So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[2jakes]

There’s something about those red lips & the “RBF” look
which reminds me of a bartender on this forum.

 

[Hercule]

Roundabouts, or rotaries or traffic circles or whatever they are called in any particular locale, took me about no time at all to adjust to. I prefer them to signals and all-way stops mostly because if there is no good reason to stop, you don't stop.

But you gotta have the space for them. In the newly developed areas around greater Seattle roundabouts are now the norm.

I personally never had any problems with rotaries, after all, you can just keep going around until you get into the position you want in order to exit. But I can see how they could give some people fits, especially in heavy traffic with other aggressive drivers. Speaking of which, I find it most annoying increasing tendency to not give the slightest way, and ruthlessly so. The motto seems to be
"anywhere but in front of me." I can't tell you how many times I've gone for miles in traffic with my right turn signal on with someone in my blindspot, only to miss my exit because the other drive refused to let me pass through. It seems that anymore, getting from one place to another is always a series of near misses.

 

[tonyb]

I personally never had any problems with rotaries, after all, you can just keep going around until you get into the position you want in order to exit. But I can see how they could give some people fits, especially in heavy traffic with other aggressive drivers. Speaking of which, I find it most annoying increasing tendency to not give the slightest way, and ruthlessly so. The motto seems to be
"anywhere but in front of me." I can't tell you how many times I've gone for miles in traffic with my right turn signal on with someone in my blindspot, only to miss my exit because the other drive refused to let me pass through. It seems that anymore, getting from one place to another is always a series of near misses.

Yeah, I'm on the same page. Too many people regard driving on the public roadways as a competitive activity. Such characters are annoying at best. But I resist getting caught up in their ways. "Go on ahead, Parnelli," I might mutter. "I can only imagine what insurance costs someone who drives like you. And I can only imagine how inadequate you must feel if being at the head of these few cars here is worth the risks you take to 'achieve' it."

 

[Zombie_61]

The king of RBF.

I have a DVD copy of Keaton's movie The General (1926) that has been "speed corrected" to account for the change in frame rates over the years, and it turns out "The Great Stone Face" wasn't so stone-faced after all. His expressions are subtle and nuanced, to be sure, but it's almost like watching an alternate version of the movie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The idea that all silent films were shown at "silent speed" is one of the great misconceptions of projection. Up until the mid-twenties, films were meant to be shot and projected at different rates. Projectors were controlled by either a hand crank (in the early years) or by a rheostat-controlled electric motor (after WW1), and each film would have a frame on the leader specifying the projection speed, expressed in minutes per reel, which was nearly always *faster* than the speed at which they were shot. A film shot at 20 frames per second might be intended to be shown at 22 frames per second, one shot at 22 might be intended to be shown at 24, and so on. Some films, usually comedies or action pictures, were meant to be shown at speeds *faster* than the current standard of 24fps.

It wasn't until motorized cameras came into vogue in the mid-twenties that 24fps became the standard for both photography and projection, and this speed was further locked into place by the arrival of sound.

Our film projectors are equipped with controls allowing us to show the most popular film speeds, from 16 to 25fps. We've shown several Harold Lloyd pictures on film, which seem to have been shot at 22 fps, but the instructions stress that they're to be shown at 24.

I should add that "The General" was shot at 24fps -- and was intended to be shown at 24fps, the same standard speed as any modern film. Showing it at so-called "Silent Speed" turns it into an excruciating race thru a pot of molasses.

 

[Hercule]

Most recent annoyance: Windsor collars. Stupidest looking things ever to come down the pike, and difficult to get a tie to work with, especially in kids shirts. And yes, I tried the prescribed knots.

 

[Edward]

Queues. I want to scream when folks can't queue like civilised people. Two recent examples in the supermarket...

One, the woman who put her young kid in the queue at the til, then rushed round with her trolley, and pushed it into the queue where the kid was. Two - and this much worse - the woman who piled her shopping on its own in the queue, then went around and got the bits she needed, leaving them in the queue a bit at a time, then pushing her way in when she'd finished and claiming (obviously genuinely believing this was acceptable) that she was in the queue, bedcause her stuff had been there. When I rule the world, people like that will be put in the public stocks.

