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

candall · September 14, 2016

9 hours ago, Qoass said:

Does anybody know if you can use a smart phone without getting a 4G plan?

When I got my Samsung smart phone from AT&T, my bill went up 50% because I suddenly had a "data plan." (I'm really bare bones--I also pay per text.) I told them I didn't want a data plan because my home wi-fi is too pathetic to download data. They said: Too bad. Your phone has the capacity, so you're required to have the plan.

For this and several other reasons, I'm going to switch to SmartTalk soon, after 30 or 40 years with AT&T. Kind of scary. Advice would be welcome.

4 hours ago, lordonia said:

I was composing an email and mis-typed "carked" instead of "cracked" and it occurred to me that carked is a good word to express being peeved. Can we make it happen?

I always think "chuffed" should be a more polite, kind of posh British-y way to indicate you're pissed off, instead of the opposite. Can you fix this while you're on the carked job?

StatisticalOutlier · September 14, 2016

23 hours ago, auntlada said:

Anyway, I'm just annoyed that people assume everyone has a smart phone and can see whatever crap they are sending that way.

My email program is copyrighted 1997. It doesn't do inline photos. It renders a tiny bit of HTML, but quotation marks and the like are often just a jumble of characters. I can't do fancy fonts or backgrounds. It doesn't even get "installed" on my computer--I just transfer the .exe and other files and they sit there and work. No tentacles on that thing. I love it. If people send me shit I can't read or see, I don't care.

17 hours ago, Bastet said:

Presumably the day will come when one can't have a cell phone that isn't a smart phone, and at that point I'll have to learn to use one. No problem, but I will resent the hell out of the increased cost since I just don't use a mobile phone enough to justify more than what I'm paying now. And that won't change. I can't fathom squinting at a tiny phone to read correspondence, let alone watch video content, so that's never going to be useful to me -- I have a large monitor and really large TVs because I want my eyes to have a large surface when they have to stare at electronic images. And I don't take work calls/check work emails outside of office hours and don't take social calls when I'm busy, so I just don't need the 24/7 connection.

I'm 100% with you on the smart phone non-bandwagon, but don't be so hasty on that increased cost for a smart phone part. I want to change carriers, so I'm giving up my flip phone that's on a Virgin pay-as-you-go plan, where I'd put $22.05 on it every three months and use my accrued balance to pay 18 cents/minute for calls and I think 10 cents per text. So $88/year, and I was building up a balance I'd never use.

I don't really want a smart phone, but it's the cheapest thing I can find. Seriously. QVC to the rescue (I can't believe I bought anything from QVC, much less a phone). They have a Tracfone smart phone that comes with a year of service for $90. That's the phone AND the service.

cheeeeeep phone

The year of service includes 1200 minutes, 1200 texts, and 1.2 gigs of data. If you run out during the year, you can buy a card that adds service, but there's no way I'll use it up.

So for the same $7.50/month I was paying for Virgin service (and not accounting for paying for the phone), I'm going to get a new smart phone and a year of service and more calls and texts than I'll ever need, and the ability to use it for internet if I decide to. And not having my flip-phone's alpha-numeric keyboard will make texting a lot easier.

Also, this particular phone (Rebel) has the most current Android operating system (Mr. Outlier said that's a good thing).

I'll have to learn to use it, but only to make calls and do texts. I think I'm up for it. Maybe.

Now, I haven't fired it up yet because, for some unknown reason, even though I'm six weeks late in "topping up" my Virgin account and it should have been cancelled (like it was once before and it took me FOREVER to get it straightened out), my Virgin phone is still working. I have no idea why, but I'm thrilled that I'm getting to eat into the balance I have on it without adding more. They cut off texting, and I can't see my usage on the website except to see my balance. But I can still make and receive calls. They've threatened that I'll lose my phone number, but I don't care because Mr. Outlier's the only one who has it anyway, so I'll just get a new one when I activate my QVC phone. I never really liked that number anyway.

Sandman87 · September 14, 2016

I know you'll all be devastated to learn this, but "cark" is already a word meaning either:

1) verb - To trouble or vex.

2) noun - A trouble or vexation.

zxy556575 · September 14, 2016

14 minutes ago, Sandman87 said:

I know you'll all be devastated to learn this, but "cark" is already a word meaning either:

1) verb - To trouble or vex.

2) noun - A trouble or vexation.

Well that's carked up.

On the plus side, now I can use it and be a vocabulary snob at the same time.

bilgistic · September 15, 2016

I shall put "carked" into the rotation. I'm sure my coworkers would enjoy a break from my constant and endless stream of expletives.

P2C2E · September 15, 2016

15 hours ago, candall said:

When I got my Samsung smart phone from AT&T, my bill went up 50% because I suddenly had a "data plan." (I'm really bare bones--I also pay per text.) I told them I didn't want a data plan because my home wi-fi is too pathetic to download data. They said: Too bad. Your phone has the capacity, so you're required to have the plan.

For this and several other reasons, I'm going to switch to SmartTalk soon, after 30 or 40 years with AT&T. Kind of scary. Advice would be welcome

Check out AT&T's Go phone plans, which are a pay per month plan. You can get those without data.

BooksRule · September 16, 2016

Quote

I love lima beans, especially the ones with pork at my favorite barbecue restaurant. Brussels sprouts are another favorite that seems to be widely derided.

I love lima beans (the large white ones and the 'baby' limas). They are loaded with potassium. I also share the rare love of Brussels sprouts, especially roasted until brown and crispy.

