All posts tagged: complaining

New Yorkers Won’t Stop Complaining About Dogs

New Yorkers Won’t Stop Complaining About Dogs

Published by José

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here. “Dogs are so numerous in New York, indeed, that they have already become a nuisance,” the journalist Charles Dawson Shanly wrote in The Atlantic in 1872. He was annoyed by “all the barking … and there is a good deal of it.” Other New Yorkers feared that the dogs roaming the streets were “deleterious to health” (a reasonable concern, given the risk of rabies at the time). Eventually, Shanly wrote, anxieties escalated to the point that “weakminded people began to look upon Ponto’s kennel in the back yard as a very Pandora’s box of maladies too numerous and appalling to be contemplated without terror.” Some 150 years later, the city’s canine population is rabies free, and you’re unlikely to see any feral dogs running around. But New Yorkers haven’t stopped complaining. “I’m sorry, dog lovers. There are too many of you,” Chloë Sevigny told Rolling Stone in January. “Why Does Everyone …

Stop Complaining About Referees – The Atlantic

Stop Complaining About Referees – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

From the very first batter of the game, the coach was giving the umpire a hard time. It was a Little League game, and the kids were 10. The umpire was maybe 16. “You sure?” the coach kept asking, about virtually every call, even when the ump was clearly right. “You sure about that?” Meanwhile the kids on the bench were going wild—climbing the dugout fence, goofing off, paying no attention to the game. Instead of controlling them, the coach was needling the ump. I’ve been coaching Little League for four years, and watching professional sports for four decades, and I see this sort of thing now more than ever. Fans, athletes, coaches, parents, precocious children who read The Atlantic, please hear my plea: Stop complaining about umpires. (And referees, and officials of any kind who enforce the rules.) Just stop. Hitters in the big leagues grumble about strikes at least a couple of times per game, and pitchers have perfected their death stare. Pro soccer players act as if they’ve never once fallen down …

People Complaining About NHS Appointments Being Too Quick Resurfaces

People Complaining About NHS Appointments Being Too Quick Resurfaces

Published by skeptic

A 2005 clip of BBC Question Time has resurfaced online – and offers a stark reminder of just how the NHS has changed over the last 19 years. The footage, from an election special with then PM Tony Blair, showed members of the audience complaining that they are being offered GP appointments too quickly. One member of the audience complained: “I can’t get an appointment with my local GP unless it’s made in the next 48 hours. “I can’t make it three days or four days hence. “I was told that’s because they can meet their target that everybody gets it within 48 hours.” The average waiting time for a routine GP appointment now is 19 days, according to NHS England’s website. Blair replied to the audience member: “I’m absolutely astonished at that. “Let’s be sensible about this, I don’t know about this individual case, obviously, but I would be absolutely astonished if you’re saying to your GP, ‘I don’t need to see you for four days,’ and he’s insisting he sees you in two…” …

Twitter Caught Selling Data to Government Spies While Complaining About Surveillance

Twitter Caught Selling Data to Government Spies While Complaining About Surveillance

Published by skeptic

In for a penny, in for a data mine. Double Dealing The social network formerly known as Twitter and now called X has for the better part of the past decade been involved in a lawsuit suing the US government for greater transparency on its surveillance practices on the platform. The lawsuit continued under Elon Musk after he took over in 2022. When the Supreme Court eventually struck down the suit in January, Musk wrote that it was “disappointing.” But now, newly obtained emails have left both X and Musk, who has long claimed to be a champion of free speech, with egg on their faces. The Intercept reports that despite railing against state spying, the social media company has been quietly profiting off it this entire time — selling a “firehose” of user data for the explicit purpose of being used by law enforcement. Buddy-Buddy According to the report, the data is sold to the surveillance firm Dataminr, which uses AI technology to constantly monitor public activity on social media and other parts of the web. …

Mom Criticized For Complaining After Her Child Came Home From School Barefoot

Mom Criticized For Complaining After Her Child Came Home From School Barefoot

Published by skeptic

Sometimes it’s important to be reminded of our place in the world. It can be so easy to get caught up in our own problems that we forget the lives and plights of people around us. One mom was reminded of that after making a complaint on Reddit. A mom received some criticism for complaining that her child came home from school barefoot. An anonymous mother posted to Reddit to share her concerns with a community of moms. She explained that she was surprised by the state her daughter was in when she picked her up from school. “I picked up my six-year-old [kindergartener] from school today and she was barefoot,” she said. “No socks, no shoes, walking on the bare ground to the car.” RELATED: Mom Berated For Bringing Her Crying Baby To A Texas Restaurant — ‘Why Are You Here?’ Photo: Ksenia Chernaya / Pexels The mother was upset, so she tried to get to the bottom of the situation. “After digging for more information on what was the reason for this, I had learned …

