start a victory garden and ration your IRRATIONALLY ANGRY feelings, part 3

Sometimes I think we're averse to any traffic control. My work building management started a petition to our alderman to put up stop signs on the arterial 3-lane street in front of the building. His staff said they had to commission a dept. of transportation traffic study before they could authorize its installation. It still took a year and a stern letter about the numerous crashes over that year before they got installed.

everybody over here sees "STOP HERE ON RED" signs and thinks that means "no turn on red", fucking infuriating.

yet they see "NO TURN ON RED" and it's like the sign said "I DOUBLE DAWG DARE YEWWWWWW" to them

WTF did I type "adverse" for. jesus.

Thing that tripped me out in AUS was (almost} no stop signs at small intersections.

Sunny's all "Well that's what the white line's for," and I'm like "Oh, the one I just drove over?"

(Figuratively. I wasn't allowed to drive down there for some reason.)

heh.

if you want to see the stop sign system really break down, wait until you come to an intersection where the lights are out or broken and they're all flashing red

Non-traffic related irrational anger - when I go out to eat or to a bar that isn't necessarily beer-specific but I know they have at least a couple of decent beers on tap and ask what's available and get "what kind of beer do you like?" or "what are you looking for?" as a reply. I like all kinds of beers and would rather try something new or unusual depending on what is available, just give me the damn list.

Agree

other drivers' behavior at 4-way blinking red lights has caused me so much anguish

I notice that the drivers on the busier street always treat the blinking red as a "slow down" light

this may actually be irrational-- but I hate sports terminology in political news stories so much. Right now Huffpost has a headline "House Prepares to Punt on DHS." What the hell does punt mean in the context of that headline? "Punting" is kicking a football through some metal rods held aloft by another metal rod, right?

Look it up, nerd.

;) Punting = giving up in this context.

lol yeah that word has multiple definitions and they are not even using the football one there

yeah they are, unless you think they are preparing to propel a small boat

1.
FOOTBALL
kick (the ball) after it is dropped from the hands and before it reaches the ground.
"he used to be able to punt a football farther than anyone"
(of an offensive team) turn possession over to the defensive team by punting the ball after failing to make a first down.
"the Raiders could get nowhere with their possession, and had to punt"
(of a player) act as the punter.
2.
delay in answering or taking action; equivocate.
"he would continue to punt on questions of Medicare"

you're looking at the noun definitions, it has multiple defs as a noun AND a verb

def #2 derives from #1 tho

you understand that 2 comes from 1 tho right?

brands that quickly jump on internet memes

Last week Scott Walker said "I'm going to punt on that one" when asked about evolution. News sites helpfully ran stories like "Walker Punts On Evolution"

You're a bad kicker if you punt it through the uprights though.

Also, I hate it when goal posts are called "uprights".

eh shrug

When people sit in the seat next to you and sits spread eagle

when you go on a trip with friends and one of them decides not to shower...for three and a half days

these are not i

ya i know but i had to get it off my chest, was tearing me up inside

When restaurants with spicy cuisines insist on not making my food spicy no matter how much I assure them I want spicy.

^sign of bad restaurant

^^ also a sign of bad restaurant clientele

I was with a friend at a Thai restaurant (the kind where a lot of Thai people, & w/ a "secret" Thai-only menu) and he ordered his food to be "Thai spicy." The server didn't speak English very well and she smiled/grimaced and said, "Oh, no no no.... too spicy!" She called over someone else and there was a lot more "Are you sure? Too spicy!"

Even after all that it was pretty hot, but definitely not "Thai spicy." Maybe if he had pre-paid?

"thai spicy" is just a dumb thing to say, i would have clowned him as well.

I thought it was a common term in Thai cuisine?

oh ok, lol, carry on then

while i'm here, people asking for omissions or substitutions while ordering makes me ia. no wait, maybe it makes me ie. i guess when they make a big to-do about it, i become ia.

and by "people" i guess i just mean "my mom", lol

I thought it was a common term in Thai cuisine?

American hot is a useful term, usually they can nail that one for me.

I don't go out to eat too much, but when I do it's usually for thai or chinese. I can't remember the last time I specified a spice preference when ordering, but I feel like in situations where I've done that, waiters have just asked "how spicy do you want it" and my fellow diners and I would always reply on a numerical scale from 1-10. I do remember an acquaintance telling me that her secret was to order it "native", which just cringe.

Anyway, googling "thai spicy" led me to this article.

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2013/11/how-i-learned-to-stop-ordering-thai-spicy.html

I learned "Thais spicy" from the Thai chef at the seafood restaurant where I worked and I've heard it around. Maybe it's regional but Googling "ordering thai spicy" shows it's definitely a thing.

That search led me to a blog series on how to get around the spice police.

If (like me) you’ve ever tried to order a spicy dish in a restaurant and been refused (or served a clearly less spicy version), this series of audio features is for you. We’ve already covered Korean, Indonesian, and Hindi / Urdu; this week’s lesson: Thai.

In this installment, Nongnoi, owner of Thai Thai Grocery in Elmhurst, Queens—a native of Ratchaburi Province in central Thailand, shares several phrases that will help ensure your next Thai meal is spiced to the max. In restaurants, you can simply order your food “Thai spicy” (“ped bab cone Thai ka”) and pray you’ll be up to the challenge. But in my experience, “Thai spicy” packs a very mean punch—even for hardened spice lovers.

Oh what do you know the phrase "chili head" makes me ia.

I have ordered thai spicy before in "authentic" places in elmhurst and the like and yeah, it's damn spicy. I like it but it kind of becomes an experience beyond just eating.

This was a Szechuan place and I ordered one of the legit Szechuan dishes and I specified spicy a few times and she even came back to check.

I don't really get IA I guess, more like irrationally disappointed. But this has become the general life's little complaints thread.

Start saying "Thai spicy" everywhere you go. Say nothing else.

lol

There was a wings place (Cluck U.?) in my college town that had a defcon-style scale of hotness for its wings -- something like mild, medium, hot, 4-alarm fire, atomic, h-bomb, etc., and there was supposedly an "off-menu" level of hot called like global thermonuclear meltdown or something where they had "taken it off the menu because of this kid that went to the hospital when he ate it."

yeah, that sounds like Cluck U.

http://www.seamless.com/Finedining/img/VendorMenuPlusTabContentImages/lg_88828_0.jpg?isConsumer=Y

lol "must sign waiver"

My friend who has lived in Thailand and speaks enough Thai to get by will ask he the waiter to make it like how he or she would like the dish prepared which usually works though sometimes he's gotten waitstaff who are like "I don't speak Thai you moron" cause they're from Burma or something.

I never actually encountered anything shockingly hot when I was (briefly) in Thailand but I'm not sure if they just gave us the farang version by default. I did hit up the condiments at a noodle stand and dramatically underestimated how unbelievably, shockingly hot the dried chili powder was though.