Things That Bug Me

J’ever wonder why certain things bother some people, but not others? Is it that we’re all just charming little flavors of OCD, simply varying in subject and severity?

This morning, while doing the obligatory phrase search (to avoid title clash; 518 posts in only 17 categories can stretch the originality a bit), I found a rant I posted three months ago. I laughed — did I really write all that craziness? A friend told me several weeks ago that he’d gone through RtB in its entirety over an extended period, and read every post. I’m not sure I’d want to do that myself, for fear of editing every post. Anyway.

It made me think about how different we all are, and in the funniest ways. For instance, waiting at a railroad crossing — even when I’m in a hurry — doesn’t bug me. Yet, I know people who will rant at the train as if the conductor planned to intersect their path at that particular moment. The Thriller doesn’t mind cruising in the left lane on the interstate, but it makes me want to squirm right out the window (he knows this, and, I’m convinced, derives some small-but-evil pleasure out of doing it on purpose).

So, what niggling issues (I love the word niggling) make you squirm? You know a lot of mine; let’s hear some-a yurrin. Still, I am beholden to my fiends to insert my list forthwith, though few will surprise:

Things That Bug Me

  1. Posters or TV commercial graphics that say there are “1000’s of items” available. “One thousands” of items? And worse, “One thousand–apostrophe–s” of items? Yark.
  2. Inserting the infuriating “and” when talking of numbers and dates. What year is it? Why, it’s two thousand and nine. NO, it isn’t. It’s two thousand nine. Say it. 2009. Two. Thousand. Nine. What, Americans can’t comprehend a complex number so we need to break it up into smaller chunks by saying and? Then there’s money. The dress was two hundred and fifty dollars. NO….it was two hundred fifty dollars. I swear we are the only culture on the planet that does this annoying thing. Some folks don’t care about it at all, but to me, it’s like chewin’ foil.
  3. Unrinsed dishes in the sink. Arrrrrg! OCD! OCD! (Fortunately, that doesn’t happen at my house.)
  4. People crying, “OCD! OCD!” at every little stupid thing, like putting dishes in the sink.
  5. All the sudden.” I mean it. Next puppy that crosses my path gets it.
  6. Touching wood that is wet, like washing a wood-handled knife. Sets my choppers right on edge.
  7. Always, always, always, always reaching into the wrong pocket.
  8. Tripping over shoes left on the floor. (And they’re always mine.)
  9. Calling the tech support line for a huge corporation and hearing, “our office is now closed…”

So share. Maybe I’ll discover other things that, if they don’t bug me now, will potentially bug me in the future because you implanted the suggestion.

Snark Fink

EDIT 10:04 a.m….

This is the coolest and most creative thing I have ever seen on YouTube.

21 thoughts on “Things That Bug Me

  1. Mavis

    Boy, I could “Let Fly” on at least 100 things. I’ll just list a few, though.

    1. Raising your window blinds and leaving them uneven.
    You have no idea how much that bugs me.

    2. Reporters/Journalists who ask stupid questions. For
    instance – you just found out your husband/wife just
    died. The reporter asks you, “How are you feeling
    right now?” Just once I’d like to hear someone
    answer, “How do you THINK I’m feeling, ya moron!”
    *sigh*

    3. Here’s a biggie for me. I was born in the great
    State of Illinois. I can’t count the number of
    times I’ve heard folks butcher the name of this
    State. People, it’s not “Ellinois”. Look at the
    spelling…sound it out. You wouldn’t say that
    you’re feeling “ell” today, would you? No. You
    would say I’m feeling “ill” today. GARK! “Ill”inois
    people. Oh, and the s is silent.

    Those are just a few. Don’t even get me started on the men in my life. :0)

    Thanks for being you, sister Fink!

    Reply
  2. BoomR

    That was AMAZING! And you could not even tell that they were using AutoTune on all those performances!!

    I am **SOOOOO** tired of hearing the phrase “…the ________ of my dreams!” (insert man, woman, house, car, job, etc.). Do people REALLY spend days/years dreaming about a house or car or whatever??

    And speaking of dishes in the sink: getting a lecture on how easy it would be to, instead of leaving the dish(es) in the sink, to just rinse it…open the dishwasher door that is immediately to the left of the sink, and insert dish. Funny thing – it’s OK for Bluvox to leave a glass or dish on the counter or in the sink… LOL

    (But since that’s my only real gripe with BV, I count myself blessed) :-)

    Can’t wait to see you en route to Austin! BTW, you WILL be seeing me before that – looks like AU Homecoming weekend it is! Batten down the hatches!! Get that Mac ready!!

    **SMEWCH**

    Reply
    1. Rat Fink Post author

      If that is your only real gripe, you are indeed blessed — go BV! Can’t wait to meet that sweety in real life.

      Hatches are battened…gimme some hard dates and I will get them on the calendar.

      Oh and speaking of October — the Cleveland Playhouse is bringing in the Broadway touring production of Young Frankenstein. The Thriller bought tickets for it yesterday, for the 17th! Hi-larious. Inn he sweet? He da Thriller of my dreams…
      :P

      Reply
      1. BoomR

        That would be Oct 10 (my older brother David’s bday weekend)… you are forewarned…

        Sign me: Born just northeast of Dezz Moinezzzz. (Des Moines)

        Reply
  3. Greg

    A phrase I frequently see and cringe is: “old-fashion” rather than the correct “old-fashioned.” Bugs me!! Or what about: “home-style cooking??” What about that then? Why not say “home-cooking?” Ok, maybe there’s a 50-year old, skinhead with tats preparing the food instead of a kindly old grandmother, stirring the pot. Or school administrators saying things like: “It’s all for the good of the students!” Yeah, like I REALLY believed THAT!! The thing that most gave me the creeps to touch are flannel/felt chalkboard erasers—strange for a teacher as we handled them all the time but I never liked picking them up and using them. I’ll soak up some 2 x 4s for the orchestra ditch for the Fink Lady to grab–heh, heh, heh!!!

