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

haha i love that episode

Streets that're named after a person's full name. Parker Street would've been honour enough - Matthew Parker Street just makes me hate him, whoever he was.

North Carolina, where my family lives, and where I used to live, is full of streets named after people's full names. Not famous people, either (e.g. Robert E. Lee and Jeff Davis ;_;), but ones like Sharon Amity Road, Jake Alexander Blvd., Glenn Dancy Road, I didn't notice it until family visiting from Michigan commented on it. I haven't seen as many outside of NC.

meanies

If what happened where your family lives is the same thing that happened where Jeff's family lives, all those street names used to be rural route numbers (or just unnamed roads) and in an attempt to standardize addresses in the area for emergency response purposes, there was an initiative to give the streets names. Usually they ended up naming the streets after the people who lived on them, which is why Jeff's family have streets named after them in that same Firstname Lastname Street format.

Yeah, we've got those in the woods where I grew up. We've also got horrible names that are just first names, ones would only think up if they were trying to name a county's worth of roads all at once: Reba Lane, Marty Lane, Sue Lane, Debra Lane, Kristi Ridge, Rhonda Road.

And of course Achy Breaky Lane (our 911 service came in during the early 90s),

iirc, in either Rotterdam or Amsterdam there's a few square blocks with streets named after American musicians, e.g., Thelonious Monk Straat, Bud Powell Straat, Charles Mingus Straat, etc.

Pfft, none of those guys played a Strat, GTFO Dutch-land.

There was a Hot Dog Lane and a Hamburger Lane near Jeff's neck of the woods, but the last time we were there the signs were gone. Either they were stolen (I imagine they are stolen constantly) or somebody decided to change them to something less silly.

My favorite road name is in norther Delaware: Mermaid Stoney Batter Road

Not being able to tell black and navy apart, like in the store or in my drawer. So many minutes spent in unnecessary deep personal doubt.

I and many others have had juvenile lols at this road in suburban Detroit:

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k39/SericeousBurden/blog/big-beaver-road.jpg

I must be homesick...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pJnwR-qikME/TVcEkzfw9QI/AAAAAAAAAm0/wN29gSgXDGE/s1600/cretin%2Bave%2Bweb.JPG

Ha, nice.

The first+last named streets I'm thinking of are significant streets in real cities and towns. To the extent that anything in NC is real or significant.

This talk reminded me of one thing that really, really bugs me: In Chicago some streets get named after someone in addition to their real names, and they are marked with special brown street signs that say "Honorary Mrs. O'Leary and Her Cow Ave." or whatever next to the sign with the real name. That part is fine, but what has fucked me over is that in some places there are ONLY the Honorary names signs, and no indication of the real name.

I've never understood those honorary street names, but I've never lived in a place that had 'em.

Chicago gets points for referring to the Dan Ryan, the Kennnedy and the Eisenhower. Here, traffic reports are all nothing but "630 backed up to I-30 while 430 is heavy and slow getting on to 40. Accident at 440 and I-30."

All of the north/south streets across town are numbered. Annoyingly, a western suburb restarts the numbering at 1st, but at least they're somewhat consistent.

This is untrue for two streets, though: They gave the two streets with shopping malls on them names to correspond to the malls. I assumed those signs only existed for the area the mall was in, but no -- 35th Street no longer exists, only Valley West Drive, where you can find Valley West Mall.

I still refer to the 35th street exit off the freeway.

cars that fly through massive lake-puddles on the road...esp when I am walking on the sidewalk & have to climb up an embankment so i dont get drowned

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, December 2, 2012 6:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^this. Also, said lake-puddlers apparently don't realize that the height of the wave created on the outside of the wheel is the same on the inside, thereby fucking up their engine and electrical components (at the very least, in the long term).

And here I've been using those puddles as a way to wash my engine compartment

Was it the episode of Boondocks where MLK was just in a coma and wakes up in modern times that he was shocked and sad that most streets named for him are in bad parts of cities?

― mayor mcpotle (mh), Sunday, December 2, 2012 7:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Chris Rock had a bit about this, too. "Where are you?" "I'm on Martin Luther King." "RUN! RUN!"

Harrisonburg, VA:

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1295/1199849574_2de333e306_z.jpg

This is untrue for two streets, though: They gave the two streets with shopping malls on them names to correspond to the malls. I assumed those signs only existed for the area the mall was in, but no -- 35th Street no longer exists, only Valley West Drive, where you can find Valley West Mall.

They pull this trick here of naming the three or so blocks of a numbered street that runs by an interstate after somebody. So you get off the "Jimmy Bingo Street" exit, blink an eye, and continue your way down 15th Street.