Since we're on the subject of food, a food peeve that I have is when I buy fruit or vegetables that look good, but don't taste good when I peel/cut/slice them. I hate strawberries that look and smell good, but have no taste, and I've yet to figure out how to pick out a good cantaloupe. I also wish there was a way to judge by feel or look whether or not celery or cucumbers will be bitter. Finally, I've learned to carefully check grape tomatoes before I put them in a salad. I love grape tomatoes, but biting into a mushy bad grape tomato is really, really bad! Which leads me to another food peeve: Way back when grape tomatoes first came on the market, they were expensive and hard to find, because not too many people were growing them. Now that they are everywhere, I find that they aren't as flavorful and sweet as they used to be. They are becoming less special and more generic-tasting, which is disappointing.

auntlada · September 16, 2016

I hate lima beans and Brussels sprouts. Years ago, when I was staying at my grandparents, my grandmother made mashed lima beans because my grandfather liked them. I took some and planned to eat them because that's what you do when you're at someone else's house. Except she forgot to add salt. They were one of the worst tasting things I've ever had.

My son, who is 5, loves Brussels sprouts and hates bacon. I don't understand it.

I prefer homegrown strawberries, but don't want to put the work into growing them. No one at the local farmers market grows them either. One grower told me they just aren't worth it because you can't make enough money on them for the work you have to put into them. The best strawberries I've ever had were tiny, wild strawberries in Estonia. They were about the size of your fingertip, but they had so much flavor. The trouble with the ones in the grocery store is that they grow them for size and color and not flavor.

zxy556575 · September 16, 2016

Drive though order at Steak 'n Shake: patty melt, onion rings, and mint shake.

What I got when I opened the bag at home: patty melt, fries, chocolate shake

I was the only customer in the line so my peeve is those damned drive through intercom systems. Surely there are better microphone and speaker options.

(And yes, stress eating after a trying day.)

Bastet · September 16, 2016

Grocery store fruit and vegetables are almost universally disappointing - as was said, the factory farms grow for uniformity, size, color, etc. rather than flavor - so I am very thankful to be able to have a backyard garden much of the year, and to have excellent farmers' markets locally to fill in the gaps.

I use a lot of avocados, so sometimes I have to pick a few up at the market in between farmers' market days. I have a couple of great local markets, and in general they have better stuff than the chains, but every once in a while I will still wind up with an avocado that looks great but turns out to be crap when I get into it. Highly annoying.

Another avocado peeve, even though I have good options due to friends' trees and farmers' markets: that most grocery stores only carry Hass avocados. They're great, but there are so many other delicious varieties as well, so that one could stock in-season avocados pretty much year round, rather than trucking in Hass when they're not in season, because people have been led to believe they're the only avocados that exist in the west.

bilgistic · September 16, 2016

People act like I'm so weird for not wanting to buy fruit that doesn't grow near here (well, except for bananas, because I'd never eat a banana otherwise, since I don't live near the tropics). I eat produce that I buy from the farmer's market. It's local, in-season and delicious. Yes, that means I can't have strawberries in January. That makes me appreciate them in June.

zxy556575 · September 16, 2016

This is more of a "come ON" reaction, but I still shake my head.

I was at the IRS site submitting an estimated quarterly tax payment, which requires users to enter their SSN as identification. There are no accounts or passwords, you just enter your info. The field for SSN is automatically hidden when you type so all you see are dots. Come ON. The IRS doesn't think it might be useful for me to verify that I'm typing the correct numbers?

I understand the need for security, I really do. But from the bottom of my heart, I doubt that people who are required to make estimated tax payments are doing so from public library computers or the like because they have zero access to technology.

shapeshifter · September 16, 2016

Long time pet peeve: Category named "Miscellaneous."
I'm a librarian, and generally books, media, etc. can be searched by subject — nowadays the subject can be found by first searching by keywords to first find a good example, and then click on the subject heading.
So I was very peeved when the one list to which I subscribe that I still read (for library instruction in colleges) decided to not post emails unless one of a handful of "tags" was used as the subject line, with one of the tags being "MISC" for miscellaneous. Grrr. How is that better than a well-thought out subject line?

ETA: I just realized this board is called "Everything Else" (aka miscellaneous), but at least the threads have meaningful names.

Edited September 16, 2016 by shapeshifter

Qoass · September 16, 2016

Always, always, ALWAYS check your food before pulling away from the drive-through window! A second of attention prevents an evening of heartache.

P2C2E · September 16, 2016

16 hours ago, forumfish said:

I'm not sure, but I think an ATT Go plan will also force you to add data if your phone is considered "smart."

I haven't checked recently, so maybe my plan is grandfathered, but I definitely have a smart phone with no data. Just calling, text and wifi.

BooksRule · September 16, 2016

Quote

Always, always, ALWAYS check your food before pulling away from the drive-through window! A second of attention prevents an evening of heartache.

I always check, because every time I go through a drive-thru, I'm reminded of Joe Pesci's character in 'Lethal Weapon 2'. When they brought back the wrong dinner order for him, he was so angry that they had gone through the drive-thru instead of walking up to the counter, because they 'always f*** you at the drive-thru!'

And the comedian Sinbad had a bit about that as well. He said something about how you always reach into the bag to snitch some fries before you get home and they aren't there. When you go back to get them, they guy there says (in a 'smirking' voice): 'We knew you'd be back.'

janestclair · September 16, 2016

I love beans. I could eat beans at every meal. I don't, because the E. coli in my gastrointestinal tract do not share this opinion. (Cue the bean song.) Lima beans; however, are an abomination.

