Really trivial stuff that bugs you

[grant hutchison]

I sometimes wonder what would happen if we didn't have the whole weird "Santa Claus" narrative, and some small group of people invented it today.
Child psychologists on national television, moral panic, parents in court and children in care, I suspect.

Grant Hutchison

[Trebuchet]

I get the usual Social Security and Credit Card ones. Recently I got an IRS scam... using the same computer generated voice as the "Social Security" calls.

It's the voice of the US Government!

We had some sort of call on the landline number at about 6:40 this morning. Sheesh.

[Swift]

In "amuses," though, Irene knows she's getting a pink wand for Yule. We don't do Santa or a Santa equivalent. And I mentioned in front of her that I was messaging the woman who makes wands. I then told her that I was messaging one of Simon's godparents, to which she said, "Does Aunt Rowan make kitty shirts?" As the other thing she'd told me she wanted was a pink kitty shirt.

I'm sure my wife would agree that your wand should match your kitty shirt (she of the matching skis, poles, and boots). I am widely known to be oblivious to such things.

[Trebuchet]

Michael Smerconish, on CNN just a few minutes ago:
"After a candidate is defeated, the public tends to become disinterested in him."

No Michael. "Disinterested" means "impartial". Sports referees are supposed to be disinterested, not care which team wins. The public becomes uninterested.

Ok, ok, Wiktionary has "uninterested" as a second definition, because of common usage. But I'm sticking to mine.

ETA: "The public tends to lose interest" would have been better phrasing regardless.

[Solfe]

I sometimes wonder what would happen if we didn't have the whole weird "Santa Claus" narrative, and some small group of people invented it today.
Child psychologists on national television, moral panic, parents in court and children in care, I suspect.

Grant Hutchison

My kids are teenagers. They are super invested in Santa, I don't know what to make of it.

Two years ago, we went to Disney for Christmas. Obviously there wasn't a Santa to be seen nor did anyone mention him until New Years morning.

I am pretty sure I mentioned the best breakfast at Disney World. A little girl who obvious had some really harsh chemo came into the restaurant dressed as a princess and the staff fell all over her. They made everyone clap, dance and sing. It was epic, I've never seen a kid so happy. My oldest son commented, "These people are so much better than Santa."

A few days later, the day before we took our mock Christmas tree down (to fake out burglars), token gifts appeared under it. Homemade cookies, oranges and socks. Someone put gas in all of the cars and made breakfast. It wasn't me or my wife. Use the power of Santa responsibly.

[Gillianren]

I sometimes wonder what would happen if we didn't have the whole weird "Santa Claus" narrative, and some small group of people invented it today.
Child psychologists on national television, moral panic, parents in court and children in care, I suspect.

The weirdest result in our household in not doing Santa Claus has been that Simon turns out to have believed that reindeer weren't real.

[Swift]

The weirdest result in our household in not doing Santa Claus has been that Simon turns out to have believed that reindeer weren't real.

Our zoo has actual reindeer. I've also eaten reindeer sausage. I think they're real.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Do the reindeer sausage fly.

[DonM435]

There's a "Deer Crossing" sign on Hwy 520 near Orlando.
Last year, I noted that somebody painted a shiny red nose on the silhouette last year as the holidays approached.
It wasn't there last time I drove that way, but I expect to see it again.

[Torsten]

Many of those signs where I live have the red nose painted onto them, to the point where I wondered if the manufacturer had done it. It's an all-year thing up here.

[Van Rijn]

There is a deer crossing sign on a street a couple of blocks from my house. I’ll try to remember to look when I go by next time.

[Trebuchet]

About ten years ago most of the deer crossing signs around here had hula hoop stickers added to them.
And the pedestrian crossings as well, of course.

[DonM435]

The penalty for altering a road sign must be pretty severe. Just hope that the lawmen have a sense of humor!

[Extravoice]

There are stickers on the backside of some signs in my neighborhood. They identify the owner as the county, and say something about penalties for theft. I’ll have to check if they mention defacement.

[Trebuchet]

The penalty for altering a road sign must be pretty severe. Just hope that the lawmen have a sense of humor!

The hula hoops, at least, are a pretty minimal defacement.

[Solfe]

One sign at the end of my street spells "Marylou" as one word. The other end has it as two words. One sign says, "road" the other says "street". It's actually neither.

[Gillianren]

For years, one of the stop signs by the downtown Olympia library had "hammer time" written on it. I was a little disappointed when they replaced that sign; I missed it.

[DonM435]

When driving from Orlando, Eastward to Merritt Island on SR 520, this sign always bothered me:



(I was never motivated to photograph it, but I found the sign in an online picture. The blow-up is a bit blurry, but it should give you the idea. I never gave it much thought. Until just now.)

It would seem to read "Lake Varr" both vertically and horizontally, with a couple of arrows pointing left and right, and a slash separating the two words on top.

