So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[V.C. Brunswick]

I also shipped a package to Moscow recently which got there by way of Dubai.

 

[GHT]

When UPS bought into the UK market by acquiring a company called Carryfast, they made a softly softly approach to the parcels market. Later they bought the much larger Lynx company, Lynx was the former nationalised British Road Services Parcels company. UPS has taken a long time turning Lynx around, they have had their problems. In the meantime British tourist to the US have seen the number of UPS on their vans and trucks, 1-800-PICK-UPS, returning home that number was dubbed into 0800 (our equivalent to 1-800) COCK-UPS.

 

[ChrisB]

Yesterday, while out for a walk, as I was crossing a side street, a car came along, and signalled for a left turn. Apparently upset by my presence in the crosswalk, and the fact that he was going to have to wait 10 seconds to make his turn, he began blowing his horn, making a rude gesture and shouted obscenities at me. In general I think I prefer my cats to most of humanity.

 

[3fingers]

Too many people spend every waking moment in perpetual anger just looking for the smallest, most minor reason to erupt.
I doubt most could even truly articulate what they are angry about.

 

[Fading Fast]

Too many people spend every waking moment in perpetual anger just looking for the smallest, most minor reason to erupt.
I doubt most could even truly articulate what they are angry about.

I think this is spot on - so many people are angry and looking to fight. I've encountered someone like that on this forum, but what made me respond to your comment was an encounter I had in the lobby of my apartment building yesterday.

Like all coops, we have a board who oversees the building and they appoint subcommittees / a person or two for various tasks such as decorating the lobby for the holidays.

Yesterday, a woman I know (who complains about everything in the building) approached me and said "can you believe how ugly the decorations are this year." She had other complains with them too that I won't go into as the point was she said to me "don't you agree?"

I said (almost verbatim) that I liked the decorations but respect that she doesn't. She then in a huff said something to the effect that she assumed now that I won't help her get it changed since, said sarcastically "you love them so much."

Staying calm, I said that there is both a number and email address for us to send our issues to the board and that I've found them to be very responsive and asked if she had the number/address. Again, she came back angry that I liked them and wouldn't help her and she dismissed the idea of going to the board. At this point she was yelling at me with other people looking on.

I told her I was sorry she felt that way, wished her a good day and walked away with out raising my voice or showing anger.

Thinking about it later that day, I had come to the conclusion that you noted - some people just want to be angry and just want to fight.

Sure, you might or might not like the lobby decorations, but I feel it's pretty fair to say ours are right down the middle of what is done in most buildings today - a few Christmas lights and wreaths, a Hanukah menorah and some other Jewish decorations. Liking or hating them is an opinion, of course, but they are pretty similar to what every other building does.

What I took out of yesterday is this woman wanted a fight - either a fight with the building or a fight with me ('cause I happened to walk by at that moment). As a funny post script, my girlfriend, who I hadn't yet told this story to, came home yesterday and told me she had just saw and heard the same woman in our lobby cornering another person and yelling about the same issue.

 

[tonyb]

I think this is spot on - so many people are angry and looking to fight. I've encountered someone like that on this forum, but what made me respond to your comment was an encounter I had in the lobby of my apartment building yesterday.

Like all coops, we have a board who oversees the building and they appoint subcommittees / a person or two for various tasks such as decorating the lobby for the holidays.

Yesterday, a woman I know (who complains about everything in the building) approached me and said "can you believe how ugly the decorations are this year." She had other complains with them too that I won't go into as the point was she said to me "don't you agree?"

I said (almost verbatim) that I liked the decorations but respect that she doesn't. She then in a huff said something to the effect that she assumed now that I won't help her get it changed since, said sarcastically "you love them so much."

Staying calm, I said that there is both a number and email address for us to send our issues to the board and that I've found them to be very responsive and asked if she had the number/address. Again, she came back angry that I liked them and wouldn't help her and she dismissed the idea of going to the board. At this point she was yelling at me with other people looking on.

I told her I was sorry she felt that way, wished her a good day and walked away with out raising my voice or showing anger.

Thinking about it later that day, I had come to the conclusion that you noted - some people just want to be angry and just want to fight.

Sure, you might or might not like the lobby decorations, but I feel it's pretty fair to say ours are right down the middle of what is done in most buildings today - a few Christmas lights and wreaths, a Hanukah menorah and some other Jewish decorations. Liking or hating them is an opinion, of course, but they are pretty similar to what every other building does.

