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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

The seller may have been in Kentucky and been an American. MUCH stuff on eBay is drop-shipped directly from China. It is what it is.

Not when your look at you PayPal payment and the sellers name is in Chinese characters.  Everything I bought this month was supposed to be "U.S. Stock".  When I look at my PayPal transactions, the majority turned out to be Chinese.

edit: Also, I've probably averaged 5 to 10 eBay purchases per month for the last 15 yrs.  It was NEVER like this.  This seems to be a product of the pandemic and the hit the Chinese market has taken.

Edited by Bookmem
  • Agree 1
V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

Ah... I see what you're saying.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Govt BS has got to be on everyone's list of pet peaves.  Our gov just told us that people over 70, which I exceed by a decade, are eligible for this round of Covid vaccines.  What he neglected to tell us was that it would only be available from 107 pharmacies to cover the entire state and that there are only 20,000 doses available for the 640,000 people that are eligible.  Naturally those poor pharmacies have been inundated with calls from people trying to sign up for appointments.  Apparently a lot of people have given up on trying to make appointments and are just showing up in person,  which does them no good.

 

At 81 yrs old, and with breathing problems, I'm in the very high risk category.  So, to have my hopes raised about getting the vaccination, only to have them dashed, goes beyond frustratiing.

 

edit: I live in a ten story apt bldg for the elderly and just got a letter stating that the management has made arrangements for bringing someone here to vaccinate us.  Didn't say when, but not having to fight for a pharmacy appointment, is an improvement.

Edited by Bookmem
  • Sad 2
V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

To be blunt in my response... that SUCKS! :(

  • Agree 2
Posted (edited)

Got another one.  Places that claim "free delivery" but charge a "service fee".  If it cost more than it would if you picked it up, then it's a "delivery fee".  Painting "BEAR" on the side of a donkey, doesn't make it a bear.

Edited by Bookmem
Posted
3 hours ago, Bookmem said:

Got another one.  Places that claim "free delivery" but charge a "service fee".  If it cost more than it would if you picked it up, then it's a "delivery fee".  Painting "BEAR" on the side of a donkey, doesn't make it a bear.

 

That doesn't drive me nuts as it happens everywhere so is just accepted and factored in to purchasing decisions.

I bought a bed several years ago which was listed at $699 with free delivery. I asked if I could have it for $650 without free delivery and they instantly agreed! 😀

  • +1 1
V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

And...

 

So...

 

Or...

 

But..

 

... people who start sentences with conjunctions or that darn word "so". I HATE listening to news talking heads these days because they all start their comment with... So, bla-bla-bla.

 

 

Posted
2 hours ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

And...

 

So...

 

Or...

 

But..

 

... people who start sentences with conjunctions or that darn word "so". I HATE listening to news talking heads these days because they all start their comment with... So, bla-bla-bla.

 

 

'So' is so much easier to type than 'therefore'.😁

  • Haha 1
Posted
14 hours ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

And...

 

So...

 

Or...

 

But..

 

... people who start sentences with conjunctions or that darn word "so". I HATE listening to news talking heads these days because they all start their comment with... So, bla-bla-bla.

 

 

 

So that is why you don't read my posts. But maybe you do. Or it is possible I am wrong on both accounts. 😱

  • +1 1
V.T. Eric Layton
Posted
6 hours ago, abarbarian said:

...read my posts.

 

What posts?

  • Haha 1
  • 7 months later...
Posted

Another pet peeve of mine is the current acceptance of misusing words such as saying floundering when the proper word is foundering.  To founder means to break down, while flounder is just a type of fish.  Another is using the word celibate when indicating that someone has refrained from sex.  The proper word is chaste.  That is why nuns take a vow of chastity while priest take one of celibacy.  Priest aren't vowing to refrain from sex, but merely from marriage.

  • +1 1
Posted
3 hours ago, Bookmem said:

Another pet peeve of mine is the current acceptance of misusing words such as saying floundering when the proper word is foundering.  To founder means to break down, while flounder is just a type of fish.

"Flounder" can be a verb as well:

flounder

to struggle clumsily: He floundered helplessly on the first day of his new job.; falter; waver; flop about; a marine flatfish
Not to be confused with:
founder – to fall or sink down; to become wrecked; to stumble; collapse; succumb: The project foundered because public support was lacking.
Posted
18 hours ago, sunrat said:

"Flounder" can be a verb as well:

flounder

to struggle clumsily: He floundered helplessly on the first day of his new job.; falter; waver; flop about; a marine flatfish
Not to be confused with:
founder – to fall or sink down; to become wrecked; to stumble; collapse; succumb: The project foundered because public support was lacking.

