Q: Do you have any nonacademic blogs you read that approximate the misery and smackdown of ours?
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Oh, people are clamoring for some "flava," especially because Reg's note is food related. Someone, I won't say who, HIRAM, wrote, "Do you get it? Flava? Both ways? The way we use it, but also flavor, because it's food?" Hiram thinks I'm an idiot.
Anyway, from Kitchenette's "Behind Closed Ovens" feature from today and linked above:
One busy Saturday night, a crowd of about 20-30 people suddenly came in. My friend thought one of his coworkers was kidding when he said a woman in a wedding dress was among them. Then he looked up, and sure enough, there’s a woman in a wedding dress, a groom, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and a bunch of well-dressed people. Yep, it was a wedding party.
Needless to say, the bar was crowded and all the seats taken. Somehow, the wedding party seemed surprised by this, and one older man (father of the bride, maybe) came to complain to the manager, basically telling him he should make some of the customers move so that they could get enough tables for the wedding party. The manager refused, saying he could not/would not make paying customers move, and asked why the wedding party hadn’t made a reservation. The guy’s response? “Who makes a reservation at a bar?!”
Of course by now the whole place was staring at the wedding party in disbelief and amusement. Some of the men in the wedding party headed over to some of the tables in what my friend guessed was an effort to guilt them into moving, which failed, as most of the tables proceeded to order rounds of drinks or more food.
Up next comes the angry bride, who demanded to know why they were still serving “those people” when it was her wedding day. The manager explained that they are paying customers, and he would not force them to move. The bride then accused the staff of “ruining her wedding.” The manager again asked about why they didn’t make a reservation. The bride started crying, saying that “it’s not fair,” yadda yadda yadda.
There's a whole family of blogs about customers, teachers, and romantic misstatements under the "Not Always Right" name. Not quite equivalent, but close sometimes.
ReplyDeleteMany moons ago the usenet group alt.peeves had a similar vibe. Haven't read usenet for ... ::sigh:: ... about 15 years, though.
ReplyDeleteI adore "Behind Closed Ovens." I use it for breaks between grading (grade two things, read a story. Grade two more things, read another story).
ReplyDeleteSo many! Iworkatapubliclibrary (especially of interest to proffie types), How May We Hate You (hotel concierges.) Love Behind Closed Ovens too.
ReplyDeleteI like reading "Of Two Minds" by Charles Hugh Smith.
ReplyDeleteThe other relevant one I follow is "Shit My Students Write", but that's academic too.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a "Not Always Right" blog for folks in the shipping industry, someone probably has posted a story about the time I walked into a UPS distribution facility and asked how to Fedex something.
Another academic blog or not, you can't beat this:
Delete"At the Battle of Hastings, King Harold’s Army, for the most part, fought on foot using the ancient technique of making the soldiers into phalluses which were too hard for the Normans to penetrate."
you can't beat this
DeleteI c wut u did there.
I gather there are somewhat similar blogs for medical professionals, but I suspect they're more hidden than CM, because people really go ballistic when caregivers blow off steam (even though it's a very good idea for them to do so, for all the same reasons that CM serves a useful purpose). I don't really follow any of those, but I do read a few blogs written by pastors. They're gentler, and very circumspect, but there's the occasional prophetic calling-out of various members of the Christian body who threaten said body, usually by their intolerance of other members and/or their insistence of trying to preserve the church of their childhood/young adulthood (which may never have actually existed, at least as they remember it) in amber.
ReplyDeleteinsistence ^on^ . Aargh. English is actually my first language, but sometimes you wouldn't know it.
DeleteDr. Grumpy in the House is a great medical blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kate! I've just checked into iworkatapubliclibrary.com for the first time, and now I have another obsession to add to my lengthening list.
ReplyDeleteI discovered notalwaysright.com via clientsfromhell.net, which catalogs the woes of freelancing professionals—mostly graphic designers and web designers, but with the occasional editor or translator clocking in. I'm a freelance editor, proofreader, and translator myself, so I (a) feel their pain, and (b) learn a lot about dealing with clients from other people's missteps.
Dogshaming. There's a cat shaming site, too. The difference is that dogs often show remorse. The cats are never sorry.
ReplyDeleteBunnyshaming. Those little jerks really have it coming!
DeleteAnother vote for Dr. Grumpy. Neurology, complete with hospital and clinic work, historical anecdotes, and Skool Nerse time (his wife occasionally contributes).
ReplyDeleteWhoa, I shouldn't have read this post. Now I'm binge-reading several different blogs, and I don't have the time to do so. (but I will nonetheless continue on and ignore all other pressing matters...)
ReplyDeleteThere is even a name for the phenom: Archive Fatigue. So don't you dare look at TV Tropes. I shall not link it. Get back to work.
DeleteA reader sends in this link:
ReplyDeleteOverheard in New York
d00d, srsly? You give me this?
DeleteHey, I can put down the bottle anytime I want to, but telling me not to scroll through this would be like telling me to skip the next 10 meals.