It annoys me when I see people write on or dog-ear the pages of library books. Even with my own books, I never write on them or bend pages. I use bookmarks and if I want to note pages for future reference, I use small sticky tabs that peel off easily..
Here is another peeve where I agree with Rat.
Even if I am not straddling the line on either side, if I am too close to one line, I back out and re-park so that I am almost in the middle of the two lines. Not only is it a courtesy to those parking next to me, it also reduces the risk of the other driver accidentally hitting my car.
Mano, if you want to be really famous in the future, you need to write “marginalia” in your books. Library books are another matter though.
Recently someone parked so close to my driver side door I had to climb in from the passenger side. No one has any idea of what I wanted to do to that car! Hell would be too good for the driver.
Many years ago, when I was still living in the town where I was born, I was trying to get some Christmas shopping done. I was rolling through the local Wal-Mart parking lot looking for a parking place (like a hundred other drivers). I came upon a parking spot where the car in the adjacent spot had parked over the line into my potential parking spot. There was enough room for me to squeeze my small car into the spot, but I had to park within about six inches of the offending car. I was able to exit on the passenger side and go do my shopping. When I returned, the offending driver and their passenger were staring at the scene and wondering how someone could park so close to their car and then get out. I said “Like this” and got into my car on the passenger side, started my car, backed out, and drove off. I have no idea if they got the message what assholes they were for trying to take two spots in a full lot.
I’m definitely going to hell.
My wife has to use a walker and when I cant find a handicapped spot for her so we can load/unload her walker its really tough to find a spot where people barely leave enough room for me to squeeze out of my side much less leave enough room for me to unload from The Bosses side of the car. Ive bought a note pad to keep in the map box to let people know what I think of their parking jobs. And dont get me started on those dirty bastards who take up handicapped spots when they dont have a placard or license plate. Im an atheist, but I hope there is a special spot in hell for those doinks.
Mano, it’s Australian but I think you would get a laugh out of this book:
https://www.amazon.com/488-Rules-Life-Thankless-Correct/dp/B08CF28SFX/
I haven’t checked that marking library books or crossing parking lines are among the 488 rules, but they probably are. X-D
(It started as a parody of Jordan Peterson’s 12 rules for life where the comedienne joked she had 488 rules for life -- and only later did she go on to actually write the book.)
I, too, learned that writing in a book almost amounted to sacrilege. Late in life I started learning to play the piano and was horrified the first time my piano teacher grabbed my music and made a notation RIGHT ON IT! He told me most musicians have notes written all over their sheet music, because it helps them to remember what they intend to do with that passage or phrase and how they’re going to get it done. (Or even more mundane things, like which finger to use to play which note, to make the rest of the passage easier or possible to play.) I still feel bad about writing on my music, but I’ve learned that my teacher was right and it really does help me.
Guess I’ll be going to hell. 🤷♀️
I’m sure the parking lot problem is the “I can do anything I want” entitlement mixed with the grotesquely-bloated ego-machines that people foolishly think they need, that don’t fit into regular parking spaces.
kestrel @#6,
Like all rules for life, there are exceptions, and yours may be one of them. It met a real need that could not be met any other way, since you need those cues to be right in front of you when you play, not just to refer to later.. Writing in the margins can also be justified, if the book is yours and you are using it to study something in depth.
But most people deface books with dog-ears and such because they are too lazy to find alternatives.
#6 Kestrel
Nope, writing on music is vital for a great many instruments. In the brass section, we marked things like good points to get a quick inhale in, and of course everyone added in dynamics not on the music based on how the conductor was shaping the piece.
A friend once circled a place in biro on my Ordnance Survey map of southern Cornwall. I didn’t discover this until after he had left, I didn’t even know he’d been looking at the map. Not at all pleased, and should have taken it as the warning it was as on another visit he also tried to touch my extremely nervy dog while I was out of the room, despite being told several times NOT to touch her. She was hiding behind the sofa when I came back, I asked why she was there “I tried to stroke her and she jumped over the back of the sofa” GRRRRRRR. We are no longer in contact.
I absolutely hate writing on books (Names, Dedications, Autographs even!)- In school people would mark their textbooks with highlights or notes and it would drive me crazy -- I too would reserve a place in hell for such folks. But the karma of having such views is that i have been blessed with 2 children who have ripped apart my complete calvin and hobbes and dropped food items and so on (among other infractions!)
As to the parking -- Do you make any exceptions for completely incompetent drivers who would rather not drive but are forced to do so in a country without useful public transport, and who are praying for self parking cars/FSD/teleportation ? Asking for a friend.
Deepak @#11,
You raise an interesting point about incompetent drivers who may not know how to park midway between the lines.
While it is possible to not be right in the middle the first time you go in, there is no law that says you must get it right the first time. When I park, I often do not get it right but discover it only when I open my door and see where I am. If I have not parked well, I get back in the car, start it up, back out, and then re-park. It takes less than a minute.
There is no shame in doing that even a couple of times, as I have sometimes had to do.