I never liked Brussels sprouts until I had them roasted. Now I think they're delicious.

I've never used a fast food drive thru. I eat fast food occasionally, had a Wendy's frosty the other day in fact, but I've never gone through the drive through. Is that odd?

potatoradio · September 16, 2016

Quote

Another avocado peeve, even though I have good options due to friends' trees and farmers' markets: that most grocery stores only carry Hass avocados. They're great, but there are so many other delicious varieties as well, so that one could stock in-season avocados pretty much year round, rather than trucking in Hass when they're not in season, because people have been led to believe they're the only avocados that exist in the west.

Ha - for the longest time, I thought the two types of avocados were "organic" and "non-organic." :)

I know tipping came up here a while back, and I was just on a trip so I have to spew that I despise tipping. Hate it. I would so much rather people are paid a living wage and pay more up front for service. It's way too stressful to worry about who I should tip, how much, have cash handy to always be prepared, and to feel like people are playing me for a tip instead of providing good service to increase repeat business or positive reviews or whathave you.

I might feel differently if tipping was a consistent and well-known expectation across service jobs - and as far as I know, it's only really consistent for servers and mail/paper carriers (which is a holdover from the olden days when you knew your mailcarrier and paper route guy/gal by name and gave a holiday bonus more than a tip). I am happy to generously tip, but only when the expectations are clear and consistent. Now, it's just a socially awkward situation and I constantly feel like I'm doing the wrong thing by not tipping someone I'm "supposed" to. I want to pay fair value for a service and have that be the expectation. Way too stressful to take a trip these days and worry about who I'm offending by not tipping. Hate. It. Service people should make a decent living and quality of service should be rewarded by raises and repeat business and reviews, etc. /end soapbox.

I'll trade anyone's lima beans for my eggplant any day. Ew, ew, ew...slimy, tasteless mush with a chewy skin. Not even deep frying makes it palatable to me, and that's saying a lot.

Qoass · September 16, 2016

Quote

I've never used a fast food drive thru. I eat fast food occasionally, had a Wendy's frosty the other day in fact, but I've never gone through the drive through. Is that odd?

I used to go into the restaurant when I felt the drive through line was too long but it seems that fast food employees would rather leave you standing at the counter in favor of getting the people in cars on their way.

bilgistic · September 17, 2016

6 hours ago, janestclair said:

I've never used a fast food drive thru. I eat fast food occasionally, had a Wendy's frosty the other day in fact, but I've never gone through the drive through. Is that odd?

Yes.

How else do you hide your secret shame, eating jalapeno poppers and curly fries in your car at the far end of the TJ Maxx parking lot?

Most fast food restaurants with late-night hours have only the drive-thru open, not the counter and dining room.

In the drive-thru, no one cares if you are wearing pajamas.

zxy556575 · September 17, 2016

4 hours ago, bilgistic said:

In the drive-thru, no one cares if you are wearing pajamas.

The ordering box asked me recently if I would mind coming inside because they were in the middle of power washing the drive through lane.

Hm. I'm in my housecoat and slippers with no bra, so no.

backformore · September 17, 2016

8 hours ago, lordonia said:

The ordering box asked me recently if I would mind coming inside because they were in the middle of power washing the drive through lane.

Hm. I'm in my housecoat and slippers with no bra, so no.

You are a brave woman. I always think about the worst case scenario. It would be just my luck to run out in pj's to get food, and ending up with a flat tire or some other emergency.

bilgistic · September 17, 2016

8 hours ago, lordonia said:

The ordering box asked me recently if I would mind coming inside because they were in the middle of power washing the drive through lane.

Hm. I'm in my housecoat and slippers with no bra, so no.

I love you, @lordonia! You are living right!

auntlada · September 17, 2016

9 hours ago, lordonia said:

The ordering box asked me recently if I would mind coming inside because they were in the middle of power washing the drive through lane.

Hm. I'm in my housecoat and slippers with no bra, so no.

That's what is so great about winter, assuming you live somewhere cold. You can slip on boots and wear a parka, and no one can tell what you do or don't have on underneath.

bilgistic · September 17, 2016

1 hour ago, auntlada said:

That's what is so great about winter, assuming you live somewhere cold. You can slip on boots and wear a parka, and no one can tell what you do or don't have on underneath.

I have been known to go braless to a late-night store run, but only in cold weather that requires a jacket or coat I can button up. It's very apparent when I'm not wearing a bra. I was blessed with the family rack. Not bragging--OK, maybe a little. I also got the largest dose of the family mental illness (depression, anxiety, etc.) and thyroid disorder, among other things. I think I'd trade big hoots to be free of lifelong mental illness. You can buy boobs. You can't buy a new brain.

Well, I took light drive-thru banter to a dark place, didn't I?

StatisticalOutlier · September 17, 2016

21 hours ago, janestclair said:

I've never used a fast food drive thru. I eat fast food occasionally, had a Wendy's frosty the other day in fact, but I've never gone through the drive through. Is that odd?

Yes, it's odd. I have a plastic bag I keep thread in, and not long ago was looking it closely and thought, Huh?? It's actually a litter bag places used to hand out to hang from the window handle in your car, and it has the instructions for using the pick-up window at Wendy's on it, along with an overhead view/drawing of the building showing you where to go. It has to be 40 years old.

Small Frosties are 50 cents for a limited time. janestclair, to ease your nerves if you want to try it (I'll assume you can get you and your car to the menu board without the map):

WHEN YOU HAVE TO EAT AND RUN...

