h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

perhaps that means they are so thrilled about the movie it's never ever going to be on dvd or on tv in a few years probably at Christmas time...

The first direct ad in arty black and white where a platypus walks into a bar.

Have they SEEN the size of a platypus? I remember being astounded on visiting Oz at how tiny they were. It's ads like this which perpetuate the myth that they're sort of ottery, when they're kinda shrewy.

People who toot their horn when driving away. They've just said goodbye; as they're in something similar to a glass box, presumably they also gave a wave right before they pulled off. Why do they need to beep too?

Deb
Dog-sitting in an area with more traffic than home

Totally agreed. It's a stupid, annoying and pointless 'tradition', usually carried out by old folk in Micra's for some reason

I hadn't noticed the Micra correlation.

'Of' and 'have', abbreviated ''ve', pronounced 'uv', in the carelessly spoken language....

Add to that the people who won't accept there's anything wrong with saying 'should of'.

And 'those ones'. Just 'those' will do thank you (my Mother has started doing this).

PP.

that reminds me of some of my (non-native-English speakers) colleagues when they occasionally say "three ones" ... but I have used it myself before realising that it slipped out.

...should've thos'uns...

Sounds more and more like American hill country dialect, the hill country subculture representing a continuation of the tradition that produced Geoffrey Chaucer.

Both of my grandfathers had hill country roots, by the by, while both of my grandmothers had wild west backgrounds.

A recently developed petty hate: that the person who sits nearest me at the office has developed a habit of clicking the little button on his pen, overandoverandoverandoverandover again, all day, every day. It's the most distracting thing, ever. It had me in tears earlier today.

Get in before them, and use a sharp knife to cause a small splinter on the end of the pen. They'll click it, and hurt themselves.

Do it at irregular mornings so there's no pattern. They'll develop a feeling/fear of hurting themselves from clicking pens, and stop.

The world will thank you.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrtrrgh! You've just reminded me of the person who does the same with one of those staple remover things. She's also an irritating maniac for a lot of other reasons, which doesn't make the clicking any easier to endure.

PC stab the pen into his left eye. I'll bake you a cake with a file in it

Same goes for you, KB.

I think it's more frustrating for me because I *do* like the person otherwise, and don't want to say anything. I would replace all his pens with the kind without clickers, except he gets in earlier than I (I roll in around 6:30, he gets in around 5). Maybe I'll just leave a package of regular pens on his desk next time he's traveling.

Then that's the answer! You're both getting up far too early. It's making him into a nervous pen-clicking wreck.

I prescribe an extra three hours in bed each morning for both of you.

(Not necessarily the *same* bed, but whatever tickles your fancy. )

Sadly, staying in bed three hours later is not feasible. Not least because it would take twice as long commuting during rush hour.

But also because of another petty hate: there is something wrong with my network login at the office that affects my use of the accounting system. I can only perform certain functions if a minimal number of people (preferably none) besides me are logged on to the server. My options are to arrive at 6:30 and leave at 3:30, or come in when everyone else does, and work till at least 8:30.

I actually get more work done between 6:30 and 9 than I do the rest of the day. Which would indicate that another petty hate is constant interruptions...

I like getting in early myself. It's great being able to work in peace. Luckily there's a fair bit of scope for varying my hours, though, because my body clock often disagrees with the clock on the office wall.

PH: the non-zippy pockets in Craghopper trousers that stuff always falls out of. I know there are zippy pockets too, but that's not the point. Pockets that stuff falls out of are no good to man nor beast and have no business being on otherwise decent trousers.

I love going in early - we have a start time of 7am ~ 9am. With a corresponding finish time of 4pm~6pm. But if you start at 7 and try to leave at 4 the bosses go a bit mental. So everyone just gets annoyed at not being able to work from early on - which would make more sense since we all talk to people in Asia a lot and that would give us much more time to talk to them.

We have a kind of flexitime which means as long as we're present between 9.30 and 4 we can do the hours we want. I tend to do 7.30 til 4, because of the traffic (M6/M5 interchange anyone?), because of the quiet hour or so before the phones start, and because, like Sho, we deal with Asian countries. Also getting home earlier is nice. There's rarely a problem leaving on time.

That's like the complete opposite of a petty hate!

Deb