Starbucks and Politics

My local Starbucks has some cute young lady baristas who will be able to vote this year for the first time. They know me pretty well by now so today they engaged me in conversation as for whom I was going to vote. One of them told me she was a feminist but that she was uncomfortable voting for a woman for president. When I asked why, she said, "What if she gets bad PMS and then decides to bomb a country?"

I had to inform her that Hillary Clinton is 61 years old and way past menopause by now, so I was pretty sure she was NOT going to get PMS!

"Oh, good point," she said!

Besides, with that excuse, how can women ever advance any further? This from a self-professed feminist, no less!

Just so we're clear, though, this is a question of being young, not being less intelligent. This young lady strikes me as very smart, just learning still!

Skool is Gud

It drives me crazy when I see misspellings on public signs. How hard is it to open a dictionary? When I was filling up my tank at a local Exxon, I saw this message (play the video). A misspelling and a typo? Sheesh! In case you can't see it because of the scrolling, if you're hungrey you can go into the snank shop. Okey-dokey!

Self-Confidence

At my local Starbucks, there is a small chalkboard where the barista is able to write his or her drink recommendation for the day. I liked what Brian had to write - that shows self-confidence!

Pet Peeve #821: Voice Mail Systems

Here's one that gets me. I have a voice mail system at the office and a separate one on my cell phone. I also have an answering machine at home that I can check remotely by pressing keys on a phone, just like voice mail. Of course, I also travel a lot and stay in a lot of hotels, and the phones in my room have their own voice mail systems...

AND THEY ALL USE DIFFERENT CODES!

On some systems, I have to press 3 to erase a message, but on other systems 3 means save the current message and move to the next one! On some I use 8 to erase a message but on others 8 means to call the person who left the message! Do you think I can keep all these systems straight? The simple answer: NO. I always end up erasing messages I want to keep and calling people I don't want to talk to at the moment.

On my office phone, I have to press 2 to hear new messages. Where's the sense in that? Most others use 1 for that. But if I hit 1 on my office phone it means start a fire in a random part of the building...I think. I don't know; I'm afraid to hit that one.

So here's my question: why on Earth can't sadistic voice mail system inventors standardize on one set of codes? Make it simple! Oh, wait, it's because they are SADISTIC!

Strange Situation #351 - Elevators

I was with a friend a couple of weeks ago. We were walking down a hall toward an elevator. I told him, "You know what's weird? It seems more often than I would expect I press an elevator button to call an elevator and the elevator door instantly opens. No big deal, right? But then, someone walks out! I always find that disconcerting, as if the elevator had been sitting at that level for a long time and the person inside was trapped until I saved him. But the person never looks grateful or upset, so I have to believe that I happened to hit the button just at the moment when the elevator arrived!" My friend said that was weird and that that has never happened to him.

He then pressed the button to call the elevator. The doors instantly opened...and someone walked out. Not looking grateful or scared at all. But my friend looked a little surprised!