So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Fading Fast]

Shrinking size remaining the same price? You don't really believe that you have the monopoly of such a practice, do you?
View attachment 113073
And as for the 4.2 ounces, since when did we ever trade in one tenth of a penny/cent? Every fuel garage in the UK seems to.

Good one and I'm sure the "Quality" in Quality Street irony isn't lost on anyone seeing the scuzzy size reductions.

It is crazy. Like most families, our cupboards are full of packaged goods and very few have a round number measurement.

It's so stupid and short sighted. And if you've been around, and even ignore the actual measured number, the packages just feel "off -" small, mis-shappened, oddly packaged (to create the illusion of being bigger), etc. Oreos, for example, don't feel right. The package is no longer "full sized," but it isn't vending machine-sized either - it's stupid sized.

The only small satisfaction I take in all this is that the game is about over and you can feel the companies' frustration. Oreo would love to make its "full-sized" package even smaller, but it would then be approaching its single-service package. It's in the proverbial corner it painted itself into.

 

[GHT]

Doctor was impressed that I was reciting Shakespeare when I was on the operating table
and given a sedative or some pain killer while he operated on me.

I had to memorize Hamlet’s monologue in English class at high school which was 30 years ago.

This I know is repeating myself, (old people do that.) At school, my English teacher thought that writing out five hundred times, "I must not talk in class," a complete waste of time and a waste of valuable education. He would make us write some speech or prose from whatever we happened to be reading, or, whatever we were not that strong on. Hence I can remember practically every one of Sheridan's Malapropisms in The Rivals or Goldsmith's: She Stoops to Conquer, a book that I just couldn't enjoy, yet I know it well, even to this day.

 

[2jakes]

This I know is repeating myself, (old people do that.) At school, my English teacher thought that writing out five hundred times, "I must not talk in class," a complete waste of time and a waste of valuable education. He would make us write some speech or prose from whatever we happened to be reading, or, whatever we were not that strong on. Hence I can remember practically every one of Sheridan's Malapropisms in The Rivals or Goldsmith's: She Stoops to Conquer, a book that I just couldn't enjoy, yet I know it well, even to this day.

My first language growing up with my dear grandma was German.
At age six, my ma sent me to elementary school with religion as a priority.
Not sure if I can say the denomination, but the head honcho who called
the shots lived near Italy.
I remember having to memorize and recite passages from the “book” in English.
Had no idea what half of the words meant but I made it a point to learn it.
Otherwise, the penguins (dressed in black & white) would hit my palms with
a wood ruler or have me go to the corner of the classroom and kneel on a piece
of wood board with bottle caps attached on top.
The worse was the painful needles that the city issued when I began school.
Unlike today, those injection needles were bigger and very painful,
especially on a kid with skinny arms.
The “fabulous fifties” indeed!

 

[Fading Fast]

Re 2Jakes and GHT's exchange.

I think it shows the value to having kids do some memorizing of famous speeches and passages.

They absolutely should be taught / enlightened to / discuss the meaning of those speeches and passages - i.e., not just rote memorizing - but having them tucked away in your head is helpful.

I had to memorize several things in grammar and, even, high school and many have helped as they and their meaning have stayed stuck in my head. To this day, anytime I see some sleazy politician trying to expiate or explain away some scuzzy thing he or she did even when they no longer have to by law, I think about Lady Macbeth* and her "Out, out damned spot!" speech.

Seeing repeatable patterns, being able to separate out the noise of an event to see its universality is powerfully helpful to one's understanding of the world. Why is he / she bringing that up again? Oh, guilt, they want to clear their conscience - got it. You can go far in Corporate America with this skill.


* Is there a reason this one is "Macbeth" and not "McBeth" or "MacBeth?"

 

[2jakes]

^^^^^^
In freshman school:
One teacher would walked into his classroom with everyone joking and
carrying on with much goofing off.
This teacher would yell and try to
maintain order which lasted for a
few minutes and the class would become
rowdy again. This went on for the entire
period for that class.
At another class, same thing with the kids behaving the same way.
Until this other teacher entered the room.
He walked to the center of the class and
without saying a word just stared.
Within seconds, everyone stopped and remained quiet for the rest of the class
period.
We only had to see him in action only
once. But that was enough for the rest of the year in his class.
Was it fear on our part... you bet,
but I learned more from him than the
other teachers.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ There was no physical punishment in my school - detentions, notes home to be signed, off to the principals office, extra homework, etc., but the best teachers commanded a classroom with presence, respect, gravitas, etc. and almost never used any of those punishments.