    Reply
  4. Kodye

    Auto-tune makes everything better. I think we can all agree that if it was around back in the day, half The Beatles songs would of used it. Amiright? Rocky Racoon I think would of benefited the most from it. This is just getting me thinking of a better idea… “Kanye Does The Beatles”, a double album of Kanye putting his creative genius spin onto Beatles songs. Who wouldn’t buy that?

    Reply
  5. Stein

    This is going to probably drive you up one wall and down the next. This, obviously, requires me to post such a thing! The whole issue with saying ‘and’ in stating number values actually exists in every other language that I know of EXCEPT for “proper standard English.” In French 22 would be vingt-et-deux, translated as twenty-and-two. In German 22 is zwei-und-zweizich, translated to two-and-twenty. This also works when speaking of 3-digit and 4-digit numbers. I would beg to differ that English speaking nations are the only countries in the world that would make it proper to remove such conjunctions from conversational numbers. Then again, the English language is mostly trash as far as rules of construction and the likes are concerned.

    Reply
    1. Rat Fink Post author

      I was told yesterday that a large corporation (Alltel) required its managers to *always* use the “and,” and there was a huge dustup about it. (Spanish uses it too.)

      Still bugs me.

      Reply
      1. Rat Fink Post author

        Hmmm. Just checked the translation for 2008 in French.

        deux mille huit

        German: zweitausendacht

        Spanish: dos mil ocho

        No “and.”

        Reply
        1. Stein

          If you look up the literal translation this is true. However, the literal translation is not the correct way to say the number. German always uses the backwards means of saying the smallest digit first. I can’t speak for French, but I know German for 2008 is acht-und-zweitausend. (By the way, there is a word that means more than just translating something to another language but putting it in the correct form and context. Can you help me out???)

          Reply
  6. Suzanne

    The dress was two hundred and fifty??? Holy moly put it back on the rack then, girl!!!

    I was going to point out that in Dutch some numbers have the word AND in it. Well not AND, it’s EN here. 251 is “twee honderd een en vijftig”. 250 has no EN in it–it’s just “twee honderd vijftig”. And in Dutch 2008 is “twee duizend acht”, I am pretty sure that in German it’s the same. The and/”en” usage comes in only between the ones and hundreds places. 2008–twee duizend acht. 2451 is twee duizend vierhonderd een EN vijftig.

    And that brings me to one of my yarks. How numbers are said here. Very annoying and after eleventy years I still have troubles with numbers. Someone says a number and I have to stop and think about it. Given the job that I have, lots of addresses and zipcodes are thrown about and Suzie Postgirl is quite often pausing to think.
    Which makes people think I didn’t hear them and they say it again only louder. OK you can shout at me as loud as you want but I STILL HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THAT BLASTED NUMBER. OK then. Ahem.

    Telephone numbers can send me into a tizzy. Mijn telefoon nummer is nulzeseenenviertigvijfendertigeenenzestigzeven. That would be 064135617. Except it’s said zerosixoneandfortyfiveandthirtyoneandsixtyseven. Have you run screaming from the room yet?

    I was quite interested to watch a man use his calculator while saying the numbers out loud one time. Let me see if I can say this so you can understand. While he was saying twee hondered een en vijftig he would punch in the 2 on the calculator for twee (honderd), then the 5 while saying een (1) and then punching the 1 while saying “en vjiftig” (50 or 5 on the calculator). Get it? How kids here learn how to use a calculator is beyond me.

    I have a husband who likes to point out every little flippin’ thing I do or say. Or don’t do or say. For instance, Saturday I got him a ready-made totally unhealthy pre-prepared meal since I was feeling lazy. I told him that there was spaghetti bolognese for him the fridge whenever he wanted to eat. When it came time to eat he went to the fridge to find his meal and said “it’s MACARONI bolognese”. YEAH WHATEVER. Eat it. He does/doesn’t do says/doesn’t say plenty of (stupid) things but he nevers knows about them because I NEVER POINT THEM OUT TO HIM.

    So anyway that’s my pair of rants for a Monday morning (for me).

    Suzie the Dutch Maid aka Suzie Stiletto (Mafia Wars Skilled Boss)

    Reply
    1. Rat Fink Post author

      OMG I LAFFED out loud at this. You win the prize for the best rant, babe — in Dutch, even!

      Personally I’m impressed that you learned the language in the first place (she’s totally fluent, fiends). But your telephone number cracked me up, I gotta admit. That alone would make me want to say SPEEKY ENGY.

      And you are kind indeed to keep some of your “corrections” to yourself, especially about nitpicky things like grammar. HA. I need to work on that! Besides, Harold’s such a sweety…

      Have a good afternoon over there in Tulipland. And I do not get any of that Mafia stuff on FB…probably should look into it, but do I need yet another addiction??

      HUGZ

      Reply
  7. Suzanne

    I tell you what! When I first heard about Mafia Wars I thought yeah right how stoopid is THIS? HAAAAAAAA couldn’t stop. I am also totally into Farm Town and FairyLand ROFL Gawd that sounds so juvenile. Whenever I try to explain to someone about those appys I listen to myself and think “man I sound stupid” and start to laugh and give up. But they are fun and I’ve connected with a lot of cool people through those games.

    Glad I could return the favor and make you laff this morning. SPEEKY ENGY HA. :)

    Meanwhile the dustbunnies continue to grow under the couh….should go and do someting about that…nah it’s a nice afternoon, gonna enjoy it.

    Yes H is a sweety he’s busy getting my bike for work ready. Nice to have a handyman around innit?

    Reply

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