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

[TattleTeeny]

Random peeve (aren't they all, I guess?): people who appear to think Merriam-Webster is a woman named Miriam Webster. I have encountered this more than once.

Quote

New Jersey still has blue laws for regular stores.  Like the the mall is closed on Sundays.  It's truly ridiculous.  It may only be some counties in Northern New Jersey.  I'm not sure.  

It is only some -- I can only think of one, actually, but that doesn't mean there aren't more. Everything around me is open on Sundays. I think the blue law Sundays may be more the exception than the rule in Jersey.

Edited June 11 by TattleTeeny

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, TattleTeeny said:

Random peeve (aren't they all, I guess?): people who appear to think Merriam-Webster is a woman named Miriam Webster. I have encountered this more than once.

It is only some -- I can only think of one, actually, but that doesn't mean there aren't more. Everything around me is open on Sundays. I think the blue law Sundays may be more the exception than the rule in Jersey.

Miriam Webster:  Bwah ha ha. 

New Jersey:  quick Googling yesterday indicates that only Bergen County in North Jersey still keeps the blue laws these days.  But that's the closest county for me if I want to hop over the GW Bridge and shop in Jersey . . . 

Edited June 11 by EtheltoTillie

[Yeah No]

12 hours ago, ABay said:

WNY is west. Northern New York is north. The issue is political. If you are repeatedly told that someone finds a name offensive and you keep calling them by that name, you are assuming that you have more right than they do to determine their identity.

I am sorry, my apologies, I had no idea that the issue was political or in any way an identity/hot button issue for you or anyone.  I have lived in CT for 33 years so perhaps there are some issues I am not aware of.  I was just pointing out a geographical relationship, not calling anyone a name.  The last thing I want to do is make assumptions or determine anyone's identity, not that I was in any way doing that in my opinion, at least not knowingly or intentionally.  I wish that courtesy would be extended to me as well as I feel that negative and erroneous assumptions are made about me all the time, like that because I use certain terminology I think the world revolves around NYC.  I don't, and I don't think I deserved being told that.

Edited June 12 by Yeah No

[Yeah No]

6 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

New Jersey:  quick Googling yesterday indicates that only Bergen County in North Jersey still keeps the blue laws these days.  But that's the closest county for me if I want to hop over the GW Bridge and shop in Jersey . . . 

Yes, like I said in my post to you earlier.  My mom and I used to "shop till we drop" out in Hackensack and Paramus back in the '70s on Saturdays.  Those really were the days.  We could hit 4 malls in one day on Routes 4 and 17!

[ABay]

6 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I am sorry, my apologies, I had no idea that the issue was political or in any way an identity/hot button issue for you or anyone. 

I apologize as well; I wasn't attacking you but trying to explain why it's a problem when one group thinks they get to decide what to call another group, which was the issue raised by EtheltoTillie's post.

[DXD526]

Having grown up in Bergen County, and having my first job in a store there, we all liked the blue laws. It meant none of us could ever be forced to work on a Sunday, since the store wasn't allowed to be open! I'm kind of shocked this law is still in place, though, all these years later. Bergen Co is an odd bird...

As for 'upstate New York', I always assumed that covered everything north of NYC. But different areas also have different names. Albany is upstate, but it's also the Capital District; Catskill is upstate, but it's also the Hudson Valley; Buffalo is upstate, but it's also Western NY. They can be several things at once. 

[partofme]

51 minutes ago, DXD526 said:

Having grown up in Bergen County, and having my first job in a store there, we all liked the blue laws. It meant none of us could ever be forced to work on a Sunday, since the store wasn't allowed to be open! I'm kind of shocked this law is still in place, though, all these years later. Bergen Co is an odd bird...

As for 'upstate New York', I always assumed that covered everything north of NYC. But different areas also have different names. Albany is upstate, but it's also the Capital District; Catskill is upstate, but it's also the Hudson Valley; Buffalo is upstate, but it's also Western NY. They can be several things at once. 

I grew up in Rockland County, NY(though I was born in Manhattan) which  is right above Bergen County, NJ.  I grew up 5 minutes from Bergen County and always loved it there.  People who live in Rockland County are insistent that Rockland is not upstate, which if you look at a map of nys is technically correct since the county is located in the bottom area of the state. https://geology.com/county-map/new-york.shtml

Edited June 12 by partofme

[Dimity]

Today's peeve:  people my age who keep posting on FB stuff like "back in my day we ate what was on our plate, wore what our mothers bought us and did what we were told and we were glad".  Yeah, about that...

