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

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.

You turn the volume way up regardless.

My volume preference is in line with the norm. It's yours that is odd.

We'll let the American people decide that.

voting jeff, if not blanket muting

I don't like the TV movie-theater-level thunderous; just at a volume where quiet dialog will be audible without having to turn it up.

Strobe lights on school buses.

?

disco school?

They're on top of the bus. There was a fairly long conversation about them somewhere on ILX. In my school in MI, they were only used when it visibility was bad.

yeah, yesterday there was a strobe light on the front of a bicycle while I was driving to turn right.

I'm all for visi, but hey ow!

ATM at work offers these options:
- cash only
- cash and receipt
- cash and balance

I chose "cash only" and it said "Do you wish to see your balance?"

I click "No you fucks I just said CASH ONLY!"

It says "Do you want a receipt for your transaction?"

IA up to eleven.

Then I took my hard-fought cash to the canteen to get a breakfast roll and they had no rolls left. Maybe if I didn't have to click all those extra buttons I'd have got the last roll :(

That ATM sounds annoying. I get irrationally angry to the point of irrational amusement when I use the word "just" in a shop - "just the paper", "just a lighter", "just this" - and EVERY TIME I'm asked if I want anything else. It is so consistent that I question myself - am I mistaken to believe "just" means "only" in this context? Nobody hears it anyway.

Your rational anger should be directed at the upseller behind the counter. Instead, you deploy 'just' to make them stop.

"egg sandwich please, nothing else, thanks"
"tea? coffee?"
"no thanks"
"sure?"
"no THANK you"

Ah go on. Just a drop in your hand. Go on go on go on go on go on.

i think upper crust servers get the sack immediately if they don't offer a drink.

Joggers who jog round the narrow and slightly treacherous footpath alongside/into the industrial estate at 8:57am on a weekday.

Hello, I can see you do not have to go to work today and probably have no particular reason to be in this part of town, and that's very nice for you, but I am late for work and now I have to stand still in some icy mud for 10 seconds so you can take up the entire footpath to huff past in a tracksuit before going home to sit on the sofa all day or something

look at me with my exciting life where I get angry over standing still for 10 seconds :(

(the "just" thing is probably partly the fault of people like me who go "just this, thanks" and then see a shiny thing behind the counter and go "ooh - and one of them - and...". I don't often buy up-sold stuff though.)