A look, a stern voice, a change in tone, firm body English was all the really good ones needed. And that they knew their material and how to teach was a big part of it. Maybe generational, but there was a respect for a truly skilled teacher back then.

And despite all the gender blah, blah, blah today, I saw 5'1" women teachers in total control of a room full of jocks and 6' male teachers who could barely control the classroom.

As they say in sports, the great ones just have it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The teachers in my elementary school were pretty good, for the most part. The high school teachers, except for one or two, were mediocre to awful. And the junior high teachers were a bunch of thugs. One of them threw a kid down a flight of stairs -- the kid had told him to perform an impossible anatomical feat, which was certainly out of line, but let's be realistic. It's never acceptable to throw a kid down a flight of stairs no matter who you are or what your authority is.

And then there's the kid who had his head put thru a wall by another eighth-grade teacher. Neither of these kids learned much from the experience -- one ended up strung out on drugs, and the other was stabbed to death by his brother.

 

[2jakes]

And despite all the gender blah, blah, blah today, I saw 5'1" women teachers in total control of a room full of jocks and 6' male teachers who could barely control the classroom.

As they say in sports, the great ones just have it.

I was madly in love (hots) with my Speech teacher in college. I signed
up for every course she was offering.
Only class where my grades were excellent. A+
Green eyes of Irish stock, she was much older than me, but that
didn’t matter. I wrote poetry to her which made her smile.
The first meeting alone with her in her office, she explained the meaning
of love. I was crushed but later felt that at least there was a
love between us, even if it was only platonic.

 

[Harp]

I was madly in love (hots) with my Speech teacher in college. I signed
up for everyone of her courses.
The first meeting alone with her in
her office, she explained the meaning
of "platonic" love.

My Torts professor in law school was a gorgeous woman; smitten I most definitely was.
Unfortunately I was a truant and a transfer, had taken the course the previous year.
She sarcastically asked if I thought I was a genius-and I explained myself accordingly, severely
tempted to add that she was the only reason I ever attended class...but I chickened out.
The following year on a rainy day I held a door open for her and she totally ignored me.
What the law calls depraved heart indifference.

 

[GHT]

He walked to the center of the class and
without saying a word just stared.
Within seconds, everyone stopped and remained quiet for the rest of the class
period.
We only had to see him in action only
once. But that was enough for the rest of the year in his class.
Was it fear on our part... you bet,
but I learned more from him than the
other teachers.

That was something that I learned, without even realising it, from my school's headmaster. He was strict, assertive, firm but fair and definitely no favourites.
He could reduce the school bully to a quivering wreck just by a menacing peer over the top of his glasses.
Years later I used that withering stare to great effect, so much so, that one evening in the distribution warehouse that I was in charge of, a returning delivery driver started giving me a load of B/S about why he hadn't done a task that his line manager had given him. I locked eye contact with him, allowed my specs to slide down the bridge of my nose so that, just like my headmaster, I could give the withering stare over the top of the frames.
Off to the left of us a group of workers were busy going about their work, when, in unison, they all said "You ****ing what?" It was a phrase that I used when I didn't believe someone. I had to cut short the admonishment and had him report to me the following morning. Then I had to sort the warehouse workers out. That's what can happen if you become predictable.
It was all resolved amicably in the end but that driver admitted that he hardly slept that night. No ranting or shouting or even insulting, just a menacing stare learned from school.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I was madly in love (hots) with my Speech teacher in college. I signed
up for every course she was offering.
Only class where my grades were excellent. A+
Green eyes of Irish stock, she was much older than me, but that
didn’t matter. I wrote poetry to her which made her smile.
The first meeting alone with her in her office, she explained the meaning
of love. I was crushed but later felt that at least there was a
love between us, even if it was only platonic.

Had a young female math teacher in college upon whom I had a similar crush. I really did need extra tutoring, and the lightbulb inside the head for algebra finally went on... but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was totally lacking in ulterior motive in seeking out her help. She wasn't all that pretty in a traditional sense: I suppose that was one of the first times that I realized that really intelligent women are a turn on for me.

 

[2jakes]

That was something that I learned, without even realising it, from my school's headmaster. He was strict, assertive, firm but fair and definitely no favourites.
He could reduce the school bully to a quivering wreck just by a menacing peer over the top of his glasses.
Years later I used that withering stare to great effect, so much so, that one evening in the distribution warehouse that I was in charge of, a returning delivery driver started giving me a load of B/S about why he hadn't done a task that his line manager had given him. I locked eye contact with him, allowed my specs to slide down the bridge of my nose so that, just like my headmaster, I could give the withering stare over the top of the frames.
Off to the left of us a group of workers were busy going about their work, when, in unison, they all said "You ****ing what?" It was a phrase that I used when I didn't believe someone. I had to cut short the admonishment and had him report to me the following morning. Then I had to sort the warehouse workers out. That's what can happen if you become predictable.
It was all resolved amicably in the end but that driver admitted that he hardly slept that night. No ranting or shouting or even insulting, just a menacing stare learned from school.

