So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[LizzieMaine]

On the ticket fee thing, that's not just something added on because the venue wants to stick it to you. Most all venues nowadays use web-based ticketing software for advance-purchase events, and are required to pay a license fee on a per-ticket-sold basis for using such software, and either the venue has to eat this fee or pass it along to the consumer. If you want the convenience of buying a ticket in advance, somebody's got to pay for it.

We charge $2.50 per ticket for all internet and phone orders for advance-ticket shows, across the board. Walk up and buy a ticket day of show and you don't have to pay this fee.

 

[Hercule]

Spitting. How often does the average person really, and I mean really, find the need to spit?

 

[fashion frank]

Most all venues nowadays use web-based ticketing software for advance-purchase events, and are required to pay a license fee on a per-ticket-sold basis for using such software, and either the venue has to eat this fee or pass it along to the consumer. If you want the convenience of buying a ticket in advance, somebody's got to pay for it.

We charge $2.50 per ticket for all internet and phone orders for advance-ticket shows, across the board. Walk up and buy a ticket day of show and you don't have to pay this fee.

Your so right about that .
I'm going to the Roaring Twenties Lawn Party and there is a surcharge .

http://roaringtwentieslawnparty.blogspot.com/p/tickets.html

Guess that's the price of doing business now a days ?

All the Best, Fashion Frank

 

[fashion frank]

Spitting. How often does the average person really, and I mean really, find the need to spit?

Are you kidding ,when we were kids and trying to act tough we turned that into an art form !

All the Best,Fashion Frank

 

[Fading Fast]

I don't have a problem with the concept of added fees for convenience (web-purchasing, etc.) or even a tax (gov't have to pay for all they do somehow), what I absolute hate is how many, not all, businesses only show you the true cost of something at the last second or when you've already engaged in time and effort in potentially buying something.

It is not just tickets (which, oddly, I almost never buy because we don't enjoy going to most venues), but be it appliances, a service such as refrigerator repair or cable TV, the "add ons" at the end are large and obnoxiously hidden until the last moment (or, sometimes, until the bill comes).

It has gotten so bad that I have told my girlfriend that everything has two prices - the "first price" which is the price they quote you to get you interested and the "second price," which is the real price with all the add-ons that comes later.

I now push, up front, for the real price and you can watch the sales people squirm. For example, we are buying a new refrigerator and when we zeroed in a model, I asked the salesman, "how much does it cost." He said, "$X." I said, "does that include everything," he said "pretty much." I knew I had him at that point. I asked, "what else?" He shifted a bit and said, "well, tax." (Which is 8.25% in NYC.). And, then I said, "what else." I could keep going, but he finally admitted there was a delivery fee (which could be quite large depending on the effort needed to get it into our building). Oh, and he "forgot," he had priced ours up with the freezer on the top not the bottom, which for some reason costs more. And he also, "accidentally, quoted us the 'old' price, but he'd 'honor' that." I think he was a bit scared of me at that point and decided to not play that game.

By the time he was done, we were up almost 20% from the first price he told us. This goes on all the time and drives me nuts. I am in finance, and while people have a negative view of our industry, I can state with complete piece of mind that I go out of my way to show my clients all the costs, all the fees, all the charges, up front and early in the discussion - which might cost me business (or not), but builds incredible trust and avoids problems and anger down the line.

If I can figure this out - that it is actually a good business model along with being the right thing to do - how come so few business can?

 

[HudsonHawk]

Spitting. How often does the average person really, and I mean really, find the need to spit?

I spit all the time when I'm playing baseball, because you're supposed to when the ball is not in play. That and adjust your cup.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Native New Englanders are trained from birth to spit on the ground at the mention of the names of Harry Frazee, Denny Galehouse, Tom Wright, Julian Javier, Ed Armbrister, Mike Torrez, Bucky Dent, Calvin Schiraldi, and Grady Little.

 

[p51]

I hates them dadgum kids, they won't git offen' mah lawn!
[huh]

But really, I live in WA state, and people here are notorious for consistently driving whatever speed they want in whatever lane. Hardly anyone has a concept of faster traffic to the left. My wife, who is from this area originally, for years refused to believe my stories of other places in the country where this only happened maybe 1 or 2 drivers and not everyone. I took her on a cross-country sightseeing tour from Florida back here in 2012 and she saw all kinds of drivers. She's never argued with me about this phenomenon ever again.
That said, here you never see people stopping on a street in cars from opposing directions, and blocking the road for however long they want to have a conversation. I saw that countless times growing up in the deep South. People really do area-specific odd things with cars...

Reminds me of another pet peeve of mine, one which I haven't encountered much of late, thank God. It's a caller asking who I am. If the first words out of a caller's mouth are "who's this?," I consider just hanging up. No man, I'm tempted to say, you called me. I wanna know who I'm talking with before I say anything more.

Because this annoys me so, I make a point of identifying myself and stating my business whenever calling people who wouldn't know who I am otherwise.

My Mom and Dad grew up in NE Tennessee and that was how they did phone calls. We'd go visit my grandparents when I was a kid and on occasion I was asked to answer a ringing phone. They did the "WHO IS THIS?" bit every time, and I knew none of them would know me by name (family members would have known we were there and I probably would have recognized their voices anyway). Mom confirmed early on that this was a common way people would respond to an answered call. She said it always drove her nuts, too.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Native New Englanders are trained from birth to spit on the ground at the mention of the names of Harry Frazee, Denny Galehouse, Tom Wright, Julian Javier, Ed Armbrister, Mike Torrez, Bucky Dent, Calvin Schiraldi, and Grady Little.

