Minor things that bother you

[kphoger]

Unsurprising. I can absolutely see a small Kansas town tracking well above the national average.

Wichita has almost twice the population of Rochester.

[webny99]

Having grown up in a town with a total number of households below 700

Unsurprising. I can absolutely see a small Kansas town tracking well above the national average.

Wichita has almost twice the population of Rochester.

  If that's Wichita, you're much older than I thought.

[kphoger]

Having grown up in a town with a total number of households below 700

Unsurprising. I can absolutely see a small Kansas town tracking well above the national average.

Wichita has almost twice the population of Rochester.

  If that's Wichita, you're much older than I thought.

This is really very simple.  I currently live in a city I didn't grow up in.

[Rothman]

At least 30 years ago, the statistic Mormons went by was 1 out of 1,700 doors let you in.

No, but the idea that knocking doors would take a town 2½ times the size of my hometown to have one person let you in:  that just doesn't jive.

It's important to define what "let you in" means here.

If it means "answer the door", 1 out of 1700 is way too low.
If it means "come sit down in the living room and I'll hear you out", 1 of 1700 is probably pretty accurate.
If it means "choose to convert their religion based on someone showing up on their doorstep", 1 of 1700 is on the very high end of believable.

Your gut is no match for a stat actually derived from data collection.

[webny99]

This is really very simple.  I currently live in a city I didn't grow up in.

Yeah, but your suspicion that 1 in 1700 was inaccurate was based on the town you grew up in. Hence:

Unsurprising. I can absolutely see a small Kansas town tracking well above the national average.

[SEWIGuy]

Dear random retailer:

For the love of God, stop sending me surveys after every customer interaction. Yes, my buying experience at Lowe's was very nice. No, the guy at State Farm didn't 100% address my issue, but its fine since I was able to figure it out myself. Yes, my oil change went smoothly.

Regardless, I am not answering any of them.

[kphoger]

This is really very simple.  I currently live in a city I didn't grow up in.

Yeah, but your suspicion that 1 in 1700 was inaccurate was based on the town you grew up in. Hence:

Unsurprising. I can absolutely see a small Kansas town tracking well above the national average.

Yeah, but your unsurprise was at the fact that "I know way fewer than 1700 households' worth of people, and yet I personally know multiple people who have let Mormons (and JWs) into their house to have a discussion."  The people/households I know are not those from the town I grew up in three decades ago.  Rather, the people/households I know are right here in Wichita, which is not a small Kansas town.

[webny99]

Your gut is no match for a stat actually derived from data collection.

I think you missed the point of my post, which was that it's unclear how the phrase "let you in" was being used in the data collection.

[JayhawkCO]

Your gut is no match for a stat actually derived from data collection.

I think you missed the point of my post, which was that it's unclear how the phrase "let you in" was being used in the data collection.

Biblically.

[webny99]

Yeah, but your unsurprise was at the fact that "I know way fewer than 1700 households' worth of people, and yet I personally know multiple people who have let Mormons (and JWs) into their house to have a discussion. The people/households I know are not those from the town I grew up in three decades ago.  Rather, the people/households I know are right here in Wichita, which is not a small Kansas town.

Thank you for clarifying that last point. 

I still think that growing up in a small Kansas town is a relevant cultural factor in your opinion here. Even if the specific people you know now didn't grow up in the same town as you, who's to say they didn't grow up in another town to which the same would apply?

And to an even finer point, my unsurprise was only partly due to the "small town" aspect. Part of it was also due to the "Kansas" aspect, because Kansas is in the Midwest, and I would posit that the Midwest as a whole would track well above the national average in receptiveness to door-knocking strangers.

[kkt]

At least 30 years ago, the statistic Mormons went by was 1 out of 1,700 doors let you in.

Once on Christmas morning my large extended family was gathered in my grandparents' home and we were opening presents, and a pair of religious proselytizers knocked on the door asking to be let in to tell us about their version of Christ.  They weren't Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses I think, but they were not admitted.  Hey, we've got presents to open and sausages and stollen to eat!

[1995hoo]

Dear random retailer:

For the love of God, stop sending me surveys after every customer interaction. Yes, my buying experience at Lowe's was very nice. No, the guy at State Farm didn't 100% address my issue, but its fine since I was able to figure it out myself. Yes, my oil change went smoothly.

