Open up your drawers!
Posted 11 Aug 2008
Daily Life, The Little Things | 8 Comments
I am the kind of guy who closes all of his dresser drawers when he is done accessing the contents. Same goes for desk drawers. Even though they are both in my bedroom and nobody else uses the space, I feel better with them closed. I open, remove or replace the requisite items from the drawer, and close. Immediately. Definitely better that way. No open drawers, please.
What about you, good reader? Do you keep your drawers open or closed?
Red Pepper Challenge
Posted 8 Aug 2008
Events, Food, The Little Things | 8 Comments
Ok, Brainy Readers, it’s time for your Friday mental challenge. Stretch your thinking one more time this week and see if you can figure out the answer to today’s mind-teaser. It’s a real trickster, this one, so you will definitely need your thinking caps on!
Submit your answers via the comment box (or via our email address if you’re shy and we’ll post them anonymously in the comment box for you).
The Friday Challenge: Figure out a way to use the red pepper flakes inside this canister on the right side of this post (and possibly above this immediate sentence, depending on the font size you are using to view chickenmonkeydog).
The Very Simple Rules: You may not disobey the rule on the side of the canister:
Ok, then. Do you all appreciate what the question is asking? Understand the rules? The challenge begins … NOW!
Too little, too late?
Posted 7 Aug 2008
Live from the Isle of Wight (where I am staying at a great place called The Ruskin Lodge ), I am sending in a post that is literally ‘hot off the presses’. I was on an early morning walk along the downs on the southwest side of island (just a couple of hours ago), when I encountered the following sign:
I wondered if this sign was the first time that someone reading it considered the dangers of cliffs, would this sign be enough to prevent cliff-top tragedy befalling the reader?
Certainly most people are very well aware of the dangers of cliffs and wouldn’t rely upon or even need a sign to remind them of such dangers. But for those unfamiliar with cliffs and the inherent risks to those atop them, would this little sign provide sufficient protection?
Metra delay blame game
Posted 6 Aug 2008
Commuting, Daily Life, Guest Post, Language | 29 Comments
Today’s post came via email from another one of our readers, who commutes into Chicago for work. We’re pretty sure this post is sure to draw a lot of comments!
“We are delayed today due to a large passenger load.”
That was the excuse which Metra announced last week on a train heading out of Chicago and into the suburbs – as if the train was delayed and it was the riders’ fault! My translation of this message is, “Next time you want your train to be on time, you had better not be on it! ”
“Whenever Metra hits a pedestrian, they are immediately on the PA reporting having struck trespassers. They report mechanical delays, switch problems, weather delays, grade crossing obstructions and even delays due to prior delays, but they are never late. Only delayed.”
Anyone who has ridden the Metra commuter line in Chicago will be familiar with this kind of message, but we at chickenmonkeydog suspect that this kind of blame game is probably pervasive across all sorts of commuter lines across the globe.
We’d like to thank the reader from Chicago who contributed the idea and photo for this post.
Tagged at owner’s expense
Posted 5 Aug 2008
In a parking lot next to my hotel, there was this sign posted:
Pemit Parking Only – Unauthorized Vehicles Will Be Tagged At Owners Expense
I could only think of three things they could possibly mean by "tagged" in that sentence:
(1) Your car will be labeled with a tag . Well, surely that can’t be that expensive, nor even that much of a deterrent. Worst case, the tag is a sticker and it is a pain to remove from the car.
(2) Your car will be hit by another car . Well, that seems a bit harsh, and the costs could vary greatly, depending on what your car is worth and how badly it gets hit, but I kind of like the draconian approach to parking policy enforcement.
(3) Your car will be graffitied on . I don’t have any idea what the going rate is for a tagger’s services, but if you need a new paint job anyway, this might be a good place to leave your car.