What I took out of yesterday is this woman wanted a fight - either a fight with the building or a fight with me ('cause I happened to walk by at that moment). As a funny post script, my girlfriend, who I hadn't yet told this story to, came home yesterday and told me she had just saw and heard the same woman in our lobby cornering another person and yelling about the same issue.

And some people project more than they know. And assume more than they possibly can know. And rarely miss an opportunity to blow their own horns.

 

[tonyb]

Yesterday, while out for a walk, as I was crossing a side street, a car came along, and signalled for a left turn. Apparently upset by my presence in the crosswalk, and the fact that he was going to have to wait 10 seconds to make his turn, he began blowing his horn, making a rude gesture and shouted obscenities at me. In general I think I prefer my cats to most of humanity.

Several times in any given day I wish I was a traffic cop.

It’s not that I’ve never violated traffic laws, but any driver who doesn’t know where pedestrians have the right-of-way is begging for a refresher course in the form of a stiff fine.

A human out there on his or her own, enveloped in nothing but clothing, has no chance against an automobile. The holiday season before last the lovely missus and I came upon a pedestrian lying in the road. That pedestrian, who was struck by a car, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, as we learned later. She was all of 18 years old.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are so many things worth getting legitimately angry about in the world today, that it's hard to understand anybody who'd even notice bad holiday decorations enough to get annoyed by them.

But I think I do understand -- the things that are worth getting so legitimately angry about are such that the the lone individual is completely powerless to do anything about them, and deep down everybody knows that. All that anger has to go somewhere, and tacky holiday decorations are as good an excuse as anything when neither "fight" nor "flight" is an option left to us. Exploding over something so pointless and trivial at least allows the venting of the rage that's building up inside so many people over things we're forced to realize are completely beyond our control.

When I explode in a torrent of four-letter words after a tool breaks off in my hand, or I spill popcorn oil all over myself or I sit on my glasses, I know what it is that I'm really angry about, and it isn't any of those things. But as one person there isn't a single meaningful thing I can do about what really makes me mad. It's that real, elemental feeling of helplessness in the midst of unprecedented circumstances that's the real problem.

 

[tonyb]

As long as we’re on bad driving habits ...

For-hire drivers (and their customers) who are apparently of the view that their convenience trumps the traffic laws and everyone else’s right to unimpeded passage.

You know, all that stopping in traffic lanes or blocking crosswalks so the passengers can enter and exit the vehicles at the places most convenient for THEM, and to hell with the traffic backed up behind them or the pedestrians who can’t cross because the cars are blocking their path.

 

[Fading Fast]

There are so many things worth getting legitimately angry about in the world today, that it's hard to understand anybody who'd even notice bad holiday decorations enough to get annoyed by them.

But I think I do understand -- the things that are worth getting so legitimately angry about are such that the the lone individual is completely powerless to do anything about them, and deep down everybody knows that. All that anger has to go somewhere, and tacky holiday decorations are as good an excuse as anything when neither "fight" nor "flight" is an option left to us. Exploding over something so pointless and trivial at least allows the venting of the rage that's building up inside so many people over things we're forced to realize are completely beyond our control.

When I explode in a torrent of four-letter words after a tool breaks off in my hand, or I spill popcorn oil all over myself or I sit on my glasses, I know what it is that I'm really angry about, and it isn't any of those things. But as one person there isn't a single meaningful thing I can do about what really makes me mad. It's that real, elemental feeling of helplessness in the midst of unprecedented circumstances that's the real problem.

But I'd bet money rarely if ever do you take that pent up anger out on others who don't deserve it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's some chairs at work that have some pretty deep scars. I try to confine my attacks to them. "What Do You Do With The Mad That You Feel When You Feel So Mad You Could Bite?"

 

[GHT]

As long as we’re on bad driving habits ...

Lizzie's eloquent description of pent up frustration describes exactly the anger that I feel when on our Motorways, (Motorways are the UK equivalent to Interstate (I Roads) Highways,) the overhead lights flag up impending roadworks. A mile or so out a white directional arrow pointing to the adjacent lane, denotes impending lane closure. Further along, a flashing red cross means that the lane is closed and that there is a workforce potentially on the road. All these signals are ignored by the morons who know that they can jump the queue that's forming by running on in the closed lane until they reach the traffic cones enforcing closure, they then cut in on those who have been respectfully observing all the road signs. They do this, not only because they are ignorant and selfish, but because they also know that there's little chance of being caught.
What can you do but seethe?