Regardless, I am not answering any of them.

Heh. We bought a new clothes washer over Washington's Birthday weekend, but the earliest delivery date they had available was February 25. The store sent me a survey about my experience within 48 hours of the purchase. I certainly wasn't going to answer it when the machine hadn't been delivered yet. What if the machine arrived damaged or there was some other problem?

(Of course, I never went back and answered it later either. In terms of "minor things that bother you," BTW, that transaction makes me think of one: I paid with my Discover Card because this quarter they have 5% Cashback Bonus on home improvement stores, among other things. We bought the washer from a local appliance store. But Discover classifies them as a "department store," so no 5% Cashback Bonus. Too bad.)

[JayhawkCO]

Yeah, but your unsurprise was at the fact that "I know way fewer than 1700 households' worth of people, and yet I personally know multiple people who have let Mormons (and JWs) into their house to have a discussion. The people/households I know are not those from the town I grew up in three decades ago.  Rather, the people/households I know are right here in Wichita, which is not a small Kansas town.

Thank you for clarifying that last point. 

I still think that growing up in a small Kansas town is a relevant cultural factor in your opinion here. Even if the specific people you know now didn't grow up in the same town as you, who's to say they didn't grow up in another town to which the same would apply?

And to an even finer point, my unsurprise was only partly due to the "small town" aspect. Part of it was also due to the "Kansas" aspect, because Kansas is in the Midwest, and I would posit that the Midwest as a whole would track well above the national average in receptiveness to door-knocking strangers.

And, to be fair, as a religious person, Kyle is far more likely to be friends with other similarly faithful people, and hence probably has a higher percentage of people in his social circle that are willing to discuss religion with strangers.

[kphoger]

Even if the specific people you know now didn't grow up in the same town as you, who's to say they didn't grow up in another town to which the same would apply?

Uh, them?  I know where my friends grew up.

And, to be fair, as a religious person, Kyle is far more likely to be friends with other similarly faithful people, and hence probably has a higher percentage of people in his social circle that are willing to discuss religion with strangers.

This is probably quite pertinent.  We might be too lazy to actually go knocking on doors ourselves, but hey, if they come to us... 

[webny99]

Even if the specific people you know now didn't grow up in the same town as you, who's to say they didn't grow up in another town to which the same would apply?

Uh, them?  I know where my friends grew up.

I suspect at least some of them grew up in a small town, the Midwest, or both. But of course, feel free to tell me if I'm wrong.

[kphoger]

I suspect at least some of them grew up in a small town, the Midwest, or both. But of course, feel free to tell me if I'm wrong.

The ones I'm thinking of have lived in Wichita their whole lives.

[Plutonic Panda]

Connected roads or corridors that change names on certain segments.

In LA the road that goes through Griffith Park goes from Riverside Dr., crossed Los Los Feliz, turns into Crystal Springs Dr. then turns into Western Heritage Way before finally turning into Zoo Dr. before ending at Forest Lawn Dr.

Oklahoma City had Shields when going north turns into EK Gaylord in downtown and then turns into Broadway.

Another OKC road Robinson Ave. that turns into Ron Norick BLVD for a single block in front of the soon to be demolished convention center before going back to Thunder Dr for another single block in front of the Thunder Arena before going back to Robinson.

What the fuck.

[kphoger]

Connected roads or corridors that change names on certain segments.

In Wichita we have, coming from the north:
Meridian → Womer → Amidon → McLean → Gold

For the first few years living here, I didn't even realize the 0.6 miles between Meridian and Amidon had a different name.  The way I found out was that we had a field tech who was new to the area, and he couldn't find one of his customers, so he called in for help and told me he was at the intersection of 37th and Womer.  I had no idea where that was.

[Plutonic Panda]

Connected roads or corridors that change names on certain segments.

In Wichita we have, coming from the north:
Meridian → Womer → Amidon → McLean → Gold

For the first few years living here, I didn't even realize the 0.6 miles between Meridian and Amidon had a different name.  The way I found out was that we had a field tech who was new to the area, and he couldn't find one of his customers, so he called in for help and told me he was at the intersection of 37th and Womer.  I had no idea where that was.