[SoMuchTV]

7 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Today's peeve:  people my age who keep posting on FB stuff like "back in my day we ate what was on our plate, wore what our mothers bought us and did what we were told and we were glad".  Yeah, about that...

Uphill both ways!

[PRgal]

1 hour ago, Dimity said:

Today's peeve:  people my age who keep posting on FB stuff like "back in my day we ate what was on our plate, wore what our mothers bought us and did what we were told and we were glad".  Yeah, about that...

I feel badly for those whose mothers had zero sense of style or couldn't afford cute clothes.  And for those whose moms (well, it was mostly moms back then (my grandmother was the cook in my family).  Still is today) were awful cooks.  My mom had limited skills as well, but at least she introduced me to toaster oven "grilled" cheese (basically bread with a slice of cheese (or two) that was toasted in a toaster oven.  It's still how I make "grilled" cheese.  A lot less greasy than the traditional version).

[meep.meep]

2 hours ago, Dimity said:

Today's peeve:  people my age who keep posting on FB stuff like "back in my day we ate what was on our plate, wore what our mothers bought us and did what we were told and we were glad".  Yeah, about that...

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." (Socrates, 4th century BC)

I'm with you.....

[oliviabenson]

3 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Uphill both ways!

In 8 feet of snow, we went to school…

[Anela]

59 minutes ago, oliviabenson said:

In 8 feet of snow, we went to school…

I’m younger gen-x, and the wind from a hurricane did assist me across a massive road one morning. ;) but that was more of a different rules for different children thing. 
 

I miss the days when gen-x was forgotten in debates online.  We’re getting dragged with everyone else now. 

[Bookworm 1979]

4 hours ago, Dimity said:

Today's peeve:  people my age who keep posting on FB stuff like "back in my day we ate what was on our plate, wore what our mothers bought us and did what we were told and we were glad".  Yeah, about that...

My husband has some older relatives who like to share posts like that. They also complain about the younger people not offering their chairs to their elders anymore. My husband is a wheelchair user, so I'm always temped to ask if they would include him in their complaints.

Me: So do they expect you to offer them your wheelchair when they enter the room?

My husband: Well yeah!  😁

[bluegirl147]

16 hours ago, Dimity said:

Today's peeve:  people my age who keep posting on FB stuff like "back in my day we ate what was on our plate, wore what our mothers bought us and did what we were told and we were glad".  Yeah, about that...

Last week on a local FB page the moderator no less posted a meme of a woman chasing a child with a rolling pin. This was not meant to be funny. The child looked horrified.  The caption was something like when children listened.  Predictably some of the comments were agreeing with this but much to my surprise there were more comments condemning it.  Instilling fear in your children is not healthy. Sherri Shepherd when she was on the View said all she had to do to get her son Jeffrey (who was special needs) to behave was to show him a wooden spoon.  She thought it was funny.  I didn't find it funny at all.  If that child was afraid of a wooden spoon then that meant she had hit him with that wooden spoon. 

11 hours ago, Anela said:

I miss the days when gen-x was forgotten in debates online.  We’re getting dragged with everyone else now. 

A for awhile Gen Z didn't even know there was a generation between the Boomers and the Millennials.  Like you I prefer to fly under the radar.

 

[Dimity]

56 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

A for awhile Gen Z didn't even know there was a generation between the Boomers and the Millennials. 

The meant to be insulting "ok boomer" seem to be aimed at anyone older than the person saying it.  Even when people are being positive it's like they have no knowledge of history or world events that pre-date their own lives.  I read an article last year where the writer talked about how "boomers won the war".  Arguably they might have meant the Vietnam War (that the US did not win) but they actually did mean WWII.  

Edited June 13 by Dimity

[Yeah No]

48 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

12 hours ago, Anela said:

I miss the days when gen-x was forgotten in debates online.  We’re getting dragged with everyone else now. 

A for awhile Gen Z didn't even know there was a generation between the Boomers and the Millennials.  Like you I prefer to fly under the radar.

I was going to post this - It was a peeve of mine for a long time that Gen Z and younger Millennials called everyone older than them a "Boomer" not realizing that some of the people they were lumping into that generation were actually from Gen X and even the Silent generation, like the current U.S. president.  Now that some of them are realizing it Gen X is not flying under their critical radar anymore.  Many of them have Gen X bosses now because many Boomers have retired so they don't have us to blame anymore, LOL.  (You can tell that I kind of like that being a Boomer myself). 