I thought that was what they did! But no, they were thorough.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/trutv/trutv.com/graphics/blog/gallery/50-dumbest-city-names/delaware-slaughterbeach.jpg

Another Delaware classic, right next to Slaughter Neck, which is too small for road signs.

I've wondered aloud about it before, but how many Wal-Mart Drives can there be in this country that lead to former stores now leased out to flea markets?

Chicago gets points for referring to the Dan Ryan, the Kennnedy and the Eisenhower. Here, traffic reports are all nothing but "630 backed up to I-30 while 430 is heavy and slow getting on to 40. Accident at 440 and I-30."

Why do they get points for this? It's super confusing if you don't know the area well. I still am not sure which interstate the Bishop Ford is.

Bishop Ford used to be the Tri-State I think...? And a few years ago something was renamed the Reagan. No idea what it used to be, or what interstate it actually is.

nyc recently renamed the triboro bridge -- a nice, useful, descriptive name -- the rfk bridge or something. because we were in danger of forgetting bobby kennedy

Maybe so, but I still come across people who don't know the difference between 430 and 630 or that there's even a 440. And nevermind the fact that the major north-south interstate artery through town is technically east-west.

At least with names, it's easier to concoct some sort of mnemonic memory trigger.

I feel like there is already a thread about this? I remember PP being involved...

I have no idea what the names or numbers of Chicago roads are, but that's mostly because I've driven on major traffic arteries maybe twice in eight years. (I've traversed them in taxis or cars driven by other people, but haven't paid any attention to what's what (mostly just sitting in the back with my eyes closed thinking happy, non-death-by-MVA thoughts).)

I did grow up with people referring to major roads by numbers (I-95, Rts. 1, 9, and 24).

You can tie it back to those rural areas that had to change all the "Rt. 1 Box 3504" addresses to "12533 Wooden Pecker Road" or back when your phone number was CAmeo-9890. Names are easier.

There probably was another thread like this where I kept going on and on about this stuff. Possibly even aided by my former geocities collection of wacky street names.

I've wondered aloud about it before, but how many Wal-Mart Drives can there be in this country that lead to former stores now leased out to flea markets?

― pplains, Monday, 3 December 2012 17:12 (35 minutes ago) Permalink

Daddy, who was Walmart?

I had a rural route box growing up. Them they changed the road to my fathers name because we were the only people who lived on it.

It was strange watching a whole area get street names all at once. They named the main highway, a windy two-lane, Heber Springs Road because, well, it went to Heber Springs. To me, that was the most cornpoke reason for naming a road, but then again, I guess that's how Milwaukee Street in Chicago got its name.

And nevermind the fact that the major north-south interstate artery through town is technically east-west.

And speaking of IA, I get that way when people in LA refer to directions wrong such as "go north on the 101 to ..." when the starting and ending section of the 101 is straight east-west.

people who can't process syncopation, apparently

I had a rural route box growing up. Them they changed the road to my fathers name because we were the only people who lived on it.

And I thought I lived in a rural area when growing up. There was two other families on my road.

There was one road in the county where the Tacketts lived, and before they even renamed the roads, they had posted a homemade TACKETT ROAD sign out by the highway. It stayed up there for awhile since even though the county named the roads, they didn't put up street signs for awhile after that.

But the day that green sign did go up on Tackett Rd., oh the pride that must have been felt.

I have got to start proofreading my posts.

i sounded like a Tackett up there.

LOL

Some elders at my stupid church were very concerned when our area got street names and house numbers instead of route and box numbers (so-called "911 addresses"). Their worry was that the 911 addresses were being instituted in order to track God's chosen people in the End Times.

Thing that makes me IA: That stupid religion.

People saying "haitch" instead of "aitch" when pronouncing the letter H.

^Unless they're from the Caribbean.

or ireland

when I'm tired and my mouth gets lazy and I repeatedly chew the same spot inside my mouth 4 times in half an hour

fuck

you

aaaaggggg

TV documentary / real-life, where they run captions when someone speaks that has any kind of 'regional' accent.

9 times out of 10, they are perfectly understandable without.

I have ruined the viewing experience of many 60 Minutes segment bitching about that.

xpost Do they do that in the UK/US? Here it's mainly done if it's from the West Flanders (in Belgium). And most of the time I can understand. hah. e have such a crappy dialect. Blergh.

oh god I hate that. they do it a lot on US shows

When a regional accent on TV is hard for me to understand, I turn the volume way up, which actually helps, and therefore proves to me that yelling to make yourself understood is effective.