Minor things that bother you

[roadman65]

Waiting for the Fountain Soda Fizz to subside, then having to poor more soda in the cup to fill the soda to the brim several times.

I hated that working the beverage counter at the old Florida Citrus Bowl because of it.  Of course you have to wait and fill, wait, and fill, wait and fill.  If you don't a customer will instantly complain being a price of a soda at sporting events is super high.

[kphoger]

Waiting for the Fountain Soda Fizz to subside, then having to poor more soda in the cup to fill the soda to the brim several times.

Fountain soda that's really watered down.

A can of soda that went flat before you even bought it.

[kernals12]

The difficulty of spelling my last name over the phone, something I have to do frequently for my job. I wish that our letters didn't have such similar sounding names

[JayhawkCO]

The difficulty of spelling my last name over the phone, something I have to do frequently for my job. I wish that our letters didn't have such similar sounding names

Kind of similar to this, I wish I lived on a street where I didn't have to spell it out loud to people over the phone. The last four or five places I've lived all had non-intuitive spellings.

[kphoger]

The difficulty of spelling my last name over the phone, something I have to do frequently for my job. I wish that our letters didn't have such similar sounding names

A LPHA
B RAVO
C HARLIE
D ELTA
E CHO
F OXTROT
G OLF
H OTEL
I NDIA
J ULIETTE
K ILO
L IMA
M IKE
N OVEMBER
O SCAR
P APA
Q UEBEC
R OMEO
S IERRA
T ANGO
U NIFORM
V ICTOR
W HISKEY
X -RAY
Y ANKEE
Z ULU

[ZLoth]

Z ULU

What's wrong with "Z as in Zebra"? That's what I have to use.

Of course, in my previous job as ISP support, we used the acronym "SMTP as in Send Mail To People".

[Rothman]

Z ULU

What's wrong with "Z as in Zebra"?

Everything.

[Molandfreak]

Z ULU

What's wrong with "Z as in Zebra"? That's what I have to use.

Of course, in my previous job as ISP support, we used the acronym "SMTP as in Send Mail To People".

The NATO phonetic alphabet was originally constructed to include common words in English, French, and Spanish because English was not as established as the de facto international language post-WWII. With minor spelling differences (« Zoulou » and "Zulú") the word is nonetheless pronounced similarly in all three languages. Zebra is "Cebra" in Spanish, so it doesn't work phonetically with the letter Z.

[kphoger]

The NATO phonetic alphabet was originally constructed to include common words in English, French, and Spanish because English was not as established as the de facto international language post-WWII. With minor spelling differences (« Zoulou » and "Zulú") the word is nonetheless pronounced similarly in all three languages.

And yet . . . ooneeform.

[english si]

The difficulty of spelling my last name over the phone, something I have to do frequently for my job. I wish that our letters didn't have such similar sounding names

So, about 6 months ago, they broke up the London Overground into separately designated lines. The number of comments from Vogons pushing alphanumeric designations over any sort of names (ignoring that if all of London was done Paris-style with branching designations, they'd be more than 36, and if they were done Germanic style there'd be over 100!), failing to see issues that out licence plates have with similar looking characters, or tannoy systems have with similar sounding letters.

It bugs me no end. But I have no problem with NYC or Paris using single letters and numbers - its a minor thing. But why passionately demand London change though - what's to be gained? It's just annoying nonsense by dumb people. But it bugs me no end!

[NATO ALPHABET]

Yep. That's the solution when dealing with letters. N for Nike and M for Movember!

[kernals12]

The difficulty of spelling my last name over the phone, something I have to do frequently for my job. I wish that our letters didn't have such similar sounding names

So, about 6 months ago, they broke up the London Overground into separately designated lines. The number of comments from Vogons pushing alphanumeric designations over any sort of names (ignoring that if all of London was done Paris-style with branching designations, they'd be more than 36, and if they were done Germanic style there'd be over 100!), failing to see issues that out licence plates have with similar looking characters, or tannoy systems have with similar sounding letters.

It bugs me no end. But I have no problem with NYC or Paris using single letters and numbers - its a minor thing. But why passionately demand London change though - what's to be gained? It's just annoying nonsense by dumb people. But it bugs me no end!

[NATO ALPHABET]

Yep. That's the solution when dealing with letters. N for Nike and M for Movember!

Back in the early 1960s, when the phone company began running out of exchange names, it was suggested they start assigning arbitrary pairs of letters not corresponding to any names, allowing them to use letter combinations like XR or JK. The phone company refused that idea because of the confusion that would occur trying to give those combinations out to operators. They instead opted to get rid of letters entirely and just have numbers

[kphoger]

[NATO ALPHABET]

Yep. That's the solution when dealing with letters. N for Nike and M for Movember!

Every telephone operator I've used NATO phonics with has understood me just fine, and a couple of them have thanked me.  (My wife, on the other hand, cannot comprehend it.)