Although another peeve of mine is blaming all the world's problems on the Baby Boom generation.  The world wasn't invented when we were born.  We inherited our own pile of crap from previous generations too but we didn't sit around complaining about it, we at least tried to be a part of the solution!  I feel like the Boomer generation did a lot of good that they weren't getting credit for.  I get the feeling, though, that some younger people are realizing this with maturity.

@Dimity, we were posting at the same time but I see we were thinking similarly, I agree with you!

[Dimity]

2 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

I was going to post this - It was a peeve of mine for a long time that Gen Z and younger Millennials called everyone older than them a "Boomer" not realizing that some of the people they were lumping into that generation were actually from Gen X and even the Silent generation, like the current U.S. president.  Now that some of them are realizing it Gen X is not flying under their critical radar anymore.  Many of them have Gen X bosses now because many Boomers have retired so they don't have us to blame anymore, LOL.  (You can tell that I kind of like that being a Boomer myself). 

 

In a somewhat limited defense of this attitude it doesn't help that Baby Boom encompasses such a large swatch of people - 1946 to 1964 IIRC.  That's pretty broad!  I also think some people assume people like The Beatles and Bob Dylan (two random examples) are baby boomers just because their music is so associated with the boomer generation.

[bluegirl147]

20 minutes ago, Dimity said:

The meant to be insulting "ok boomer" seem to be aimed at anyone older than the person saying it. 

My granddaughter who is 11 thinks anyone older than her parents (who are in their early 30s) is old. Like senior citizen old.  She thought I was around in the 50s.  I said my age is in my 50s, I wasn't living during the 50s.

23 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Even when people are being positive it's like they have no knowledge of history or world events that pre-date their own lives

This is a big pet peeve of mine. When I was a kid and teenager I knew of people who had died long before me.  Movie stars and musicians.  But today some younger people don't even know who older movie stars and musicians who are still alive are.  I will never forget that scene in When Harry Met Sally and Harry says he asked his younger date where she was when Kennedy got shot and she said Ted Kennedy got shot?. 

22 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

I feel like the Boomer generation did a lot of good that they weren't getting credit for.

A lot of it has to do with how they are portrayed in the media.  A lot of people consider the Big Chill to be the perfect Baby Boomer movie.  A group of college friends who were now in their 30s. Dealing with the fact they were no longer the same idealistic people they had been.  Great soundtrack too.  I wonder if that movie was remade if they would change the characters to be less likable.  And I'm well aware some people didn't find the original characters likable. 

[annzeepark914]

14 hours ago, oliviabenson said:

In 8 feet of snow, we went to school…

I schlepped to grade school and high school 4 x a day (unless a teacher gave us a ride) because I loathed the cafeterias. Up & down a few low hills, through slush, cars passing through puddles that splashed on us...wearing dresses, or sweaters & skirts (slacks weren't allowed on girls), lots of snow.  Those of us describing what it was like aren't telling embellished stories. It was what it was. Teachers never hugged students. But I'm very glad the Internet didn't exist back then. Nor did we have to worry about school shootings. Each of the generations has had tough challenges. 

[Anela]

2 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

 

A for awhile Gen Z didn't even know there was a generation between the Boomers and the Millennials.  Like you I prefer to fly under the radar.

 

I remember laughing when I saw this graph, listing the different generations. We were left out of it entirely. 😆

[Wiendish Fitch]

16 hours ago, meep.meep said:

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." (Socrates, 4th century BC)

Yes, because as we all know, adults just hate luxury, never touch the stuff...

One thing every generation will always lack is self-awareness.

[bluegirl147]

33 minutes ago, Anela said:

I remember laughing when I saw this graph, listing the different generations. We were left out of it entirely. 😆

And this.

[KittyMom4]

Pet Peeve:  this happened last night but its not the first time. Grocery shopping, in line to pay, the man in front of me had about 5 items, one was 2 green peppers, but not bell peppers. either Poblano or jalapeno, I can't tell but he hadn't weighed them so the cashier, young girl, asked what type of peppers they were so she could weigh them. Que the dumbfounded look, the annoyed look and then "I don't know." The girl pulled up her produce screen and showed him something (I couldn't see) and he nodded so she rang them up. Apparently the price was not what he was expecting because he immediately got angry and started shaking his head. The girl asked if he wanted her to call someone over to go see what the peppers were and he angrily shook his head and paid. She told him to go to the service desk if he wanted to have them re-priced, he just left. I felt so bad for her. Dude, YOU WERE THE ONE WHO PICKED THEM OUT! Why rely on an 16-18 year old to guess what they are?????

