HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: esther@verdix.com (Esther Lumsdon)
Subject: Re: RADIO SHACK FASCISM
Organization: Verdix Corp.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 18:02:57 GMT

scooter@hirgon.hw.stratus.com (Scott Jeffrey) writes:

>In article <ATAYLOR.92Aug17175701@gauss.nmsu.edu>, ataylor@nmsu.edu (Nosy) writes:
>> <In article <whitlock.63.0@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu> whitlock@vaxb.gbus.virginia.edu (Reid E. Whitlock) writes:
>> 
>> <   Those of you who have recently shopped in a Radio Shack outlet may have 
>> <   encounteredthe salesperson requesting, at time of purchase, your last four 
>> <   digits of your phone number (or was it SSAN?), and your address and name. 
>> <   This is ostensibly "for our records".
>> 
>> 	A friend...well, not really a friend, more of "some guy
>> 	named Sandy I used to know who was rather a jerk" once
>> 	told me that Radio Shack salespeople have a QUOTA of
>> 	names/addresses that they must meet per month....hence
>> 	the pushiness of some who may be, shall we say, a bit
>> 	low on the totem pole of Radio ShackDom.

>	Crimminy!  What would they rather have, a cash sale or
>a name (a _wrong_ name and #, if they use Geoff's solution) in their
>bloody database?  Their choice speaks volumes.

>> 	Geoff's solution is appropriate to the level of 
>> 	intelligence involved, although giving 01sybok's
>> 	name and address has a certain charm to it as well.

My spouse worked in several Radio Shack stores while attending college.
The salespeople do have a quota of names to get, and they are punished
by not filling it.  When a customer declined to give a name and address (they
used to ask for name and address to make a sale, not just 4 digits of phone
number), he used to enter the district manager's name and home address.  
He did it for years after quitting the Shack, until he could no longer 
remember the address :-)

Shack employees are not punished for creatively meeting the quota requirement.
I suggest that you provide the information for a another  Radio Shack store
to the salesclerk, or politely advise him to be creative with your refusal.
The clerk won't get far in Shack without creativity.
-- 
------ Esther Lumsdon   employed by, not speaking for, Verdix Corporation
     It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
  esther@verdix.com  or  esther%verdix.com@uunet.uu.net   
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
From: charless@sco.COM (charles stross)
Subject: Re: Champagne, wine, and beer (was: Re: PRO-smoker's peeves)
Organization: The Somewhat Contagious Operation, Inc.
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 08:51:24 GMT
Keywords: newbies, champagne, crystal, fonts


In article <Bsz6AE.E0D@wpi.WPI.EDU> padutton@wpi.WPI.EDU (Peter Alan Dutton) writes (about beer):
>
>It all tastes like bitter turpentine to me. I was told "oh, wait until
>you get to England and try some REAL English Ale". It's different
>all right. It's bitterer, more unswallowable, and WARM (I was warned 
>about that). Never been to the Alps, though.
>
>By the way - are Bass Ale and Bass Shoes owned by the same company? The
>logos are strangely similar...

AHA! So you came over here and some joker said, ``why don't you try the
real ale?'' and pointed you at a pint of Bass?

That explains everything. Including the brain damage.

(ObTranslation for the CAMRA-impaired: Bass `ale' is to real beer
what Herr Doktor Joseph Mengele was to bedside manners. I believe
you can be given a dishonourable discharge from various beer
appreciation groups just for having the smell of it on your breath.)

>                        Beer at parties is Horse Urine, and there is
>rarely an alternative. And since I'm pretty bad at discerning why 
>exactly this beer is better than the other, then it all tastes like
>Horse Urine to me. See why I'm peeved?

No.

The simple solution is to bring your own. And if you can't find a
decent brewpub, try brewing your own. The difference between good 
beer and the crap served in most bars or pubs world-wide is at
least as wide as the gap between cheap vin du table and the most
appallingly exclusive appelation controlee -- if not wider. There's
a whole world of good brews out there, waiting to be explored ...

ObPeeve: beer guts.


