Rants Go Here!

But the bit kits are expensive expensive expensive.  When I buy a fucking seven dollar USB thumb drive, it comes packaged in a plastic-and-cardboard bubble clamshell that would protect it from any harm in a nuclear detonation.  Why can't my $30 bits be in a case that doesn't fall apart the first time you open it????

The packaging is cheap.

It's Donald Trump's fault.

I HATE THESE GOD DAMN THINGS!

Plastic pop-up drains.



I hate these fucking things. If you don't use a lot of water in the wash basin, the large, sticky molecules in soaps, toothpaste (and various compounds that women tend to use) will adhere to the fins on these things and then you have to crawl under the sink with pliers to remove the lift rod so that you can get this pop-up bastard out to clean it. A plunger does absolutely no good and getting under the sink is a bitch when you have a fucked up back (or a hip that refuses to bend properly).

If I could convince the Mrs. to use lots of water in the basin, it would ameliorate the problem, but she is reticent to do so: "waste" she calls it, and I guess it is.

They used to make these things out of solid brass. They were almost twice as long and depended on the weight of the brass to close. Because of that, if and when they got plugged up, you simply lifted them out of the drain. No crawling under the sink. Piece of cake. But try and find one of the old style. I have tried and failed. I have a friend who is a plumber and he says he hasn't seen a new one in maybe twenty years, but he still sees them in old houses, where they last forever.

Stupid fucking plastic crap!

Yeah, try having a daughter & wife both with long hair who use the blow dryer right over the sink.

I think I pulled three mohair rugs out of the drain over the years.

Been there. Done that.
A wife and two daughters with long hair and blow dryers.

But that was in the old house with the old brass drains. Easy to take care of.

I hate the word sync.

When I read it, I cannot help but think of synchronize. Unfortunately, it does not mean synchronize and the manner in which the word is used and applied by entities in the computer/phone world renders the word meaningless. I have yet to find a definition of the word by any purveyor of equipment or services that use the word. When I am offered the option to sync my device with another, I reject it; I have no idea what it is going to do - is it going to make my device a copy of the other or is it going to make the other device a copy of mine. Or will it do something else altogether?

This is all the more irritating because in the software world, such ambiguity is not allowed.

Floating bodies in the movies and television. Bullshit!

You notice when someone is knocked unconscious, or killed, and thrown into the swimming pool, they float (always face down). This, of course, gives the opportunity for someone to come along and notice the floating body and make a miraculous rescue, if the person was only unconscious.

In reality, a dead or unconscious body will sink. Right to the bottom of the pool. Always. Every god damn time. Fat people, skinny people, it doesn't matter: they sink. The only time they show a sunken body is when it has been in the water for a long time. In reality, if a body has been in the water long enough, the gasses of decomposition will cause it to - you guessed it - float.

I don't expect movies or tv to be accurate, but cannot they - just one fucking time - do this right?

I swim every morning, in the summer. After a 25- or 30-minute workout I like to soak in the hot tub for 10-15 minutes and relax my muscles/soothe my joints.

Trouble is, our pool is staffed by college kids, who aren't very dedicated and often not very knowledgable. They know how to test the water in the hot tub for Ph level, but not how to fix it. For that they wait for a senior staff member who actually HAS some chemistry training.

Meaning the hot tub is offline when I finish my swim 3 mornings out of 4.

So I've taken to floating (face up) in the shallow end of the pool, to catch my breath and relax and wait for my metabolism to return to normal, so I don't sweat out my street clothes.

Tuesday one of the lifeguards noticed me floating and became alarmed. She thought maybe I'd died -- until another swimmer (unbeknownst to me) said, "it's okay, he's a floater."

I use a leg float (detailed elsewhere) to keep my lower half from sinking, but as long as I'm breathing regularly, my top half stays buoyant.

Black people have a higher muscle density, and are naturally inclined to sink. That's why you see so few African American competitive swimmers.

But us crackers? We float. Mostly.

Big Pussy on The Sopranos was fed to the sharks. They wrapped him in heavy-duty chain to make sure he'd not become a navigation hazard/embarrassing loose end.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Black people have a higher muscle density, and are naturally inclined to sink.  That's why you see so few African American competitive swimmers.

I sincerely hope you were being facetious.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Big Pussy on The Sopranos was fed to the sharks.  They wrapped him in heavy-duty chain to make sure he'd not become a navigation hazard/embarrassing loose end.

The reason for the chains is so that he will not pop to the surface after decomposition sets in.

And another thing that's so fake on TV: coffee. On numerous shows, especially cop/detective shows like Elementary or Castle, one of the characters shows up in the morning with a couple of big Starbucks-look-alike coffee cups and gives one to his/her partner. Then they have some plot-significant discussion while sipping their coffee - except the cups are empty, and it is obvious. Somewhere there is an acting teacher telling these people that faking a drink of coffee is easy. The only problem is, it isn't. How you hold and move an empty cup is noticeably different from how you hold and move a full cup.