[PRgal]

1 hour ago, KittyMom4 said:

Pet Peeve:  this happened last night but its not the first time. Grocery shopping, in line to pay, the man in front of me had about 5 items, one was 2 green peppers, but not bell peppers. either Poblano or jalapeno, I can't tell but he hadn't weighed them so the cashier, young girl, asked what type of peppers they were so she could weigh them. Que the dumbfounded look, the annoyed look and then "I don't know." The girl pulled up her produce screen and showed him something (I couldn't see) and he nodded so she rang them up. Apparently the price was not what he was expecting because he immediately got angry and started shaking his head. The girl asked if he wanted her to call someone over to go see what the peppers were and he angrily shook his head and paid. She told him to go to the service desk if he wanted to have them re-priced, he just left. I felt so bad for her. Dude, YOU WERE THE ONE WHO PICKED THEM OUT! Why rely on an 16-18 year old to guess what they are?????

Was there no sticker on the peppers?  Usually, a scan or entering the produce number would clear things up.  They usually have scales at the checkout (the only store where I have to weight the produce and print out a sticker is Eataly).

[EtheltoTillie]

Not every store has the stickers.   My local market doesn't always have stickers, so you have to identify the item to the cashier if he/she doesn't know what it is.  Then they have an internal list.

[emma675]

Yeah, my store doesn't have stickers on the veggies unless they are in the organic section or they are packaged together (like ears of corn bundled together in plastic wrap). I had some non-organic russet potatoes and had to type in what they were (gotta love self checkout) and I had no idea there were so many options for plain old brown potatoes. 

[Dimity]

Even stores that have stickers will have produce with stickers missing.  Happens all the time to me.  I am always that person in the check out line with stickerless produce or the blouse that is missing a price tag.  Murphy's law, I guess.

[Bastet]

There are some things in my store's produce section that have stickers, but most don't.  So I'm impressed by how many numbers the checkers have memorized.  Every once in a while they don't recognize an item and have to look up the code when I tell them what it is, but for the most part they just zip along punching in all those codes.

[EtheltoTillie]

10 minutes ago, Bastet said:

There are some things in my store's produce section that have stickers, but most don't.  So I'm impressed by how many numbers the checkers have memorized.  Every once in a while they don't recognize an item and have to look up the code when I tell them what it is, but for the most part they just zip along punching in all those codes.

IKR?   Isn't it amazing when they do that? 

[Dimity]

30 minutes ago, Bastet said:

So I'm impressed by how many numbers the checkers have memorized. 

When my daughter was in university she had a part-time job as a cashier at Farm Boy (I think only Ontario based) anyway part of her job was memorizing all the product codes for the fruit and veggies.  Which got changed on a regular basis, probably for some vastly important reason...

Anyway I admit it, if I had ever taken a job like that I'd have been fired within two weeks because while my memory isn't terrible there is no way I could ever do that.

[Browncoat]

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

Every once in a while they don't recognize an item

I bought cucumbers last week, and the checker asked if they were zucchini.

[oliviabenson]

3 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I bought cucumbers last week, and the checker asked if they were zucchini.

Happens to me a lot too, because I usually buy both each trip!

[annzeepark914]

5 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I bought cucumbers last week, and the checker asked if they were zucchini.

Well, if you're not into cooking, it can be confusing. If I were a cashier, I wouldn't recognize the various (non-bell) peppers and I've been cooking for decades. 

[Quof]

A cashier once rang in my leaf lettuce as kale and I insisted he correct it.   I don't know which cost more, I just couldn't have kale on my receipt. 

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I bought cucumbers last week, and the checker asked if they were zucchini.

The dangers of cooking while drunk:  I once pulled the pan out of the oven and realized I had just roasted cucumbers, not zucchini.

[Anela]

I haven’t slept, even though I tried.  If I fix my sleep schedule, thanks to this, it will be just in time for a week of 90+ degree weather.  

