Pet Peeves: Aka Things That Make You Go "Gah!"

[RealHousewife]

Having to miss workouts. I wasn't feeling well Monday night. Was running errands for my parents Tuesday night. And then had to stay home due to weather concerns tonight. 

[roseha]

Funny (not ha ha) that this should come up but I just ordered a Seamless delivery after being tired from laundry day.  My favorite Mexican place, Baby Bo's Cantina in midtown Manhattan, went under around last November and I simply cannot find a decent substitute.  Thanks to Seamless I paid about $25 for an adequate cheese quesadilla and an awful serving of nachos.  Why can't these restaurants make nachos by, you know, heating the whole thing up and not dumping warm cheese on cold chips?

I know that restaurants really suffered during Covid here, but now between delivery prices and the outside seating still taking up half the sidewalk it's all getting pretty irritating.

[EtheltoTillie]

9 hours ago, roseha said:

Funny (not ha ha) that this should come up but I just ordered a Seamless delivery after being tired from laundry day.  My favorite Mexican place, Baby Bo's Cantina in midtown Manhattan, went under around last November and I simply cannot find a decent substitute.  Thanks to Seamless I paid about $25 for an adequate cheese quesadilla and an awful serving of nachos.  Why can't these restaurants make nachos by, you know, heating the whole thing up and not dumping warm cheese on cold chips?

I know that restaurants really suffered during Covid here, but now between delivery prices and the outside seating still taking up half the sidewalk it's all getting pretty irritating.

Please provide name of restaurant so I can avoid. 

[oliviabenson]

$25 is movie theater prices for snacks 

 

[JTMacc99]

14 hours ago, isalicat said:

Yes, restaurant food prices seemed to have doubled over the last 2-3 years.

...

I know these places have to pass along their costs (including labor) to the customers but this seems like a zero sum game at best.

Yep. 

As expected, when minimum wages, tip wages, and minimum salary requirements went up a couple years ago in NYC, a survey of full service restaurants showed that 87.3% were planning to raise prices as one of the ways to deal with it. The minimum wage hikes were particularly impactful on the food service industry, who operate with razor thin margins as it is. 

So looking at the two charts below, it explains perfectly why the spike in the costs of goods sold (top chart) and labor translates to Burger and Fries going from $10 to $20.  

[theredhead77]

1 hour ago, JTMacc99 said:

Yep. 

As expected, when minimum wages, tip wages, and minimum salary requirements went up a couple years ago in NYC, a survey of full service restaurants showed that 87.3% were planning to raise prices as one of the ways to deal with it. The minimum wage hikes were particularly impactful on the food service industry, who operate with razor thin margins as it is. 

So looking at the two charts below, it explains perfectly why the spike in the costs of goods sold (top chart) and labor translates to Burger and Fries going from $10 to $20.  

To be fair, if the minimum wage hadn't been so slow growing for so long and been corrected with several sharp increases (in only a handful of states) the impact on everything else would have been slow, too. It's a shame that minimum wage is no longer the minimum wage needed to live (and housing is being gobbled up by corporations), and instead, it's a mere pittance that people who don't struggle to get by think these jobs are worth. Unless we're in the middle of a pandemic, then these jobs are "heroes" and extra money is thrown at them for a period of time. But once things settled down that extra money is gone and they're back to being just "unskilled labor who should do something else to get ahead" 

If I have to pay a bit more at a restaurant so the people at the restaurant can afford to live, that's fine.

Edited April 20, 2023 by theredhead77

[Bethany]

17 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

If I have to pay a bit more at a restaurant so the people at the restaurant can afford to live, that's fine.

I don't disagree with this in theory, but the reality is that I am simply not in a financial position to eat out as often as I might once have done when the prices, in some cases, have doubled, and add into that where even a 20% tip is now considered the bare minimum.  

[JTMacc99]

2 minutes ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

I don't disagree with this in theory, but the reality is that I am simply not in a financial position to eat out as often as I might once have done when the prices, in some cases, have doubled, and add into that where even a 20% tip is now considered the bare minimum.  

