Real Life Rants

RANT to the woman at a supermarket whose dog was barking at shoppers. I overheard you say it was a service dog. Trained service dogs don’t bark and cause fear and stress for those around you. Please get your dog trained or leave the dog at home.

RANT to dogs in grocery stores. I’m a dog lover, but that doesn’t mean I want your pet near my produce. An online-bought vest is not a license to ignore health codes. Stop the entitlement. Grocery stores: enforce the rules.

RANT to people who don’t wait for the people on the elevator to exit before they enter the elevator. It seems like they don’t even see the other people, and it’s “me first.”

RANT to airline passengers who stand up as soon as the plane has landed and finished taxiing. The doors aren’t open. No one can get off. You’re just making us all anxious, crowding the aisle and potentially blocking people who have short connections.

RANT to whoever tossed multiple large bags of trash from their truck every few blocks along the walking path on South Beacon. You have to know this is illegal, and also a rotten thing to do to the people who live here. Our tax dollars will be spent cleaning it up so you don’t have to pay a dump fee. Seattle officials, PLEASE get the word out that this is not OK, and do whatever you can to fine those responsible for repeatedly doing this.

RANT to marijuana use in public spaces. I know that using marijuana in this state is legal, and that’s great. I even voted for it. But criminy, pot smells so bad! And the stink travels far and lingers for a long time. The last thing I want to smell when I’m waiting with my kids to get into a restaurant, or finishing a run around Green Lake, or coming out of the library is your weed. The law that I voted for says it is only legal to use it in private spaces, not public. So do that, please.

RANT to organizations and hosts who offer an invitation that includes an RSVP online option, yet the option does not allow one to decline or answer that zero will be attending. RSVP means “respond please,” not “acceptances only,” so one should be able to decline the invitation; otherwise, the recipient feels discourteous, and the sender is left in limbo.

RANT to all the big grocery stores that trumpet a great sale price, and then, in small letters, inform you that you must buy several of that thing to get that price. Several quarts of ice cream? Several loaves of bread? This is a slap in the face for people who don’t eat much, have little money and have small fridges and freezers. May as well go look at a bunch of yachts, which you also cannot buy.

RANT to youngsters who don’t think seniors are worth your time, your energy, your being nice, your patience, your humaneness or your courtesy. We’ve been here a lot longer than you have, and we’ve weathered all sorts of storms. You will too one day, maybe even tomorrow. Hope you make it on your own, because we seniors won’t be there to help you out. Just be kind. It goes a long way, and it’s healthy to smile.

RAVE to the person ranting about people standing close to airport baggage carousels. I think it’s just thoughtlessness rather than self-importance. Unfortunately, once enough people do it, the rest feel forced to crowd up to get to their bags. I keep hoping for airports to paint a line a few feet back with a statement saying, “Stand back until retrieving your bag.”

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act of culinary love

“Years ago, I started making a simple key lime pie. My husband really likes a tart flavor, but too much lime juice means the pie doesn’t set. So I find myself grating lime peel in the wee hours of the night of Thanksgiving Eve so I can use tablespoons of peel. I would love to find a way to make a super tart lime pie without bloody knuckles and a dozen naked limes leftover. But everyone loves it so maybe I should just accept it as my one act of culinary love each year.” — Elizabeth R.

Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…

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olfaction

What is a smell that never fails to make you close your eyes and inhale deeply? How can you add more of this to your home?

Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…

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Election: A plea to progressives

Dear victorious progressives:

I didn’t vote for you, but I honestly and sincerely wish you luck. I have voted progressive in the past, and if you can make this work I will again. Everyone knows the horrifying contrast between wealth and poverty; it challenges our morality. How can I look at the wretchedness of my brothers and sisters on the street and not want to transform their situation? I have known those who were addicted who recovered, those who were homeless who found a home, those who were mentally ill who found a place of relative peace. And I have known those who died, who did not recover. And those who fled Seattle because of cost.

This is my plea: Do your research, find out what works, find the best practices and methods for solving these problems. Don’t be fooled by a plan that sounds good in theory, because theories are cheap. And once you have a method, figure out a way to measure its success. If it works, great, double down. If not, have the courage to let it go.

Honestly, I hope it works. If not, you feed the beast.

Ken Mapp, Seattle

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writing

When I was in grad school in the mid-’80s, my husband bought me an “electronic typewriter.” I had many papers to write and was very happy that this monstrous machine would make my life easier. I had two young daughters, so I did all my work after I put them to bed. I would start typing, and lo and behold I would made a mistake. I had to use correction liquid or correction tape. Invariably, the tape did not cover the entire letter or the liquid looked like a mound of white with a letter embedded in it. As I am a perfectionist, neither was acceptable to me. I had to rip the entire page out and start again. Imagine when this happened in the last line of the page.

I am writing this on my iPad, which enables me to type quickly, before a thought escapes my mind. Errors are underlined in red, and all I have to do is put my finger on an error and choose the correct replacement. What a pleasure! No, there is not a bit of nostalgia about a hunk of metal that did not bend when I made an error.

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