So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Artifex]

Regarding metric, imperial (and my favourite: The furlong-firkin-fortnight system), I'd make an entirely different complaint.

Metric (and SI) is wonderful because so many conversion factors turn out to be trivial. A full agricultural water carrier shaped like a one-metre cube will hold one thousand litres and have a mass of one tonne. It will weigh ten kilonewtons and exert a pressure of ten kilopascals on whatever is supporting it. If you hang it from a hook, it will swing back and forth once per second. If you drop it, it will accelerate at ten metres-per-second². All that is lovely.

However, I like the lengths of inches and feet. Using metric lengths to describe things always seems to end up with either too great a precision, or too little. If every length in the metric system were two-and-a-half times bigger, it would be much friendlier. Of course, it would be even better if the entire world changed over to counting in base twelve at the same time. Perhaps I should write a letter to the ICWM, and ask them to change it...

 

[Touchofevil]

The WE (Women’s Entertainment) Channel’s programming of trash reality lineup. Sure, they have Law & Order, but from the commercials they run, it appears that they believe that women would rather watch reality shows dealing with dysfunctional relationships over anything else. Stupid.

 

[Fading Fast]

The WE (Women’s Entertainment) Channel’s programming of trash reality lineup. Sure, they have Law & Order, but from the commercials they run, it appears that they believe that women would rather watch reality shows dealing with dysfunctional relationships over anything else. Stupid.

If we are complaining about cable channels, Ovation has some really good movies, but it is impossible to watch them without recording them first as the commercials run for several minutes at a time and increase in number as the movie moves along. I respect that some channels make their living with commercials, but the model of putting five or six minutes of commercials after every fifteen or so minute so movies is so off-putting that it forces viewers to the DVR.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The old-chestnut sitcom reruns you get on MeTV, Antenna TV, and other de-facto old-people channels these days are generally cut down to about seventeen minutes of program content per half hour -- from an original program run time of about 23-24 minutes depending on the era of the series. That plays havoc with any show that has any kind of complex plot, let alone what it does to comic timing. It's also disqueting to jump in on a show you've seen eight thousand times before over the past fifty years and know what's coming next -- only it doesn't come next, it dissolves quick to a scene that you know comes later.

No wonder the commercials you see on these channels are all for confused-old-person stuff -- especially that one Big Pharma thing that's selling a drug designed to stop dementia-driven hallucinations. "I could *swear* Sgt. Schultz ate strudel in this scene -- but he's not even *in* the scene! I better call the doc, and get me some of them pills!"

Another big sponsor on these channels in our area is a local discount furniture joint, "The Furniture Superstore! The Furniture Superstore!" This outfit is the ultima thule of crass-and-tacky marketing. When I turned on the TV one night and saw these two fat white guys bellowing about their "Martin Luther King Mattress Special" without the slightest sense of inappropriateness, I realized we were well within sight of rock bottom.

 

[Touchofevil]

I find it really annoying how the commercial interruptions become longer as we get closer to the ending of the show. Amazon, Netflix, HBO, and Hulu have spoiled us.

 

[HudsonHawk]

There are two kinds of countries in the world...them that use the metric system and them that have put a man on the moon.

 

[GHT]

There are two kinds of countries in the world...them that use the metric system and them that have put a man on the moon.

Inch by inch.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

There are two kinds of countries in the world...them that use the metric system and them that have put a man on the moon.

Or did they ? ...........

 

[Fading Fast]

And for a variation on the theme, has anyone else noticed that different cable channels seem to be aligned as to when they run commercials so that you can't even hop around during the commercials to catch bits of other shows. Not that I watch any of these shows, but "a friend" tells me he watches repeats of "That '70s Show" and during the insane number of commercial breaks in that show, if he goes to "Cold Case" or "Family Guy" or similar shows on similar channels they are all running commercials at the exact same time. It can't be a coincidence.

 

[3fingers]

Or did they ? ...........

Careful. Buzz is still out there.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And then there was the Mars Climate Orbiter, a $327 million dollar NASA probe lost in space in 1998 because one of its software contractors used imperial units instead of metric.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

And for a variation on the theme, has anyone else noticed that different cable channels seem to be aligned as to when they run commercials so that you can't even hop around during the commercials to catch bits of other shows. Not that I watch any of these shows, but "a friend" tells me he watches repeats of "That '70s Show" and during the insane number of commercial breaks in that show, if he goes to "Cold Case" or "Family Guy" or similar shows on similar channels they are all running commercials at the exact same time. It can't be a coincidence.

They're all in cahoots to prevent zapping.

 

[tonyb]

“Awesome.”

It’s yet another losing battle, but I’m confident I won’t live long enough not to be annoyed by “awesome” used to characterize any minimally successful human effort.

 

[ChrisB]

“Awesome.”

It’s yet another losing battle, but I’m confident I won’t live long enough not to be annoyed by “awesome” used to characterize any minimally successful human effort.

Substitute awful for awesome and it will come closer to the truth.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Especially when it pushes aside such noble, dignified, culturally-traditional superlatives as "wicked pissah!"

 

[3fingers]

Awesome

As annoying as that one is I find "sick" to be worse. It has thankfully faded from daily use by certain groups of mostly adolescent males, but I still hear it occasionally.

 

[3fingers]

"wicked pissah!"

Not being from your part of the world, that was not one heard here. However I must say the first time I heard it while traveling I immediately grasped what the meaning was.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

“Awesome.”

It’s yet another losing battle, but I’m confident I won’t live long enough not to be annoyed by “awesome” used to characterize any minimally successful human effort.

You too!? How about the new "umm..", "like"?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The old-chestnut sitcom reruns you get on MeTV, Antenna TV, and other de-facto old-people channels these days are generally cut down to about seventeen minutes of program content per half hour -- from an original program run time of about 23-24 minutes depending on the era of the series. That plays havoc with any show that has any kind of complex plot, let alone what it does to comic timing. It's also disqueting to jump in on a show you've seen eight thousand times before over the past fifty years and know what's coming next -- only it doesn't come next, it dissolves quick to a scene that you know comes later.

No wonder the commercials you see on these channels are all for confused-old-person stuff -- especially that one Big Pharma thing that's selling a drug designed to stop dementia-driven hallucinations. "I could *swear* Sgt. Schultz ate strudel in this scene -- but he's not even *in* the scene! I better call the doc, and get me some of them pills!"

You just described me & M*A*S*H to a T.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I can't get over that fact that Measles is making a comeback, among other diseases.