Daily Dose of Common Sense

I hate preemptive honkers.

You’re sitting at a red light, waiting for it to turn green. The split second that the light changes, someone behind you honks–as if you were holding up a long line of cars by not flooring it. Only, you weren’t. Are these the most impatient, annoying drivers in the world?

I don’t honk capriciously. I use the horn in extreme situations–such as danger or when another driver isn’t paying attention to the road. I don’t use it to hurry everyone else along at changing lights. Driver’s Ed Guru has written a guide to Horn Honking Etiquette. They say to wait at least four seconds after the light changes before you tap your horn lightly to alert another motorist to get a move on.

Calm down, you overzealous honkers. We’re all moving just as fast as we can. You’re not busier than everyone else, so be nice to your fellow motorists.

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We love Yahoo’s Odd News here in our house. I think this next collection of AP headlines from today is possibly the greatest group ever to pop up. Here they are, in the original sequence:

Police: Man calls 911 about mom taking his beer

Man punched while calling 911 to report punch

Police: Man accidentally shoots self in testicles

Ohio woman finds groundhog hiding under car hood

NJ teen admits defecating in classmate’s soda

Random, senseless and absurd–everything we love!

Today’s post is courtesy of Cherie Strand, an occupational therapist and world traveler from Idaho.

Just because a hotel SERVES breakfast does not mean it is your home kitchen.

My family has the opportunity to travel quite a bit because we live in the witness protection program in rural Idaho. Well, maybe not the WPP, but we do live about 3 hours away from an airport, Target, Walmart, Costco and doctors. (No kidding.) So, we do frequent overnight trips to stock up on things.

We love that many hotels have a hot breakfast included in the stay. Many are very well apportioned–everything from cheese omelets, bacon, hot and cold cereal, pastries, waffles, fresh fruit, yogurt, etc. Budget hotels have moved way beyond the stale danish that they used to offer. And, this is especially nice for families as it saves the time and money of taking kids to a “real” restaurant.

On the flip side, over the past 12 years, we have noticed more and more people take this breakfast offer a little too casually. Some folks appear in the breakfast area in their pajamas, hair completely uncombed (clearly) and often without shoes (despite signs saying proper attire and footwear required). It used to be just small kids that looked as if they were plucked straight from bed and brought down to the communal breakfast. Now, it is the entire family.

Whether it’s 7 AM or 9:30 AM, it is common now to see a grown man and woman with their three or four children, all still in PJs, slippers (or barefoot) and looking exactly as if they rolled out of bed and came right on down to the breakfast area. The rest of us try to keep down our breakfasts while treated to what these folks really look like without any semblance of morning hygiene–no imagination necessary! It is not as if we are eating at 5 AM and expecting everyone to be there in suits (which, incidentally IS the case because the business men and women are up early, dressed, and ready to go).

So, would you waltz into a restaurant like that? (Well, yes, because I have seen that too, but mostly from teenagers and college kids.) I do NOT want to see you or your family with bed head, pajamas, bare feet or ratty slippers. It takes about 10 minutes to get kids up and pull their hair back and get dressed yourself. You can even use your room coffeemaker in the meantime to have a cup of coffee to get geared up for all that work it takes just to put on regular clothing. Asking for a little courtesy while strangers are eating breakfast doesn’t seem like too much to ask, does it?

I don’t want to see your toe jam while I’m trying to eat my jam on toast.

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Netflix may be a great service but I’ll never subscribe. The reason? Pop-under ads. If you are a web surfer, you’ve seen these ads come up and then disappear quickly as you visit various sites. Then, as you’re closing windows, there’s a stupid Netflix ad taking up space.

I know you can block them with a pop-up blocker, but that doesn’t work all of the time. For some sneaky reason, the pop-under ads sometimes get around it.

If you’re fed up like me, here are a few sites that can help: How to Block Netflix Popup in Firefox, How Can I Get Rid of Netflix Popups?, Netflix Pop-ups in IE8.

Netflix should STOP advertising like this. It doesn’t win them any friends, only enemies.

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Huffington Post has a great slideshow of the most frivolous lawsuits of all time. The stupidity is mind-numbing, and makes you wonder about humanity in general. The woman who sued McDonald’s for hot coffee is there, but there are plenty more where that came from. Like the woman who sued a haunted house because it was scary. Ummm….duh. Didn’t anyone on this list have a person who could talk some sense in him or her?

Yes, Lindsay, you made the list, too.

This post originally appeared on July 28, 2009. It’s our second most popular post to date.

