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Posts Tagged ‘Peeves’

Walking in public for beginners

Posted in Advice, tagged , on June 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

NYC-Sidewalk-1

Dear People of the World:

Some of you clearly are not aware that there are rules for walking in public — especially when the area is crowded. Please let me help you help everyone:

1. Standard procedure is to walk on the right, pass on the left. (Hey, it’s like driving! Yes.)

2. If you are walking with someone else, try not to take up the entire path. If you are walking with many someones, DO NOT walk side by side. Walk two and two if you must, just like animals headed into the ark.

3. As Joe told Cody repeatedly on “Dual Survival,” “Move with a purpose!” Please do not amble aimlessly. (My friends Heidi and John call violators of this rule “Meanderthals.”)

4. Do not stop suddenly to take a selfie (or any picture, really).

5. If you whack someone with your big-assed bag, common courtesy dictates that you should issue an apology (even if it is just “Sorry!” tossed over your shoulder as you blow past).

6. If you need to have a conversation, move to the side and out of the way. Do not have this conversation in the middle of the path, thus blocking passage for others.

I know the world is a fascinating place. You should indeed stop to smell the roses. Just make sure you aren’t in the middle of a sidewalk when you do it.

Thanks for your attention,
Beth

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Bathroom etiquette for ladies

Posted in Advice, tagged on June 25, 2014| 2 Comments »

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What recently greeted me in a bathroom stall

Dear Ladies Using Public Restrooms:

I know you are busy. We are all busy. Still, I need you to add 24 seconds to your bathroom routine. After you do No. 1 or No. 2, you must follow these simple steps (especially if you do No. 2):

  1. Look at the toilet. Did you sprinkle when you tinkled? Yes? Wipe the damn seat.
    Time to completion: two seconds.
  2. Look into the toilet. Is everything that came from you and/or the toilet paper roll gone? No? Flush again.
    Time to completion: two seconds.
  3. Wash your hands. With soap!
    Time to completion: The CDC recommends 20 seconds.
  4. Optional step: Dry your hands.
    Time to completion: five seconds.

Just 24 seconds of your time (29 if you dry) can mean the difference between a positive bathroom experience and someone (me) muttering “Seriously?!” as she
heads to the next stall or commences toilet triage if other stalls are full.

Thank you for flushing it forward,
Beth

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An offer I can definitely refuse

Posted in Grammar, etc., tagged , , on March 27, 2014| 2 Comments »

Screen shot

Dear Mr. Rashid,

Thank you for your recent email, which appears to be a forwarded recommendation letter from Gregory T. Hagan. While I’m certainly happy Mr. Hagan was pleased with your services, it might behoove him to proofread his letter. As a writing professor and fan of the English language, I am mortified to see that the letter is one huge run-on sentence. Additionally, is “Hem” a person on your staff or is that your nickname? Or perhaps did Mr. Hagan mean “him” here? Why is his name misspelled in his email address, and why is it included at the end of the recommendation letter, making it look like that is the way to contact you?

If I had been asked to assist Mr. Hagan, I would have edited the letter to read as follows:

I am writing to recommend the services of Abdulla Rashid. I was in urgent need of a loan of $8,000 to pay my bills. A friend recommended Mr. Rashid, who helped me immediately. My family and I are now happy. Please contact him if you are in need of any kind of loan. 

I’m dismayed that you would use such a poorly written letter as the first contact with me. It really makes me wonder whether it would be wise to use your services when I have to question your attention to detail. And really, you should have written me yourself first, then provided his recommendation letter as a supplement.

Also, why is your organization offering loans in the first place? Your boilerplate indicates that you provide “innovative plastics solutions.” I see nothing on your website about loans and I see no Abdulla Rashid Salem Jumaan listed on the team biography page.

For these reasons, I must decline your implied offer to loan me money. Thank you anyway. Please send my regards to Mr. Hagan and encourage him to take an English composition course.

Sincerely,
Beth

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They’re up all night to get lucky

Posted in Random, tagged , on March 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Dear Revelers in Room 479:

I’m so glad you are having what appears to be a rip-roaring time. I wanted to invite the front desk person to your party, but (lucky for you, I guess) he/she did not answer the phone.

Here’s a tip for your next party: Don’t have it in your hotel room at 4 a.m. Parties like that tend to raise the ire of people in other rooms — say one across the hall and down four doors down.

