Minor things that bother you

[GaryV]

How else are they going to keep track of which snow-mageddon they are talking about this week?
"You mean the storm of the century that hit last week?"
"No, the storm of the century that we're predicting for Tuesday."

[hotdogPi]

How else are they going to keep track of which snow-mageddon they are talking about this week?
"You mean the storm of the century that hit last week?"
"No, the storm of the century that we're predicting for Tuesday."

Early January 2022, mid-January 2022, late January 2022. This naming system allows about 10 days between them.

(year not required when talking about the current one or one that just happened, but useful for those in the past)

[1995hoo]

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

Those annoy the crap out of me. I don't watch the Weather Channel, and NO weatherman I've heard on either the TV or the radio uses those stupid names. If the Weather Channel considers themselves to have such a high and mighty position, why don't they try to impose their own hurricane names instead of what the National Hurricane Center puts out?

[formulanone]

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.

I hear this complaint every year, and yet it doesn't go away. Maybe the name is not that big a deal?

#noworsethananyothercryptichashtag

[jeffandnicole]

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.

I hear this complaint every year, and yet it doesn't go away. Maybe the name is not that big a deal?

#noworsethananyothercryptichashtag

No, but the Weather Channel is nearly irrelevant in the weather business as they have switched to mostly 30 and 60 minute shows. It's basically free advertising if they can get people talking about their naming of storms.

Of course, notice that no one ever says, hey, do you remember snowstorm Carl? No. They remember they had 20 inches of snow to shovel.

[formulanone]

Of course, notice that no one ever says, hey, do you remember snowstorm Carl? No. They remember they had 20 inches of snow to shovel.

That's why I think it's irrelevant, and not worth getting annoyed about it. I think there's a tendency to Give Everything a Name/Title, to give it "historic meaning".

People coin new words all the time; some catch on, some get forgotten, and others are lost to irrelevance.

[ZLoth]

The Weather Channel was a good channel until it's sale by Landmark Communications (now Landmark Media Enterprises) in January, 2008 to NBC Universal. In the months after the sale, they laid off many long-time meteorologists from that channel. It had gotten so bad that in 2014, there was a carriage dispute with DirecTV where, not only the per-subscriber fees cited as a dispute item, but also the complaints in regards to the programming at that time, including the high amount of reality programming.

I prefer to get my weather information from online sources such as weather.gov. When there are thunderstorms in my area, I have a Lightning Map on a second monitor. When there are tornadoes in the forecast, there are several YouTubers who I tune to to show the latest tornado tracks.

And, as for naming anything less than a hurricane, that is going to cause issues with kids who share the same name as the storm.

[thenetwork]

If they ever name one of those snowstorms "Cantore",...


And speaking of the other weather channels,  I can't stand that they like running the same non-severe weather segments over and over for an hour or 2 before they do it again.  Pure laziness.

[CtrlAltDel]

The names don't really bother me, although I would prefer if they were given by a more official organization. I'd be okay with a numbering system or anything else along those lines, too, since it does seem helpful to distinguish among storms that occur near one another, in both time and space.

And, as for naming anything less than a hurricane, that is going to cause issues with kids who share the same name as the storm.

I assure you, it causes problems with kids who share their names with hurricanes as well. I know, I have a cousin named Katrina.

[ZLoth]

I assure you, it causes problems with kids who share their names with hurricanes as well. I know, I have a cousin named Katrina.

Still better than "Karen". (My mother is named Karin as well)

[Scott5114]

If you like what Weather Channel used to be, there's a WeatherStar 4000 emulator that downloads weather data from NWS and displays it in the format of a mid-90s Weather Channel local weather segment (what they now call "Local on the 8s"). Takes a little bit of tinkering to set up but it's pretty cool.

If I ever had the money to splurge on it, I would set up a Raspberry Pi or something with it running on a loop and hook it up to one of the HDMI slots on my TV, so I could have "the weather channel" without all of the bullshit.