We used to have a cable tech who would call in serial numbers, though, and make up his own non-NATO phonics to use.  One that stands out was when he read, in middle of an alphanumeric serial number, YY as Yankee Yellow.  Yeah, that threw me off.  But the two worst ones were (1) a guy who thought Sierra started with the letter C and (2) a guy who used Zero for the letter Z.

[JayhawkCO]

a guy who thought Sierra started with the letter C

I mean, cierra (i.e. Spanish for close) does. Pronounced the same way over the phone...

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I guess that's one advantage of the Commonwealth "Z" because it doesn't rhyme with about 10 other letters like it does in the American pronunciation.

[Big John]

The difficulty of spelling my last name over the phone, something I have to do frequently for my job. I wish that our letters didn't have such similar sounding names

So, about 6 months ago, they broke up the London Overground into separately designated lines. The number of comments from Vogons pushing alphanumeric designations over any sort of names (ignoring that if all of London was done Paris-style with branching designations, they'd be more than 36, and if they were done Germanic style there'd be over 100!), failing to see issues that out licence plates have with similar looking characters, or tannoy systems have with similar sounding letters.

It bugs me no end. But I have no problem with NYC or Paris using single letters and numbers - its a minor thing. But why passionately demand London change though - what's to be gained? It's just annoying nonsense by dumb people. But it bugs me no end!

[NATO ALPHABET]

Yep. That's the solution when dealing with letters. N for Nike and M for Movember!

Back in the early 1960s, when the phone company began running out of exchange names, it was suggested they start assigning arbitrary pairs of letters not corresponding to any names, allowing them to use letter combinations like XR or JK. The phone company refused that idea because of the confusion that would occur trying to give those combinations out to operators. They instead opted to get rid of letters entirely and just have numbers

9=wxy, 7=prs, 97 could be YPsilanti (City in Michigan)
5=jkl. Laverne and Shirley used KLondike to represent that.

[english si]

5=jkl. Laverne and Shirley used KLondike to represent that.

Simpsons did too. Klondike 5 was probably the standard way of reading off a TV phone number.

[english si]

I guess that's one advantage of the Commonwealth "Z" because it doesn't rhyme with about 10 other letters like it does in the American pronunciation.

Doesn't solve the problem that B, C, D, E, G, P, T and V still rhyme. And Zed is the least common of those 10 letters so has the least impact.

[kernals12]

The difficulty of spelling my last name over the phone, something I have to do frequently for my job. I wish that our letters didn't have such similar sounding names

So, about 6 months ago, they broke up the London Overground into separately designated lines. The number of comments from Vogons pushing alphanumeric designations over any sort of names (ignoring that if all of London was done Paris-style with branching designations, they'd be more than 36, and if they were done Germanic style there'd be over 100!), failing to see issues that out licence plates have with similar looking characters, or tannoy systems have with similar sounding letters.

It bugs me no end. But I have no problem with NYC or Paris using single letters and numbers - its a minor thing. But why passionately demand London change though - what's to be gained? It's just annoying nonsense by dumb people. But it bugs me no end!

[NATO ALPHABET]

Yep. That's the solution when dealing with letters. N for Nike and M for Movember!

Back in the early 1960s, when the phone company began running out of exchange names, it was suggested they start assigning arbitrary pairs of letters not corresponding to any names, allowing them to use letter combinations like XR or JK. The phone company refused that idea because of the confusion that would occur trying to give those combinations out to operators. They instead opted to get rid of letters entirely and just have numbers

9=wxy, 7=prs, 97 could be YPsilanti (City in Michigan)
5=jkl. Laverne and Shirley used KLondike to represent that.

Yep, that's why almost all fake phone numbers start with 555

[formulanone]

There's no good way to bandage a minor cut on or near the tips of your fingers.

Either you're letting it get wounded again too easily, the bandage falls off too quickly, or one has to use so many adhesive bandages it renders your digit useless.

[JayhawkCO]

There's no good way to bandage a minor cut on or near the tips of your fingers.

Either you're letting it get wounded again too easily, the bandage falls off too quickly, or one has to use so many adhesive bandages it renders your digit useless.

Are you using a fingertip bandage? Never had too much of an issue using them in the past.

[CtrlAltDel]

There's no good way to bandage a minor cut on or near the tips of your fingers.

Either you're letting it get wounded again too easily, the bandage falls off too quickly, or one has to use so many adhesive bandages it renders your digit useless.

I have had decent results with something like this:

[1995hoo]

Regarding the NATO alphabet, whenever I use it over the phone to spell my street name or similar, people seem to get baffled by hearing "Tango" instead of "T as in Tom" and the like.

[kernals12]

a guy who thought Sierra started with the letter C

I mean, cierra (i.e. Spanish for close) does. Pronounced the same way over the phone...

And the automobile sold by General Motors as the Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, which is funny because GM also sold, and still sells, a pickup truck called the GMC Sierra

[Rothman]

Have had customer service people even be grateful I used the NATO alphabet.

[LilianaUwU]

a guy who thought Sierra started with the letter C

I mean, cierra (i.e. Spanish for close) does.

So it's close enough, then.