Stay in your car for the fastest take out service in town.

HERE'S ALL YOU DO

o Drive up to the Menu Board and place your order in the speaker.

o Pull up to the Pick Up Window and your order is ready in seconds [no period at the end of this, for some reason]

21 hours ago, Qoass said:

I used to go into the restaurant when I felt the drive through line was too long but it seems that fast food employees would rather leave you standing at the counter in favor of getting the people in cars on their way.

That's definitely my impression at In-N-Out.

I talked to a girl the other day who'd recently worked at McDonald's for a year and she said people at the drive-up window are incredibly nasty and mean. Like so mean they would make her cry. Maybe they feel more powerful because they're sitting in their car and are not so exposed (like anonymous internet trolls), but it would make me want to get them out of there ASAP.

21 hours ago, potatoradio said:

I am happy to generously tip, but only when the expectations are clear and consistent. Now, it's just a socially awkward situation and I constantly feel like I'm doing the wrong thing by not tipping someone I'm "supposed" to. I want to pay fair value for a service and have that be the expectation. Way too stressful to take a trip these days and worry about who I'm offending by not tipping. Hate. It. Service people should make a decent living and quality of service should be rewarded by raises and repeat business and reviews, etc. /end soapbox.

I hate the whole tipping system. I don't even like it when the expectations are clear and consistent (waiter in a restaurant), but I particularly hate it when traveling. Like guided tours. Tipping is bad enough, but the slide-the-tip-in-with-a-handshake is especially repellent to me. It's gotten to where unless it's a tour I really really want to go on, I just don't go--I don't need to be adding awkwardness to my philosophical objection.

A while back I was a volunteer driver for a film festival, and sometimes I took people to the airport. A couple of times, someone tried to tip me. I refused to take it, and I felt bad that they probably had to wonder if they were supposed to tip me. Maybe if I do it again, I'll announce to everyone that I won't accept tips, which will be awkward but less so than refusing one that's proffered, and it's better than having them wonder/worry about it.

But restaurant tipping bugs me, too. I eat out a lot because I don't like to cook. I detest waiting for a server to bring me my check and waiting again for my money to be processed. And that's when the tipping occurs, which makes it more annoying. I'm done, I want to leave.

The other day I was eating at a place at the counter. It's in a tourist town and always really slow, and I accept that. So waiting 30 minutes for your order isn't uncommon, but this time, since I was in the first seat at the counter, I was sitting literally next to my food that was waiting to be picked up and brought to me. I was positive it was our order, and it just sat and sat while our waitress was busy making some drinks. I finally reached over and slid the plates to us.

Probably a dick move, but I just couldn't stand to watch my food get cold (although after the first few bites it's cold anyway, and people continue eating without complaining that it's cold, but I digress). And yes, I still left a tip.

Danny Meyer in New York City (high-end restaurants, and he founded Shake Shack) has eliminated tipping in his restaurants, and he's a leader so there's thinking others might follow. I hope it catches on. I would absolutely favor a no-tipping restaurant over any other, just like I sought out nonsmoking restaurants before it became the law.

But some restaurants are eliminating tipping by putting a "service charge" on top of the price, which is even more annoying to me than tipping. Just pay your people and charge prices that will cover it, like other businesses. Sheeeeesh.

Edited September 17, 2016 by StatisticalOutlier
typo even though I proofread it twice before posting. Grrrr.

Blergh · September 17, 2016

1 hour ago, forumfish said:

Today's peeve: hearing loss, specifically my dad's. I feel bad for him, but at the same time, his poor hearing makes our household loud and angry sounding all the time. No, hearing aids don't help.

Yes, I went through that with my elderly parents. My father [rest his soul] couldn't leave the house to get a hearing aid in the last part of his life and my mother had a bad build up of wax that all attempts proved too painful for her to endure. Long-short is that that they wound up blasting the TV virtually as loud as any 1970's stereo they dissed my late sister for having too loud and I couldn't help but think she likely had a posthumous ironic laugh at their expenses. Thankfully, after my father's death, my mother FINALLY had her wax cleaned out (albeit painfully) and no longer are the sets on full blast.

Maharincess · September 17, 2016

On 9/15/2016 at 5:07 PM, BooksRule said:

I love lima beans (the large white ones and the 'baby' limas). They are loaded with potassium. I also share the rare love of Brussels sprouts, especially roasted until brown and crispy.

Since we're on the subject of food, a food peeve that I have is when I buy fruit or vegetables that look good, but don't taste good when I peel/cut/slice them. I hate strawberries that look and smell good, but have no taste, and I've yet to figure out how to pick out a good cantaloupe. I also wish there was a way to judge by feel or look whether or not celery or cucumbers will be bitter. Finally, I've learned to carefully check grape tomatoes before I put them in a salad. I love grape tomatoes, but biting into a mushy bad grape tomato is really, really bad! Which leads me to another food peeve: Way back when grape tomatoes first came on the market, they were expensive and hard to find, because not too many people were growing them. Now that they are everywhere, I find that they aren't as flavorful and sweet as they used to be. They are becoming less special and more generic-tasting, which is disappointing.

I feel you on the grape tomatoes, there's only one guy at the farmers market who has good ones and he's only there once a month.

I hate that it's impossible to find lemon cucumbers in the stores. They're my favorite cucumber and they're so hard to find.

bilgistic · September 17, 2016

Here's another weird vegetable quirk: I don't like cucumbers but love pickles. I can drink cucumber water, not that I'm ever in such a chichi place that has it (one restaurant near work has it to sip on while waiting for take-out).