Yep. It's quite the pickle for the restaurant business. 

If a restaurant HAS to pay the people who work there more as of a specific date because that's the law, they will almost always HAVE to increase revenue that same day in order to keep the business afloat. 

And by raising prices, they will likely lose volume of sales because people can't afford to eat there as often. And if they lose volume of sales, one way they can make up for the lost revenue is to AGAIN raise prices to make sure they're making more money than they spend. 

And at the same time, the pandemic created multiple problems for the food service industry, including the fact that restaurant jobs don't offer a remote option that other similar paying jobs might. So there's a distinct labor shortage in the food service industry, which often translates into them having to pay higher wages.

Which, again, means higher prices.

Then toss in the inflation rates the last two years where everything else also went up, and owning a restaurant has been not such a great thing to do since 2020.

 

 

[supposebly]

I signed up for the free trial of Paramount + on my Amazon account to watch season 3 of Picard. However, it keeps telling me that only season 1 is available. I watched season 1 and liked it very much but that only makes me want to see the other seasons even more.

[theredhead77]

10 minutes ago, supposebly said:

I signed up for the free trial of Paramount + on my Amazon account to watch season 3 of Picard. However, it keeps telling me that only season 1 is available. I watched season 1 and liked it very much but that only makes me want to see the other seasons even more.

Weird! I'm not familiar with access through Amazon. Can you log in via Paramount+ (either on a computer or via the app) to identify if the other seasons are available? I hope you get it figured out!

[supposebly]

Seems it's some ploy by Amazon? I don't find anything on Paramount+ that interests me other than CSI Vegas. So, I'll watch that and unsubscribe after.

I swear the streaming services esp. in Canada have made it so complicated that I'm getting more and more tempted to go back to my shady ways of watching TV. I'm not subscribing to Crave. Bell Canada isn't getting my money no more.

[partofme]

My pet peeve is that I've been searching the nypl every single day for a month a certain ebook (the latest Harlan Coben stand alone) and they finally have it today and I'm the 85th hold with a three month wait.

Edited April 20, 2023 by partofme

[EtheltoTillie]

32 minutes ago, partofme said:

My pet peeve is that I've been searching the nypl every single day for a month a certain ebook (the latest Harlan Coben stand alone) and they finally have it today and I'm the 85th hold with a three month wait.

I was curious about this, so I just checked NYPL.  I have recently noticed that you can often get the hard copy books sooner and that they have them available before they have the ebooks in general.  So I usually choose whichever one comes first.  Are you talking about the book I Will Find You?  Right now, there are 140 holds on 180 copies of hard copy, meaning you'd have a maximum three or four week wait.  Do you totally avoid the hard copies?  Of course, it does depend on people returning the books pretty much on time, where the ebooks get taken off the reader at the expiration of your due date.  With the demise of late fees, people may tend to keep the hard copies out longer. 

Edited April 20, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[partofme]

24 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I was curious about this, so I just checked NYPL.  I have recently noticed that you can often get the hard copy books sooner and that they have them available before they have the ebooks in general.  So I usually choose whichever one comes first.  Are you talking about the book I Will Find You?  Right now, there are 140 holds on 180 copies of hard copy, meaning you'd have a maximum three or four week wait.  Do you totally avoid the hard copies?  Of course, it does depend on people returning the books pretty much on time, where the ebooks get taken off the reader at the expiration of your due date.  With the demise of late fees, people may tend to keep the hard copies out longer. 

Yes that's the book.  I used to read the hard copies and they'd come in the day before the book was released which was awesome, but now I exclusively read ebooks.  My phone says the wait time is 3 months but hopefully it will come in sooner.

[roseha]

7 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Please provide name of restaurant so I can avoid. 

Tacos Grand Central. The quesadilla was okay though.

Barnachos was even worse, the sent the nachos ingredients in separate packages so I had all this liquidy cheese all over the place making a mess.

