So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[sheeplady]

Here's one: people who comment on some obvious malady or condition you have and then get angry when you don't further or encourage the conversation. I was at work when this last happened and it was someone I had never met so I didn't want to discuss my medical info with her. She complained and I have a mark on my record now. Who walks up to someone they don't know at all and asks first thing "Do you have X condition??" and then goes on to tell the sufferer how it feels? (Yes, she did. She didn't ask; she pronounced that it must be painful. I said it wasn't and that ticked her off because she was wrong.)
Someone on one of my other message boards keeps a service dog and people ask her all kinds of questions about why she has it. It's none of their business and you're not supposed to ask anyway. She can only be out for a few hours before being completely exhausted, so these people are impeding her from getting home when she needs to.

I've witnessed people get mad when someone asks said people to please not touch their service dog, s/he is working. Talk about entitled.

I want to go to these people at work and constantly stick them with a pencil. What, it's hard to work when you're being annoyed? Jab, jab, jab. Huh. I wonder how the dog felt? Jab, jab, jab.

 

[swanson_eyes]

A wheelchair user of my close acquaintance always finds time to talk with youngsters who are curious (as kids are and should be) about her power wheelchair and why she uses it.

In my book kids get a pass because they don't understand privacy yet.

 

[swanson_eyes]

I've witnessed people get mad when someone asks said people to please not touch their service dog, s/he is working. Talk about entitled.

My online acquaintance has had to deal with that as well as field questions like "What's wrong with you?" I shouldn't be surprised; she lives in my state.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Apple does something similar with the power cord plugs for its iPhones. After several years and models that used a cord that connected with a small rectangular piece about a half inch long - and in which many things were built to accommodate this plug-in connections, for example, exercise equipment and alarm clocks - Apple changed to a more square like connection.

I have no doubt this was simply to "punish" all the third part manufacturers who make these Apple compatible things. But not only does it punish the manufacturers, but also the customers of the iPhone and these third party items. It's all so stupid and wasteful.

This sort of nonsense was common in the Era as well --radio manufacturers were notorious for introducing all sorts of proprietary "improvements" designed to keep you from using generic parts. When RCA introduced its metal tubes in the mid-thirties, Philco immediately changed the design of its tube sockets to prevent the use of the new tubes. It's not uncommon to find mid-thirties Philco sets where the tube sockets have been mutilated to allow the use of metal tubes, or swapped out entirely. Philco dealt with that by coming up with a chassis design where you had to essentially dismantle the entire chassis just to get to the tube sockets, and then went on to introduce their own proprietary "Loctal" tubes.

Consumers were frustrated with this kind of manipulation, and it was, in fact, a major catalyst for the start of the consumers' movement of the thirties. That movement's founding text, Kallet and Schlink's book "Your Money's Worth," concludes with a chapter called "A Plea For Standardization." We've Come So Far.

 

[Edward]

Seriously, a reporter saying that to a foreign head of state?

Not entirely unlikely here in the UK, certainly in relation to the US presidency. There isn't the same culture of deference to the office here as there seems to be under the US system.

Apple does something similar with the power cord plugs for its iPhones. After several years and models that used a cord that connected with a small rectangular piece about a half inch long - and in which many things were built to accommodate this plug-in connections, for example, exercise equipment and alarm clocks - Apple changed to a more square like connection.

I have no doubt this was simply to "punish" all the third part manufacturers who make these Apple compatible things. But not only does it punish the manufacturers, but also the customers of the iPhone and these third party items. It's all so stupid and wasteful.

Apple have always been one to do their own thing. After manufacturers largley resisted moves to do it voluntarily, the EU passed a new law a few years ago which required standardisation of charger/device inputs for electrical devices - mobile telephones in the main. Everyone else was more or less falling into the Micro USB as a standard, while Appled did their own thing. More recently, though, it looks like the industry, Apple included, is en mass moving towards the USB-C, I believe. It'll be nice when it's as standardised as the 13amp plug... akes it so much easier to be able to charge a phone when everyone has the same lead!

 

[GHT]

Here's one: people who comment on some obvious malady or condition you have and then get angry when you don't further or encourage the conversation. I was at work when this last happened and it was someone I had never met so I didn't want to discuss my medical info with her. She complained and I have a mark on my record now. Who walks up to someone they don't know at all and asks first thing "Do you have X condition??".