ALenore · September 17, 2016

Quote

QUOTE

Always, always, ALWAYS check your food before pulling away from the drive-through window! A second of attention prevents an evening of heartache.

I always check, because every time I go through a drive-thru, I'm reminded of Joe Pesci's character in 'Lethal Weapon 2'. When they brought back the wrong dinner order for him, he was so angry that they had gone through the drive-thru instead of walking up to the counter, because they 'always f*** you at the drive-thru!'

This is the exact quote one of my ex-coworkers used to say whenever someone in the office didn't get what they'd ordered. And it's why I always check my order before pulling away. But somehow, this quote never persuaded anyone to check their order, it was just a reason to complain.

StatisticalOutlier · September 17, 2016

3 hours ago, forumfish said:

Today's peeve: hearing loss, specifically my dad's. I feel bad for him, but at the same time, his poor hearing makes our household loud and angry sounding all the time. No, hearing aids don't help.

At least you feel bad for him--that's very nice of you. I've had hearing loss for 30 years now (hereditary), and it really is a terrible situation. At least if you're blind, it's obvious you're blind and people are always aware of it. Deaf? It's invisible.

One thing that helps me is if the person talking to me starts the conversation with an opener, something like "Hey, Statistical," and waits for me to snap to attention. It alerts me that I need to be listening and I'm less likely to get behind and have to be trying to reconstruct what I missed while understanding what's currently being said at the same time, which is exhausting. And if your dad has one ear that's better than the other, try to cheat your position to that side--it can make a huge difference.

It's no wonder old people are grouchy--they can't see, they can't hear, they lose their sense of taste, and they probably have physical pain all the time.

I have fancy hearing aids and as much as I appreciate them, they are a major PITA. The new ones with all their computer wizardry are finicky and they ALWAYS sound fine at the audiologist's, and then when you get home they're not right, and you have to troop back to get them adjusted, but they're going to sound fine at the audiologist's. That's really frustrating and tiring for anyone, especially older people. That's why so many hearing aids sit in drawers, unused, and the oldsters just resign themselves to misunderstanding everything and keeping the TV really loud, much to their, and everyone else's, annoyance.

However, I did get the biggest compliment of my life the other day. I'm extremely educated about my hearing loss and hearing aids. I went to a new audiologist and we were talking about wax and I said I don't have wax problems, but added that I use Q-Tips to clean my ears. She covered her ears in horror and said, "I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!" just like they always do. I explained how I do it, and she said, "Well, actually, I trust YOU to use Q-Tips." I felt like such a winner.

Edited September 17, 2016 by StatisticalOutlier

Mountainair · September 18, 2016

5 hours ago, bilgistic said:

Here's another weird vegetable quirk: I don't like cucumbers but love pickles. I can drink cucumber water, not that I'm ever in such a chichi place that has it (one restaurant near work has it to sip on while waiting for take-out).

I hate pickles but love cucumbers. My dad loves pickles but hate cucumbers. I did make some really good refrigerator pickles last summer-but I was pregnant so I blame the hormones on liking them.

My fast food of choice is chick-fil-a (about once every quarter) and their chicken sandwich comes with pickles. I always pick them off and give them to the kids but It irks me how it makes the whole sandwich taste like pickles. Sure, I could order it without pickles but I guarantee they just pick the pickles off the sandwhich like I do. Obviously it's not bad enough to make me not order that menu item anymore but I can still taste the pickle.

zxy556575 · September 18, 2016

8 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I have fancy hearing aids and as much as I appreciate them, they are a major PITA. The new ones with all their computer wizardry are finicky and they ALWAYS sound fine at the audiologist's, and then when you get home they're not right, and you have to troop back to get them adjusted, but they're going to sound fine at the audiologist's. That's really frustrating and tiring for anyone ...

Including the audiologist! I used to be one a couple of professional lives ago and although I enjoyed the clinical work, hearing aid dispensing was soul-crushing. I worked in a hospital clinic and actually had a sales quota. Hearing aids just aren't that good -- still -- and the hoards of dissatisfied patients and constant readjustments were brutal. But mazel tov to anyone here who loves it, of course.

Quote

My fast food of choice is chick-fil-a ...

What do you order? I've heard a lot of people say it's their favorite but I don't know which sandwich to try.

Edited September 18, 2016 by lordonia

candall · September 18, 2016

On ‎9‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 10:00 AM, P2C2E said:

Check out AT&T's Go phone plans, which are a pay per month plan. You can get those without data.

Thank you, but . . . one of my beefs with AT&T is that my reception is unreliable, because there aren't any towers nearby. The customer service rep suggested I buy their $300 booster antenna. I suggested back that it might behoove AT&T to take an interest in whether their customer receives adequate reception and they should just give me the damn antenna. The woman said, "Well . . . that makes sense to me. I'm going to arrange that." I was so surprised, I moved my head a few inches and lost the one reasonable person in the whole system.

In this area, StraightTalk uses Verizon towers, which aren't any closer to me, but it can't be much worse.

****************

Hearing loss: Sometimes I go outside and realize I can still hear the tv perfectly well, which means I must have it on blast. Damn, it's happening.

Here's a good tip, though. I learned that older people can hear you better if you drop your register as low as it will go and speak from your diaphragm. Deep voices get through better than high ones.

Apparently I'll be needing people to put that extra effort in on my behalf soon, so maybe I'll get some good goes-around-comes-around karma for all my years of James Earl Jonesing at my senior friends.