-- 
this signature rescued by the .sigfile liberation front
From: baldwin@carina.unm.edu (Chris Baldwin)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Re: 3rd shift and the real world
Date: 19 Aug 92 17:15:11 GMT
Organization: Atheist for the Development of a Better God

In article <1992Aug18.175712.3761@cs.umb.edu> mzraly@ra.cs.umb.edu (Michael S. Zraly) writes about working nights:
>Then there are the people who call us from the West coast (I live in
>Massachusetts): they call just before we're leaving for work, or while
>we're asleep.  They *know* we work Tuesday night through Saturday night
>(a peeve in itself), but they still call.  And we wait until one of our
>nights off to call them back, to avoid limiting the length of
>conversation.  But they keep calling all week.  Shall we call them when
>we get home at 7 in the morning, EST -- 4am, Pacific?  We don't.  We
>should.
	Last fall and spring, I worked the midnight - 8am shift, when to 
class from 8am - 3pm. and then slept in the afternoon and evening. In itself,
this wasn't too bad, but I am quite happy to not be working it anymore.
	Anyway, what I hate are the people who can't get it through their
thick skulls that you are sleeping and call you. I don't mean these people
who live across the country from you. I mean people whom you deal with 
everyday. People right here in town who I would eat lunch with and then
announce loudly that I was going home to go to bed, who call 4-5 hours
later to see whats going on. NOTHING! I was asleep!

>!peeve: we avoid all manner of telemarketers by sleeping through the day.
!Peeve: Phone on which  you can turn the bell off.

>A fellow vampire,
>  Mike
!Peeve: On me recent vacation in San Diego, my pasty white, vapire, up all
night, compugeek complection managed not to get sun burned. I am now somewhat
less pasty white that I was, but I will get my natural color back in time.

ReallyGeekyYou'reBetterOffNotKnowingWhatItMeansPeeve: MIL-HDBK-217f

	If you don't know what it is, you are better off that way. If you
know, from being forced to use it, I'm sorry.
-- 
Chris Baldwin                | Robert Johnson invented the pickle! 
baldwin@carina.unm.edu       |                         - Adam Reid
          If I were a carpenter I'd hammer on my piglet. -- TMBG
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
From: rickg@netcom.com (Rick Gordon)
Subject: Re: Vegetarian arrogance
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 22:31:32 GMT
Organization: Netcom - SF Bay, Cal Northifornia
Followup-To: alt.peeves

In article <92Aug17.205516.25601@acs.ucalgary.ca> Charles Parr writes:

>In article <#96m_+m.rickg@netcom.com> rickg@netcom.com (Rick Gordon) writes:
>> [ ... ]
>>I'm not going to recommend crossposting this to a newsgroup where it
>>might be contaminated with the slightest hint of relevance, but I
>>will suggest you read the line in the header above which offers a
>>clue as to what *this* newsgroup is about.
>
>Now, Rick, if you can't pick out the peeve in what I cross-posted
>over here, you should email whatshisname ofr one of those "CLUES"
>he likes to post.

But Charles, old chum (and I use that term in its piscatorial sense only),
the cause of my confusion was that you *didn't* crosspost it.  It was
posted *only* to alt.peeves, diluting your message thereby.  If you had
crossposted it to alt.foodfight or talk.rights.vegetables or *wherever*
the article you were following up had come from, the referential
indeterminacy would have been avoided, and your post would have looked
less self-congratulatory.

>Did it really sound like Miller? I suppose that the man I like
>to think of as "Geoffry "Dauhmer" Miller" has been an influence
>on my style...But I rather fancied it was original.

I rather thought you might, but hoped in that charitable fashion one adopts
when viewing a derelict trying to find his hand at the end of his arm and
failing, that you wouldn't fancy that particular conceit quite so much.

>Regards, Charles

-- 
Rick Gordon       |  "Loud is good." 
rickg@netcom.com  |    -- Frank Loesser
From: egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk (JHenderson)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Re: Brookside
Date: 18 Aug 92 09:21:56 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

In article <9208171452.AA08344@merlin.comlab.ox.ac.uk> Gordon.Riddell@prg.oxford.ac.uk writes:
=>In <24725@castle.ed.ac.uk> Jeremy Henderson shows he isn't an avid watcher of
=>Brookside :

That's fighting talk, sonny. See you behind the bike-sheds.

=>|BrooksidePeeve: Anna, the Polish nanny, is likely to be replaced by
=>|Margaret, the carrot-haired-Catholic.
=>
=>The Polish naany, Anna, is actually usurping Margaret because Max fancies Anna.

Don't we all. But anyway, I don't dare hope that Margaret will not return
eventually, after strong cancer-related emotional blackmail from Patricia.

