What would you ban and why? (Definitely tearoom!)

Seem to remember back until the mid sixties when crisps came only in plain or cheese and onion that you could get both unsalted and salted from Walkers. Yes Smiths crisps had the little blue twisted paper bag of salt. In Leicester we had both Walkers and Smiths back then.

I would ban people from saying "do you know what I mean" at the end of every sentence or when they stop for a breath because it's very annoying and I am fed up of always answering them with 'yes I do know what you mean" I would also ban people from saying "like" all the time. Eg. I want to go to like America.

People (particularly politicians and academics) who start every response to any question on the news with"So, blah".

Before the war a friend of my Mum's worked in the Smith's factory at Portchester and her job was to wrap up the salt in those little screws of blue paper. She got paid some tiny amount, like 2d a hundred. The supervisor used to sample each batch for tightness, and if one leaked salt the whole batch was rejected and she didn't get paid for it. Eventually the work was done by machine.

I still miss the delicious smell when I drive past the site. Much nicer than the sickly smell of chocolate when we lived downwind of Cadbury's factory on the Wirral.

George

Well, I drove to a supermarket today and wish to add:

1. People who block the aisles gossiping
2. Managers who decide to reorganise the shelves so no-one can find anything
3. Customers who are never ready to pay. And then finding the exact change is top priority, not keeping the queue moving!
4. Bored husbands forced to trail along behind their happy-shopper wives. The useless man gets in the way, radiates misery, and makes the place look untidy
5. Caravans. Or rather caravan drivers. This morning's adventure involved a line of traffic doing an emergency stop due to a gent who had clearly forgotten he was towing a large box. Only his car fitted into the gap...
6. Relatives who ring up hot bothered men just back from a tiring shop and insist on having a long pointless chat
7. Road-works with no-one on duty and failed temporary traffic lights
8. White Van and Taxi drivers
9. Men, it's always men, who don't understand who has priority on a roundabout. Might extend this to ban all male drivers under 30 or over 70 (apart from me because my driving is excellent)
10. Displays of severe sunburn on scraggy tattooed ladies.

Could go on, but Moses was only allowed Ten Commandments.

Dave

Ban lorries from overtaking during daylight hours on dual carriageways. I have a length of dual carriageway close by which leads onto the motorway so lorries are always there, during peak morning travel it is not uncommon for lorries to be travelling alongside each other for the whole of the final five mile stretch with an empty road in front of them.

The BBC news noisy drumming sound introduction that goes on for ever and ever. Time they found something more acceptable..

Yeah, they must have us down for infants if they think we'll believe it's all exciting...

I've been wondering why I was getting a barrage of notifications of new postings on this thread, then had a look and saw that I started it. At 01:23 on a Sunday morning six years ago. I was probably having my nightcap and feeling a bit discursive. Perhaps I should be banned from posting in the wee hours. But it seems to have had a function!

For the record my views have changed somewhat since my original gripe about restricting the availability of chemicals to the general public. I don't like not being to buy concentrated nitric or sulphuric acid on the internet, but accept that it probably had to happen. You can find a recipe for almost any anything on the internet now - when I was a kid it was the knowledge not the not the means which was restricted.

On a lighter note, in the spirit of Dave's supermarket related Commandments I would ban people who feel that they have to mash their payment card into the checkout machine - IT'S CALLED CONTACTLESS FOR A REASON shouts my inner voice. It bugs me out of all proportion to its importance. I want to follow them outside and 'have a word'.

Robin.

Steady on old chap!

Edited By Peter Greene 🇨🇦 on 22/07/2022 01:33:01

Likewise ban people who miss out the letter T in words such as computer which becomes compu-a and then there is mo-a car etc

Then you have the seemingly mass of people who raise the end of every sentence as though asking a question, it's called a rising inflection and annoys the hell out of me as it's like a silent way of saying 'do you know what I mean?

