Minor things that bother you

[hbelkins]

shirt tags that won't stay down
when someone's else's shirt tag is visible
shirt tags that are scratchy

Tagless shirts are becoming increasingly popular.

And a pair of scissors can eliminate the won't-stay-down or scratchy tags.

[Scott5114]

Of course, the bad thing about tagless shirts is that the printing will wear away over time. Which isn't normally a big deal, but invariably once it wears off is when you'll spill something on it and need to read the care instructions to see what products you can use on it.

[gonealookin]

Of course, the bad thing about tagless shirts is that the printing will wear away over time. Which isn't normally a big deal, but invariably once it wears off is when you'll spill something on it and need to read the care instructions to see what products you can use on it.

I resolve that by buying nothing but cheap-ass 100% cotton shirts, which I tend to load up on when somebody like Bass Pro Shops has an online sale (I've had good results with the durability of their shirts).  If I can't remove a stain easily it goes in the rag pile in the garage. 

[kphoger]

And a pair of scissors can eliminate the won't-stay-down or scratchy tags.

Or else it will make it even scratchier.

Of course, the bad thing about tagless shirts is that the printing will wear away over time. Which isn't normally a big deal, but invariably once it wears off is when you'll spill something on it and need to read the care instructions to see what products you can use on it.

Or you want to buy another one, but you don't know what brand and size it is.

[Rothman]

I didn't skip out on our skip day, which was traditionally on the day where the number of days remaining in the school year matched your graduating year.  One teacher handed out his participation grade on that day: 100s for everyone in the class, including me, and 0s for people that weren't there.

My parents also sent me to school on the last day of the year in high school.  I did skip out on those days with my friends.  Ended up playing DnD and whatnot.

[hbelkins]

After the third grade, I had perfect attendance through the rest of my elementary (grades 4-5), upper elementary (grades 6-8), and high school (grades 9-12) years. No was was I going to endanger a perfect attendance record by participating in a skip day.

A guy I graduated with had perfect attendance for 13 years. He stayed back in eighth grade to play basketball. A handful of people at my high school had perfect attendance for all 12 years, but he's the only one I ever knew of who had perfect attendance for 13 years. (We didn't have mandatory kindergarten when I was in school; in fact, our kindergarten was not a public school function and was a private endeavor).

[Max Rockatansky]

I don't recall ever even coming close to having perfect attendance while in K-12 schools.  My younger sister used to get awards for perfect attendance quite often though. 

During my working life I received a perfect attendance award at Sears during 2007.  I thought it was odd that they were giving a salaried manager an award like that.  It came with a $5 Starbucks gift card which my then girlfriend put to use. 

I had to keep track of COVID ROMs during the Fiscal Year 2020 instead of HR for some reason.  I was the only person during the year that didn't have a callout.  If I had felt bad I would have called out but it never happened during the year.  Even back then I had over 1,000 hours of sick leave. 

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I don't really know how I feel about perfect attendance awards. Yes, I can see why people feel it should be rewarded. But it encourages kids who come to school sick, and also has a lot of luck element to it (e.g. grandma or grandpa dies during the school year and the kid is away due to grief/funeral).

[vdeane]

Apparently people steal the windshield squeegees at gas stations.  Who knew?  At least, that's the reason I got for why one of my regular gas stations hasn't had them the past couple times I've been there.  I wonder if many gas stations have given up on stocking them and that's why they seem to be becoming uncommon.

[Rothman]

Apparently people steal the windshield squeegees at gas stations.  Who knew?  At least, that's the reason I got for why one of my regular gas stations hasn't had them the past couple times I've been there.  I wonder if many gas stations have given up on stocking them and that's why they seem to be becoming uncommon.

Well...at least half the gas stations out there don't have them in my experience due to this phenomenon...so I've known.

[cockroachking]

Regarding attendance, my high school had a policy of detention for 3 unexcused late arrivals or 10 unexcused absences, with the clock resetting at the end of the school year for each. You better believe that the third time I woke up late one year that I skipped the whole day instead of showing up 5 minutes late! I wonder if that policy is still around...

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

I don't really know how I feel about perfect attendance awards. Yes, I can see why people feel it should be rewarded. But it encourages kids who come to school sick, and also has a lot of luck element to it (e.g. grandma or grandpa dies during the school year and the kid is away due to grief/funeral).

In Elementary School they gave popcorn to the kids with perfect attendance the previous quarter a week after the quarter ended,  I got perfect attendance one quarter, but was sick the day they gave out popcorn, so I got popcorn at the end of that quarter. I haven't had perfect attendance before or since, unless you count the Summer 2025 semester of college which had a few optional days.

[kkt]

In my Junior high school year we watched a bunch of Monty Python movies during the last week of history class.  I showed up just for the entertainment value.

In junior year physics our teacher was not that nice.  After the AP tests he give us team projects.  Which team could build the most successful solar hot water.  We were allowed one square meter to work with and whichever team heated the water the most got bonus points.  And the project as a whole was graded and would help or hurt our grade in the class.  Since it was junior year we couldn't afford to just blow it off.  I wish I could have been watching the ex parrot sketch instead.

[thenetwork]

Meh,  perfect attendance is overrated. 