=>Margaret is also not a catholic,

Oh yeah? So what's she doing "worshipping" in a Catholic Church?

=>Peeve : knowing that you can recite chapter and verse of Brookside, Coronation
=>Street, The Bill, and Eastenders (and sometimes Emmerdale) and wondering why
=>I feel I watch too much telly!

Could be worse - you could be watching Eldorado.



-- 
==================================================================
-Jeremy Henderson            |  Une souris verte
 egpv29@castle.ed.ac.uk	     |  Qui courrait dans l'herbe
==================================================================
From: scott@festival.ed.ac.uk (Scott Larnach)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Re: PRO-smoker's peeves
Keywords: Tobacco Nicotine
Date: 13 Aug 92 14:38:14 GMT

bberbeni@nyx.cs.du.edu (Bill Berbenich) writes:
>Near the doorway to any publicly-accessible building, although there may be
>an ashtray, there will inevitably be butts all over.  In the grass, on the
>walkway, in the shrubberies.  (The SHRUBBERIES?)

Regrettably, this is all too true. The last time I did Ben Macdui we
all sat down on the top and started getting out our sandwiches, flasks
and whatever. Me, incorrigible addict that I am, I got out my ciggies.
I also got out a tin I have the size and shape of a malboro packet and
painted accordingly. The company's eyes boggled. What's that? Does it
take piccies? Does it play a tune? They were variously disappointed,
incredulous, and awestruck on being informed that it was my portable
ashtray. This is not a big deal; I don't leave my orange peel lying
around either. But it suggested that the non smokers _expected_ me to
be a lout just because I smoked.

Oddly enough, one of _them_ was away to leave some rubbish on the top
before he was pulled up for it.

Previously I found myself in the Southern Uplands walking across a
moor with another addict. I questioned him when he threw a butt down.
He excused himself by explaining that they're biodegradable. I
explained that if he didn't pick it up we'd find out just how
biodegradable it was by observing the amount of biodegredation it
suffered on a journey through his intestinal system. He hasn't
suggested another trip out, to date. Some people just don't like to be
told that they're wrong. (and I'm right)

S
From: donb@igor.tamri.com (Don Baldwin)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Re: peeve o' the day
Date: 19 Aug 92 17:21:33 GMT
Organization: TOSHIBA America MRI, South San Francisco, CA

In article <1992Aug19.115437.22331@mr.med.ge.com> hinz@picard.med.ge.com
(David Hinz Mfg 4-6987) writes:
>: >   int junk; // This variable holds the contents of pi to four
>: >             // billion decimal places, and is overwritten at whim.
>: >
>: >He wasn't impressed.
>: 
>: While such a declaration is "cute" when you do it in school, it loses
>: it's charm when people are paying you to do work.
>
>ObPeeve:  People with no sense of humor.  If you can't have fun, why 
>bother?  (check out my .plan file!)

Ah, I see.  That's why GE was displaying brain images with arrows through
the skull and cardiac scans with halibut in place of the heart, at the
last RSNA show...

Come to work here at Toshiba's MRI division, David.  Turn to the dark side.
It is your destiny.

   don

[Explanation:  RSNA is an annual radiological imaging convention held
From: mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Re: Legalizing drugs [was Re: Drug testing and welfare]
Date: 14 Aug 92 15:39:23 GMT
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.

charless@sco.COM (charles stross) writes:
> Objection: you've got to do something about the poverty trap.
> The main incentive for poor (( == fiscally challenged, in PC-speak :))
> kids to turn to drug dealing is because it's about the only visible
> way of getting rich, as opposed to living off welfare or flipping
> burgers. There are any number of alternatives, though. Look how the
> '30's bootleggers moved in gambling, protection and other, uh,
> undesirable side-lines. 

Yes, but if you don't give government subsidies to such industries by making
them illegal, they won't be easy money get-rich-quick schemes and people
won't move into them.

I mean, if gambling is completely legal, competition means that casinos have
to be nice, pleasant places rather than seedy backstreet dives or else nobody
will go into them.  Therefore nobody can get rich quick from illegal gambling
operations, as they won't have the capital or business knowledge to run a
successful casino.

Protection might work as a source of income, but don't forget that if we're no
longer fighting the war on drugs, gambling, prostitution, pornography and
other victimless crimes, we'll have lots of spare policemen hanging around
just waiting for some bad guys to go after.