I do sympathise with the supermarket experience. It gets me every time. Whatever queue I pick there's always a mentally challenged pedantic individual who owns a money purse. You know the thing...half round with a lipped lid to slide the change into. The bill comes to £17.54p so they rummage around in assorted chopping bags or handbags to find said purse and attempt to count out £17.54p. I’m silently screaming "You can blasted well see there's not enough in there you daft bint". But, No, they have to check and double check before putting it all away.. while I'm again screaming "For Gods sake take out the £2.54p first".. Then it’s back to the bran tub lucky dip looking for the purse with the folding stuff, counting out the notes and of course then going back to the coin purse.
Just when you pray the whole thing may be over - yeah, they want their lottery tickets checked, Oh and yes we'll have scratchies ---now what number scratchies do I want...?

I've tried the self-service checkout but that is inhabited by demons that really hate me. I;ve given up trying to work it myself since the machine shave a personal vendetta against me. I call the supervisor and again suffer that withering look of "Are you an imbecile if you can do it yourself?.". After I've explained that a) the machines hate me an b) if no-one used the supervisor she wouldn't have a job I get another withering look before they start on my basket. And of course the machine promptly throws a wobbly, need rebooting twice, can't read at least one bar-code that any other machine there can handle fine because they just have to go check... the content weight doesn't match the product....

I try to take it all in good heart - I really try- because I’m plugged into their free EV charge point outside and I might as well be in the shop as sitting in my car reading a book while I get free leccy....

pgk

Especially one advert where moh-ah is constantly repeated

but it is possible that his teeth make t's too difficult to pronounce

As I am blessed with the ability to count I like to return the pocket full of change that I acquire on a visit to the pub so I count out the price of a pint while waiting to be served, the pub welcome the return of their change as I believe the banks make a charge to supply change and card sales also charge. Many places are now card only which does put them at risk if their systems go down. I was recently in a branch of Starbucks which is now cashless and their electronic payment systems went down, from somewhere they produced a card machine for the old print and sign system, when did you last see one of those? Luckily I had my plastic card and could be served but the phone only customers were out of luck. I usually carry cash, card and phone so can cover most payment methods, bank transfer and PayPal if required.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 22/07/2022 11:14:09

hey pgk, bint its a long while since I've heard that one!

We caught the habit off those beastly Australians. Top quality British telly like Crossroads was pushed off the air by Neighbours, a cheap inferior soap made by foreign ex-cons with corks dangling from their hats. Everyone loved it.

Apart from the sets wobbling when the actors leaned on them and Benny being nowhere near as sexy as Kylie, Crossroads obviously provided insightful social comment better than Jane Austin. Unlike Neighbours, where Harold - believed eaten by sharks - returned much later to the series after being rescued by a passing trawler. No problem explaining that: he'd just taken a long time to recover from amnesia.

Lets ban all TV and Radio programmes with ridiculous plot lines. Like the Fonz jumping the shark, and Patrick Duffy's return to Dallas in which an entire season of the soap had to be explained away as a dream...

Reminds me of this exchange on a British Quiz show:

Q. Who was shot dead in Dallas in 1964?
A. J.R.Ewing

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 22/07/2022 12:20:03

Who was shot dead in Dallas in 1964? The only famous person I know of who was shot in Dallas was JFK, 22 Nov 63

Martin C

PS Robin, the contactless limit is probably £100, if you exceed it you need to plug your card into the machine. It's too easy now to exceed that £100 limit.

Edited By Martin Connelly on 22/07/2022 12:37:31

Bobby Ewing got bumped off for a season in '85 but JR was only shot, not shot dead. I was a fan

Another is ban people relying on or blaming auto correct, try reading before press the bl**dy button

Let's ban SillyOldDuffers who trust their failing memories rather than checking! If only the forum had an 'Ignore Member' button...

PS I can remember where I was though. Dad came back from work early bursting with the news and fear of Nuclear War. I was very brave. Being young and foolish and not knowing anything about the cold war helped!