Edited September 18, 2016 by candall

TattleTeeny · September 18, 2016

Quote

Presumably the day will come when one can't have a cell phone that isn't a smart phone, and at that point I'll have to learn to use one. No problem, but I will resent the hell out of the increased cost since I just don't use a mobile phone enough to justify more than what I'm paying now. And that won't change. I can't fathom squinting at a tiny phone to read correspondence, let alone watch video content, so that's never going to be useful to me -- I have a large monitor and really large TVs because I want my eyes to have a large surface when they have to stare at electronic images. And I don't take work calls/check work emails outside of office hours and don't take social calls when I'm busy, so I just don't need the 24/7 connection.

That's sort of what happened to me. I lost my phone and went to buy a new one, and the choices at AT&T were two ends of the spectrum as far as phone models: super-old and latest & greatest. I figured, just get the iPhone then, because going completely backwards in terms of technology was pretty silly (my last phone was kind of in-between, and I'm paying only $30 more per month anyway). I like it and all, and it's very helpful, but I have not found myself to be much more "into" the phone than I was before. For instance, it is not at my side right now; it's over there...somewhere...I think? And a couple of years after getting it, I still haven't explored all it has to offer.

Unrelated: I love all of the fruits, adore brussels sprouts (you guys--roasted with a mustard marinade, oh my goodness!), and absolutely despise onions! Like, with a visceral fury. So bad...and unfortunately, so ubiquitous--and do not tell me that you can order a half-onion pizza without it affecting the non-onion half. Nope, that smell and taste wafts into the other half! And I can taste when tomato has been cut with a knife that has cut an onion.

And what I hate even more? People who ask, "But what about Frech onion soup...onion rings...a blooming' onion?" The hell you say? How do you not realize what the main ingredient of those things is when you JUST SAID IT?! Aand the same goes for your grandma's holiday green-bean casserole no matter how good "everyone" says it is. Why is it so hard to process that someone doesn't like this particular food?

Once, at stupid Sonic (before I quit meat), I had to send a burger back three times. It came with regular raw onions and was topped with an onion ring. I told them "no onions" but it kept coming back with the onion ring, as if they thought that was not made of...an onion!

Edited September 18, 2016 by TattleTeeny

zxy556575 · September 18, 2016

On 9/14/2016 at 7:28 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

I don't really want a smart phone, but it's the cheapest thing I can find. Seriously. QVC to the rescue. They have a Tracfone smart phone that comes with a year of service for $90.

Thanks for the tip! That is cheap. My current Tracfone is good until summer of next year but I'll have to remember to check QVC then. I suppose Tracfone makes their money when customers buy additional time but like you, I'd never exceed the starting amounts. At those prices, it's considerably less expensive to buy a new phone each year instead of adding minutes to an existing one. And you'd be getting the newer tech ... although for me that would be more a headache than a bonus!

Mountainair · September 18, 2016

12 hours ago, lordonia said:

Including the audiologist! I used to be one a couple of professional lives ago and although I enjoyed the clinical work, hearing aid dispensing was soul-crushing. I worked in a hospital clinic and actually had a sales quota. Hearing aids just aren't that good -- still -- and the hoards of dissatisfied patients and constant readjustments were brutal. But mazel tov to anyone here who loves it, of course.

What do you order? I've heard a lot of people say it's their favorite but I don't know which sandwich to try.

I usually get the original sandwich and put mayo on it. I tried their spicy original the other day and it was real good too. Also, their grilled deluxe is pretty good with honey mustard.

Jumping on the Brussel sprout love! I eat them at least once a week. My oldest only likes them if I make them with bacon, shallots and red wine vinegar reduction (bacon makes everything better). My middle child loves any type of Brussel sprouts. At preschool the teacher asked him what his favorite food was for their end of year memory books and his answer was, "Brussel sprouts"! He also eats raw onion, raw pepper, raw lemon and anything spicy. My oldest can't even look at a pepper shaker without freaking out about it being too spicy!

StatisticalOutlier · September 18, 2016

11 hours ago, candall said:

Apparently I'll be needing people to put that extra effort in on my behalf soon, so maybe I'll get some good goes-around-comes-around karma for all my years of James Earl Jonesing at my senior friends.

Ah, the Law & Order test. If you can adjust TV speakers so that old people can understand Law & Order, you'll be a hero.

Peeve? Pepper. When I watch cooking shows, every recipe (except sweets, of course) calls for pepper. Why? And it's not even different varietals of pepper. It's always just pepper. I can see salt--it enhances the other flavors (I think). But pepper? To me, it has its own taste, and I don't taste that taste in the dishes. So why does it always have to be in there?

Bastet · September 18, 2016

Anne Burrell hates black pepper, so she never uses it (who could taste it in the ocean of salt she uses, anyway?). I'm the opposite -- when I'm cooking, I season with a tiny amount of salt (sometimes none), but almost always grind some black pepper. I like the taste on its own, but also find it pretty neutral in most dishes.

I love onions any which way, and am cracking up at the "hold the onions" burger repeatedly coming out with an onion ring. If you bread it and fry it, it ceases to be an onion? I have no idea the logic on omitting the diced/sliced onions but repeatedly sending it out with a big ol' onion ring and not grasping why it's being sent back.

Edited September 18, 2016 by Bastet

janestclair · September 18, 2016

23 hours ago, forumfish said:

Today's peeve: hearing loss, specifically my dad's. I feel bad for him, but at the same time, his poor hearing makes our household loud and angry sounding all the time. No, hearing aids don't help.