Yes, but a lot of people DO confuse the two and say flounder when they mean founder.

Posted
5 hours ago, Bookmem said:

Yes, but a lot of people DO confuse the two and say flounder when they mean founder.

Maybe the same people confuse these two words because of the unique US concept of a silent "L". I always wince a little hearing an American pronounce "solder", it is not a silent "L" anywhere in the world but the US.

  • 6 months later...
Posted (edited)

In the U.S., you can no longer buy a decent hamburger.  I have been eating medium rare hamburgers for over 75 years and have NEVER gotten sick from one.  Now the govt says that hamburgers must be cooked well done to kill all bacteria.  I'd just as soon eat shoe leather as I would beef cooked to 165%.  On top of that, it doesn't make sense.  To cook a hamburger to an internal temp of 165, you have to char the outside, which produces cancer causing toxins.  STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!!!!

Edited by Bookmem
V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

Food is not what it once was... nor as cheaply purchased, either. :(

Posted
1 hour ago, V.T. Eric Layton said:

Food is not what it once was... nor as cheaply purchased, either. :(

 

Climate change, fuel prices, war, megacorporations taking over food supply have all contributed to the demise of good food. Mass agriculture practices have caused food to look nice and last previously inconceivable times in storage and transport but have led to pretty food with diminishing nutrients and taste. The only good apples I have tasted for years have been from farmers' markets and that goes for much supermarket food. It totally drives me nuts.

 

Another thing that would drive me nuts is a steering wheel in my underpants. 😁

Posted (edited)
10 hours ago, sunrat said:

Another thing that would drive me nuts is a steering wheel in my underpants. 😁

 

 

Barb wire would be worse 😂

Edited by abarbarian
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

the 9/10's at the gas pump, xxx.99 on items that cost more than a couple of dollars.

 

  • Agree 2
  • +1 1
V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

Yes. that gas pricing scam has been going on for ever and ever. It's similar in retail. Everyone views $3.99 as much better than $4.00. I remember when I was a kid and Kmart started pricing everything as $3.97 instead of .99. It was a thought out plan to compete with their competition. It's a psychological trick. Marketing dip-snits created this over 100 years ago. It works. They stick with what works.

 

Have you ever tried asking for your 1/10th change at a gas station. The looks of dumbfounded dismay are classic.

 

 

.

  • Haha 1
  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Mauser
Posted

My PetPeeves is I am not allowed to say what I want while it's O.K. for others to say what they want and to lie on top of it. Nothing ever happens to them but I right away get discriminated against for what I said.

V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

> My PetPeeves is I am not allowed to say what I want while it's O.K. for others to say what they want and to lie on top of it. Nothing ever happens to them but I right away get discriminated against for what I said.

 

If you're referring to your experiences at Scot's with this statement, just say so. I'd like to know the story behind it.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Political Corectness

 

Political correctness (adjectivally: politically correct; commonly abbreviated PC) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society.

 

PC drives me nuts. here are some examples of this latest madness.

 

Biff and Chip: Publishers pull 'no longer appropriate' book

 

Quote

In the book, published in 2001, Biff and Wilf are transported by magic to a "scary" town.

Beneath an illustration of a busy marketplace full of people wearing turbans and a niqab - a type of Islamic veil - Biff says: "Let's stay together... The people don't seem very friendly."

OUP said that sentence had been amended in 2012 to read: "It would be easy to lose each other in such a crowded place."

But an image of the original version of that page has picked up traction on social media during the past few weeks.

Some have described it as "inappropriate", while others said it was an example of Islamophobia.

 

Quote

Written by Roderick Hunt and illustrated by Alex Brychta, the Biff, Chip and Kipper books have been read by millions of children around the world.

The first books were published in 1986 and there are now more than 800 titles.

 

Captain Underpants: Children's book withdrawn over 'passive racism'

 

Quote

It also comes as some children's books and characters are being reassessed. In early March, the company that preserves the legacy of author Dr Seuss said six of his books would no longer be published because of racially insensitive imagery.

 

Quote

The Captain Underpants series includes 12 novels and numerous spin-offs. They are hugely popular with young readers, with more than 80 million copies sold around the world, but are often among the American Library Association's most complained-about books because of their violent imagery.

 

Why is Captain Underpants the most complained about book?

 

Quote

Every year the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of the top 10 most frequently "challenged" books. All these titles have been the subject of a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that they be removed. Sexual explicitness was the most common category of complaint levelled at books between 1990 and 2009. Indeed, Fifty Shades of Grey appears in the ALA list at number four. So it seems strange that a series aimed at seven-year-olds would top the complained about list for the second year in a row.