What really pisses me off is that the solution is so easy. Put something in the cup. It doesn't have to be hot coffee. Some water would do the trick. Then the actor will hold the cup and move it as though it has liquid in it, has some weight. Why do people have to be such smart-asses?

Yeah. I've noticed that many times. Irritates me.

_Howard wrote:

I sincerely hope you were being facetious.

Why?

I've swum with some of my black friends, and they do indeed have to work all the time to stay above water.  Us whities, we float.

It's a fact.  You can look it up.

When Simone Manuel won a gold medal in the 100 meter free in Rio, she became the first African American to win an individual gold medal in swimming.  There have been other great black swimmers but they're few and far between.

But it doesn't mean they don't sink!

What about fat black people? Do they float better than fat white people
Give me a fucking break.

Titanic.

After the ship went down, there were survivors in life vests and clinging to debris. Everyone else disappeared in the direction of the ship.

And when Rose let go of Jack's hand to blow her whistle, he sank straight down.

richard09 wrote:

And another thing that's so fake on TV: coffee. On numerous shows, especially cop/detective shows like Elementary or Castle, one of the characters shows up in the morning with a couple of big Starbucks-look-alike coffee cups and gives one to his/her partner. Then they have some plot-significant discussion while sipping their coffee - except the cups are empty, and it is obvious. Somewhere there is an acting teacher telling these people that faking a drink of coffee is easy. The only problem is, it isn't. How you hold and move an empty cup is noticeably different from how you hold and move a full cup.

What really pisses me off is that the solution is so easy. Put something in the cup. It doesn't have to be hot coffee. Some water would do the trick. Then the actor will hold the cup and move it as though it has liquid in it, has some weight. Why do people have to be such smart-asses?

I remember reading about some show -- Tonight Show with Johnny Carson or the Dean Martin Show -- where they replaced his coffee mug full of water with some kind of booze. The star sprayed it halfway across the stage.

The best prank was pulled on Soupy Sales. This was live TV, but they were careful not to broadcast what was behind the door. Soupy expected to pretend there was a stripper there. He was left completely speechless.

Soupy Sales Stripper

I haven't got a rant of my own, so here's a classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVlkxrNlp10&feature=em-subs_digest-vrecs

Gawd George was spot-on wasn't he. I miss him.

Tonight’s rant is against Debbie Wasserman-Schutz and the whole Democratic National Committee.

I just watched a special edition of All In With Chris Hayes, where he had a town hall in Flint with Michael Moore.  He spoke with several voters who voted the entire ballot in 2016 — except for president.  More than 87,000 Michigan voters did this — way more than Trump’s margin of victory.  Nationwide the total must have been in the tens of millions (I personally know two people who could not bring themselves to vote for any candidate for president.  I myself had to hold my nose to vote for Hillary against Trump.). In Michigan more voters voted in the Democratic primary than voted in the general election — the reverse of usual.

When Bernie Sanders was denied the nomination by Debbie Wasserman-Schulz and the DNC, many many many Dems got turned off by the whole process.  Sanders was the clear best chance against Trump. I said so at the time, it’s still true.

Trump did not win because people voted for him.  He won because so many Democrats couldn’t stomach voting for Hillary, and withheld their vote.

Wasserman-Schulz should be acknowledged as electing Trump, and be vilified for it.

UPC stickers on fruit.

Quite often they're impossible to remove without damaging the fruit, more than once I've almost eaten them, they can't be very sanitary.

How about painting the number & barcode with some kind of edible dye?

New rant: Television commercials.

There are about three major offenders that bug the shit outta me.

1. Prescription drugs. Why in the hell are the pharmas allowed to advertise direct to the public prescription drugs that only a doctor can prescribe, and only a doctor should determine if you need? Oh, I know why -- it reduces their tax burden -- but it isn't right. Most of these drugs are SO SPECIALIZED, for specific disorders only, and have so many exclusions and counter-indications and so many health warnings that getting the public all riled up about some new wonder drug is very very dangerous.

2. Warranties. CarShield has tons of money for 2-minute ads during prime time, as does the company offering to cover your home appliances. Insurance always has tons of exclusions, and I'm positive these shysters are as crooked as a bent nail. I imagine in a few years the lawsuits will put them out of business, but for now it just pisses me off seeing them scam unsophisticated people.

3. Repetitive ads. Sometimes I see the same ad 3 or 4 times during a show. Sometimes one will play twice in a row! Some of these ads are years old. Don't advertisers realize ads have a diminishing rate of return? Play them too often, or too long, or make them too boring and they have the opposite effect than desired. If you're going to spend millions of dollars to buy airtime, why not spend a couple hundred thou making them entertaining and memorable? Ad agencies could use the work. It would pay for itself.

Oh right. tax burden, I forgot.