This is so in vogue these days, the most contentious issue being children. Why haven't you had any kids yet? You have two girls, why don't you try for a boy? Why do you want another baby, you've already got three? Surely you don't want to leave your baby an only child? And on and on. These people always load the question so that the word why, sounds like a demand.
My left hip will probably need a replacement joint sooner rather than later. The surgeon explained that both hips are in the same condition, but only one is giving me pain, so I'm taking the surgeon's advice and living with it for a while. I've had: "WHY don't you get that hip seen to?" No sense of sympathy, no, it's why! You can put this into so many scenarios today. At a classic car show a guy asked if I was in the MG classic car club, on account of my old MG. When I told him that I wasn't, back came: "WHY?" And so demanding. It does enrage me, I do try not to swear in company, but that sort of reaction does put an Anglo Saxon profanity in my head. One day I'll let it free.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
Twits come in all varieties -- all ages, shapes, sizes and colors. All occupations and outside interests and political persuasions.

What they have in common is the conviction of their own righteousness. Few things are more annoying (and potentially dangerous) than a person blinded by certainty of his own correctness.

You know those people who plaster the backs of their cars with stickers telling of their political positions? That's who I'm talking about. I see that sort of thing, or I hear them drone on at a public meeting, and I am tempted to say, "man, you are doing nothing to advance the cause. Your shtick resonates only with those who already share your views. The rest of us think you're a blowhard."

 

[HudsonHawk]

Not entirely unlikely here in the UK, certainly in relation to the US presidency. There isn't the same culture of deference to the office here as there seems to be under the US system.

And yet you Brits would pop your monocle if an American were to pat the Queen on her butt and say "you're doin' a heckuva job there, Betsy!"

 

[LizzieMaine]

That deference iin the US has never been universal. One thinks of Babe Ruth being introduced to President Coolidge one sweltering afternoon at Griffith Stadium and greeting the Chief Executive with "Hot as hell, ain't it Prez?"

 

[tonyb]

What's worse, though, is some blue blood affecting a down home demeanor.

I realize that blue jeans have become the mark of an American, and their relative affordability (real jeans, the kind in which you might actually get dirty, as contrasted with the variety sold at the upscale mall) bestow at least a democratizing air, but seeing a politician who wouldn't know how to pump his own gas wearing blue jeans at some campaign event makes me wanna hurl an overripe tomato his direction.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yep. "I'm voting for the guy I'd rather have a beer with" is real educated democracy in action.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Oh yes, the essential vitamins B, I, E and R.

Sorry...

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Democracy is half of all the idiots + one.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

And yet you Brits would pop your monocle if an American were to pat the Queen on her butt and say "you're doin' a heckuva job there, Betsy!"

That would be Lese-majesty, no one calls Lizz, Betsy!

 

[Fading Fast]

Democracy is half of all the idiots + one.

Which is the genius of the Founding Fathers creating a Republic and not a pure democracy. Note my signature line. Our modern obsession with democracy and our whittling away of the protections our Republic provided the individual against mob rule, umm, democracy has been, IMHO, a sad and troubling development.

 

[tonyb]

Boy, a person might get idea there are potential problems with any and every sort of social organization.

But of course there are. What's dangerous are those so in love with their own perspective that they fail to recognize its shortcomings.

 

[GHT]

And yet you Brits would pop your monocle if an American were to pat the Queen on her butt and say "you're doin' a heckuva job there, Betsy!"

Now that I would like to see. We are bordering on politics here, so have to tread carefully. If there's one thing that I'm really jealous of in America, it's the fact that you can not only vote your head of state in, you can vote them out too.

 

[MisterCairo]

you can not only vote your head of state in, you can vote them out too.

Or they can just wait eight years!

 

[HudsonHawk]

Now that I would like to see. We are bordering on politics here, so have to tread carefully. If there's one thing that I'm really jealous of in America, it's the fact that you can not only vote your head of state in, you can vote them out too.

Eh, just a little lighthearted joke among friendly nations, not really a political discussion.

Interesting to note however...while we can certainly vote a new President in during an election year, there is no mechanism to recall one we don't like, or a lousy one, during his/her term. The President can be impeached and removed from office for committing certain crimes while in office, but we don't have an option for buyer's remorse or our Chief simply being bad at his job. We're sorta stuck with him for the duration of his 4-year term. A lot of people outside the US seem to be surprised by that.

 

[Edward]

And yet you Brits would pop your monocle if an American were to pat the Queen on her butt and say "you're doin' a heckuva job there, Betsy!"

Well, I'm neither a Brit nor a royalist, but I rather suspect you might be surprised by how things have changed in that regard in ,he last twenty years or so.