 

Quote

Parents complained that the books were unsuited to the age group and contained violence and offensive language. It must be noted that chapter 16 of the first book in the series is called the Extremely Graphic Violence Chapter. There's even a warning: "The following chapter contains graphic scenes showing two boys beating the tar out of a couple of robots."

 

 

Quote

The other thing that gets complained about is lack of respect for authority," says Jones. "Many people believe that children should not read books about defying authority."

 

Dr Seuss: Six books withdrawn over 'hurtful and wrong' imagery

 

Quote

Books by Dr Seuss - who was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in Massachusetts and died in 1991 - have been translated into numerous languages, as well as in braille, and are sold in more than 100 countries.

They've also been made into movies, including 2000's How The Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey and 2012's animated 3D film The Lorax.

 

Quote

Other popular children's books have been criticised in recent years for alleged racism.

Babar's Travels was removed from the shelves of libraries in East Sussex in the UK after complaints of racism from words used such as "savage cannibals".

Similar complaints have led to some of Herge's Tintin adventures being removed from libraries, or moved to the adult section.

And criticism over Laura Ingalls Wilder's portrayal of Native Americans in her Little House On the Prairie novels led to the removal of her name from a lifetime achievement award handed out annually by the American Library Association.

 

Quote

The decision prompted a backlash from some commentators, who said that ceasing the publications was an example of "cancel culture".

 

Quote

Conservative figures in the US complained that the decision to pull Dr Seuss titles exemplified political correctness gone wrong and blamed leftwingers.

 

Those PC madfolk are even planning to ban The Cat InThe Hat !!!!!!

 

Quote

The Cat In The Hat, one of Dr Seuss's most popular books, has also received criticism but will continue to be published for now.

 

mind you they should really get rid of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Hucklberry Finn and  Robinson Crueso and Betty Boop and Treasure Island ( bad representations of disabled folk) and Lord of the Flies (extreme violence by children) and I could go on and on and on.

 

🤔

Edited by abarbarian
Posted

Tolkien on the importance of fantasy and science fiction

 

"People sometimes look down on fantasy — not the prize-winning, metaphorical magical realism kind, but the kind of fantasy that has swords, sorcery, and dragons. It is generally accepted that children can enjoy made-up worlds, magical beasts, and dark lords. But, when we become adults, it seems we ought to turn to “proper” literature — mature, respectable, and written in ornate prose. It’s as if the books we read are a status symbol, and those who read serious books, about serious things, must be serious people. But this misses the point of what fantasy is about, and the totemic father of the genre, J.R.R. Tolkien, has a lot to say on the topic."

 

This is the best read I have had this year. 🤩

 

 

Posted

What is the problem with "Biff and Chip" that is inappropriate ? I don't see it.

 

 

abarbarian
Posted
9 hours ago, crp said:

What is the problem with "Biff and Chip" that is inappropriate ? I don't see it.

 

 

 

"In the book, published in 2001, Biff and Wilf are transported by magic to a "scary" town.

Beneath an illustration of a busy marketplace full of people wearing turbans and a niqab - a type of Islamic veil - Biff says: "Let's stay together... The people don't seem very friendly."

OUP said that sentence had been amended in 2012 to read: "It would be easy to lose each other in such a crowded place."

But an image of the original version of that page has picked up traction on social media during the past few weeks.

Some have described it as "inappropriate", while others said it was an example of Islamophobia."

 

So it looks like you can not portray children in any sort of scary place. As if they were in a wester location full of caucasians  wearing western clothes then it would be considered caucasianophobia. An of course those western folk would have to be smiling or it would not be considered appropriate. Same goes for Chinese or Japanese or Eskimo or native american or Mexican etc etc setting.

😎

  • 4 months later...
Posted

Just got flu and covid booster shots.  Shot time 30 sec.  Paperwork 30 min.

  • Like 1
Posted

I just got Covid for the first time. ( double vaxxed and boosted but didn't get the 3rd booster yet). You are doing better than me!

  • Sad 1
Posted
17 minutes ago, zlim said:

I just got Covid for the first time. ( double vaxxed and boosted but didn't get the 3rd booster yet). You are doing better than me!

 

Congratulations and welcome to the club! I had it in June. Had 2 vaxxes plus one booster. Was only really sick for a couple of days but it lingered improving for a week and residual lack of energy for a couple more weeks. I hate to imagine what it would have been like if unvaxed. The last flu I had 5 years ago was much worse. Sick for 4 weeks, and a bacterial respiratory infection to boot, almost pneumonia.

My local doctor runs a regular COVID vax clinic. Make an appointment, done in a few minutes then sit in the waiting room for 15 to ensure no immediate side effects. Done! Easy!

  • Like 1

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