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• Commented on Truck Spills 55,000 Pounds Of Bottled Beer On The Ground, None Is Passed Around
  Whatever the temperature -- would you want to open a bottle of beer that had just been this thoroughly shaken?...
• Commented on What Peeves You Most When You Eat At A Restaurant?
  Last time I was in a restaurant that added gratuity, two of us got abominable service that seemed to go out of its way to ignore us. I left the exact sum of the bill without the gratuity, then put...
• Commented on Verizon Insists I Had Data Cap Put On My Plan Because "Customers Do Weird Things"
  Nor, for that matter, the IRS people you talk to on the phone....
• Commented on Would You Return $1,800 In Cash You Found At An ATM?
  Depends on the bank involved. I'd be more inclined to keep it if the ATM belonged to Wells Fargo. We all have our particular nemeses....
• Commented on Comcast Refuses To Believe I Didn't Open An Account When I Was 16 At A House I Didn't Live In
  Can you prove you were 16 that year, sir?...
• Commented on How Starbucks Trained Us All To Use Its Lingo, And Why It Improved Customer Service
  Quite true, but it's personal - I'm not asking you to use it. I coined the term after being served about five square inches of thin meat, one small red potato, and a few beans that'd had some kind of...
• Commented on How Starbucks Trained Us All To Use Its Lingo, And Why It Improved Customer Service
  I've found an easier way to deal with it: I almost never buy Art Coffee or Art Food. While they may like having their own definitions, if every place I went had its own definitions, I'd go mad. The other...
• Commented on Escaped Cow Visits McDonald's Drive-Thru, Ponders Circle Of Life
  Cows are more properly referred to as 'she'. Besides, maybe she wanted a shake. That'd still be the circle of life, but not cannibalism....
• Commented on Diners Say They Were Locked Inside Restaurant For Refusing To Pay Automatic Gratuity
  A friend and I were aggressively neglected at a restaurant a few months back. Then they added a "gratuity" onto the bill. Two people, for pete's sake! So I left the money on the table, precise change: bill, less gratuity,...
• Commented on Hero Or Scoundrel? 92-Year-Old Pirates DVDs To Send To Troops Stationed Overseas
  Pirated DVDs were plentiful in Bangkok in 2005. There were street sellers with loads of covers. Ask for one, and the merchant would send somebody off to have the copy made. But I don't think Allah approves of DVDs, and...
• Commented on Report: Walmart Lobbied Aggressively Against Anti-Bribery Laws They May Have Violated
  When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Mexico ......
• Commented on How To Lose A Customer Forever With Just One Faulty Router
  I buy Timex watches. If the watch fails, it's no great pain to throw it and buy another. If I accidentally break the watch, I don't have to try snowing the CSR. Routers fall in the same place in my...
• Commented on Why Can't The IRS Just Calculate & File Your Taxes For You?
  Try being self-employed for a while. Life is more complicated when you end up with income from a dozen sources. The self-employment tax is aggravating, but I understand what they're doing. The requests for all kinds of information a full-time...
• Commented on Why Can't The IRS Just Calculate & File Your Taxes For You?
  The IRS has a lot of information on my household income. But we are retired, and self-employed, and there are a lot of business expenses to add up and deduct from the gross. Add in medical expenses -- the IRS...
• Commented on How Did Telemarketers End Up With Number That Was Changed To Avoid Telemarketers?
  Surely you jest! I've been on the Do Not Call list for as long as it's been around, and I still get plentiful telemarketing. There are so many exceptions and evasions the list is only marginally effective....
• Commented on Here's How Much Law Enforcement Has To Pay To Snoop On Your Calls
  Do the enforcers have to pay an early termination fee if they stop listening before two years are out?...
• Commented on Guess What, Folks? Pink Slime Isn't The Only Food With Ammonia In It
  It is easy to make anything sound dangerous. Need I remind you of the dihydrogen monoxide scandal?...
• Commented on Should I Be Warned About A Deaf Cashier?
  My problem was at Menard's. There was a stereotype stereotype woman who barely spoke English. I'm deaf enough it was even worse. But when I mentioned this at the comment desk, they said "The law says we have to." Furf....
• Commented on Airlines Only Like Fare Hikes When They're The Ones Instigating Them
  Salmonella-prone lettuce is even more organic than the regular stuff. Don't we expect to pay more for organic?...
• Commented on Now You'll Hit New York Times' Online Paywall After 10 Stories Instead Of 20
  New York Times -- feh. I already know what they are going to say, and not going to say. Even the great Pavlov couldn't make them any more predictable....
• Commented on Some Retailers Realizing That Spamming Current Customers Might Turn Them Into Former Customers
  I don't get many e-mails from charities, but the phone calls around dinnertime are driving me up the wall. E-mails don't call me away from whatever I'm doing....
• Commented on Family Booted From JetBlue Flight Over Toddler Tantrum
  The 19th-century treatment for this problem was laudanum. But you wouldn't want to use it too often or the kid would get hooked....
• Commented on AT&T Won't Say Which Vendor Employed ID-Thieving Account Hacker
  You have a problem with revenge? Read Machiavelli -- he will spell out the reasons revenge is good for you....
• Commented on Michigan Woman Who Won $1 Million In Lottery Stays On Food Stamps
  I have a friend who would be penniless in a year if you handed her a million dollars. So I told her if she wins, take the yearly payments instead of the lump sum -- she wouldn't be able to...
• Commented on Cosigning Someone's Comcast Account Doesn't Mean Paying Their Bills Instead Of My Own
  *Never* co-sign. I made that mistake, elsewhere. A lot of companies seem to think co-signing means *you* get the bills. Right from the start....
• Commented on NHTSA Postpones Rearview Camera Requirement For New Vehicles
  Bull. "Cost overrun" is the official theme song of government mandates....
• Commented on NHTSA Postpones Rearview Camera Requirement For New Vehicles
  And just last week I was reading about government pushing to get distracting hi-tech off our dashboards!...
• Commented on Waiter Knows You & Your High Friends Weren't Able To Just Say No
  The expletive can't sue. The business might....
• Commented on How Apple Lost A Dedicated Customer Over A Stupid Pink Dot
  Why do that much work? Apple showed right off the bat that it was company policy to be unhelpful. Either that, or company policy to believe all the people with pink dots were clumsy liars....
• Commented on If You Really Need To Win The Lottery, You Probably Shouldn't Play
  I play powerball when the jackpot gets impressive. I spend a few bucks I don't need, and if I lose, I'm still the same person. On the other hand, if I win the whole world becomes different in a way...