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, partofme said:

My pet peeve is that I've been searching the nypl every single day for a month a certain ebook (the latest Harlan Coben stand alone) and they finally have it today and I'm the 85th hold with a three month wait.

I'm not in NY but in my local library system, if there's a not-yet-published book and it's not showing in their catalog as on-order, you can put in a request that they order it.  And when you do that, they ask if you want to go ahead and put a hold on it.  So maybe there were 80-some people who put in requests, so they were in line ahead of you even though you jumped on it the first day it was in the system?  Anyway, hope all those folks are fast readers!

[EtheltoTillie]

4 minutes ago, roseha said:

Tacos Grand Central. The quesadilla was okay though.

Barnachos was even worse, the sent the nachos ingredients in separate packages so I had all this liquidy cheese all over the place making a mess.

Thanks for the Public Service Announcement.

[partofme]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

I'm not in NY but in my local library system, if there's a not-yet-published book and it's not showing in their catalog as on-order, you can put in a request that they order it.  And when you do that, they ask if you want to go ahead and put a hold on it. 

The NYPL used to have a form that allowed me to request books and in what format I wanted it, but I think I requested too many because they got rid of it.  It never let me put a hold on it though.  😢

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, partofme said:

The NYPL used to have a form that allowed me to request books and in what format I wanted it, but I think I requested too many because they got rid of it.  It never let me put a hold on it though.  😢

NYPL just changed its web catalog interface.  They've been touting it for months, but I hadn't used it until today.

[partofme]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

NYPL just changed its web catalog interface.  They've been touting it for months, but I hadn't used it until today.

The recommend a title page is still missing the submission form.  I liked the old interface better

[EtheltoTillie]

I've never had the need to use that request procedure.  A friend of mine had been talking about it, but I guess the books I was looking for were already ordered. 

[partofme]

I read lots of new murder mysteries and psychological thrillers and was requesting a lot of them for a while.  I was sort of convinced I was the reason they eliminated the form.  

[oliviabenson]

23 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

I don't disagree with this in theory, but the reality is that I am simply not in a financial position to eat out as often as I might once have done when the prices, in some cases, have doubled, and add into that where even a 20% tip is now considered the bare minimum.  

That’s me. I can maybe get McDonald’s/something like that once a week. $50-100 meal maybe 2/3 times a year. Other than buying 1 coffee every day ($1-2) I don’t buy anything. Okay maybe a candy bar or chips lol.

2 college degrees and yeahhhh. Need more $.

[theredhead77]

22 hours ago, supposebly said:

I signed up for the free trial of Paramount + on my Amazon account to watch season 3 of Picard. However, it keeps telling me that only season 1 is available. I watched season 1 and liked it very much but that only makes me want to see the other seasons even more.

 

22 hours ago, supposebly said:

Seems it's some ploy by Amazon? I don't find anything on Paramount+ that interests me other than CSI Vegas. So, I'll watch that and unsubscribe after.

I swear the streaming services esp. in Canada have made it so complicated that I'm getting more and more tempted to go back to my shady ways of watching TV. I'm not subscribing to Crave. Bell Canada isn't getting my money no more.

So it was bothering me that you couldn't find all 3 seasons on Paramount + in Canada. I did a quick search and found this https://www.ctv.ca/shows/star-trek-picard and also that it may be on Crave. It looks like all episodes are available on CTV. I hope one of these helps you. I loved the finale.

[oliviabenson]

14 hours ago, partofme said:

I read lots of new murder mysteries and psychological thrillers and was requesting a lot of them for a while.  I was sort of convinced I was the reason they eliminated the form.  

You are not the reason. 

I’m pretty sure of that.

[partofme]

21 minutes ago, oliviabenson said:

That’s me. I can maybe get McDonald’s/something like that once a week. $50-100 meal maybe 2/3 times a year. Other than buying 1 coffee every day ($1-2) I don’t buy anything. Okay maybe a candy bar or chips lol.

2 college degrees and yeahhhh. Need more $.

