So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[tonyb]

^^^^
Saw one yesterday — a bumper sticker announcing the inexperience of the driver and imploring me to be patient.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Or to put it other terms, we're the batteries that power the inhuman construct that enslaves us all, while lulling us into thinking we're free. I think somebody made a movie about that -- and then released a ton of ancillary merch. BUY BUY BUY.

I think it was Easy Rider.

 

[GHT]

^^^^
Saw one yesterday — a bumper sticker announcing the inexperience of the driver and imploring me to be patient.

 

[MisterCairo]

^^^

And of course, if it were not for those "baby on board" stickers or suction cup diamond shaped signs, I'd be running those cars off the road...

 

[The Jackal]

^^^

And of course, if it were not for those "baby on board" stickers or suction cup diamond shaped signs, I'd be running those cars off the road...

I've a long held belief that signs exist because someone, somewhere, proved the need for it.
When working at a local donut stand in high school, I noted the warning label on the vegetable shortening container stating that you shouldn't put your hands in hot grease. Curious, I researched and found that someone had actually done it prior to the labels being added.

As for the "baby on board" stickers, people are less likely to instigate a physical confrontation if they think there are children at risk. In the event that a road rage incident were to occur, the sticker could actually deter that enraged driver.

Or, as I expect it typically is, it could just be a decorative choice that has nothing to do with their driving nor yours.

 

[Hercule]

Went to the orchestra on Saturday. A nice program of a relatively obscure Mussorgski prelude, a Prokofiev piano concerto and Tchaikovski's 4th Symphony (which was obscenely loud, but to be fair there was a time when I would have loved it that way, but I digress). The annoying part, sad actually, was the piano soloist - Conrad Tao. A young guy, full of energy and very hip. So hip in fact that he forgot to wear shoes. Yep, played the concert barefoot. Seriously?!! Kind of obnoxious if you ask me. I have no patience for performers who prefer to draw attention away from the music itself or the artistry of the performance and focus it on themselves with some stupid affectation. But the sad part, and it really is sad (for him that is), is that come Monday morning what are people talking about? Yep you guessed it. NOT his performance but that he performed barefoot.

 

[Bushman]

I got two tickets today... There was an intersection with cops at it, so I slowed and went through the green light. Next thing I know I've got a cop on my tail. He tried getting me on "failure to yield" even though the intersection was not blocked and his partner seemed to admit I did in fact slow to a safe speed. So he got me on squeaky tires (my tires squeak on wet pavement and it had been raining) and obstructed windshield because I had an air freshener dangling from my rearview mirror.

This guy is making me go to court over an air freshener and squeaky tires. Argh! He must've been having a really crap day and was taking it out on me, because he dilly dallied for 45 minutes and only actually came up to give me the tickets when it started raining and his partner was standing in the rain. I'm assuming the judge will dismiss the tickets just for being a waste of time. This isn't the first time in recent memory that the county courts have had to chew out the sheriff's department for writing frivolous tickets. The cops around here a known to do that. It's a relatively quiet, semi-rural town so the cops don't get to do a lot and they end up calling out half the county for something as small as a missed stop sign.

My favorite part of the entire encounter was when I didn't give him his pen back right away, and he said "You gonna steal my pen, too?"

 

[LizzieMaine]

You can take a meathead and give him a badge, and you'll just have a meathead with a badge.

 

[Bushman]

And this guy was definitely one of those meathead types. Military haircut, wearing shades on an overcast day, impatient, etc. He looked like he expected a war to break out any second.

 

[tonyb]

Got just the opposite problem around here.

This district is something of a destination for street racers from around the region. And speeding, whether in competition with others or not, is a popular pastime. We got the traffic fatalities to show for it. Half a dozen people have succumbed to injuries sustained in traffic mishaps within a mile or two of here over the past couple years.

Just a couple-three days ago a driver in an oncoming car flashed its headlights to alert me to a motorcycle cop with a radar gun a quarter mile or so up the road. I was happy for the warning, and happy to see some traffic code enforcement for a change.

 

[Bamaboots]

Everybody has a cop story.

 

[ChiTownScion]

And this guy was definitely one of those meathead types. Military haircut, wearing shades on an overcast day, impatient, etc. He looked like he expected a war to break out any second.

Likely was shoved into one too many lockers in seventh grade.

 

[The Jackal]

Military haircut, wearing shades on an overcast day, impatient, etc.

In all fairness, I prefer a military haircut. Having had my hair that short for so many years, anything longer feels awkward on my head.

And I often wear sunglasses on an overcast day. The light bothers my eyes more than on a sunny day.

I guess I'm just some dumb meathead too.

 

[Bamaboots]

Likely was shoved into one too many lockers in seventh grade.

Spoken like a public defender.

 

[Bamaboots]

And I often wear sunglasses on an overcast day.

If they're polarized it helps even more.

 

[Bushman]

In all fairness, I prefer a military haircut. Having had my hair that short for so many years, anything longer feels awkward on my head.

And I often wear sunglasses on an overcast day. The light bothers my eyes more than on a sunny day.

I guess I'm just some dumb meathead too.

But are you a jumpy fellow ready to fight a war at any second? It wasn't just the way the guy looked, it was his whole demeanor. He was clearly trying to be intimidating, and just came across as cartoonish.

 

[Hercule]

He was clearly trying to be intimidating, and just came across as cartoonish.

Sounds like a TSA guy we encountered a while back.

Cops can be scary people, and sadly many of them lack mental maturity and shouldn't be cops in the first place. My wife went to a baby shower where the mom to be had married into a family with many cops. Good god the stories my wife said she heard - purposely baiting people so they could issue a ticket, unnecessarily roughing people up. A particularly pathetic one was about issuing a ticket after a stopped person said the cop had girly handwriting on the written warning that was initially issued.

 

[Zombie_61]

But are you a jumpy fellow ready to fight a war at any second? It wasn't just the way the guy looked, it was his whole demeanor. He was clearly trying to be intimidating, and just came across as cartoonish.

That would be the officer in one of my "cop" stories. He pulled me over after I (and two friends) left a bar just outside of downtown Los Angeles, approached my car with so much attitude that you could feel it, got immediately angrier when it was obvious I hadn't been drinking, and got increasingly angrier during the 45 minute bumper-to-bumper equipment check when he couldn't find anything wrong with, or illegal on, my car except the thing he used as an excuse to pull me over in the first place--the rear license plate light wasn't working. Throughout the entire encounter he kept saying and asking things that were clearly intended to provoke me, but I'm not as dumb as I look so I "killed him with kindness" by answering all of his questions and following all of his instructions. This, of course, just made him angrier, but there was nothing he could do about it. And the cherry on that sundae was the knowledge that he could only issue me a "fix it" ticket for an inoperable license plate light.

 

[Bushman]

Throughout the entire encounter he kept saying and asking things that were clearly intended to provoke me, but I'm not as dumb as I look so I "killed him with kindness" by answering all of his questions and following all of his instructions. This, of course, just made him angrier, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Sounds like my guy to a T. All I did was smile, and be courteous, calm, and answer his questions, and all that seemed to do was make him angrier. He seemed like he wanted a fight, and couldn't believe that I wouldn't give him one.

 

[Nobert]

Likely was shoved into one too many lockers in seventh grade.

In my experience, guys like that are usually the shovers rather than the shovees.