1) Does that do anything for you if you put down, "Perfect attendance all through K-12" on a resume? Does that mean if you have the flu, you are usually the one to blame who spreads it to everyone else at the school or office?
2) If there is some sort of "perfect attendance" prize or award in place, what's to say it's not there when it comes time to "pay up" at the end of the attendance period after you had to crawl into work a few times knowing fully you should have stayed home and rested?

Just sayin'.

[vdeane]

In my Junior high school year we watched a bunch of Monty Python movies during the last week of history class.  I showed up just for the entertainment value.

In junior year physics our teacher was not that nice.  After the AP tests he give us team projects.  Which team could build the most successful solar hot water.  We were allowed one square meter to work with and whichever team heated the water the most got bonus points.  And the project as a whole was graded and would help or hurt our grade in the class.  Since it was junior year we couldn't afford to just blow it off.  I wish I could have been watching the ex parrot sketch instead.

I don't remember what we did in AP Physics after the AP exam.  I do remember we watched movies in AP US History and AP Government and Politics.  They were relevant to the curriculum, however - I remember watching Frost Nixon, Primary Colors, and Recount.  I believe we watched All the President's Men, as well.

[hotdogPi]

There's actually logical content after the AP US History exam, although I can't remember if my school did it: history within the last ten years. When I had that class in 2015, I was told that the exam had just reached the September 11 attacks in what it covered in prior years and that it had never quite reached the present.

Do we need a second thread split, though?

[elsmere241]

When your wife gets a text Saturday morning, saying she's already more than an hour late for work.  She then tells you she won't get off until at least 5:00, and tells you to take on the household things that you were planning on doing together, yourself.

[kphoger]

There's actually logical content after the AP US History exam, although I can't remember if my school did it: history within the last ten years. When I had that class in 2015, I was told that the exam had just reached the September 11 attacks in what it covered in prior years and that it had never quite reached the present.

Way to make me feel old. 

[thenetwork]

Having to hesitate now when reading things that include the letters AI (as in Artificial Intelligence) and Al (as in first names like Weird Al Yankovic).

Certain fonts make the letter I look like a lower case l.

[hotdogPi]

Having to hesitate now when reading things that include the letters AI (as in Artificial Intelligence) and Al (as in first names like Weird Al Yankovic).

Certain fonts make the letter I look like a lower case l.

Then there's Ai Nail Spa in Tewksbury MA, which is the Asian name Ai, but the front of the building is in all caps so it says "AI NAIL SPA". Some of their marketing materials are also in all caps.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ai+nail+spa/@42.614415,-71.2433309,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x40dc48b087aaca61:0xf88fec544aede1f8!8m2!3d42.6144111!4d-71.240756!16s%2Fg%2F11n3xhmj_0?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDcyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

[kphoger]

Any font that makes these three look the same:  Il1

Any font that makes these two look the same:  O0

[1995hoo]

Having to hesitate now when reading things that include the letters AI (as in Artificial Intelligence) and Al (as in first names like Weird Al Yankovic).

Certain fonts make the letter I look like a lower case l.

Recall that manual typewriters did not have a key for the numeral "1," presumably because the character was identical to a lowercase "L" in both "pica" and "elite" type. I worked with someone who persisted in using a lowercase "L" for the numeral "1" long into the 1990s—more or less, "This is how I learned to type and I'm not changing." (I always wondered whether the slightly different key arrangement threw her off, but I never asked.) I found that distracting because in most proportionally spaced serif typefaces, the difference between the two is noticeable—the number "1" is a wider character with larger serifs. And in typefaces like Aptos (which, to be sure, didn't exist back then), the difference is even more noticeable due to the right-facing curve at the bottom of the lowercase "L."

[kphoger]

Recall that manual typewriters did not have a key for the numeral "1," presumably because the character was identical to a lowercase "L" in both "pica" and "elite" type. I worked with someone who persisted in using a lowercase "L" for the numeral "1" long into the 1990s—more or less, "This is how I learned to type and I'm not changing." (I always wondered whether the slightly different key arrangement threw her off, but I never asked.) I found that distracting because in most proportionally spaced serif typefaces, the difference between the two is noticeable—the number "1" is a wider character with larger serifs. And in typefaces like Aptos (which, to be sure, didn't exist back then), the difference is even more noticeable due to the right-facing curve at the bottom of the lowercase "L."

I've also seen the capital letter I used in place of the numeral 1.

And I've seen both the capital letter O and the lowercase o used for the numeral 0.

[kphoger]

When I'm following a single route for a long distance, but it overlaps with various other routes along the way, so its mile markers are a jumble of all those other routes' mileage schemes.

[Big John]

Recall that manual typewriters did not have a key for the numeral "1," presumably because the character was identical to a lowercase "L" in both "pica" and "elite" type. I worked with someone who persisted in using a lowercase "L" for the numeral "1" long into the 1990s—more or less, "This is how I learned to type and I'm not changing." (I always wondered whether the slightly different key arrangement threw her off, but I never asked.) I found that distracting because in most proportionally spaced serif typefaces, the difference between the two is noticeable—the number "1" is a wider character with larger serifs. And in typefaces like Aptos (which, to be sure, didn't exist back then), the difference is even more noticeable due to the right-facing curve at the bottom of the lowercase "L."

I've also seen the capital letter I used in place of the numeral 1.

On the old To Tell The Truth. Kitty Carlyle always did that for contestent 1, and it bothered me.