1. the word "proactive"-  the linguistic equivalent of the Macarena- i.e., it only really started to bother me around the 800th time I heard it...a favorite of middle-managers everywhere

2. Pickups and 4WDs that are mainly driven as commuter cars...you're using way too much petroleum and road space. If you really do a lot of hauling and offroading, fine, but how many Navigators and Escalades do you really see in the wilderness?

3. Avocado and avocado-based foods...like guacamole...the same shade of green as toxic waste, and just about as tasty

4. Bumper stickers- ok, every once in a while I get a chuckle, but I've seen enough of poorly drawn Calvins urinating on various things, endless unfunny humor (my kid beat up your honor student, etc.), and professions of facile belief (Jesus and guns are typical topics).

5. Halle Berry - come on, folks...she's not that good looking, and a reprehensible driver to boot...

1. Pastas, icky food, made from dough(if I wanted that I'd eat bread), and hardly fills my guts. Also, very lacking in meat!

2. Nonsense philosics by people younger than 14, it's never more than 'I believe the world looks this way' hardly anything to do with philosofising.

3. Having to wait before my oven is warm and my breads are baked. I WANT TO EAT RIGHT NOW DARNIT!!!!

Ok, that's about it. I'm fairly in peace with the smaller things. It's the general human behaviour that I dislike.

1. Oprah Winfre and the whole , "Someone other than "me" is to blame for my being a piss poor excuse for a human being" group. Get a freaking life and except responsibility for your own actions... pathetic f**ks!

2.  Church bells that play constantly. This new church, about two blocks from my house, plays these awful tunes twenty-four seven. I believe they contain subliminal messages.

3. American Idol and anything remotely resembling the genre. Randy Jackson should be horse-whipped for having anything to do with this sh*t. How about a show were artist who write their own music, play an instrument and avoid the over-emotive crap... f**k 'em all.

4. Plastic CD cases. Cheap... all to often, they are broken when you buy them or seem to weaken with age. Crap.... totally crap. The cardboard CD cases are a little better, however, they fall apart easily.  

Bigotry, intolerance, war, Hip-Hop, oh sorry, you said not them...

OK

1 - "Baby on board" signs in car rear windows. Am I supposed to think "Oh, I'd better not smash into that one after all then!"?

2 - Motorists who park on the pavement. It's reached epidemic proportions in the UK. Also ones who park in disabled spaces who don't have blue (disabled driver) badges.

3 - People who think England, Britain and UK are interchangeable references to the same place.

4 - Kentucky fried chicken bargain buckets. Nothing wasted there then!

5 - Remakes of classic films which don't need to be remade - for example, Psycho, The Italian Job, Oceans eleven, etc.

Easy Livin wrote: 3 - People who think England, Britain and UK are interchangeable references to the same place.

hmm- please explain? One of these things has to be like the other.

James Lee wrote: Easy Livin wrote: 3 - People who think England, Britain and UK are interchangeable references to the same place. hmm- please explain? One of these things has to be like the other.

James,

Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland and Wales.

The United Kingdom (Full name "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland") is England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

England has land borders with Wales and Scotland. It is governed by the UK government, it does not have its own parliament. The Queen is not the "Queen of England", she is the "Queen of the United Kingdom". I think one of the main contributors to the confusion is that UK bank notes are issued by (and say on them) The Bank of England, which is actually the reserve bank for the UK.

All this of course not to be confused of course with the British Isles, which is a geographic (as opposed to political) reference to the islands which include mainland Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey etc.!

I know it's confusing, but it really does annoy Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish people when others talk about England but mean the UK.  I believe Canadians have a similar avertion to being called American?

1. People who ask me if in Perú we wear feathers or if we  live in Macchu Picchu and are governed by an Inca.
2. Politicians
3. People who take spaguetti and hot soup to the beach 
4. People who clap when the plane lands, I believe pilots business is to land the plane, no reason to applaud someone for doing his job.
5. Scotch served with anything different than water or ice.

Iván

1. Speedos – The likeable way to swing your flabby stomach arbitrary and to take the risk of performing a hazardous ball-showing act.

2. McDonald's – The most hideous fast/finger food ever. Can't live with it, can't live without it.

3. Newspapers heavily soaked in ink – The thickness of the printing leaves horrendous stains all over your fingertips. When suffering a severe case of nose itching right after you read the whole thing, you'll be the laughingstock for a while.