It was kind of a shock to be startled out of a sound sleep by slamming doors and hollering by grown men and women. It took me back to my college years in Traer Hall.

Thank you for giving me that extra time to get in a few more levels of Candy Crush before my early flight. I think I’ll leave you a thank you note when I head out of the hotel.

With malice in my heart,
Beth

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Forward to the Past!

Posted in Random, Technology, Uncategorized, tagged , on February 27, 2014| 2 Comments »

Dear AWP Program Directors:

I’m mystified by something that happened this morning. Please help me make sense of it.

One of you complained that prospective students often ask her this:

What job am I going to get?

The overwhelming majority of the rest of you laughed as if to say this:

Oh, how silly! Why would someone ask something so crazy?

She went on to lament “consumer culture.”

Wait just a hot second. Are students not consumers of a product, albeit an intangible one? In return for their money, time and effort, they earn a degree and, one hopes, a job.

Why is this bad?

I talked to the woman who made the comment. She said she got her M.F.A. because she is an artist. I said:

But don’t you want to get paid for your artwork?

Then I found out she is a poet. Oh. And she represents a poetry degree program. OH!

That explains her situation, but what about the rest of you? I appreciate art for art’s sake, but it is better when you can make a living doing what you like best. No?

This seems to me to be another example of AWP acting like an ostrich.

Weren’t you just talking about the rising cost of college and increasing student debt load? Don’t you want to help students get a job so that they can pay off the college education that helped them get a job?

I’m confused. Please help me understand.

Sincerely,
Beth

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To Sir With Love

Posted in Random, tagged on February 21, 2014| 2 Comments »

Dear Men:

I’ve been traveling more than usual lately, and I’ve had occasion to observe you without you knowing you are being observed. (No, we’re not talking about stalking; it’s called “people watching,” for Pete’s sake!)

I want to save you from yourselves. Here is a short list of things you like and that you seem to think women like. I promise that we don’t. (Yes, I know I’m generalizing. Stay with me here.)

Women don’t like:
1. Soul patches.
2. Clinging to the hair you think you have. (When in doubt, be boldly bald.)
3. Pants with pockets on your hips (i.e. Wrangler jeans). Are these supposed to make you look trim? They don’t.
4. Talking to women on planes when they clearly are involved in a rousing game of Candy Crush Saga.
5. Air guitar solos.
6. Pants that belt below the curve of your butt. Stop. It.
7. Accidental-on-purpose-I’m-just-scooting-past-you penis grazes.
8. Loud cell phone conversations where you dog a coworker for “responding poorly to the situation.” (We don’t think you are important. You just seem like a jerk.)
9. Waiting for the restroom on the plane with your crotch in their faces. Please turn away.
10. That awful frat boy hair. You know, this:

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Here are some general things women DO like:
1. To be left alone on planes, in restaurants, at bars when they are by themselves playing Candy Crush Saga.
2. Quiet time on the airplane. (See No. 1.)
3. Personal space.
4. Not to be called “little lady.”
5. Wine.
6. The good chocolate. (Richart, for example. None of that Whitman’s crap.)
7. You, if you are interesting and have a good sense of humor.
8. But only if the woman appears to want to engage in conversation to find that out.
9. Seeing you clean the house, empty the dishwasher, and take out the trash (if the relationship progresses, of course).
10. Not being approached from behind when they are emptying the dishwasher.

I’m just trying to help you. Let me know if you need more advice.

Sincerely,
Beth

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Tips for surviving weather delays

Posted in Random, tagged , , , on February 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Hey Kids!

Auntie Beth has some cool tips for you to help you get through those nasty flight cancellations. Check ’em out!

1. When the agent at the so-called “elite” number can’t get you home until Sunday when you were supposed to be home Wednesday, say, “Sure, that’s fine!” to whatever she books. Then go talk to the gate agent.

2. Be nice to the gate agent. Joke that you are going to get all loud and obnoxious  if they can’t get you home sooner. Of course, you are just joking!

3. When that gate agent finds you a flight Saturday, say, “Thanks,” then tease that maybe the other agent can do a better job. Ha ha! Oh, we’re all friends here.

4. What the what?!? The other gate agent CAN do better and gets you on a flight Thursday. Yay! Thank that person (named Sean) profusely.