@Mano @12
My parking usually ends up being diagonal as opposed to perpendicular and the more , I attempt , the more obtuse the angle gets.
I have usually solved this problem by either parking far away (I need the steps!) or by convincing my spouse that I can be the cook while she is chauffeur .This works well for both of us!. However it di put an end to my tee-totaling days -- my spouse thinks I should either drink or drive -- so I preferred to drink.
Two anecdotes from the same car park -- Sainsbury’s supermarket, Longridge, UK.
The first: Saturday afternoon, lovely sunny day. I’ve just finished shopping. I go back to my car, and am unloading my shopping when a middle aged woman enters the car park in a blue Mazda MX-5 with the top down. This is relevant because I believe it there are few cars on the market that could possible present the driver with an easier job of parking -- it’s very small, light and easy to manoeuvre, has power steering, and with the top down the visibility is 100% and three hundred and sixty degree. The Ariel Atom might be easier, but only slightly. So… this woman arrived in this car, and started to park it in the space about three slots down from where I was unloading. I say “started to”, because she drove in nose first and got the car about halfway into the space. The end of the white line denoting the space was about level with the end of the passenger side door. Not the driver’s side, mind you -- the car was not lined up with the space, not even close. I’d say it was approximately 25 to 30 degrees off being lined up. Furthermore, the steering wheel was upside down, so the wheels were still askew. It was at this point that she decided that her work here was done, and she turned off the engine, got out, and without a backward glance headed off into the shop to conduct her business, with, and I cannot emphasise this enough, comfortably half of her car protruding into the lane. If she had spared a moment for a backward glance, she’d have seen me taking a photo of her handiwork and immediately posting it on Facebook, with the caption, “incredibly, this woman has finished parking her car and left”.
On another occasion, one rainy Sunday I had in mind a dinner of slow-cooked chicken with all the trimmings, so I arrived early, before the shop was open. There were, I think, perhaps two other cars in the entire car park, both of them right on the edges nowhere near the shop door. I assume they were staff. I parked nose in (unusually) as close as I could to the shop, without going in a parent-n-child or disabled spot. If you care to look on what3words, I was in https://w3w.co/grape.mailings.whisk and https://w3w.co/shears.glides.sideburns. Again, and I cannot emphasise this enough, I was the ONLY CAR in the main body of the car park, what with the shop being closed on Sunday morning.
I was, as I said, early, so I didn’t bother getting out of the car, just sat and read my book to await opening time. A few minutes later, a second car arrived. Now: if you arrived in an almost completely empty car park that had a single car in it, still occupied -- where would you park? Nose to nose with mine? As far away as possible? Just any spot at random out of the OVER ONE HUNDRED vacant spots available?
Or would you, as this woman did, REVERSE into the space right next to mine (https://w3w.co/widest.paintings.soaps) so that her driver’s side door was facing my drivers side door, and so close that she had to open it very gingerly and thread herself out of her car carefully to get out. She then audibly tutted (as in, I had my windows up by I could hear her), looked me right in the eye with an angry expression on her face, then marched over to the door of the shop… where she discovered that yes, at before 10am on a Sunday it’s closed. She stood there, in the rain, without a coat or umbrella, for about 40 minutes until they opened the doors. I stayed where I was until she’d had a chance to get into the shop (and presumably get lost or something), and was in and out with my dinner ingredients before she was back. I’m a fairly slim unit (certainly compared to her) so I had less difficulty threading my way out of the car than she’d had and was able to ensure that no damage was done to either of our vehicles.
I think of her occasionally, usually around election time, when I marvel that she and the MX-5 driver are both allowed to vote.
Mano,
I must find something like the small, sticky, easily-removed tabs you use. For the past few years I’ve made a habit of wriitng some notes about a book when I finish it -- but I’m sure I often forget to note the points i’d meant too, because I don’t keep track of the pages of special interest.
KG,
The ones I use are made by Post-it and can be found in pretty much any office supplies store.
I stick it on at exactly the line that I want to recall. It is so much easier to use them than to stop reading, get a notebook, and write a note.
Just yesterday I was in a parking lot and saw the car two spaces down from me backing out and re-parking a couple of times until it was between the lines. Later on, the driver came into the same office that I was in and I told him how pleased I was to see someone else who shared the same concern about not straddling the lines.
He seemed pleased that someone had noticed and this led to a nice chat. We conscientious parkers need to encourage each other.
My pet peeve is people who think their pet peeves are important enough to warrant writing an entire blog article about.
@ sonofrojblake,
Just commenting to say that even by British standards Grimsargh is a particularly silly name for a village.
Thanks Mano@16!
@abadland, 19:
If you’d driven through there on September 19th 2009, underneath where the sign says “Grimsargh” every other day, you’d have seen, just for those 24 hours, in the same size font, an additional sign that clarified ” ’tis a pirate village, argh”. One on the road in from Longridge, one on the road in from Preston. A small celebration of international talk like a pirate day. Worth every penny it cost me.