Stuff you hate (aka: the new f. you thread)

[Sarah]

I put peanut butter and sunflowers seeds on sour cream container lids and then put those in the bottom of an old joint compound container.  I then place that in the sink and use a lath, on which I lay a trail of sunflower seeds, to make a ramp from the counter up to the lip of the container.  It works.  I caught two mice with such a trap in the spring, and one of my sisters has had great success with a similar arrangement.  So far, the one I'm after now has just eaten the seeds on the lath, but, hey, it's only been two days.  He'll go for the treats at the bottom of the container soon enough.

The thing is, this kind of setup is only good when you're being plagued by one or two mice.  As I said, if I were under siege, I'd probably resort to old-fashioned spring traps, horrible though they are.

You have my sympathy, Alex.

[Sarah]

Different post for a different object of hatred:  I absolutely loathe obituaries.  Their syrupy exaggerations make me sick to my stomach.  It's not that I expect warts-and-all coverage (although I think that would be great), but the way minimal accomplishments are vaunted as earth-shattering achievements or passing fancies portrayed as lifelong passions makes me crazy.  Everyone who knew the dead guy or gal also knows the obit is full of shit, yet everyone pretends it's true, for a moment, anyway.  I don't understand the point of it.  I don't see how lies give comfort.  It's like winning by cheating--what's the point?

[Pidgeon]

Different post for a different object of hatred:  I absolutely loathe obituaries.  Their syrupy exaggerations make me sick to my stomach.  It's not that I expect warts-and-all coverage (although I think that would be great), but the way minimal accomplishments are vaunted as earth-shattering achievements or passing fancies portrayed as lifelong passions makes me crazy.  Everyone who knew the dead guy or gal also knows the obit is full of shit, yet everyone pretends it's true, for a moment, anyway.  I don't understand the point of it.  I don't see how lies give comfort.  It's like winning by cheating--what's the point?

The one in my local paper literally just gives the birthdates, family names, funeral dates, and that's it.

[Sarah]

Count yourself lucky.

[Steve of Bloomington]

Another thing that irks me with obituaries is they almost never tell how the person died, which makes me wonder about that. Then I feel bad about focusing on that instead of appreciating what degree of Freemasonry the person reached.

[Sarah]

Yeah, I'll give that much to the obit that prompted my complaint:  at least it gave a cause of death (it wasn't entirely accurate, but it was partly correct).  The thing is, I bet it was included only because the family wanted it to be clear that the guy didn't OD.

[yesno]

The obits in the Economist are wonderful; the best feature of the magazine.

[Sarah]

A well-written, thoughtful obituary can be a thing of beauty and a meaningful tribute to a life.  Most of those for nonfamous types, though, are composed by grieving family members who don't know how to write and only speak not just well but superlatively of the dead.  It's that variety against which I am railing.

[Smelodies]

I hate the fact that Obama is extending Bush's tax cuts to the rich.  No elected leader should ever whine about the deficit again.

[Andy]

Wasn't it crystal clear that this would happen when they wouldn't vote before the election even though they had the majority and could have rather easily ended the cuts? The two party system works again. The republicans can do some chest thumping about how they got it done, the democrats can do some complaining about how those bastard republicans are the problem and everyone's campaign contributors get their tax cuts. And we all keep being outraged by fox news or msnbc.

[Pidgeon]

I don't like Jen Kirkman's calls on TBS :/

[dave from knoxville]

Do you kill or catch and release?

ALEX sounds like a KILLER, to me.

I've spent I don't know how much money on different non-lethal contraptions and electronic mouse scarer-offers. Unfortunately none of them has ever worked except one. I had this little box-like thing once (small and cheap) that they were supposed to walk into and it closes behind them. We had one in the garage in a inaccessable place and I forgot about it. One day I remembered it and find it closed with a dead mouse inside. Apparently the poor thing got trapped for a long period of time and probably died a slow painful death. This really bothered me. I'm a vegetarian. I realy don't want to kill anything. I would love to catch and release but I don't want them to suffer a slow death..
Sarah- What kind of non-lethal traps do you use? Are they effective?

Pardon my language, but you do realize that they will shit in the food they are sampling, right? Down at the bottom of the box, where you may not notice until after you've eaten that cous cous? And that you can't take a step without crushing small forms of animal life?

[dave from knoxville]

Yeah, I'll give that much to the obit that prompted my complaint:  at least it gave a cause of death (it wasn't entirely accurate, but it was partly correct).  The thing is, I bet it was included only because the family wanted it to be clear that the guy didn't OD.

THIS time

[Alex_from_the_woods]

Do you kill or catch and release?

ALEX sounds like a KILLER, to me.

I've spent I don't know how much money on different non-lethal contraptions and electronic mouse scarer-offers. Unfortunately none of them has ever worked except one. I had this little box-like thing once (small and cheap) that they were supposed to walk into and it closes behind them. We had one in the garage in a inaccessable place and I forgot about it. One day I remembered it and find it closed with a dead mouse inside. Apparently the poor thing got trapped for a long period of time and probably died a slow painful death. This really bothered me. I'm a vegetarian. I realy don't want to kill anything. I would love to catch and release but I don't want them to suffer a slow death..
Sarah- What kind of non-lethal traps do you use? Are they effective?

Pardon my language, but you do realize that they will shit in the food they are sampling, right? Down at the bottom of the box, where you may not notice until after you've eaten that cous cous? And that you can't take a step without crushing small forms of animal life?

Dave-I know everything you say is true. We have everything locked down pretty tight in the kitchen and they haven't gotten into our food. With all the pet food around I don't know that the mice couild be bothered. I also know it isn't possible to live without- at least indirectly -killing. That doesn'ty mean it's pointless to avoid killing wherever possible.

[cutout]

Last month an acquaintance of mine who struggled with depression throughout adulthood committed suicide. Her parents mentioned the depression/suicide specifically in the obit, which was especially unusual for a small Southern & religious town where I've noticed suicide is judged harshly. But I was glad to see the parents got a lot of positive support all around for their honesty. They didn't try to paint a rosy picture or exaggerate at all about her life.