I am currently, inextricably riveted by Complaints.com (which you can browse here, although it is somewhat cumbersome - should I complain?)
I came for the corporate dirt, but stayed for the naked, screaming psychology. Despite the asshole clerks and the genuine tragedies, most of the tales of woe come across as so trivial: a tiny event magnified by annoyance and refracted through the telling, the retelling, the commercial ass-covering and the feeling that This Should Not Happen to Me. I would be horrified by the human race if it weren't for all the times that a small part of me stood aside, coughing with embarrassment, watching the rest of me devolve in the exact same fashion as all the people who ended up here, on a mission to save the world with bad grammar, righteous indignation, and all-caps tattling. I feel like a Doctor of Vexology, sifting through the evidence and writing my report on the bitching customs of yore. I am only in July of 2000, and already there are so many favorites:
Some seriously high expectations of what Amtrak provides by way of services, along with a seeming inability to read itineraries before embarking, proved to be this person's downfall.
Not just annoyed, but terrified to lose out on this sale price. Who is the stroller for, anyway? Is Rosemary's Baby going to be mad at you?
This person seems to be a victim of malicious receipt elves. Now that is something to complain about!
This will surely stand in history as the best misuse of slang, ever.
I just really like/am horrified by the phrase "hair object."
The third sentence of this complaint indicates that a leaking window is the least of this woman's problems.
O...kay. I... How did...? What made you think this would work?
Lastly, two different tragic portraits of not understanding credit, finances in general, or the basic fact that, yes, they are out to get you, of course.
Posted by hilatron at July 21, 2005 04:08 PM | TrackBackAlso (help me I can't stop): Oh, dear. Money alligator!
http://www.complaints.com/complaintofthedayjuly112000.3.htm
You might want to take a glance at some of the complaints lodged on Sept. 12, 2001.
Number One kind of took my breath away.
Posted by: Doombot at July 21, 2005 08:15 PMYou know, this whole phenomenon makes me wonder how people think. I mean, at the most basic level, how does information travel from ears and eyes into brains?
Do some of these people require assistance in shirt-buttoning or shoe-tying? I try not to be a language snob or word-pedant, but even putting violence-against-the-mother-tongue aside (after all, some are not native users of English), I am left wondering how some of the complainers cope with daily existence, because some do not seem to have grasped basic experiential concepts like cause-and-effect or gravity.
It's a little disturbing to get behind the wheel of a car knowing that people like this are also driving on roads I may be traveling.
It's definitely making me not want ever to be tried by a jury of my peers.
Posted by: Doombot at July 22, 2005 01:07 PMRe: best use of slang
That totally cracked me up. :) I am posting that to my LJ.
Posted by: Ty at July 22, 2005 02:49 PMDoombot, we HAVE no peers. That's at least part of the problem.--
Posted by: Auntie Jean at July 22, 2005 03:22 PMI'm coming late to this--but (due to my lurking for a while on car forums this spring while we were trying to choose what to buy) I discovered that, among car people, "tranny" is actually perfectly common slang for "transmission." I think this subculture can exist alongside that in which "tranny" means something totally different because the twain so rarely meet.
Posted by: Jess at July 28, 2005 07:01 PMWhuuut? Tranny has another meaning? Besides car transmission?
Tell, tell, Jess. Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by: Doombot at July 29, 2005 11:39 AMJoined the Army? To get a Ford F150? The horror!
Posted by: Josh at August 8, 2005 03:16 PM