Doctor Who: Russell T Davies likes posts complaining about BBC and Disney+ release plan

Doctor Who: Russell T Davies likes posts complaining about BBC and Disney+ release plan

Published by Sam

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Russell T Davies has liked posts from angry Doctor Who fans concerning a shake-up to the forthcoming series. It was revealed on Friday (15 March) that the sci-fi adventure will return for a new outing in May, which will be the first full run of episodes led by new Time Lord star Ncuti Gatwa. However, the announcement was a bittersweet moment for fans as it was confirmed that new episodes of the series will debut at midnight on BBC iPlayer before airing in its usual time slot on a Saturday night. This move comes after the series struck a deal with Disney+, where new episodes will become available globally at the same time as the UK. While this is very good news for fans of the show outside of the UK, long-time fans of the show have been left saddened by the move as they’re concerned social media …

Mary O’Connell: ‘My whole shtick was complaining about money. Then I won £100,000’ | Stage

Mary O’Connell: ‘My whole shtick was complaining about money. Then I won £100,000’ | Stage

Published by skeptic

Why did you get into standup?I always liked performing. I did dance and piano when I was younger – to a mediocre extent – but standup was something I felt I could be really good at. Obviously if I looked back now at those performances, I’d be well embarrassed but standup requires delusional confidence. I had that when I first tried it and I’ve still got it now. It is also a way of connecting with people but completely, selfishly, on your own terms. Talking without interruption is great. What is the best heckle you’ve had?At my first ever gig I was heckled encouragingly. I can’t remember exactly what they said, something like: “You’re doing great, keep going!” Even though it was supportive, it’s still a disruption and you wouldn’t do that at the National Theatre now, would you? Last year you won £100,000 in a contest run by OnlyFans, which is not particularly known for comedy content …It’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me! I was a contestant in OnlyFans’ reality TV …

Four Ways to Quit Complaining

Four Ways to Quit Complaining

Published by skeptic

Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. In 15th-century Germany, there was an expression for a chronic complainer: Greiner, Zanner, which can be translated as “whiner-grumbler.” It was not a complimentary term. A popular tavern song at the time (which the great renaissance composer Heinrich Finck also arranged as an instrumental piece) had lyrics that ran, by my rough translation, “Greiner, Zanner, you know what? I’ll sit at your table and kiss your wife on the mouth! How do you like that?” In other words, quit your whining, or I’ll give you something to whine about. Are you a bit of a Greiner, Zanner? If so, you’re not alone: Survey data show that American customers today are more than twice as likely to complain about a product or service as they were in 1976. People are grumbling more at work too. Nearly a third of employers in one U.K.-based survey witnessed an increase in employee grievances over a two-year period prior to …

Megyn Kelly gets roasted after complaining about inclusion of Black national anthem at Super Bowl

Megyn Kelly gets roasted after complaining about inclusion of Black national anthem at Super Bowl

Published by skeptic

Conservative media personality Megyn Kelly slammed Andra Day’s rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black national anthem, which was performed during the Super Bowl pre-game ceremony. “The so-called Black National Anthem does not belong at the Super Bowl. We already have a National Anthem and it includes EVERYONE,” Kelly, who hosts Sirius XM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show” wrote on social media. The post spurred critics to clap back at Kelly, with many advising her to stick to her “lame political takes” and accusing her of racism. “The so-called Blonde Journalist does not belong judging who and how we celebrate being Americans at the Super Bowl. Stick to lame political takes thanks,” wrote one user on X. Salon correspondent Brian Karem wrote, “How to declare your racism in a tweet.” Kelly also made jabs at Usher’s halftime show, writing, “Not into Usher or this halftime show — however I do appreciate that my kids haven’t had anyone’s vag exposed to them on screen as they innocently wait for the football to …

Brexit row over Remoaners complaining about new UK passports | Politics | News

Brexit row over Remoaners complaining about new UK passports | Politics | News

Published by skeptic

A brutal row ensued after a Remainer complained that new blue passports, brought in post-Brexit, had been made in several different countries. Brexiteers shot back that they had never claimed the UK would never trade with the EU, or use their services, if we left the bloc. They argued that instead, this is exactly what they said would happen. However, other social media users claimed the passports were supposed to be a symbol of Brexit and British independence – making the fact they were made elsewhere “ironic”. Sharing an image of his new document on X, user Rhodri Lewis said: “My first non-EU passport. In a strangely beautiful illustration of Brexit’s absurdity, it was printed in Poland by a French company, and delivered to me by a German logistics firm.” But Aaron Bastani, co-founder of left-wing media site Novara Media, responded: “This underscores that Britain can still enjoy access to European supply chains without being in the EU. “Which is exactly what Brexiteers said. This tweet doesn’t make any sense.” Christopher Snowden, Head of Lifestyle …