This is me.  2 degrees and need more money.  I don't buy fast food or coffee but do buy candy bars and chips.  

[Bethany]

1 minute ago, partofme said:

This is me.  2 degrees and need more money.  I don't buy fast food or coffee but do buy candy bars and chips.  

Two degrees but earn less than my husband who has one (that's a peeve for another occasion).  We're rounding the curve and heading towards retirement so we're being extra cautious with what we laughingly refer to as our "discretionary income".  And one thing we've decided we need to be more discreet about is eating out when we have a perfectly good kitchen and know how to cook! 

But the day I give up the occasional treat of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia or a caramilk bar will be a cold day in hell!  

[oliviabenson]

I’m surprised how many NY people are on here! Pretty cool!

I did meet up/Reddit meet ups/bumble  for a while no luck in making even 1 friend. Forget meeting a man…

Sigh. I want a friend to go do stuff with or talk about stuff…

[oliviabenson]

20 hours ago, partofme said:

I read lots of new murder mysteries and psychological thrillers and was requesting a lot of them for a while.  I was sort of convinced I was the reason they eliminated the form.  

Can you recommend some books or your favorite authors? I’m looking to read more. And your favorite genres are also mine!

Thanks!

[peacheslatour]

31 minutes ago, oliviabenson said:

Can you recommend some books or your favorite authors? I’m looking to read more. And your favorite genres are also mine!

Thanks!

I know you didn't ask me but some of my favorites are by Agatha Christie (obviously) Barbara Michaels, Anne Cleves, Ann Rule, Lillian Jackson Braun and Martha Grimes.

[oliviabenson]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

I know you didn't ask me but some of my favorites are by Agatha Christie (obviously) Barbara Michaels, Anne Cleves, Ann Rule, Lillian Jackson Braun and Martha Grimes.

Thanks!

[Browncoat]

You could also try this thread in the Books section:

 

[partofme]

2 hours ago, oliviabenson said:

Can you recommend some books or your favorite authors? I’m looking to read more. And your favorite genres are also mine!

Thanks!

I’m always nervous about recommending, some of my favorite authors get bashed a lot, but I like Harlan Coben(particularly his stand alone books), Linwood Barclay, Michael Robotham, Alice Feeney, Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, Lisa Gardner and Lisa Unger among others.  And I keep reading Paula Hawkins because I loved The Girl on the Train even though none of the others have been as good.  I look on Goodreads a lot for things that are similar to other things I’ve read.  
 

I haven’t read a lot of Agatha Christie, but I love David Suchet’s Poirot.  The Miss Marple’s I’ve seen have been good too

Edited April 21, 2023 by partofme

[ABay]

Not all of these are still writing: Reginald Hill, Lindsey Davis, Robert Barnard, some Peter Lovesey, Sharon Newman, Ruth Downie, Richard Osman, Alan Bradley, Jane Thornley (extremely variable), Alan Gordon, Laurie King, Anthony Horowitz but only the 3 in the Magpie series, Catriona McPherson, G.M. Malliet, Kerry Greenwood, Dorothy L. Sayers, Tasha Alexander but got tired of the series, Rhys Bowen but her weird hangup about virginity  eventually put me off, Walter Satterthwait but not his main series...others...

Jodi Taylor! Hers are not mysteries like the ones above but fantastic. Love the Chronicles of St. Mary's.

I think I corrected all the autocorrect but I'm sure I'll spot some I missed as soon as I post.

Edited April 22, 2023 by ABay

[Leeds]

3 hours ago, oliviabenson said:

Can you recommend some books or your favorite authors? I’m looking to read more. And your favorite genres are also mine!

Thanks!

If you like gritty, dense, intense murder mysteries/detective novels, the Scottish writers Val McDermid and Ian Rankin are excellent.  I would say they are the antithesis of Agatha Christie.

[Kitty Redstone]

5 hours ago, partofme said:

I haven’t read a lot of Agatha Christie, but I love David Suchet’s Poirot.  The Miss Marple’s I’ve seen have been good too

The books are even better. The characters in A Murder is Announced are some of my favorites, ever.