Another one I may have mentioned before: announcements on planes. Seriously. I accept that (even though they are utterly, utterly pointless: that bird goes down, we're all dead, and there's not a damn thing the brace position will do save preserve our teeth so they can use dental records to ID the bodies) insurance laws mandate we sit through those ridiculous safety demos, but beyond that.... I neither need to know nor care what the staff are called, who is flying, what height we'll be at, what the weather is like, time at destination.... and most of that is available on the entertainment system anyhow even if I did. I know there's turbulence: the plane went bumpy, and the seatbelt light is on. I don't need you to tell me that, Captain Obvious. The final indignity is when they confiscate the headphones forty minutes before landing..... and you miss the last five minutes of the film because of their utterly pointless and inane announcements. I've never been so furious as when that happened all so they could make some fuss about one of the Olympic teams being on the plane.

Seriously, if I could pay twenty quid extra to opt out of all that pointless chatter, I'd do it.... I'm often tempted to mail their customer services department and complain about the amount of my time they waste. That and not switching on the entertainment system fast enough / switching it off too damn soon. ARRGHHHHH!

Sunday morning is the time here. It's the consumption-society version of church.

Northern Ireland having been slower than elsewhere to relax Sunday trading laws, I only saw this for the first tiem when I moved to London. I wasn't raised strict Sabbatarian, but I still find it bizarre all these years later.

I personally never had any problems with rotaries, after all, you can just keep going around until you get into the position you want in order to exit.

"Look, kids: Big Ben!"

Most recent annoyance: Windsor collars. Stupidest looking things ever to come down the pike, and difficult to get a tie to work with, especially in kids shirts. And yes, I tried the prescribed knots.

Presumably they're intended to flatter the modern form of tie, which can only be prevented from dangling past one's crotchby tying a knot the size of one's own head...

 

[GHT]

Presumably they're intended to flatter the modern form of tie, which can only be prevented from dangling past one's crotchby tying a knot the size of one's own head...

You've seen a tie? Did you photograph it? News readers, politicians, journalists et al, all with an open neck shirt, and not even a decent shirt, rather all crumpled, lifeless and without collar stiffeners.

 

[Edward]

You've seen a tie? Did you photograph it? News readers, politicians, journalists et al, all with an open neck shirt, and not even a decent shirt, rather all crumpled, lifeless and without collar stiffeners.

Ha, I think it was a photograph of a soccer player getting married.

 

[Hercule]

.... I've never been so furious as when that happened all so they could make some fuss about one of the Olympic teams being on the plane.

...

Reminds me of the time I went to get a haircut. I had just gotten in the chair when the barber excitedly told me that so and so (who was the head coach of the Browns football team*) had been in earlier for a hair cut. My response was who the hell is he and why should I care. Needless to say, from that point on I enjoyed a nice and quite haircut.

(*I know I now, save the jokes, I couldn't care less)

 

[tonyb]

Reminds me of the time I went to get a haircut. I had just gotten in the chair when the barber excitedly told me that so and so (who was the head coach of the Browns football team*) had been in earlier for a hair cut. My response was who the hell is he and why should I care. Needless to say, from that point on I enjoyed a nice and quite haircut.

(*I know I now, save the jokes, I couldn't care less)

I suspect you feel much as I do about grown people idolizing professional athletes and the like.

I enjoy a good athletic contest. I can have a good time at an automobile race. And I might find it noteworthy to have encountered a celebrity sportsman whilst going about my daily business.

But I'm reminded of the parents of a quite bright and precocious 9-year-old of my acquaintance. It seems that this young man had grown impatient with all the hoopla surrounding the local NFL squad's onfield success. His classmates were encouraged by their teachers to wear the team colors for a school-wide assembly the following day.

"This is all so stupid," the kid told his mother. Mom agreed, but wisely added that it might be best to keep that sentiment to himself.

I lived in greater Seattle during the Seahawks' championship season, and in greater Denver when the Broncos won it all. So I feel the young man's pain. And I typically heed his mother's advice. For doing otherwise might well antagonize the yahoos, to no good end.