[abefroman329]

If you like what Weather Channel used to be, there's a WeatherStar 4000 emulator that downloads weather data from NWS and displays it in the format of a mid-90s Weather Channel local weather segment (what they now call "Local on the 8s"). Takes a little bit of tinkering to set up but it's pretty cool.

If I ever had the money to splurge on it, I would set up a Raspberry Pi or something with it running on a loop and hook it up to one of the HDMI slots on my TV, so I could have "the weather channel" without all of the bullshit.

If it also played instrumental Phish songs like they used to do in the early 2000s, I'd be in.

[Big John]

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

Those annoy the crap out of me. I don't watch the Weather Channel, and NO weatherman I've heard on either the TV or the radio uses those stupid names. If the Weather Channel considers themselves to have such a high and mighty position, why don't they try to impose their own hurricane names instead of what the National Hurricane Center puts out?

The Green Bay TV stations uses their own names for snowstorms.

[Scott5114]

If you like what Weather Channel used to be, there's a WeatherStar 4000 emulator that downloads weather data from NWS and displays it in the format of a mid-90s Weather Channel local weather segment (what they now call "Local on the 8s"). Takes a little bit of tinkering to set up but it's pretty cool.

If I ever had the money to splurge on it, I would set up a Raspberry Pi or something with it running on a loop and hook it up to one of the HDMI slots on my TV, so I could have "the weather channel" without all of the bullshit.

If it also played instrumental Phish songs like they used to do in the early 2000s, I'd be in.

Good news–you can configure a playlist with whatever you want, including instrumental Phish songs if you have a copy of them. (I have mine set to play video game music.) It even has separate playlists for each season, so you can select music appropriate to the time of year.

[thenetwork]

If they ever name one of those snowstorms "Cantore",...


And speaking of the other weather channels,  I can't stand that they like running the same non-severe weather segments over and over for an hour or 2 before they do it again.  Pure laziness.

[Scott5114]

If they ever name one of those snowstorms "Cantore",...


And speaking of the other weather channels,  I can't stand that they like running the same non-severe weather segments over and over for an hour or 2 before they do it again.  Pure laziness.

I was about to delete this post as a duplicate, but then I realized that maybe you like running the same post over and over for 8 hours before you do it again.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

When I want dessert and the server just brings the check without asking if I want dessert, which I'm not going to go to the hassle of telling them I'm not done, then forcing them to run off and get me dessert and a new check, etc. Their loss.

[Scott5114]

When I want dessert and the server just brings the check without asking if I want dessert, which I'm not going to go to the hassle of telling them I'm not done, then forcing them to run off and get me dessert and a new check, etc. Their loss.

As someone who rarely wants dessert, I appreciate the waiters who show up with the check in hand, but ask if there's anyone who wants dessert before handing it over. That seems like the smoothest way to handle both answers to the question–dessert-getters are still presented the option with no fuss, but dessert-decliners get to have the check immediately so they can be on their way more quickly. Best of both worlds.

More annoying is when you're in a party that wants to split the check and the waiter presents a single check without asking if it's on one check or separate. This should always be asked–I have taken friends of the opposite gender out to lunch or something to celebrate something or catch up, and they put it on one check, I guess because they assume we're on a date. Bonus obnoxious points when they present the check specifically to the male instead of placing it midway between the two diners–when my wife and I went on dates before we were married, we would take turns paying.

[jeffandnicole]

More annoying is when you're in a party that wants to split the check and the waiter presents a single check without asking if it's on one check or separate. This should always be asked–I have taken friends of the opposite gender out to lunch or something to celebrate something or catch up, and they put it on one check, I guess because they assume we're on a date. Bonus obnoxious points when they present the check specifically to the male instead of placing it midway between the two diners–when my wife and I went on dates before we were married, we would take turns paying.

The diners are responsible to say they want separate checks, and this should be done prior to any ordering. While some servers may ask large parties if they'll want separate checks, if it's two people, that would be treated as an insult to many couples.