 

[Zombie_61]

Lizzie's eloquent description of pent up frustration describes exactly the anger that I feel when on our Motorways, (Motorways are the UK equivalent to Interstate (I Roads) Highways,) the overhead lights flag up impending roadworks. A mile or so out a white directional arrow pointing to the adjacent lane, denotes impending lane closure. Further along, a flashing red cross means that the lane is closed and that there is a workforce potentially on the road. All these signals are ignored by the morons who know that they can jump the queue that's forming by running on in the closed lane until they reach the traffic cones enforcing closure, they they then cut in on those who have been respectfully observing all the road signs. They do this, not only because they are ignorant and selfish, but because they also know that there's little chance of being caught.
What can you do but seethe?

This is one of many reasons I thought the American comedian known as "Gallagher" was on to something when he said drivers should be equipped with dart guns so when they see someone do something illegal or stupid while driving they can fire a dart into the offender's car (he suggested the trunk/boot area). Then, when police see a car driving down the street with five or six darts stuck in it, they pull the car over and write the driver a ticket for being a jackass (<--- that's the clean version; the phrase Gallagher actually used is too vulgar for The Lounge).

 

[tonyb]

Lizzie's eloquent description of pent up frustration describes exactly the anger that I feel when on our Motorways, (Motorways are the UK equivalent to Interstate (I Roads) Highways,) the overhead lights flag up impending roadworks. A mile or so out a white directional arrow pointing to the adjacent lane, denotes impending lane closure. Further along, a flashing red cross means that the lane is closed and that there is a workforce potentially on the road. All these signals are ignored by the morons who know that they can jump the queue that's forming by running on in the closed lane until they reach the traffic cones enforcing closure, they they then cut in on those who have been respectfully observing all the road signs. They do this, not only because they are ignorant and selfish, but because they also know that there's little chance of being caught.
What can you do but seethe?

I’m of the same view — you can see well ahead that a traffic lane (or two or ... ) is closed and that everyone will have to move over, and the polite among us do exactly that, well before we absolutely have to.

But now I’m being told, nope, just go ahead and use the lane(s) about to close and “zipper in” just ahead of the lane closure(s).

Seems to me that it rewards anti-social behavior, but ...

 

[BobHufford]

^^^^ Seems like the zipper merge lane closures came about after a few years of training the public with McDonald's two lane drive-throughs. Not that those work that well either...

 

[3fingers]

But now I’m being told, nope, just go ahead and use the lane(s) about to close and “zipper in” just ahead of the lane closure(s).

I've been hearing and reading this too.
I suppose in a perfect world that it would all work as smoothly as it does in the computer model, but my observation is that between indecision, incompetence and a few folks who are just posterior orifices it doesn't really work that well.
I shall continue to change lanes as soon as I safely can do so and spend the extra time avoiding those at the bottleneck attempting to zipper in at the last possible moment.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Those two-lane drive thrus are stupid. Whenever I think I'm being smart by using one I end up with somebody else's order that I can't eat because it's got onions on it.

 

[GHT]

I shall continue to change lanes as soon as I safely can do so and spend the extra time avoiding those at the bottleneck attempting to zipper in at the last possible moment.

The expression zipper in is one that I have not come across before, it describes perfectly, the annoying and often dangerous practice of barging in onto the those who have respect for rules and safety.

There was a program on one of our TV channels about petty traffic misdemeanours. You hear from those that the police have caught saying, "Oh I was only..........." And the police officer replied, "That's as maybe, but would you do that on your driving test?" The sheepish look said it all.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

The expression zipper in is one that I have not come across before, it describes perfectly, the annoying and often dangerous practice of barging in onto the those who have respect for rules and safety.

You'd better get used to the Yankee lingo so you're au fait when the UK becomes an American overseas territory.. https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/zip-merging/

 

[GHT]

You'd better get used to the Yankee lingo so you're au fait when the UK becomes an American overseas territory.. https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/zip-merging/

You're 50 years too late.
The former Labour prime minister Harold Wilson discussed with US President Lyndon Johnson the possibility of Britain becoming America's 51st state in the 1960's. Discussions took place twice, in 1966 and 1967, just before and just after French leader General Charles de Gaulle vetoed Britain's entry to what was then the Common Market, said Sir Trevor Lloyd-Hughes, a Number 10 press secretary during Wilson's administration.

There were no records of the talks with the US leader, which did not get to the stage of studies or formal investigations, he said, adding: "But they were serious talks." He had recently checked his memory with Lady (Marcia) Falkender, who was Wilson's political secretary. "She totally agrees that he was seriously thinking about this." One reason the idea faltered was because the US was keen for Britain to join Europe to restrain De Gaulle's erratic behaviour.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/wilson-wanted-uk-to-be-us-state-1075874.html