 

[GHT]

I lived in greater Seattle during the Seahawks' championship season, and in greater Denver when the Broncos won it all. So I feel the young man's pain. And I typically heed his mother's advice. For doing otherwise might well antagonize the yahoos, to no good end.

Team sports can be very tribal.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I long ago realized that we root, not for individual athletes, but for shirts. That's completely irrational, but most religion is.

GO TEAM!

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

In ancient Rome, everyone belonged to one of the chariot racing factions: the Reds, Whites, Blues or Greens, identified by the colors of the charioteer's tunics. One philosopher noted that in the middle of a race, if all the drivers swapped tunics, the crowd's loyalties would go with the tunics, not with the men or horses. Some things never change.

 

[ND1SU]

I long ago realized that we root, not for individual athletes, but for shirts.

Wasn't it Jerry Seinfeld who noted that we "cheered for laundry"?

 

[Edward]

Team sports can be very tribal.

I on't mind tribalism so much - it's morons with whom I have a hard time.

 

[GHT]

I on't mind tribalism so much - it's morons with whom I have a hard time.

Indeed. who doesn't. My wife and I were at a L/Irish: Northampton Saints rugby match at Franklin's Gardens. We were there in our Saints colours, giving the L/Irish fans a lot of stick. They in turn reciprocated the banter. At the end of the game, we all stood up, applauded the players, turned and shook hands with each other and repaired to the bar. When we recount that to our football friends they are amazed that: We have stands, we are allowed alcohol on the terraces and all the fans mingle together. All the rough stuff is on the field.

 

[Fading Fast]

Values and emotions don't always align. I passionately loved some sports teams growing up - the NY Giants and the NY Yankees were at the top of the list. The players were mainly drafted / homegrown; played for the same team for most of their career and "felt" to the fans like Giants or Yankees. Contract disputes, trades, etc. were rare.

Then something I also passionately believe in as a value - free agency for players gained traction. I couldn't be happier that players are now capturing much more of the revenue in these sports. That's great, but it also lead to all the salary disputes, trades, contract negotiations and players moving teams that we've become used to these last several decades. And while all those things help the players and I fully support them, they caused my enjoyment of sports and my loyalty to the teams to fall dramatically.

Yes, I still pay attention to the teams I "like," but with much less passion and enthusiasm. They turn over so frequently and the players rarely seem to care much about the team they are playing for in any big picture, that I slowly lost my passion as I realized the team was nothing more than colors and owners (some of whom are great / many of whom are horrible). When that slowly hit - it took years - I just found I found I didn't care as much.

For example, it was great watching the NY Jets have a competitive season led, in part, by the enthusiasm and above-his-past-performance-expectation play of Ryan Fitzpatrick. But, since the last game of the season in December, the Jets haven't resigned him and both the Jets and Fitzpatrick are engaged in a chess match with each side simply trying to get the advantage in the negotiations.

That's fine - I support it rationally, but it makes me care so much less about the Jets and Fitzpatrick. Last season, the team and Fitzpatrick felt fresh and aligned - now they are just business entities jockeying for advantage. Good for them, but the passion I had for last season's serendipity is over. Sigh - values and emotions don't always align.

 

[Edward]

We've come a very long way since Major Cyril James Hastings Tolley MC sued Fry & Sons Chocolates for implying in an advertisement that he had taken money to promote their product. He sued them in libel - and won. (1931) Tolley was a champion golfer; Frys had taken a photo of him with a bar of their chocolate sticking out of his pocket, and used it in an advertisement. The court found that this had the 'natural and ordinary meaning' that he had taken money in exchange for endorsing the product - something which the average, upstanding 'man on the Clapham omnibus' in 1931 woul have found to be distasteful, and would have lowered Tolley in his opinion.

Fast-forward to 2005, and Formuls One driver Eddie Irvine successfully sued Talksport Radio in similar circumstances - this time, however, not for libel, but for 'false endorsement' - i.e. using his image to imply endorsement, but without paying him for the privilege....

 

[Stearmen]

When Lizzie becomes Emperor Of the Universe, I want her to pass a decree, that any one who predicts on TV, radio, or in print, the end of the world or the next Great Depression, should be banned from ever making another prediction after the designated date for the calamity passes!