It can also be difficult, along with time consuming, for a server to separate out a check at the end of a service. If the people at the table don't remember what they ordered and don't want to take the time to figure it out themselves, it shouldn't be expected for the server to do it for you.

[oscar]

The diners are responsible to say they want separate checks, and this should be done prior to any ordering. While some servers may ask large parties if they'll want separate checks, if it's two people, that would be treated as an insult to many couples.

It can also be difficult, along with time consuming, for a server to separate out a check at the end of a service. If the people at the table don't remember what they ordered and don't want to take the time to figure it out themselves, it shouldn't be expected for the server to do it for you.

This became standard practice for road meets, after a rather disastrous experience with asking for separate checks at the end of lunch rather than the beginning. It took the server about half an hour to reconstruct separate checks, which the server was expecting to be covered by one check for our group. That meant a late start for our meet tour.

[J N Winkler]

It sometimes happens that desserts are nominally on the menu but dessert orders are not welcome, at least at busy times, as the margins don't justify the added delay in turning over the table.  This is one of the things I typically play by ear.

The more serious problem, in my experience, is showing up hungry at an establishment that has an alcohol license, only to find--after being seated--that the kitchen has closed and no food (with the possible exception of microwave-reheatable finger foods) is available.  This can usually be avoided by showing up no later than eight PM (preferably seven PM in really small towns), but that can't always be arranged on long hauls that entail driving well into the evening.

[Bruce]

Speaking of naming weather-ish phenomena: wildfires are named for wherever they were first discovered and aren't usually updated to reflect the full scope (like earthquakes are). As such, names like the "Camp Fire" (named for Camp Creek Road) were used instead of something more logical "Paradise Fire" or "Butte Canyon Fire".

[Scott5114]

The diners are responsible to say they want separate checks, and this should be done prior to any ordering. While some servers may ask large parties if they'll want separate checks, if it's two people, that would be treated as an insult to many couples.

It can also be difficult, along with time consuming, for a server to separate out a check at the end of a service. If the people at the table don't remember what they ordered and don't want to take the time to figure it out themselves, it shouldn't be expected for the server to do it for you.

It is always in the interest of someone who is owed money to ensure that the accounting is done correctly. If they fail to, they're apt to not get paid properly. (Who's responsible for adding up the total at the grocery store?)

In my experience, around here, if I'm in a group of more than about three or so, after the entrees have been delivered but before bringing the check, the server will ask at some point (usually during drink refills) "Is this all on one check, or separate?" Based on some of the receipts I've gotten, my understanding is that the register systems used by modern restaurants require the server to enter the ticket, separated by guest, at the time the order is initially placed (this process is probably also what communicates the order to the kitchen). Then when it comes time to print the checks, it is trivial to put "Guest 1" and "Guest 2" on one ticket and "Guest 3" on another.

I'm usually pretty forgiving about service mistakes, but botching the billing process is a sure-fire way to be dropped from our restaurant rotation. It's such a basic function of a restaurant that there are enough of them that can get it right, so there's no need to tolerate the ones that can't.

[Scott5114]

Speaking of naming weather-ish phenomena: wildfires are named for wherever they were first discovered and aren't usually updated to reflect the full scope (like earthquakes are). As such, names like the "Camp Fire" (named for Camp Creek Road) were used instead of something more logical "Paradise Fire" or "Butte Canyon Fire".

I figured whoever picked the name for the Camp Fire was probably thinking they were really funny at the time. (Notice it wasn't the Camp Creek fire.) Then it became a major disaster and it wasn't funny anymore.

[hotdogPi]

Interestingly, it doesn't matter that much to me. While I've always almost had it as one check, I created a Python program that determines how much each person pays after tax and tip, rounded to the nearest dollar, using the Huntington-Hill algorithm. It also takes into account coupons and comped items (you're supposed to tip on the original). We almost always pay cash. This means that even if we did want it split and it came out as one check, it wouldn't make a difference.