4. "Cybill" – The worst TV Series of all times. The "bimbo air-headed blond girl" lifestyle turned into cliché because of this crappy show. Re-runs make me hate it even more.

5. Boring Jet-set sports – Like Polo, hunting, yacht sailing… so hollow and senseless that it makes me want it more and more!

1. Snakes... they're scary, evil and I just don't like them.

2. Car Alarms... most disturbing things in the world, especially when they keep going off under your window when you're trying to sleep

3. Disco music... it just wasn't necessary and its so cheesy

4. The Republican Convention coming to my neighborhood and putting us right smack in the middle of "The War Zone".

5. The cost of cable and phone service there days is just outrageous.

landberkdoten wrote: Speedos – The likeable way to swing your flabby stomach arbitrary and to take the risk of performing a hazardous ball-showing act.

BBBBWWWAAAAAAAAAAAA

threefates wrote: 3. Disco music... it just wasn't necessary and its so cheesy

Some things in life are just inexplicable...

Alarm clocks - enough said..

Whetherspoon pubs (For the benefit of anyone not from the UK, these are a chain of sh!t pubs, that serve cheap beer to habitual underage drunks, and have a no music, no pool, no fun policy. In my town they have hi-jacked a beautiful, listed, 16th century building and turned it into the McDonalds of pubs)

Litter - Especially that from fast food outlets, who I think should have the @rses taxed off them, to pay for their mess to be cleaned up.

Tabloid news culture - Dont know about the rest of the world, but in Britain, the whole planet could be approaching armmageddon and all people would care about is who the Engalnd football manager is sh*gging!!

Big Brother - Such terrible, terrible crap!! A housefull of hateful idiots and a load of cameras filming them sitting around in their pants doing f*ck all, smoking roll ups. Cheap TV  On all the time, it seems, although its only on in the summer.

Thats me done.

Easy Livin wrote: 1 - "Baby on board" signs in car rear windows. Am I supposed to think "Oh, I'd better not smash into that one after all then!"? I'm with you on that one, Easy Livin! I always think "Baby on board? Oh, right, behind the steering wheel... 2 - Motorists who park on the pavement. It's reached epidemic proportions in the UK. Also ones who park in disabled spaces who don't have blue (disabled driver) badges. I went to France last week, and it's far worse over there. Agreed again - Pavements are for Pedestrians, and anyone who parks in a Disabled space but is not physically disabled must therefore be mentally disabled (no disrespect meant to anyone who really is mentally disabled).

3. Motorway drivers that sit in the middle or outside lane doing 60mph when the inside lanes are empty. WAKE UP, DUDES!!!

4. Drivers on non-motorway roads who just drive at whatever speed they feel like - normally 40 in 60mph stretches, 50mph stretches, 30mph stretches and 20mph stretches, unless there's a corner or a hill, in which case they slow down to 25mph, or unless they're in France, in which case a corner or a hill is a clear sign to overtake (apologies to my French counterparts for this generalism, but I saw this happen time and time again last week, and was nearly hit several times by drivers coming in the opposite direction whilst driving carefully with my s/o and little baby. Since my car is a UK car, that meant that they were both in danger of being hit rather than me, and I could not see very well to take evasive action if necessary).

5. Internet fraudsters, especially those involved in the Nigerian "419" scam, where you get an email telling you that someone has died and left millions of dollars... and those ones that come from eBay saying that you need to re-enter your credit card details. I also hate pop-ups, loong registration forms, uninvited porn images and eBayers that try to sell you information on how to buy something while making it look like the auction is for the item in question. 

This is SO theraputic!

Nice one, Jim!

Blacksword wrote: Big Brother - Such terrible, terrible crap!! A housefull of hateful idiots and a load of cameras filming them sitting around in their pants doing f*ck all, smoking roll ups. Cheap TV  On all the time, it seems, although its only on in the summer.

Oh, I second that my man! That crappy "reality TV" show has definitely turned into this kind of sub-culture all over the world. Those sons of bit**es should be buried alive...  

Gotta hate those clowns...

What about people who make "music" (better make that MUZAK) with the sole aim of making money - and NO interest in artistic creation whatsoever, including the Record companies and industry sharks who send tapes to radio stations so they can use them as their "playlist" thereby excluding any actual talent, and "stables" of pretty girls and boys who are allowed to make records to the exclusion of anyone else until they reach their sell-by date.