Yeah, it causes quite a bit of confusion. If it hadn't been on the news, I would've had no clue where thunder drive was at in Oklahoma City.

[1995hoo]

In my area, sometimes roads that change names in that way due so because of realignments, extensions, or both. One that comes to mind as an example of both is Pickett Road and Blake Lane in Fairfax City. If you look at that map, you'll see Old Pickett Road. When I was growing up, Pickett Road was a two-lane road that passed to the west (left on the map) of the park shown there and ran down what is now Old Pickett Road to end at Old Lee Highway. Blake Lane, meanwhile, ended at its intersection with Lee Highway (US-29). There was no road between US-29 and US-50 there like there is now—you had to go through Fairfax Circle. When I was in high school in the late 1980s, Pickett Road was widened and realigned to where it is now; it ended at US-50. (Old Pickett Road got that name as part of that project.) A year or two later, Blake Lane was extended south to that same intersection. Both names were well-established, so neither road was renamed.

I'm sure that sort of thing is quite common in other places. A separate issue that's common here in Virginia is when a named road passes through an independent city. It often (but not always) changes names when it crosses the city limits. VA-7, for example, is Leesburg Pike in Fairfax County but changes to Broad Street in the City of Falls Church, then changes back to Leesburg Pike (and it's also called King Street in the City of Alexandria).

[DTComposer]

In LA the road that goes through Griffith Park goes from Riverside Dr., crossed Los Los Feliz, turns into Crystal Springs Dr. then turns into Western Heritage Way before finally turning into Zoo Dr. before ending at Forest Lawn Dr.

To be fair, Crystal Springs used to end at a T with Riverside - the portion of Riverside north of there was buried under US-99/I-5, so the intersection was re-configured to make it a continuous route.

The former alignment of CA-9 (then temporarily CA-85) between Saratoga and Sunnyvale used to all be Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road - then the ~3 mile portion portion in Cupertino was renamed De Anza Boulevard. When that happened Sunnyvale re-ordered their portion to Sunnvyale-Saratoga Road.

There are countless suburban streets that change names at seemingly innocuous intersections, built at the same time within a single subdivision.

Related: when a "major" street has non-contiguous sections. Sepulveda Boulevard is often listed as the longest street in Los Angeles County, but it is actually two distinct, non-connecting streets - the Redondo Beach-Long Beach segment is two miles away from the rest of it and requires taking three other streets to make the connection.
That two mile gap used to be smaller, but portions of the northern segment of the road in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, and El Segundo were re-named as PCH. Historically there were plans to connect the two (see Camino Real in Redondo Beach) but that never happened.

[Scott5114]

Related: when a "major" street has non-contiguous sections.

There are a bunch of these on the west side of Las Vegas because whoever was in charge of the street layout for Summerlin gave their kid a bunch of crayons and let them scribble out the street layout there. So there are segments of Hualapai Way, Fort Apache Road, and Durango Drive to the north and south of Summerlin that don't connect.

This also results in one of the street-name changes like was mentioned upthread. Durango crosses Cheyenne Ave. to become Rampart Blvd., which angles to the southwest and becomes Fort Apache when it crosses Charleston Blvd. Meanwhile, a completely disconnected Durango Dr. starts up at Vegas Dr. (and a completely disconnected Fort Apache starts up at Cheyenne).

[D-Dey65]

All day I've been trying to sort out some photos from my South Florida Turnpike road trip yesterday and move them to files I want to give new names to the files I want to put them in, but my FUCKING BULLSHIT COMPUTER decided to pause on me for the whole day in the middle of me trying to do these things!!


UPDATE; March 6, 2025; Somehow I was able to fix this problem. I want to say I just shut down all my pages and unplugged my car reader in a sneaky way, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to get around this problem next time.

Oh, well. More Florida's Turnpike Rest Area Images and two I-95 Rest Area Images are coming soon.

[vdeane]

The fact that, to get on the National Grid website, I first have to specify that I'm in New York, then Upstate, then a Home customer.  I'm just going to sign in to view my bill and they have all that information in my account anyways; why the need to specify it in advance?

[Scott5114]

The fact that, to get on the National Grid website

The fact that the National Grid website isn't even national



real fuckin' national there, guys, outstanding work