I don't get the Schiraldi hate. I know he loaded the bases with 2 out in the 10th, but without Stanley's wild pitch and Bucknor's error, he's not even a footnote. Just seems a little harsh. I guess you New Englanders just work hard, play hard and hate hard.

On a side note, I met Ed Armbrister when I was playing against the Bahamian national team, which he was managing at the time. He was a pretty nice guy and said no matter where he goes, the only thing people ever ask him about is "The Bunt".

 

[2jakes]

I remember in high school where “gang members” when they were in a group would hold on to their
private parts . Looked to me as if they were afraid that it would fall off.
They also would spit in tiny specks as if to accentuate their comments. And the shoes were almost
always a deep orange tan & super polished. A throw back to the “zoot-suit” perhaps. I always thought
they were funny...same as today with the young men who wear their trousers way down & show their
poo-poo undies !
They hardly messed with me. Not that I was any braver than most,
but with 5 sisters, I got into a lot of fights with these clowns who thought I was a boyfriend or something.
After a while it toughen me up & wouldn't take s- - - from anyone !

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't get the Schiraldi hate. I know he loaded the bases with 2 out in the 10th, but without Stanley's wild pitch and Bucknor's error, he's not even a footnote. Just seems a little harsh. I guess you New Englanders just work hard, play hard and hate hard.

On a side note, I met Ed Armbrister when I was playing against the Bahamian national team, which he was managing at the time. He was a pretty nice guy and said no matter where he goes, the only thing people ever ask him about is "The Bunt".

I left Larry Barnett off the list -- my mistake. It was more his fault than Armbrister's -- it's the batter's responsibility to get out of the way, which he failed to do, but it's even more the ump's responsibility to not blow the call. Forty years on, and it still makes me mad to think of it.

As for Schiraldi, it wasn't just that game. He would always fold up in clutch situations. I forgot to put McNamara on the list as well -- for some reason he'd put Schiraldi in game after game despite knowing he'd quit like a two dollar watch. "Knife the Mac!"

 

[HudsonHawk]

I left Larry Barnett off the list -- my mistake. It was more his fault than Armbrister's -- it's the batter's responsibility to get out of the way, which he failed to do, but it's even more the ump's responsibility to not blow the call. Forty years on, and it still makes me mad to think of it.

That's one that will be debated for many years to come.

 

[p51]

same as today with the young men who wear their trousers way down & show their poo-poo undies !

I knew a guy who used to be a prison guard at the time and he swore that baggy pants thing started in prisons as an invite for other prisoners that said baggy pants person was... well, willing to accept back door deliveries.
I've laughed and pointed that out to a few young thugs types wearing them like that over the years and every time, their eyes bug out, never having heard that before.
I'd like to think I stopped a couple of them from doing that.
I like what someone said just the other day at the post office when a 20-something on a skateboard went by looking like that with the pants down, "Why can't the young women do that as well? At least half the time I wouldn't be so disgusted!"

 

[2jakes]

"Why can't the young women do that as well? At least half the time I wouldn't be so disgusted!"

Probably because the kind of women who would do that...well...I’ll let you dwell on that & figure it out !

 

[swanson_eyes]

Men who honk their horns at women for daring to be in public while being female.

 

[Fading Fast]

Men who honk their horns at women for daring to be in public while being female.

On the TV show "Seinfeld" he had a funny routine on it that basically said, as a man, when you are at the point of honking your horn at a woman, you are fully, completely out of ideas / you have no skills at meeting women. Yes, it is rude, obnoxiously rude, but as he points out, you also are basically all but saying I have no game if that's what you are doing to attract women.

 

[swanson_eyes]

That's kind of sad.

 

[p51]

Honking at women? Even in my most clueless teen years, that never would have occurred to me as something that would yield results.

On the TV show "Seinfeld" he had a funny routine on it that basically said, as a man, when you are at the point of honking your horn at a woman, you are fully, completely out of ideas / you have no skills at meeting women. Yes, it is rude, obnoxiously rude, but as he points out, you also are basically all but saying I have no game if that's what you are doing to attract women.

Never saw it before and was never a fan of the show, but the premise sure sounds about right to me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I once had a take-out fish supper thrown at me from a passing car. But they didn't honk.

 

[p51]

I once had a take-out fish supper thrown at me from a passing car. But they didn't honk.

Had a kid throw his half-finished sandwich in a bag from a bus window through the open window of the Suzuki Samurai I was driving. I even heard snickers. I could see they were teens so it had to be intentional. I wasn't that much older than them at the time but knew I'd never have done that. Imagine their surprise when I raced ahead of the bus, stopped in the middle of the road blocking them, got out and banged on the door then demanded the driver call the cops after explaining what had just happened.
They all denied it even happened... for all of about 2 minutes. One rolled on the culprit really fast, just like you'd expect from teens. I got a letter from the school board outlining how unacceptable it was and that the culprit was going to be duly punished and maybe expelled. I didn't feel the least bit guilty about it, even when the cops called to take a statement. I was glad it was taken seriously, but surprised they'd made that big a deal as this was the mid 90s and kids were still getting away with a lot more than they are now.