Then there's people who think they can make their living by blaming others for things that have gone wrong - the blame culture. "My back hurts and it's my employer's fault entirely - I'd better sue the bastard and never go to work again" (with, of course, apologies due to anyone GENUINELY affected). Those lead-swingers make me SICK

And I get REALLY, REALLY mad at people who hurt little children or animals. It's a good job we don't carry guns in this country, because I would be doing time otherwise.  I read in today's news about two boys who broke into a zoo just to torture baby wallabies - breaking their legs and freezing them in icy water among other things.

Then there's frogs.

Those frogs are gonna pay.

But clowns are the worst...

Clowns give me the creeps...

Here's another:

Food vending machines.

You know the type I mean - the ones with a kind of spiral thing holding the food.

Just about every one of these I've ever used always says "Use exact change only" - how often do you have the exact change? I always find I want something that costs 35p, then look in my wallet to discover I only have a £1 coin - or worse, a £2 coin.

So you think, "what the hell" - after all, you're hungry and just want food. The annoyance of paying over the odds for it is minor compared to the growling coming from the pit of your stomach.

So you insert the £1 coin and make the selection.

The spirally thing holding the food rotates precisely 1 quarter of a turn, and the food remains on the shelf.

The machine retains all of your money - and you're still hungry - but now you have no change!

So you try to find someone who can assist - but there's no-one within a 50-mile radius who can.

So you try to ring the number on the front of the machine and, if you actually get through the complicated menu system and don't get forced to listen to "My Heart Will Go On" for an hour on the call waiting system (don't get me started on call waiting systems...), you get told that an engineer can attend a week next Tuesday... maybe.

So you give the machine a sharp rap. Then another. Then you kick the damn t'ing a couple of times, grab both sides and shake it a bit, then stand in the dispenser tray, grab the back of the machine and rock it violently before the security or police take you away...

To cap it all, you missed your train.

Easy Livin wrote: James Lee wrote: Easy Livin wrote: 3 - People who think England, Britain and UK are interchangeable references to the same place. hmm- please explain? One of these things has to be like the other. James, Great Britain is made up of England, Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom (Full name "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland") is England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. England has land borders with Wales and Scotland. It is governed by the UK government, it does not have its own parliament. The Queen is not the "Queen of England", she is the "Queen of the United Kingdom". I think one of the main contributors to the confusion is that UK bank notes are issued by (and say on them) The Bank of England, which is actually the reserve bank for the UK. All this of course not to be confused of course with the British Isles, which is a geographic (as opposed to political) reference to the islands which include mainland Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey etc.! I know it's confusing, but it really does annoy Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish people when others talk about England but mean the UK.  I believe Canadians have a similar avertion to being called American?

Please don't assume that we English are any less annoyed by this. What makes you think we're any more happy to be confused with you than you are to be confused with us? You bring up a very important point. England is the only country in the UK not to have it's own parliment. Scottish schools and education, for example, come entirely under the control of the Scottish parliament. No Englishman has a thing to say on any education policy north of the border, yet the budget cut or increase for some small primary school in Slough hang on the say-so of the MP for Kilmarnock. How fair is that? To be fair, some Scots in the UK parliament choose to abstain from voting on such issues, but the embarassing fact remains, politically, the English are the underdogs in the UK today.

Surely Scottish money is issued by the bank of Scotland?

Emdiar,

Agree entirely (well mostly, I'm not sure about the underdogs bit), I was in no way having a pop at our neighbours in the south, England is a great country. It does get annoying though when the BBC talk about "The national stadium" meaning Wembley, and th National team meaning "England". They too often forget what the first B in BBC stands for!

The voting in Parliament you mention is known as the "West Lothian question". I reckon you'll soon find that Scottish MPs are excluded from voting on matters which affect only England.

The Bank of Scotland is not the equivalent of the Bank of England. The BofE is the reserve bank for the UK, and should be call the Bank of the United Kingdom. The Bank of Scotland is a commerical bank like Barclays or Nat West. In fact it recently merged with the Halifax Building society to form HBOS.

Three Scottish banks, Bank of Scotland, Royal bank of Scotland, and Clydesdale Bank are licenced to issue their own bank notes. These are not legal tender, even in Scotland. For every five pound note they issue, they must have a Bank of England one in their vaults.

Vive la difference!