While I love most of David Suchet's Poirot, they really butchered Murder on the Orient Express. It's a dark story but the book has a lot of humor which is completely absent from the 2010 episode. The flaws are even more glaring after watching Curtain (which I've seen but never read).

This brings up a pet peeve. I watched the 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express recently and could hardly get through it. Albert Finney was fucking horrible. I'm glad he wasn't available or wasn't cast to do the other Poirot movies of that era. Peter Ustinov was infinitely better, though even he couldn't save Murder in Three Acts. I've wondered if dust-in-his-grave Tony Curtis is still embarrassed by his performance in that one.

[GaT]

19 minutes ago, Kitty Redstone said:

This brings up a pet peeve. I watched the 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express recently and could hardly get through it. Albert Finney was fucking horrible. I'm glad he wasn't available or wasn't cast to do the other Poirot movies of that era. Peter Ustinov was infinitely better, though even he couldn't save Murder in Three Acts. I've wondered if dust-in-his-grave Tony Curtis is still embarrassed by his performance in that one.

You have obviously not seen the 2017 version with Kenneth Branagh as Poirot, he would have to seriously improve just to be considered "fucking horrible". I love the 1974 version, especially the beginning of the movie.

[stewedsquash]

I stumbled across The ABC Murders recently when searching Prime

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/01/690328222/in-the-abc-murders-john-malkovich-plays-an-older-more-vulnerable-poirot
 

I love John Malkovic so I started watching just because of him. It is a dark, slow version that invites you to just settle in and watch. My peeve is that I can’t find more of Poirot as played by Malkovic, all the boos and hisses inserted here. Apparently he was a one and done or other episodes are not findable to me.

 

[Kitty Redstone]

8 hours ago, GaT said:

You have obviously not seen the 2017 version with Kenneth Branagh as Poirot, he would have to seriously improve just to be considered "fucking horrible". I love the 1974 version, especially the beginning of the movie.

No, I haven't. He'd have to be pretty bad to be worse than Finney.

@stewedsquash I didn't realize Malkovic had played Poirot. That's definitely one I'll add to my list. The Suchet version of The ABC Murders is also very, very good.

[peacheslatour]

Davis Suchet IS Poirot in the same way that nobody else is Sherlock Holmes but Jeremy Brett.

[ABay]

I *hate* all of the Christie adaptations by Sarah Phelps. Just hate, flames, flames on the side of my face hate. They're unwatchable imo.

[stewedsquash]

Lol @ABay while I lean towards agreeing with you, I did qualify my love for John Malkovic. That was the hook for me. I haven't even read Agatha Christie books. I went in cold for the story so I have no idea if it is true to the books or anything like that. John Malkovich was the prize for watching.

So alas, John Malkovic will forever be Poirot for me. No other versions will do. 

Edited April 22, 2023 by stewedsquash

[Bethany]

I have no idea who does the Miss Marple adaptions I've seen most recently but while I thought they were well done what I hated was the way they messed around with some of the characters and even with who the killer was.  Trying to make stories set in the '30s seem like stories that would have been written today.  It didn't work for me but I guess if they're trying to attract new viewers, especially those who haven't read the books, it might.

[Suzn]

On 4/22/2023 at 12:28 AM, GaT said:

You have obviously not seen the 2017 version with Kenneth Branagh as Poirot, he would have to seriously improve just to be considered "fucking horrible". I love the 1974 version, especially the beginning of the movie.

You beat me to it, mentioning Kenneth Branagh.  I don't have the words to describe the travesty of his portrayal of Poirot, from the hideous mustache to every word from his mouth was despicable. Not to mention the character and plot was changed to be unrecognizable.  I made the mistake of watching Death on the Nile too and it was also butchered and insulted. "Fucking horrible" would be the kindest thing I could say about either.

On 4/22/2023 at 8:47 AM, Kitty Redstone said:

No, I haven't. He'd have to be pretty bad to be worse than Finney.

