Psychotic Hatreds II

This is a follow-up to a few of my previous rants; namely, pet peeves and corporate sillyness. Yes, I know I've done a lot of both lately, but to be honest they're problems that just aren't going away... and thank goodness, because I wouldn't have much of a show. It all goes under what my friend Rich would call a big clusterfuck: companies and their employees having incredibly bad judgement.

I'll start with one that I just ran into the other day: bad maps. I was at the Royal Ontario Museum on the weekend, and got seriously fucking turned around in the place a lot, partly because the odd time that they bother with an in-room map, it pretty much only shows you the area that you can already see. In other words, in a pair of long, rectangular galleries, you might only be able to see two boxes, and it will only show you one that seems to be a lot bigger than the one you're in. My group's first thought was, we're going the wrong way. It turns out the map is really talking about things lurking in blind corners. How the hell are you supposed to tell where you are, on a map like that?

Another thing that grinds my gears, are some of the snack stands at movie theatres. I'm trying not to paint all of them with the same brush -- after all, even though they're expensive, they at least give you a lot of bang for the buck, most of the time. But, is it really too much to ask, that they don't pile on a lot more popcorn or french fries, than the cup can ever hold? Does it honestly not occur to these people, that I'd like to actually eat my snack, instead of spilling it all over the floor?

Finally, I'd like to say something about the graphics, on CHCH's newscasts -- and thereby destroy whatever chance I had at ever getting a job there. I know that nobody's spelling is perfect, and sometimes you have to rush a story on the air, but is it really too much to ask that whoever makes the station's captions, know how to spell things like "Weekend"? Or "Tonight"? Even a spellchecker will catch things like that, for crying out loud! Is it even too much effort to turn that on? Or, here's a wacky thought, they could hire someone who at least passed High School English in the last ten years.

So look, this stuff might or might not make a difference, because little of it is going to hurt the bottom line. But honestly, why would anyone want to run a company that makes such sloppy mistakes like that? I can only assume that they're either off their rockers, or have a strong enough sense of humour to be able to live with this. Actually, now that I think about it, that's not such a bad thing. Whatever drugs you're on, where can I get some? I'm just kidding of course, but that's it for me.