1. People who say "London, England" or "Paris, France". Everybody knows where London and Paris are. An American once asked me where I come from, and as Birmingham was the closest well known city, I lied and said that.

"You  mean Birmingham, England", she insisted. The thing is, Birmingham, England, the 2nd largest city in Great Britain, being originally a sixth century Saxon settlement, and featured in the Doomsday book, 1086, (Bermingeham), has earned the right to be known by its name, without further qualification. Let Birmingham, Alabama include an address in its moniker, and Paris, Texas.

I don't want to offend anyone, it just irritates the hell out of me.

TO BE CONTINUED.........

Easy Livin wrote: Three Scottish banks, Bank of Scotland, Royal bank of Scotland, and Clydesdale Bank are licenced to issue their own bank notes. These are not legal tender, even in Scotland. For every five pound note they issue, they must have a Bank of England one in their vaults.

Very interesting! This has solved a question I have often pondered over! Thanks.

Just to be annoyingly literal, anyone in the Western Hemisphere can be called American- between North America, South America and Latin America, it's pretty well sewn up. Any Canadians who dislike being called American, please tell me what continent you're on

I gotta say, emdiar, a little Birmingham clarification might still be called for- our little Alabama town unfortunately made it into the public consciousness starting September 15th, 1963. The UK city was definitely there first, but most Americans (especially African-Americans) will think of church bombings and MLK long before the Saxon connection.

James Lee wrote: 1. the word "proactive"-  the linguistic equivalent of the Macarena- i.e., it only really started to bother me around the 800th time I heard it...a favorite of middle-managers everywhere 2. Pickups and 4WDs that are mainly driven as commuter cars...you're using way too much petroleum and road space. If you really do a lot of hauling and offroading, fine, but how many Navigators and Escalades do you really see in the wilderness? 3. Avocado and avocado-based foods...like guacamole...the same shade of green as toxic waste, and just about as tasty

My God, on these three things we are of one mind completely. It's uncanny!! I WILL NOT allow anyone to get away with saying "proactive" without demending that they explain the difference between that, and plain old fashioned "active". It's redundant, and used by the type of people who like "drawing" inverted commas in the air as they speak.

And those Moms doing the school run in a 4x4. When I was boy I walked the three miles between home and school. there and back, and as a result am not an obese adult.

Avacado dip is a by-product of lyposuction! 

......TO CONTINUE,

2. Baseball caps!! This vile ubiquitous article of youth fashion headwear has no place in GB, where no one plays the game, (the closest thing we have is "rounders", a game played exclusively by school girls!). Every street corner in Britain is populated with teenaged boys all sporting caps bearing the names of various baseball teams of which they have never heard. Last week I asked my nephew how many baseball stars he could name. Answer: None, though he admitted to having heard the name Babe Ruth somewhere, perhaps in a film? he wasn't sure! Didn't stop him walking around like Donald Duck all day though!

....TO BE CONTINUED.

...I could do without the word "dis" or "dissing"...it's cropping up more and more, and not just by typical underage rap-speakers. I think I heard it twice today, without any conscious irony, on national press coverage of a court trial! It's just a damn prefix! Put a word after it, find a reasonable synonym, or SHUT UP!

[pauses to gnaw through his own face off in frustration] 

...and don't even get me started with "bling-bling". Is the human race going to be talking more and more like toddlers for the rest of my life? The living will envy the deaf...

...or am i just an old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud?

James Lee wrote: ...I could do without the word "dis" or "dissing"...it's cropping up more and more, and not just by typical underage rap-speakers. I think I heard it twice today, without any conscious irony, on national press coverage of a court trial! It's just a damn prefix! Put a word after it, find a reasonable synonym, or SHUT UP! ...and don't even get me started with "bling-bling". Is the human race going to be talking more and more like toddlers for the rest of my life? The living will envy the deaf... ...or am i just an old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud?

I don't like the double-barrelled version, but the single "bling" on it's own resounds quite well with me. My little daughter (10 months old) recently acquired a magpie's lust for all things "bling", and really, there's no other word that is sufficient.

Business phrases wind me up, though - like "pro-active" (UGH!!!), I also hate "going forwards", "market penetration", "leverage" (as a verb), "the channel" and worst of all "webinar". I will not go to a "webinar", as there is no such thing.

