Innocuous things that make you irrationally angry (a list thread)

Got 98% in a test that's worth 2.5% of the total mark. The points they took off were because of mistakes THEY had made in the questions, not my answers. I just.

Oh and I'm sure it's been mentioned but web site polls that ask a very simple y/n answer but provide FOUR options, all of which are a freaking essay e.g. http://www.tuaw.com/2011/09/05/youre-the-pundit-will-ios-and-os-x-merge/#poll68668

It was a Carrabbas, which had trees growing on the roof and which I had never heard of until it opened.

i think i've seen these in some deep-suburbia malls. definitely for affluent/aspirational ppl who don't want the olive garden stink on 'em.

what's the deal with macaroni grill btw? never been to any of these places.

I can't go there, it just makes me think of grilled macaroni, and flee.

exactly, if you tried to grill macaroni, it'd get stuck and fall apart.

Notable former employees

Eva Angelina - Adult film star
Tal Berkowitz - Vaccine advocate
Ragan Fox - Big Brother 12 (U.S.) houseguest

Macaroni Grill is okay, I think? It's one of those "paper on the tables, server kneels down and writes his/her name on your table paper" kind of places, plus they put jugs of wine on the table and then charge you for whatever you drank, and the portions are LOLhuge.

I mean, it's gimicky strip mall Italian but it's better than Olive Garden. So if you are very tired and hungry after a long day at the outlet malls, you could do worse.

writes his/her name upside-down on your table paper

I had one co-worker treat me to a birthday lunch who wrote his name back upside-down *plus* with a little caricature of himself ala John Lennon.

Getting sung "Marcella Bella" to was only the third-most embarrassing moment of that trip.

Macaroni Grill is orders of magnitude better than Olive Garden. They have actually somewhat decent Italian food and the whole character of the place is nicer. And I think the owner is known for being a big do-gooder w/r/t to feeding starving people. (insert obvious but potentially hilarious joke here)

But yes, the name always makes me think of macaroni noodles on a grill.

Macaroni in an oven-proof dish, and *that* is put under the grill.

Blimey!

not the Tal Berkowitz??????

macaroni grill blew my mind as a 14 yr old, which is sad

This discussion is actually making me crave mid-level chain Italian food. Jesse! Let's go to Maggiano's one night this week.

Blew your mind how?

Isn't Maggiano's more legitimately fine dining? I thought it was a Ruth's Chris level fine dining chain.

It's prob nicer than Macaroni Grill but it's a LEY tourist-targeted Italian restaurant. It is a certain Lesbian's terrible girlfriend's favorite restaurant, if that tells you anything.

I wonder if out public email is making anyone IA?

Ha.

It's only LEY in Chicago! In the rest of the country it is its own restaurant. I know this b/c I applied there when I first moved here.

The Maggiano's in Boston is pretty decent, although kind of useless given the existence of the North End

Thread now making me irrationally HUNGRY.

I could've KILLED a plate of baked ziti last night, if my neighborhood only had Italian restaurants.

What? Really? How does that business relationship work? Is LEY (note: Lettuce Entertain You, a restaurant corporation in Chicago that owns a shit ton of diverse restaurants) a franchise holder?

I didn't even know Maggiano's was a chain outside of being part of LEY.

Laurel OTM re baked ziti.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggiano%27s_Little_Italy

From Lettuce Entertain You's own written history: LEYE continued to expand its Italian Division in the 1990s with the opening of Maggiano's Little Italy in Chicago (1991) and Oak Brook (1992), re-creating the classic pre-World War II dinner house featuring family size portions; Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc.'s Richard Melman founded Maggiano's Little Italy and its sister franchise, Corner Bakery, in Chicago in 1991.[2] Both concepts were sold to Brinker International Inc. in the mid 1990s.[3]

blew my mind as in "wow what a bright, huge, open dining area...hehee lookit all the jugs of wine stacked up...whoa they charge you in the honor system w/r/t wine, wish i was old enough to drink...holy shit there's pasta here other than lasagne and spaghetti w/red sauce".
maggiano's def a step up, but overpriced for what you get. though last time I went (had a gift cert from work) they had a $5 dessert sampler which was kind of totally awesome.

I get a bit annoyed (at my own ignorance) that Italian-Americans refer to dishes, such as baked ziti, that despite being half-Italian I've never tried or even heard of in Italy itself.