5. Remember to be nice: Gate agents named Sean can give you cool stuff like meal vouchers that restaurants may or may not use, taxi vouchers to Boston from Manchester, N.H., and travel vouchers to someplace wonderful during spring when there are no snow/ice delays.

6. Make sure to get a taxi driver who complains, “I don’t want to drive to Boston.” It’s better when he repeats that phrase every 10 minutes for an hour.

7. Share the cab with a similarly displaced traveler. You’ll make new friends while making sure the cabbie is less likely to dump you on the side of the road.

8. Use your meal vouchers for wine. Dull that pain of not being home with your long-suffering husband and kids.

9. Take some wine to go. You’ll need it in your hotel room when you only have Matt Lauer and Candy Crush to keep you company.

10. Wash your underwear in the sink. Come on, it will be fun! Channel the spirit of your inner pioneer woman.

Tune in next time when Auntie Beth gives you tips on surviving Logan airport during THE BIGGEST STORM OF THE CENTURY.

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Warning: Iceholes Ahead

Posted in Politics, tagged , , , , , on January 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Dear Savannah Leaders:

Thank you for erring on the side of caution and closing businesses and schools. What am I doing at home today? Wearing sweatpants, enjoying a fire, and watching Atlantarctica 2014 on CNN.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed are playing the politicians’ favorite sport: dodgeball. Deal even claimed meteorologists got the forecast wrong.

Um. No. No they didn’t. (Full disclosure: I am a meteorologist. For real.)

Winter storm forecastAnyone with more than ice between his ears would have known what kind of storm was coming.

Anyone who wasn’t a snowman would have had enough heart to encourage school and business leaders to close up shop.

Anyone with more than a light dusting of sense would have mobilized the sand trucks.

Sadly, Atlanta’s leaders didn’t really learn from mistakes made in 2011.

As a result, children were stranded in schools and on buses. Commuters’ drives took many hours. Hundreds even abandoned their cars.

Atlanta snowMany shacked up in churches, fire stations, Home Depot. Though sleeping on patio furniture is preferable to the side of the road, it did not have to happen.

They should have been at home. Safe. Better safe than sorry.

I bet Deal, Reed and other leaders are sorry now.

Meanwhile, we in Southeast Georgia got the “wintry mix” we expected (sleet, freezing rain) but not quite the amount. No meteorologist I know promised snow.

Car glaze

imageWe shouldn’t be driving in icy conditions and we are not. So thank you, Savannah leaders. You did the right thing.

Maybe you can teach Atlanta’s old dogs some new tricks.

Warm and dry,
Beth

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Warning label needed

Posted in Parenting, tagged , , , on January 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Dear Natural Science Industries:

I’m writing in reference to this product:

0004240949005_500X500May I make a suggestion? Please include a warning on the box that notifies purchasers that the process takes at least a month.

That’s right: one month.

Oh, and that the tumbler sounds like an airplane taking off.

And it must run continuously.

Let’s recap: If you use this item, your house will sound like an airport every moment for at least 28 days.

Potential purchasers need to know this. Please warn them accordingly.

I thank you from the bottom of my bloody ear canal.

Sincerely,
Beth (mother of Gideon, who likes rocks)

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Happy birthday, 2014!

Posted in Parenting, Random, tagged , , , , on January 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Dear 2014,

Well, 2013 came in sucky and left the same way (flu, among other issues). While there were a few positive moments, the year was a tough one.

But 2014, I like the looks of you already. In your honor, I’ve made some resolutions.

I resolve to:

  1. Buy this. (Note: We tried a muffin tin. It didn’t work.)
  2. Watch “Breaking Bad.” (Finally.)
  3. Vacation in Amsterdam on a houseboat or cruise the Rhine with our best friends.
  4. Write more blog posts about the strange things that fascinate me*.

    That sounds about right.

    That sounds about right.

  5. Refuse to feel guilty for simply being happy to keep my children alive day to day.
  6. Care less about the constant snubs from members of Eddie’s family (his birthday, my birthday, boys’ birthdays, other important life events).
  7. Focus more on mutually satisfying relationships with friends (give and take, as opposed to us constantly giving).
  8. Devote more time to eating bread and cheese and other things that are not so good for me.
  9. Watch this regularly for a good laugh.
  10. Avoid making any more resolutions.

Welcome, 2014! Let’s treat each other well. OK?

Love,
Beth

* The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

 

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