Oh, he is, he is!

On 4/22/2023 at 10:35 AM, peacheslatour said:

Davis Suchet IS Poirot in the same way that nobody else is Sherlock Holmes but Jeremy Brett.

David Suchet completely embodies Poirot.

On 4/22/2023 at 12:00 PM, Elizabeth Anne said:

I have no idea who does the Miss Marple adaptions I've seen most recently but while I thought they were well done what I hated was the way they messed around with some of the characters and even with who the killer was.  Trying to make stories set in the '30s seem like stories that would have been written today.  It didn't work for me but I guess if they're trying to attract new viewers, especially those who haven't read the books, it might.

I want to mention Joan Hickson as Miss Marple.  Absolute perfection.

Edited April 23, 2023 by Suzn

[ABay]

Hercule Poirot uses the little grey cells, Kenny, he is not an action hero.

My issue with the Phelps adaptations isn't about messing with the plots or characters, it's with how damn dreary and depressing everything is.

Edited April 22, 2023 by ABay

[Bethany]

36 minutes ago, Suzn said:

I want to mention Joan Hickson as Miss Marple.  Absolute perfection.

Yes!  And she even looks like Miss Marple should!  Much as I adore Margaret Rutherford and thought her Miss Marple was a hoot she definitely didn't look like Miss Marple.  A sentiment shared by Agatha Christie from what I've read.

[peacheslatour]

Just now, Elizabeth Anne said:

Yes!  And she even looks like Miss Marple should!  Much as I adore Margaret Rutherford and thought her Miss Marple was a hoot she definitely didn't look like Miss Marple.  A sentiment shared by Agatha Christie from what I've read.

She described Miss Marple as being small and birdlike. As much as I loved Rutherford as Marple, she was not small and birdlike.

[Kitty Redstone]

5 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

I have no idea who does the Miss Marple adaptions I've seen most recently but while I thought they were well done what I hated was the way they messed around with some of the characters and even with who the killer was.  Trying to make stories set in the '30s seem like stories that would have been written today.  It didn't work for me but I guess if they're trying to attract new viewers, especially those who haven't read the books, it might.

Was it the ones from the early 2000s, with Geraldine McEwen and Julia McKenzie? There were a couple of episodes that were adapted to include Miss Marple (Pale Horse, Endless Night and at least one other), and some that were true Marple stories but rewritten slightly (like A Murder is Announced) and horribly and unnecessarily (like Nemesis). Or have there been other more recent adaptations??

Another Poirot pet peeve, the 2008 episode of Appointment with Death. I watched it once back then and have avoided watching it again. It was just brutal. And besides that, the plot was rewritten to be a convoluted mess. The Peter Ustinov version from 1988 is pretty good, though. Piper Laurie was so convincing as the domineering, controlling mother from hell.

[annzeepark914]

5 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

She described Miss Marple as being small and birdlike. As much as I loved Rutherford as Marple, she was not small and birdlike.

She also described Miss Marple as fluffy, a small, delicate older lady. So I envisioned someone like my grandmother, with the soft, white hair in a bun. When a movie was made starring Helen Hayes as Miss Marple, I was happy. We each have our own visions or versions of what these characters look like. 

Edited April 22, 2023 by annzeepark914

[stewedsquash]

Okay I am trying to watch Indian Matchmaker while dog sitting for a few hours at a time this weekend and got distracted now looking for more Agatha. I see on Prime:

Ordeal By Innocence

The Pale Horse

Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar (a what might have happened to the author movie?)

Peeve for all this is it made me remember that Prime kind of sucks because if you don’t look closely you will be hooked on an episode show and find out you only one season free or even(!!!) ONE EPISODE(!!!!!!!!) free!!!  and have to chalk up some cash to finish. Boo hiss gah!

I am debating even starting a two season show A Very English Scandal with Hugh Grant because I can’t tell if season one is only three episodes and don’t even see a season two option. 
I will check out FreeVee later and see if it is any help.

Edited April 22, 2023 by stewedsquash