Misuse of the term "abandoned." I will admit law school spoiled this one for me. Abandonment requires a surrender of all claims of ownership. When I park my car out back, and don't move it for a month, I have not abandoned it, unless I no longer claim to own it.
I hear the term abandoned used for vacant or unused property that someone still owns, m brain screams that is not right. If it was abandoned anyone could just move in, start using it, claim ownership. Trash tossed in the bin, is abandoned, a building left vacant, or a car parked and unused is not abandoned. Bugs me, the term has a precise meaning.
Celebrities. I occasionally look at TMZ.com, I have no idea who 99% of the people they are reporting on are, and even less idea why anyone would care what they are doing.
Spam comments. If you want to advertise on my blog, Google will be glad to sell you space. All you do is test my ability to report and delete.
People who stop and block traffic to pick up or drop off passengers. All to often it is a massive black SUV. Often there is a parking space a few car lengths away, sometimes they spot and block the parking space they should have pulled into. At times I wish I could write traffic tickets.
People who question if I am serious about retiring, or ask, what will I do?
The following three are a matter of there is an appropriate time and place for everything, and this is not it.
- People smoking pot on the sidewalk. If I walked down the street drinking from a bottle of bourbon, society would look down on me. Legal or not, there are social norms to observe.
- People, mostly teenagers, who are loud and disruptive on the subway. Again there are social norms, to living in a civilized society.
- People holding obviously personal conversations, on mobile phones in public. Passersby don't need to, don't want to hear the ugly details of your family life.
I'm glad YOU feel better. Now I'M pisse off!
ReplyDeleteI am sure you have you have a list
Deletepissed is what I meant. Pisse must be French for something.
ReplyDeleteAnd our English friends have an entirely difference meaning.
DeleteAmusingly, it means exactly what it means in English. I wonder if that's where we got the word from.
DeleteI've never thought about the word abandoned and you are right. It has a very specific meaning.
ReplyDeleteI briefly flirted with TMZ many years ago. It was a waste of time.
We've learnt to live with and deal with spam but we still don't like it.
Ubers are classics for blocking roads.
That is funny about you retiring. You've made it quite clear and you have plenty of plans for your retirement.
The last of final trio annoys me greatly. Why talk hands free on your phone when you can put it to your ear? No one want to hear you or whoever you are talking to. At least holding your phone like a dinner plate in front of your mouth seems to have disappeared.
Private conversations in public places
DeleteYes, telling them to stick it in their ear would be an appropriate response. I don't know if y'all have that euphemism down there.
DeleteAs a very grumpy old English woman, I understood about half of your post. (TMZ? What the hell is that?). Even so, it kind of cheered my cold, dead heart that someone is as grumpy as I am.
ReplyDeleteMade me laugh first thing in the morning
DeleteDear Grumpy: I don't know who you are, but I get the feeling we'd likely become good friends. 😁 (btw: I'm David's husband, Jay)
DeleteI am abandoning this comment right here for you.
ReplyDeleteI have a colleague who seems to think she owns what she abandons on Facebook,
DeleteI don't think that would hold up in court, so to speak.
DeleteCarlos, when he drove, was one of those drivers who thought that if he had to stop in the middle of traffic to pick someone up it was just fine. I used to yell at him, reminding him how HE would be angry if someone did that to him.
ReplyDeleteAnd the cell phone conversations? I don't want to know that. I sometimes feel like giving the cell phone user my opinion on their call as they hang up.
I could go on .....
rant away
DeleteHow about people who say "ekspecially."
DeleteI screamed at the TV over breakfast as a news story focused on a woman who kept saying ekspecially, "Find me the 'k'!!!"
I appreciate your various irritations because I have several of my own. However, until this point in my life I have never had an issue with the word "abandoned". Now I guess I will have to add it to my list.
ReplyDeleteAs a lover of words, you should.
DeleteYesterday in Old Town, I encountered an unusual number of stopped cars. Must have been the nice weather. They all received my special prolonged horn honk.
ReplyDeleteGood thing I was not there to touch the horn, broken fingers are painful.
DeleteI can relate to all of these. I've especially noticed lately, the cars parked in front of the grocery store waiting for someone inside instead of parking in a spot. I wonder why they think they are so special.
ReplyDeleteI wish they would tow them
DeleteOh I think we'd get on.
ReplyDeleteLots of kindred spirits
DeleteWell I could go on and on and I agree with many of the ones you've mentioned, and the pot smoking was one of my biggest ones. I have nothing against smoking pot and people who want to do it... fine, but it does bother me when it's done out in public on the sidewalks. As a matter of fact when we were going to dinner one night, it just reeked of pot. Pot should be smoked in an establishment or in someone's home like you would if you're normally drinking. I mean I'm not walking down the street openly drinking a gin and tonic
ReplyDeleteOnly in New Orleans can you walk down the street with a G&T
DeleteBINGO on those last three. They all belong on your slaps list.
ReplyDeleteSome days I hit a homerun
DeleteOne of my teachers liked to appeal to their adult patients to remember only helpless things are abandoned, like kittens and small children. You are not.
ReplyDelete