I feel you. My dad has had hearing loss for as long as I can remember. Growing up, one of my great aunts did too. My mom is starting to lose her hearing now. The TV is always set to a loud volume, and I no longer have an indoor voice, since I'm so used to speaking loud to be heard. This is an advantage as a teacher though - my classroom is very long, and I have no difficulty projecting. Even the kids way in the back can still hear me.

3 hours ago, TattleTeeny said:

Why is it so hard to process that someone doesn't like this particular food?

Not only that, but why do other people care? It doesn't affect your life if I find mayo vile and disgusting, and detest the taste of black pepper and rare meat. If I want to order my steak medium well, I'm going to order it that way. You don't have to eat it, I am. I don't need some food snob telling me I'm ruining it. I can taste the iron in myoglobin if the meat is still pink, and it is not good.

Pretty much everything at Chik-fil-A is good. I get the spicy chicken sandwich with pepper jack cheese, and whatever they call that drink that has the lemonade mixed with ice dream that I'm blanking on right now. Oh - and buffalo sauce for the waffle fries. So good.

Now I want Chik-fil-A, and it's Sunday. Damn.

Edited September 18, 2016 by janestclair
Added the last sentence.

bilgistic · September 18, 2016

That reminds me of the time I went to the drive-thru at Chick-Fil-A to get some of their crack-infused lemonade. I sat at the ordering box(?) waiting for a voice, saying "Hello??", then finally realizing it was Sunday.

On the other end of the hearing spectrum, I have extremely good hearing. Loudness is seriously almost painful to me. Sitting in a room with a loud TV ratchets up my anxiety. I have to wear earplugs to watch a movie in a theater (which I rarely do).

I'm just incredibly sensitive to stimuli in my environment. I have to shop in most stores with sunglasses and earbuds, and prepared with Xanax. I look like an asshole, I'm sure, but I'd never get any shopping done without it. You can imagine how miserable it is for me to work in a cubicle farm with loud brokers on the phone all around me. I'm utterly exhausted all the time. Of course, I can't have an office because no one else has one. I put in the earbuds and try to drown out the noise with more noise. At least it's noise of my choosing.

Edited September 20, 2016 by bilgistic

StatisticalOutlier · September 18, 2016

7 hours ago, Bastet said:

Anne Burrell hates black pepper, so she never uses it (who could taste it in the ocean of salt she uses, anyway?). I'm the opposite -- when I'm cooking, I season with a tiny amount of salt (sometimes none), but almost always grind some black pepper. I like the taste on its own, but also find it pretty neutral in most dishes.

What do you mean by "neutral"? Since black pepper, to me, has a distinctive taste, I just wonder why people (except Anne Burrell, who would be my new buddy except she grates) put that something in every dish. The people on TV really do, and it's generally in about 1/2 the portion of salt, like 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.

7 hours ago, stewedsquash said:

To the second part: I always get the number one combo original, extra pickles, unsweet tea with lemon, add splenda

OMG, I can't stand Splenda. And it's everywhere. I remember getting VERY peeved when I bought some canned pears that said "no sugar" on them, which is what I want, and when I got them home I realized they had Splenda. I had to rinse the canned pears. I have figured out that Splenda = sucralose, so I can find it hidden in the list of ingredients, but I have learned that I can't rely on "no sugar added" any more. Bleh.

Quote

eta Cucumbers: My favorite way is the way Asian places serve them. So at home I have the habit of peeling, slicing in half and scooping out the seeds, then slicing. I also love to add a sprinkle of sugar and vinegar to them and let them sit for a bit before eating them.

I help out at a soup kitchen and when we make cucumbers in vinegar and sugar (my mother never put sugar in them--these are better) and black pepper (which you know is there and can taste, unlike in tuna salad and pot roast), everybody loves them--volunteers and "customers" alike.

Volunteer gigs are interesting, how people get very territorial and sometimes bossy. There's a woman who insists that cucumbers are washed before peeling them AND after peeling them. Only the washing is actually just passing them under some running water in a colander. She also makes people wash the cantaloupes before cutting them open--I guess the knife can force gradu from the skin into the flesh? It has never occurred to me to wash something if I'm not going to be eating that surface, and honestly, these aren't even really getting washed. And as someone said under her breath the other day, considering what the clientele usually eats...

Quote

On the other end of the hearing spectrum, I have extremely good hearing. Loudness is seriously almost painful to me.

Oh, good!* My favorite Mr. Outlier story. We had gone to bed and he was being kept up by some noise, like a scraping. He got up and was walking all around (keeping ME awake) trying to locate it and finally exclaimed, "Aha!" It was over in the corner--there was one of those subscription cards you get in magazines at an angle in the bottom of a trash can and an ANT was trying to crawl up it, keeping Mr. Outlier awake.

ETA: *Oops! I didn't mean "Oh good!" about your pain!

Edited September 19, 2016 by StatisticalOutlier

Bastet · September 18, 2016

Neutral in that the amount mixed into a whole dish just sort of blends in as a general flavor enhancer rather than a specific focal point of taste much the way salt does (although it obviously has a more distinctive taste, thus one uses less pepper than salt when seasoning - except me, because I'm contrary like that).

candall · September 18, 2016

Ah! Checked with Wikipedia: "presbycusis"--accumulated deterioration of higher frequencies in humans with age. Yeah, yeah, whatever, but don't be messing with my Law & Order.