[DXD526]

Salmon steaks used to be a supermarket staple, but are getting very hard to find in the last few years. When they turned up at my market a little while back, I grabbed some. When checking out, the cashier rang it up, then looked at it quizzically, and asked, "Is this fish?" 😃

[oliviabenson]

4 hours ago, DXD526 said:

Salmon steaks used to be a supermarket staple, but are getting very hard to find in the last few years. When they turned up at my market a little while back, I grabbed some. When checking out, the cashier rang it up, then looked at it quizzically, and asked, "Is this fish?" 😃

Chicken of the sea moment lol

[TattleTeeny]

My boyfriend keeps using the word “thingy” and it’s driving me crazy because he is using it not as a replacement for something he can’t think of the name of, but with the name of whatever it is: “where is the can opener thingy?” (double peevy because its in the same place it’s been since we moved here)…”do you want one of your beer thingies?” (a delicious grapefruit shandy!)…”I’m going to put this is the toolbox thingy.” It’s just a toolbox, man, what is happening?!

Edited June 15 by TattleTeeny

[Quof]

You clearly need to kill him. 

No jury of your peers would convict you. 

[oliviabenson]

Thingy is a nickname for a penis. Ha!

Im going to put in a toolbox thingy sent me lol.

[Ancaster]

A couple of days ago I went to the Post Office to mail my passport renewal application.  Because it involves including your existing passport, I went to the trouble of going to the counter to make sure I had done everything correctly.  I used one of the PO flat fee envelopes, and went to the counter to pay and drop it off.   The guy at the counter filled out the information for the label and I paid by credit card.

Fast forward to this morning - I have a text from the post office telling me I owe them $0.02 in postage and that my mail won't be delivered until I pay.  WTH?  Since it's my passport (trying not to yell here) I click on the link to pay.  Doesn't like my credit card.  Try a different one; it doesn't like that one either.  I try my debit card; nope.  And yes, 2 cents.

So now I have to go to the Post Office tomorrow (the main one, downtown, where I'll have to pay for parking, because I know there's no chance I'll be able to get this resolved at my local branch where this started) and spend god knows how long trying to get this resolved.

Our tax dollars at work.

ETA:  I'm still struggling to understand how a flat fee envelope, that I got at the PO in question on my way to the counter, that I paid for by credit card so directly linked to the PO charge, that had a bar code that was scanned, could be wrongly charged.

Edited June 16 by Ancaster
Bar cods eat bar codes for breakfast

[ginger90]

1 hour ago, Ancaster said:

Fast forward to this morning - I have a text from the post office telling me I owe them $0.02

Are you sure it’s actually from the post office?

[Ancaster]

9 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

Are you sure it’s actually from the post office?

Good question, but I'm going to have to go in anyway and make sure because I can't just leave it as is.

[Dimity]

14 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

Are you sure it’s actually from the post office?

It may be different in the US but here there are no government agencies at any level that will ever text you with demands for money.  None.  Of course that doesn't stop the scammers from trying and, sadly, succeeding now and then.

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, ginger90 said:

Are you sure it’s actually from the post office?

 

52 minutes ago, Ancaster said:

Good question, but I'm going to have to go in anyway and make sure because I can't just leave it as is.

Oh yikes, I didn’t even think of this when I read your initial post, but now “they” have your credit and debit card numbers that “didn’t work”. You may want to lock or at least keep a close eye on those accounts until you get this resolved.  Hope I’m wrong!

Edited June 16 by SoMuchTV

[Wiendish Fitch]

I can't decide if this peeve is at myself or the actual thing, but I really don't get why everyone is so enchanted with freezer pops. I'm sorry, but I find them underwhelming, especially considering we live in a world where chip-wiches, Creamsicles, and Dove bars exist. 

I dunno, maybe I'm just a snob. 

[Bastet]

46 minutes ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I can't decide if this peeve is at myself or the actual thing, but I really don't get why everyone is so enchanted with freezer pops. I'm sorry, but I find them underwhelming, especially considering we live in a world where chip-wiches, Creamsicles, and Dove bars exist. 

I guess it helps not to be on social media, as I haven't heard anyone talking about freezer pops.  I had to look them up to see what they are -- ah, yes, Otter Pops.  I remember those being a thing in my '70s childhood, but I don't think I ever had one (or, if I did, I quickly decided I didn't want another one).  I have no inclination to try one now. 

I can take or leave a Dove bar, but if there's a chipwich in the freezer, that's MINE. (I will leave you all the creamsicles, though; not a fan.)

[Ancaster]

2 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

 

Oh yikes, I didn’t even think of this when I read your initial post, but now “they” have your credit and debit card numbers that “didn’t work”. You may want to lock or at least keep a close eye on those accounts until you get this resolved.  Hope I’m wrong!

Thank you.  I do have safeguards in place, but I will be sure to check more often than is probably good for my metal health.  So frustrating.