Irritations

That in order to keep prices down and discourage unethical bargain-hunters, our grocery store no longer sells discounted day-old bread.

That the bakery worker who told me that the day-old bread wasn't for sale also snapped at me as if I were a two-year-old poking holes in the plastic wrap ("That's not for sale, ma'am, put that down!") and I didn't call her on it.

That there was (Darren and I suspect) a back-room deal at the local city festival that the women wouldn't protest an all-male "stag party" as long as the organizers allowed fund-raisers for the abused women's shelter.

That the aforementioned fund-raiser was a woman dressed in a tummy-exposing halter top and cut-off short-shorts, selling cigars. Way to appeal to the baser nature of men to raise money to protect women from the baser nature of men.

That an all-female gathering passes without notice, but an all-male gathering is somehow offensive. The loss of strictly-male camaraderie makes it even harder for men to make friends of their own sex in this disconnected, sexually-charged culture.

That I tried adding 99 plus 99 in my head and came up with 298. And, furthermore, that I corrected Stuart, who came up with 198.

-- SJ