic task of finding out when Hanukkah is to begin with.  (I wonder if Jewish people are bothered by this kind of thing too.)

You've brought this up before and I think you're missing the little picture inside the big picture, if you will.

I don't expect an extra effort to put away the extra holiday tchotchkes because someone might get annoyed they weren't recognized. And for some folks, they probably don't quite remember exactly when it begins and ends on Gregorian Calendar; it may fall on the 25th of Kislev every year, but even I have to look that up a couple times a few weeks in advance.

With Christmas, you get a (roughly) 30 days' head start, as decoration tends to begin around 15 minutes after Thanksgiving has ended, if not beforehand. It all sticks around until somewhere between New Year's Day to Three Kings Day, depending on who finds time to straighten up and how much the latter tradition is followed. So that's  35-42 days of Christmas decorations. I haven't heard of too much of a push to rid the displays of token menorahs and dreidels after Chanukah's eighth night had ended, but there's also a few times it has not even begun until that certain true love gets her three French Hens.

If someone asked for the Christmas decorations to only go up for 12 days, there would be an uproar. So it's no big deal leaving up all the decorations a little while earlier or longer; it all balances out. 

[GaryV]

If they took down the menorah (or even turned off the lights on it) at the end of Hanukkah, there would be a single religion represented until they took down the creche.

[hotdogPi]

Balboa Island currently has two docked ships flying the Israeli flag. (One of the two also has two pro-Trump flags.) The problem: you're supposed to fly the flag of the country that your ship is. These are not Israeli ships.

[kphoger]

If someone asked for the Christmas decorations to only go up for 12 days, there would be an uproar.

If they took down the menorah (or even turned off the lights on it) at the end of Hanukkah

I'd be in favor of both those things:  only light up the Christmas tree/stuff during the 12 days of Christmas (Christmas Eve through Twelfth Night), and only light up the Menorah during the eight days/nights of Hanukkah.  Of course, I totally agree that the first part of that would prompt a big uproar, but it's what I'd personally prefer.

there would be a single religion represented until they took down the creche.

With my preferred method, there would have been a single religion (Judaism) represented during Hanukkah and a single religion (Christmas) (but probably also Kwanzaa, if Wichita does that, which is a question I don't know the answer to) during Christmastide.

With Christmas ... It all sticks around until somewhere between New Year's Day to Three Kings Day, depending on who finds time to straighten up and how much the latter tradition is followed.

Next year, any taking-down before Friday evening, January 3, will remove the menorah during Hanukkah.  That would bother me even more.

I think you're missing the little picture inside the big picture, if you will.

This is very likely.  Sounds like something I'd do.

[Rothman]

Balboa Island currently has two docked ships flying the Israeli flag. (One of the two also has two pro-Trump flags.) The problem: you're supposed to fly the flag of the country that your ship is. These are not Israeli ships.

I don't know if that's totally true.  The flagging of ships can be very complicated...per what I've seen from certain major mariners on TikTok, at least.

[GaryV]

Balboa Island currently has two docked ships flying the Israeli flag. (One of the two also has two pro-Trump flags.) The problem: you're supposed to fly the flag of the country that your ship is. These are not Israeli ships.

A ship is supposed to show the flag of the country of registry on the stern. Other flags on the vessels are discretionary.

And country of registry doesn't necessarily mean the ship is owned by anyone or any company in that country. It's just a legal thing, sometimes to take advantage of specific laws of the country.

[mgk920]

Balboa Island currently has two docked ships flying the Israeli flag. (One of the two also has two pro-Trump flags.) The problem: you're supposed to fly the flag of the country that your ship is. These are not Israeli ships.

A ship is supposed to show the flag of the country of registry on the stern. Other flags on the vessels are discretionary.

And country of registry doesn't necessarily mean the ship is owned by anyone or any company in that country. It's just a legal thing, sometimes to take advantage of specific laws of the country.

For many years most oceangoing cruise ships were registered in and flew flags of countries other than the USA due to the USA's laws prohibiting such ships from having on-board gambling casinos.

Mike

[jeffandnicole]

Balboa Island currently has two docked ships flying the Israeli flag. (One of the two also has two pro-Trump flags.) The problem: you're supposed to fly the flag of the country that your ship is. These are not Israeli ships.

A ship is supposed to show the flag of the country of registry on the stern. Other flags on the vessels are discretionary.

And country of registry doesn't necessarily mean the ship is owned by anyone or any company in that country. It's just a legal thing, sometimes to take advantage of specific laws of the country.

For many years most oceangoing cruise ships were registered in and flew flags of countries other than the USA due to the USA's laws prohibiting such ships from having on-board gambling casinos.

Mike

This wasn't the reason. The primary reason is employment laws.  Most ships have employees from less-developed nations. Their workweeks greatly exceed anything that would be permitted in the US, and their benefits are generally non-existent, unlike what most states in the US would allow. 

Any ship registered in the United States would be permitted to allow gambling once in international waters.  Regardless of the ship's country of registration, most countries don't permit gambling on cruise ships while the ship is in or near their ports.  Bermuda is an exception, but the country still requires the ships to have casino licenses issued by the country to operate in port, and they have limited hours.

[kkt]

Balboa Island currently has two docked ships flying the Israeli flag. (One of the two also has two pro-Trump flags.) The problem: you're supposed to fly the flag of the country that your ship is. These are not Israeli ships.

Yes. There's a house in my neighborhood flying the Ukrainian flag above the Stars and Stripes.  I hope Ukraine prevails in its war too, but that's not how the flags work, unless your house is an American fort that was just captured by Ukrainian forces.

[J N Winkler]

One of the more interesting things I learned about the Union Jack the other week is that, with a few narrow exceptions, it is not supposed to be flown by civilian vessels--rather, an ensign appropriate to the ship's status is to be flown instead.