> Given the huge amount of capital that's been pumped into the illegal
> drugs industry, I wouldn't be surprised if the immediate post-
> legalization phase sees a massive _rise_ in some categories of
> organizes racketeering; specifically the areas that don't make as
> large a profit margin as drugs do today.

Fine.  So we legalize most of those as well, and pump the spare police
manpower into the few that actually should be illegal.

>                                        Legalization will also
> divert some funds _away_ from the already-impoverished ghetto 
> areas.

Yeah, right.  I'm sure that people in the ghetto who get rich from drug
dealing spend that money on locally-produced goods from the neighbourhood
stores.

Personally I think that channeling the War On Drugs money into urban renewal
is a far more efficient way of diverting funds into impoverished ghettos, but
then I'm no expert.


mathew
-- 
"Even the most bizarre of the unions (probably that between a cat's gall
 stone and a single note 'G' from CNN's ident theme) managed to convey a
 sense of rampant impropriety."  -- 'Fortran Five', Simon G. Lawrence Leonard
From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Re: Drivers From Hell
Followup-To: alt.peeves
Date: 12 Aug 1992 16:13:34 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com



In article <24780@castle.ed.ac.uk> fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes) writes:

>Chas pulled up in the street. Chas though was far too lazy to actually
>park, get out of the car and go to Tracy's doorbell in order to alert
>her to the fact that he'd arrived. Chas however had a brilliant idea:
>he'd toot the horn. 


This behavior has always astounded me.  Surely anyone with the motor
skills necessary for operating a motor vehicle must have enough brain
cells to enable them to comprehend that doing something to attract the 
attention of a single person while annoying untold others is not a Good
Idea.

Perhaps the most extreme manifestation of this conduct that I've seen
occurred when I was in college.  The apartment complex where I lived
had assigned parking, with a small number of inconvenient parking spots
set aside for visitors.  There was an ongoing problem with visitors
parking indiscriminately in people's assigned places, though.

Often, when I resident would return home and find her (these were almost
always women for some reason) parking stall occupied by an intruder's 
vehicle, rather than parking in a visitors' spot and leave a note on the
offender's windshield, she would simply lean on her horn.

It never seemed to occur to these idiots that (a) the rest of us weren't
particularly interested in their predicament, and (b) the people who took
their spots could very well be visiting an apartment on the far side of
the building, where a horn couldn't even be heard.  Hell, they might even
have gone into town in somebody else's car.

The hallway doors in my building were held open with unpainted cinder
blocks, like the kind college students sometimes build bookcases with.  I
was often sorely tempted to hurl one of these down onto somebody's hood
from the fourth-floor balcony.

Another peeve of mine is stereo systems for motorcycles.  I think 
whoever came up with that idea should be drawn and quartered.  
Motorcycles are noisy enough as it is without the added attraction
of blaring radios.

!Peeve: Street motorcycles with two-cycle engines seem to be getting
mercifully scarce.  Those are the most obnoxious, although Harley-Davidsons
are a close second.


Geoff


-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Geoff Miller                    + + + + + + + +        Sun Microsystems
geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM  + + + + + + + +     Menlo Park, California
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
From: eedsp!bill@gatech.UUCP (Bill Berbenich)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Bill Goes to Peevetown
Date: 17 Aug 1992 14:56:17 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: eedsp!bill@gatech.UUCP
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

The Bill Trip(tm) is almost ready to commence.  On my trip west from
Atlanta, I will hit (in order) Monroe, La., Dallas and El Paso, Tx.,
Albuquerque and/or Santa Fe, NM, Flagstaff, Az., Los Angeles, Lost Vegas,
The Bay Area (San Jose and Santa Rosa, mostly), then back to Georgia
via I-80, then I-24 (i think?) and Southeast back home.

I leave Atlanta on Wednesday, Aug. 19 and have to be back on Sept. 21.
I plan to spend a week (roughly) each in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and the
Bay Area.  The rest of the time will be traveling time.  While in LA, I
will be filming commercials for my new line of mens clothing and guest-
hosting an episode of _Studs_ (yeah, right).

I look forward to meeting the Bay Aryans and others as I travel and as
I have responded to by mail thus far.

Rather ironic that I should meet the western peevers before I meet
homeboy and fairly-nearby peever, Dave "A. Jing" Cochran.