Bill Gates recently quit Facebook because he had too many friends. He had trouble keeping track of who he actually knew and which friend requests were from strangers. Although you aren’t Bill Gates, you may still have a little dead weight in your Facebook friend list. Here are some ideas on how to annoy those connected to you and potentially lose some friends.

Mundane Status Updates
“Joe Smith is tired.” Yeah, we’re all tired, Joe. Is that the best you can do? Continually updating your friends on all the mundane tasks in your life just may cause a few folks to de-friend you. So, keep it up with such snooze-alerts as “is bored” and “is going to the gym.”

Talk Politics and/or Religion
Politics and religion are two touchy subjects. People have their own opinions and it’s very hard to convince them to change sides. Talking about your views is a possible way to offend a few Facebook friends who don’t agree, especially if you trash the other side.

Take Every Quiz and Share Results
There are thousands of Facebook quizzes, and some are even entertaining. However, your friends don’t want to know which “Sex and the City” character you are or your Simpsons IQ score. If you want to lose friends, then take all the quizzes you can and publish the results each time.

Keep Sending Invitations
Mafia Wars and Vampires may be fun to you, but receiving invitations to them over and over again is just annoying. We realize that getting more people to play helps your score. And, we don’t care. Lil’ Green Patch may be a good cause, but we’re tired of it. So, if you want to annoy your connections, keep kidnapping people and passing drinks around.

Be an Over-Poster
Everyone has at least one or two over-posters on their friend list. These are people who update their status WAY too often and share links and photos galore. Appearing too frequently in your network’s News Feed is a good way to cause “friend fatigue” and get yourself de-friended.

Tag Friends in Unappealing Photos
Dig up those dusty old photos and crank up your scanner. Horrify your friends! Embarrass your family! It is especially helpful to find pictures where your targets have bad hair days, closed eyes, or strange expressions. And, make sure to tag the photos so everyone can recognize each other.

There are many other ways to annoy on Facebook (like over-punctuating your updates), so feel free to suggest some of your own pet peeves.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: jurvetson

Here is a stairwell sign that was found in the Bronx. While the grammar isn’t much to cheer about, you’ve gotta love the message!

[Thanks to Viveca G. for the photo!]

How awesome is this bathroom sign?

I wish all bathrooms had such a direct, to-the-point message. No one wants to see your hair, pee, or WORSE after you’re done doing your business. And, for those of you who think only men’s rooms are disgusting…you are wrong! Women’s bathrooms are gross, gross, gross, too.

Clean up after yourselves!

(Thanks to Dean Cameron for the photo.)

I’m a big fan of going to baseball games. There’s nothing quite like sitting in the warm summer air with a hot dog and some Cracker Jack. Oh, and watching the game, of course. Imagine a dad’s horror when, during a family outing with his daughters to a Philly’s game this week, they were purposely barfed on.

Yes, barfed on. An unruly fan, Matthew Clemmens of South Jersey, put his fingers down his throat and threw up all over the man’s daughter. This was after Clemmens and his friend had been spitting at the girls.

The revolting display followed several innings’ worth of slurred curses, spilled beer and spit that Clemmens and another man directed at Vangelo, his two daughters and one of their friends, said Philadelphia police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.

Is this what our country has become? Where we’re spitting and vomiting on each other for laughs?

Then, the barfer had the nerve to physically attack the dad, who is a cop. Unbelievably, the dad didn’t fight back because he didn’t want to get arrested or detained anywhere away from his kids. This, of course, is the right, responsible thing to do, but I can’t say I would have been able to restrain myself. If anyone deserves a serious beat-down, it’s someone who spits and barfs on other people.

[Via the fine folks at Pat's Papers]

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If you’ve sat through a 3-hour plus movie recently, you probably took a bathroom break at some point during that time. Then, you came back to your seat and whispered to your friend/date/spouse/creepy neighbor, “What did I miss?” Oh, movie intermission, how we wish you were still around.

The 1982 film Ghandi was the last major release to have an intermission. But, don’t blame the theaters. The movie studios are responsible the damage to your bladder:

With a greater number of popular movies approaching and sometimes exceeding three hours in length (even the lightweight “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” lasted 2 1/2 hours) bringing the intermission back seems logical. Contrary to popular belief, the theater owners I’ve spoken to say they would like to have the option –they could sell more concessions, where they make the real money –but their contracts with the studios prohibit intermissions.

Give us a pee break, studios! Between our bladders, the high ticket prices, loud moviegoers on their cellphones, and outrageous concession prices…is it any wonder why people would rather watch movies at home instead of the theater?

[Via Pat's Papers]