That's probably because it's...American. Which would explain it.

xp I was shamed that you Googled that for me until I read the part about Corner Bakery and now I'm just excited. I have embarrassingly positive feelings about Corner Bakery.

ilx hipster debates

corner bakery >>>>>>>>>>> panera

it's almost pumpkin whoopie pie time...

ilx hipster debates

I read this as ilx hipster diabetes.

hipster diabeetus

People who like Jandek. They're lying, or engaged in a form of self-hypnosis.

corner bakery >>>>>>>>>>> panera

OTM and high five re: pumpkin whoopee pies.

New cooking site IA: recipes that tell you to buy a jar of pre-made sauce, e.g. this here jerk pork recipe.

Like, I had kinda guessed that I could buy some pork, and a randomly-selected jar of Jamaican jerk sauce, and a microwave pack of rice, but I was hoping to find a real recipe, y'know? Or at least a recommendation of a good brand of pre-made sauce.

(people familiar with my home city may be correct in guessing that I went to St Giles' fair, bought food from the Jamaican takeaway stand, and thought "that was quite nice, but there must be a way I can eat it without paying £6.50 for four small chunks in a polystyrene tub")

i thought that was a bbc thing, not mentioning brand names. but then they specify "2 x 250g packets Rizzazz pure basmati rice"...

TBF that BBCgoodfood site takes its recipes from a variety of sources (BBC publications), some of which are a couple of books I have called 'speedy suppers for two' or something, that are designed to be made in 30 mins etc. The books can have some great stuff, although it's not without the type of recipes you describe or jazzed up sandwiches etc.

Yeah, I have a couple of the books too and have made some pleasant stuff from them. There are a couple of recipes in the ones I've got which use pre-made sauces, but at least those added some side dishes and garnish; this one seemed a whole new level of pre-made sauce plus pre-cooked rice plus basically no other ingredients.

(and it's not just the Beeb that does this, I was looking for recipes for something else last week and kept hitting the same thing from other websites too)

BBC Good Food is probably part of BBC Worldwide, which is profit making and advertises. You want bbc.co.uk/food. Just be sure and filter our results from Ready Steady Puke.

I do hate pre-made sauce recipes too, good call. What's the fucking point? And as per above, I can't stand all the Ready Steady Cook recipes on the BBC site. Why would I ever cook something somebody made cos they spun a wheel or some shit and ended up with a chorizo, some curry sauce, and a tub of ben and jerrys, thus giving birth to "Anthony Worrall Thompson's Indo-Spanish Sundae"

Yeah I remember I had heard all about Betty Crocker, and I guess somehow thought she was going to be this badass homestyle cook, and when I first picked up her recipe books I was so bummed. "Take 1 packet frozen spinach, 1 jar of mayonnaise, and a can of mushroom soup..."

Yeah the Taste.com.au website which is what I was ranting about the comments on up above, also has some "chuck jar sauce on some mince" type recipes, one of which amusingly had an incredibly scathing comment something like "gee, I'm glad you wrote me up a recipe for something I COULD HAVE READ OFF THE JAR YOU RECOMMEND", lol.

FB IA: people who post links to videos or other sites with no preamble or explanation as to why they did so. Woman has posted this video of what seems to be a cow... with a vague comment saying "I cant read this its in german but I think the mother had 19 calves" ...uhh.. AND!?

Just overheard a school counselor tell a student, earnestly, "That will solve the problem, methinks." Save it for Internet posturing like the rest of us, dude!

That there is a station on the northern line between Kennington and Stockwell. How dare there be.

and it's not even oval-shaped.

When you mute an online video and the "mute" symbol appears in the middle of the screen and doesn't go away. Hey! With the sound off I need to pay even more attention to what's happening!

Innocuous things that have made you irrationally angry for 15 years: websites resizing my browser window. Don't people realise that it makes other people not look at their websites?

When you mute an online video and the "mute" symbol appears in the middle of the screen and doesn't go away. Hey! With the sound off I need to pay even more attention to what's happening!

― Mark C, Thursday, September 8, 2011 9:20 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

my tv does this, big MUTE symbol in the corner that can cover up subtitles etc. it sucks.

can you not just turn the volume all the way down?

You could, but then what's the point of a mute button?

also on some TVs, turning the volume all the way down pops up the MUTE symbol anyway