  -Bill
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
From: allane@earth.gas.unsw.OZ.AU.gas.unsw.OZ.AU (Allan Evans)
Subject: Is it my Newsfeed, or is it Mike?
Keywords: Mike, News, Barforama
Organization: University of New South Wales
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 23:17:57 GMT

OngoingPeeve:
I am peeved because my newsfeed is starting to act up. After
months of good service, the reply to articles more often than
not come before the original. Sometimes I don't see the original
for a day or two.

WHAT THE FUCK?

TodaysPeeve:
THEN, to top all of this off, HALF of all the articles this
morning were inane blitherings from ac.dal.ca. Ye GADS! What
a fucked way to start the day...

Even DAC made a pleasant, and generally unflammatory (?) post. As
opposed to inflammable...

Shit, I don't even think unflammatory is a word. Its not in my 
dictionary.

I think I am going to go back to bed.

Al

_______________________________________________________________________________
| Yes, I know my return address is messed up. Petition my sysadmin..........  |
| Allan H. Evans * School of Geography * UNSW * PO Box 1 Kensington 2033 Aust.|
| allane@earth.gas.unsw.OZ.AU  Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Systems |
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
From: donb@igor.tamri.com (Don Baldwin)
Subject: Media bias
Organization: TOSHIBA America MRI, South San Francisco, CA
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 17:11:21 GMT

Peeve #1:  That the media give such prominent attention to lunatics who
           shoot several people, while ignoring the many cases where
           a gun in the hand of an ethical person SAVES lives.

Peeve #2:  That people buy the picture painted by this unbalanced
           coverage.

     don
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 To quote James Wright:
    "Indeed, I am now of the opinion that a compelling case for "stricter
    gun control" cannot be made, at least not on empirical grounds.  I have
    nothing but respect for the various pro-gun control advocates with whom
    I have come in contact over the past years.  They are, for the most part,
    sensitive, humane and intelligent people, and their ultimate aim, to
    reduce death and violence in our society, is one that every civilized
    person must share.  I have, however, come to be convinced that they are
    barking up the wrong tree."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don Baldwin  -  Software Engineer  - e-mail to:  donb@tamri.com

Newsgroups: alt.peeves
From: alex@vmars.tuwien.ac.at (Alexander Vrchoticky)
Subject: so it seems i'm off ...
Organization: Technical University Vienna, Dept. for Realtime Systems, AUSTRIA
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 15:09:22 GMT

ok, the time of departure has come. those who were naive enough to 
actually provide me with addresses to meet them will soon be 
cursing themselves. to all the others: smart move :-)

i'll be back sometime near the middle of september.

ob-peeve:   i wanted to have my glasses repaired before leaving. 
            i went there last thursday and was told that it'd take
            till tuesday. i went to fetch them earlier this 
            afternoon. they weren't there. `tomorrow' i was told. 
            
anti-peeve: after raising a reasonable approximation of hell in the shop
            the guy got on the phone again and called the repair people.
            i was promised that i would get them today. so if the bicycle
            courier doesn't run into that guy from interleaf, everything
            should be fine. if it isn't, you'll hear about it.

mayor, have the city gate opened for me!

-alex

-- 
Alexander Vrchoticky             alex@vmars.tuwien.ac.at
TU Vienna, CS/Real-Time Systems  +43/1/58801-8168
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
From: nolan@twg.com (S. Jonson)
Subject: Lakcwitz (was Re: Random Peeve)
Reply-To: nolan@twg.com
Organization: Oxford University College of Serial Correctness
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 18:13:03 GMT


In article <1992Aug10.192607.3621@morrow.stanford.edu>, 
	minch@lotka.stanford.edu (Eric Minch) writes:
|>
|> By all means try it sometime, you pretentious lackwit:
|> 
In article <1992Aug11.092836.6903@ac.dal.ca>, 01sybok@ac.dal.ca writes:
|>
|>Hey! I resent that. I am not a lakcwit.
|>
|>Mike *smirk*
|>

I agree. Mike *smirk* is not a lakcwit. He's dyslexic. 'Splains lots.
He's prolly also a limpwick.  'Splains more.

--
Nolan "Go away, boy. Ya bother me!" Hinshaw
Internet: nolan@twg.com			Dingalingnet: (415)962-7197	
"If you don't know how to do something, you don't know how to do it
 with a computer." David Wittenberg, in Risks Digest 13.70
"Boy, was I in for a dose of reality." Randall K. Abler
"... necrophilia doesn't really hurt anybody."  Rick Gordon

Newsgroups: alt.peeves