A few weeks ago I had to go to Edmonton for work. Emphasis on the “had to”.
Anyway, like many cities, a lot of their intersections downtown have a noise wired into the stoplights that lets blind people know it's ok to cross.
However, unlike most cities, where the noise is automatic as soon as the light changes, Edmonton apparently wants to cut down on noise pollution, as a button has to be pressed to trigger the noise when the light changes.
Here's the problem: how the goddamn hell is a blind person supposed to find the button? Does the city want the visually impaired to stumble around helplessly looking for this magical instrument that will allow them to cross the street safely? Is this a joke the city of Edmonton is perpetrating on the visually impaired? It's just cruel.
So congratulations, City of Edmonton. You are the first winners of RTS’s “Jerk of the Month” Award.
(Important note: in no way should this be taken as a sign that we will actually be handing out such an award on a monthly basis. That would require foresight, planning, and most of all, a will to care about or product. None of those traits really apply to us.)
Speaking of idiocy, try this one on for size. Saturday afternoon, after a typical morning spent mentoring underprivileged youth and volunteering at a nursing home, I decided to hit a Wendy’s drive-thru for lunch.
Typically, my order is such: two of the five-piece value meal chicken nuggets and a large fries. I don’t bother with a drink because I’m taking it home and don’t need to pay for one.
So I go through the drive-thru and make the mistake of ordering a 10-piece nugget (instead of saying two five-piece nuggets) and fries. The girl asks what I want to drink, and I say I don’t want one. She informs me that I need to order a drink for the 10-piece combo. My mind was a little off after my long morning of volunteer community work, so I just said Coke and got on with my day.
Granted, I could and should have corrected her, but riddle me this loyal readers: what’s the damn difference between order 10 pieces versus two five-pieces? Why overcomplicate things? A Wendy’s drive-thru should be the last place where I’m forced to do any critical thought (well, next to a strip club of course), and yet here I am being forced to properly articulate whether I want a 10-piece or two five-pieces.
Wendy’s, you are the runner-up.
1 comment:
You didn't tell me we'd be ranting about fast food joints.
I went to Chick-fil-A the other morning and pulled up to the drive-thru. I said, "I want a chicken biscuit and a large Dr. Pepper." The lady asked me to repeat my order. I said, "I want a chicken biscuit and a large Dr. Pepper." She sounded frustrated and simply told me to "drive around" without giving me my total. I felt like I was taking crazy pills and not able to speak corrected. I pull up to the window and the person at the window (who wasn't the one I talked to earlier) says, "A chicken biscuit and a large Dr. Pepper????" I say yes and she tells me my total. I felt like an idiot, like I had some problem being able to speak or something. So I hear the woman who is working the drive-thru in the background say, "Can you repeat that?" Then she says, "Sir, yelling doesn't make it any more clear. Just pull around." Apparently Chick-fil-a deciced to put a rude deaf woman in charge of taking orders via a headset. Thanks!
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