Now, if I were looking for either Lake Varr or just Varr I know that glancing at this sign might puzzle me enough to risk a traffic mishap as I tried to decide whether to turn left, right, or stop and analyze. However, I have always just been passing through.

Looking at a map, I find that (1) going left (North) or right (South) will put you on "S Varr Ave." However, (2) taking the left (North) to South Varr Avenue will soon get you to the beginning of "Lake Dr." which runs diagonally Northwesterly.

So, the sign is trying to say "Left for S. Varr Ave. or Lake Dr.; right for just S. Varr Ave." It just suffers from too much abbreviation to get it all on one small sign. Probably should have used two smaller signs.

Good thing that Varr Avenue wasn't named Econlockhatchee Avenue. That's the name of a river around here. Abbreviate that, Mr Traffic Engineer!

[Delvo]

I live in North Tonawanda. Just south of it is Tonawanda.

There's a highway near here with one exit to get to both of them. There's one sign for it, which says "Tonawandas".

Also, although it's changed now, my landlord's property management company when I moved in was called "TNT Apartments".

[Trebuchet]

When driving from Orlando, Eastward to Merritt Island on SR 520, this sign always bothered me:



(I was never motivated to photograph it, but I found the sign in an online picture. The blow-up is a bit blurry, but it should give you the idea. I never gave it much thought. Until just now.)

It would seem to read "Lake Varr" both vertically and horizontally, with a couple of arrows pointing left and right, and a slash separating the two words on top.

Now, if I were looking for either Lake Varr or just Varr I know that glancing at this sign might puzzle me enough to risk a traffic mishap as I tried to decide whether to turn left, right, or stop and analyze. However, I have always just been passing through.

Looking at a map, I find that (1) going left (North) or right (South) will put you on "S Varr Ave." However, (2) taking the left (North) to South Varr Avenue will soon get you to the beginning of "Lake Dr." which runs diagonally Northwesterly.

So, the sign is trying to say "Left for S. Varr Ave. or Lake Dr.; right for just S. Varr Ave." It just suffers from too much abbreviation to get it all on one small sign. Probably should have used two smaller signs.

Good thing that Varr Avenue wasn't named Econlockhatchee Avenue. That's the name of a river around here. Abbreviate that, Mr Traffic Engineer!

I actually interpreted it correctly, although thinking that "Lake" and "Varr" might be towns. Or planets; "Varr" sounds pretty alien!

As for rivers, we have Humptulips.

[DonM435]

To get to Varr ... when you come to the fork in the road ... take it.

[DonM435]

Many of those signs where I live have the red nose painted onto them, to the point where I wondered if the manufacturer had done it. It's an all-year thing up here.

Actually, the red-nosed deer sign I saw was near where you'd exit to drive to Christmas, Fla., so it may be more appropriate here.

I'm told that some people make a trip here to get their Xmas cards franked with a "Christmas" postmark.

My son told me that his friends refer to the town of Bithlo as "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

[Van Rijn]

My first thought reading the sign is that left takes you to a lake, right takes to someplace called “Varr Varr.”

[Trebuchet]

I have incurred the minor displeasure of my wife by taking and posting a picture of the Christmas tree before she was finished decorating it. And it posted sideways. I'll try again when she says it's done!

[ozduck]

Most of the houses in my suburb were built around 1980 - 1990 and are on 'biggish' 700 - 800 m2 blocks. Mine is a bit of an aberration at just over 1,000 m2 (1/4 Acre). Due to lots of stimulus money currently being thrown at people by the State and Federal governments they are being demolished at an astounding rate. Domestic building approvals were up 37.5% in W.A last month. Usually the block is subdivided with two new houses being built. While I don't want to live on one of these smaller blocks this is not what bugs me.

What does sadden me is that usually no attempt is made to salvage useful materials from these demolished houses. A big machine just comes in and flattens the house and then picks up the rubble and dumps it onto a truck before levelling the block. Almost all of these houses are 'brick and tile ones. While it is harder to re-use the bricks, the tiles are certainly reusable as would be the windows and doors. But what is even worse is seeing the old ceiling joists being wasted. In that era they were still usually made of Jarrah instead of the treated pine or metal ones in use these days. I shudder to think how much useful, and irreplaceable, wood is being wasted.

[Trebuchet]

The problem, of course, is that the labor to salvage the materials would cost more than the value of the recycled materials. A classic First World Problem.

[ozduck]

The problem, of course, is that the labor to salvage the materials would cost more than the value of the recycled materials. A classic First World Problem.

Unfortunately, you are certainly right.

[21st Century Schizoid Man]

Use of "exponential" to mean "a lot".

[Delvo]

Well, it's exponentially better than saying "infinite(ly)" to mean the same thing.

They're both just hyperbolic.

[21st Century Schizoid Man]

They're both just hyperbolic.