In the same article, Wikipedia had some interesting stuff on those ringtones that only kids can hear. Teens like getting incoming phone calls and texts that the teacher can't hear, but not so much when the technology is turned against them--storekeepers have started using the ultra high-pitched frequencies to keep packs of teens from congregating on the premises. (Human rights and discrimination concerns.)

@bilgistic, that's awful. I had extreme hearing loss for a year, so I know about the isolation and rudeness there, but it never occurred to me there could be the opposite problem. I'm so sorry. (I guess you've already experimented with all the noise-canceling headphones--my friend thinks her Bose model is super-duper.)

backformore · September 18, 2016

Quote

Once, at stupid Sonic (before I quit meat), I had to send a burger back three times. It came with regular raw onions and was topped with an onion ring. I told them "no onions" but it kept coming back with the onion ring, as if they thought that was not made of...an onion!

Yeah, we had the same problem at a McD's. My son HATED onions, especially those little diced onions McD's puts on burgers. We always ordered one burger with "No onions". And, it always came WITH onions (but they wrote "No onions" on the wrapper). If we were eating at home, I'd have to scrape the burger and bun, then add ketchup (because you can't scrape just onions). At times, I'd had to throw out the bun and give him a piece of bread on top of the burger, because the hint of onion taste was still in the bun. One day, the manager was at the counter, and I asked him why it was impossible to get a burger with no onions. He very confidently assured me that it was no problem. We ordered, and he called out to the kitchen to make sure that one burger was "no onion". Ok - the food came, and he pointed out to me, in his condescending way, that one burger was marked "no onion", so that, see? it was no problem! Yeah, so I unwrapped the burger and pointed out to the little white things all over the inside, and asked him what they were. Yeah, he had them make it over and gave us some coupons. I pointed out to him that at his store, it was obvious that "no onions" meant "regular burger with the words no onion on the wrapper", because that was what we always got. I didn't even want to talk to him about how our "vanilla shake" was always PINK, so we just stopped ordering shakes.

Maharincess · September 18, 2016

17 hours ago, Mountainair said:

I hate pickles but love cucumbers. My dad loves pickles but hate cucumbers. I did make some really good refrigerator pickles last summer-but I was pregnant so I blame the hormones on liking them.

My fast food of choice is chick-fil-a (about once every quarter) and their chicken sandwich comes with pickles. I always pick them off and give them to the kids but It irks me how it makes the whole sandwich taste like pickles. Sure, I could order it without pickles but I guarantee they just pick the pickles off the sandwhich like I do. Obviously it's not bad enough to make me not order that menu item anymore but I can still taste the pickle.

When you say they would just pick the pickles off your sandwich, does that mean their sandwiches are pre packaged? I've never eaten there but always assumed the make their sandwiches to order. I wouldn't go to a place that has pre packaged sandwiches.

auntlada · September 18, 2016

I think they make their sandwiches to order. I know a guy who used to be a cook at a Chick-fil-a. We go periodically because my son loves it because it has a playground. (I don't know if our McDonald's has a playground or not, but I refuse to go there because I hate McDonald's food. The hamburgers always look so good in the pictures, but then they have no burger taste when I get one.)

ratgirlagogo · September 18, 2016

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

Neutral in that the amount [of black pepper] mixed into a whole dish just sort of blends in as a general flavor enhancer rather than a specific focal point of taste much the way salt does (although it obviously has a more distinctive taste, thus one uses less pepper than salt when seasoning - except me, because I'm contrary like that).

That's what I would say as well. Same is true of vanilla in many things - you don't really taste it but you would taste the difference in a bad way if it weren't there. For the most part that's the role that onions/garlic play in my cooking - they mix with other components to form the base for the rest of the dish but aren't easily tasted on their own. And for me carrots are that kind of ingredient - I like them a lot cooked (with onions, celery, garlic, etc.) down into a kind of base for a dish, but I don't care for cooked carrots at all - way too sweet for me.

By the way I have a friend who developed an actual allergy to black pepper in her mid-forties - a bad one to have since it's almost impossible to eat out, or for that matter eat any kind of prepared food with this allergy. And the allergy itself is a doozy - similar to a bee-sting allergy. The only positive thing I can say about it was that at least she already liked to cook, so she could work on developing a new diet for herself. Yikes.

Edited September 18, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

zxy556575 · September 18, 2016

4 hours ago, backformore said:

Yeah, so I unwrapped the burger and pointed out to the little white things all over the inside, and asked him what they were. Yeah, he had them make it over and gave us some coupons

Ooh, the smirky satisfaction of being right. I love that you were confident enough to open it in front of him, knowing it would be wrong.

I'm the fool who always pays a dollar for extra pepperoni on my pizza. When the delivery person arrives I open the box and point out that it does not, in fact, have extra. It never does! I keep thinking they'll learn but I think it's me who needs to.

In the same vein, my preferred Chinese restaurant recently added online ordering and I used it once, twice, three times without the restaurant knowing anything about it when I went in to pick up the food. I'm stubbornly dimwitted like that. The hostess: "Just call me!"

Edited September 19, 2016 by lordonia

StatisticalOutlier · September 18, 2016

55 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Neutral in that the amount mixed into a whole dish just sort of blends in as a general flavor enhancer rather than a specific focal point of taste much the way salt does (although it obviously has a more distinctive taste, thus one uses less pepper than salt when seasoning - except me, because I'm contrary like that).

Thanks for the explanation. Since pepper has such a distinctive taste to me, it didn't occur to me it would be a flavor enhancer instead of just being the flavor of pepper and I just didn't understand why everybody wants everything to taste like pepper.

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