On a lower scale (at home) but just as effective was that “look” from my mother and I knew right away, what had to be said or done by me.

But I rarely got that look from her, at least not as much as my sisters.
My sisters (five) that was another story.
I really feel sorry for them. They had it worse than us guys.

 

[redlinerobert]

Met with a roofer today to get a quote for a new heavy cedar shake roof. He arrived ahead of me. When I got out of my truck he looks at me and says, "You look a lot older than you sound on the phone."

Scratched his name off the list.

 

[2jakes]

Had a young female math teacher in college upon whom I had a similar crush. I really did need extra tutoring, and the lightbulb inside the head for algebra finally went on... but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was totally lacking in ulterior motive in seeking out her help. She wasn't all that pretty in a traditional sense: I suppose that was one of the first times that I realized that really intelligent women are a turn on for me.

Early in my career in television working with attractive female reporters, I realized that no
matter how gorgeous they happened to be, if conceited, it was a complete turn off
for me.
I’ve always been attracted to women who do not mind getting their nails broken doing dirty
work whether in the kitchen or under the hood of a car.
I love women without makeup or not too much. I have no ego if she knows or can do
the job better than me and I am honored that she is willing to show me.
Those are the ones that I would kiss the ground they walk on. And I do my best to let
them know how much I appreciate them. I believe growing up with five sisters has helped
me to understand. What they have to go through in life, having to put up with
a lot of crap...not sure I could deal with it.
God bless them all.

 

[Zombie_61]

The traditional Boston dialect has a lot of non-intuitive pronunciations -- if you pronounce the suburb of Worcester as anything but "Woostah" or Leominster as anything but "Lemminstah" or Gloucester as anything but "Glawstah" or Peabody as anything but "Pibbady" you will immediately be marked as an outsidah. Lynn, however, is just Lynn, Lynn the City of Sin, you never get out the way you went in.

One "not from here" will almost certainly stumble when first attempting to pronounce Puyallup, or Sequim, or Geoduck. Swinomish and Cle Elum might throw him for a loop, too.

But Humptulips is pronounced exactly like you think it is.

And in our state of Arizona there are two cities named Prescott and Tempe. To rational folks they would be pronounced pretty much like they're spelled--"Press-cot" and "Tem-pee", with the emphasis on the first syllable. But according to residents, those folks would be wrong. Prescott is pronounced "Press-cut" with the emphasis remaining on the first syllable, and for reasons no one can explain (other than "That's just the way we say it,") Tempe is pronounced "Tem-pee" with the emphasis on the second syllable. The folks in Prescott will usually let it go if you pronounce it like normal humans, but everyone we've ever met in Tempe will correct you instantly and adamantly as if the fate of the world depended on such unimportant foolishness.

 

[ChrisB]

The package is no longer "full sized," but it isn't vending machine-sized either - it's stupid sized.

Eventually they will sell us empty packages, and call it “reduced calorie”.

 

[Fading Fast]

Eventually they will sell us empty packages, and call it “reduced calorie”.

⇧ They'd do it if they could.

I think they've just about hit the limit of what they can do as the "full size" packages for many brands ain't that far away from the "single serve." As mentioned, I take a small amount of pleasure knowing that the game is almost over and you know the companies that milked it are frustrated.

 

[tonyb]

A "quart" jar of mayonnaise is now 30 ounces.

 

[Bamaboots]

And in our state of Arizona there are two cities named Prescott and Tempe. To rational folks they would be pronounced pretty much like they're spelled--"Press-cot" and "Tem-pee", with the emphasis on the first syllable. But according to residents, those folks would be wrong. Prescott is pronounced "Press-cut" with the emphasis remaining on the first syllable, and for reasons no one can explain (other than "That's just the way we say it,") Tempe is pronounced "Tem-pee" with the emphasis on the second syllable. The folks in Prescott will usually let it go if you pronounce it like normal humans, but everyone we've ever met in Tempe will correct you instantly and adamantly as if the fate of the world depended on such unimportant foolishness.

Arab is a small city in AL, pronounced A-rab. The name comes from a spelling mistake by the USPS in the late 1800's. If you "ain't" from around these parts, don't get caught using the middle eastern pronunciation.

 

[2jakes]

Eventually they will sell us empty packages, and call it “reduced calorie”.