Also to do with languages, I hate hearing other English people in countries where English is not widely spoken;

I went to France recently, and actually heard English people speaking English more loudly or more s-l-o-w-l-y in a vain attempt to get themselves understood by French people who stood there blankly not understanding (or having fun pretending they couldn't understand!).

My French is basic, at best, but I made the effort to speak the language (like French people do when they come to England) and found that French people were more than willing to take the time to gesticulate or even draw maps in order to assist, on the rare occasions that communication became an issue, as most had a basic command of English but were as nervous about using it as I was about using my command of their language. I think I used a total of 6 phrases (apart from those I read from menus!), including "Bonjour", "Une bier s'il vous plait", "Merci" and "Au Revoir". Surely those aren't beyond the average English person???

Another rant bites the dust!!

On the language front, though I don't want to waste one of my 5 goes on it, the flagrant splitting of infinitives, such as "To boldly go where no man...etc." It's just plain clumsy and wrong.

Sentences like the completely  illogical "I don't got none!" in place of "I don't have any", or "I haven't got any", or simply "I have none." all three of which suffice.

Velvetclown wrote: Free Scotland !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From what exactly?

(edit: Scottish money IS legal tender in England.)

Velvetclown wrote: From the domination of England  Scotland is a country of it´s own

You are so missinformed Velvet, as to be laughable. You're just another one who's seen the (wildly historically inaccurate and Hollywoodized) film "Brave Heart" and think you know all about it.

emdiar wrote: Scottish money IS legal tender in England.

Scottish money is widely accepted in England, but it is not legal tender anywhere in the UK.

I'm not a lawyer, but in layman's terms legal tender means that it MUST be accepted by a creditor in setlement of a debt. Only money issued by the Bank of England carries such an obligation. (I've since discovered that Bank Of England coins carry this obligation, but not Notes!)

Interetingly (or perhaps not!), there are limits on the number of coins which constitute "Legal tender". These are:

COINS:

Circulating coins are legal tender throughout the United Kingdom for the following amounts:

£ 2 - for any amount

£1 - for any amount

50p - for any amount not exceeding £10

25p (Crown) - for any amount not exceeding £10

20p - for any amount not exceeding £10

10p - for any amount not exceeding £5

5p - for any amount not exceeding £5

2p - for any amount not exceeding 20p

1p - for any amount not exceeding 20p

Sorry for boring those who find all this extremely dull!

Hang on - didn't you miss out the £5 coin?

Certif1ed wrote: Hang on - didn't you miss out the £5 coin?

Does anyone actually have that much money?

Velvetclown wrote: Don´t ever make Velvetclown angry when he is serious You Dutch peice of

Who's Dutch?

Easy Livin wrote: emdiar wrote: Scottish money IS legal tender in England. Scottish money is widely accepted in England, but it is not legal tender anywhere in the UK. I'm not a lawyer, but in layman's terms legal tender means that it MUST be accepted by a creditor in setlement of a debt. Only money issued by the Bank of England carries such an obligation. (I've since discovered that Bank Of England coins carry this obligation, but not Notes!) Interetingly (or perhaps not!), there are limits on the number of coins which constitute "Legal tender". These are: COINS: Circulating coins are legal tender throughout the United Kingdom for the following amounts: £ 2 - for any amount £1 - for any amount 50p - for any amount not exceeding £10 25p (Crown) - for any amount not exceeding £10 20p - for any amount not exceeding £10 10p - for any amount not exceeding £5 5p - for any amount not exceeding £5 2p - for any amount not exceeding 20p 1p - for any amount not exceeding 20p Sorry for boring those who find all this extremely dull!

I am also no lawyer, but I've often spent Scottish bank notes in England, and have yet to be arrested for it!

That's gotta hurt, ain't it three?

threefates wrote: I don't like men telling me what to do all the time.  I prefer to slam them up against the wall.. and do it myself thank you!

Yeah, baby, yeah!!!!

That's JUST how I like my women!!!

landberkdoten wrote: That's gotta hurt, ain't it three?

Oh, I think you'd enjoy it too much to worry about the pain...

threefates wrote: landberkdoten wrote: That's gotta hurt, ain't it three? Oh, I think you'd enjoy it too much to worry about the pain...

Damn right! You know I'm a prog-slut and I like it hard... up against the wall for instance 

threefates wrote: Thats why I love you Land...I'd say that was probably the reason "the wall came down"..

Oink, oink?   (completely turned on, grunting and groaning incessantly...)