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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 03:20 PM
Original message
Sad. So it's now socially acceptable to
at Target (no wallyworld stuff here), mid-day when the store is packed with people, most of which have to get things done, be in an aisle with your coughing child, with the cart perpendicular so it makes passing the aisle impossible, and calling up hubby on the phone to talk about nonsense while holding on to the already defined shopping list in the other hand. Does the cell phone warrior need MORE clarification?!

I plan before going out and, yes, I do have a problem with others so insensitive they take up the whole aisles. If I miss something, I'll go back next trip. I'm not so infantile I just can't live with my artificial sweetener packets for another 3 days... :crazy: I also don't act like a maniac on the road if I see I just about already missed the exit and feel I have to risk my safety and everybody else's just to make the exit instead of going to the next one and turning around, but that's another story...

It's also disgusting more people have to bring their kids along to the self-serv daycare center shopping store, even when they're sick because our "family values" corporations can't be bothered to pay people enough so they CAN stay home with their families, especially when Jr or Lil' Miss is hacking up phlegm (and it's also a rare treat to see a child covering his/her mouth anymore!)

And, conversely, if it's 11PM Saturday (or, worse, 1AM Sunday morning), it is far worse to have late teeniebopper parents out with Little Crying Toddler (or even up to a 5 year old! Or two of them!) while the parents look at boomboxes and smell of cheap booze while groping each other (people tell me I need to get laid, they ought to go out more and they'll be in for a real treat! Not...). I feel sorry for the child and how it's going to grow up under those irresponsible oafs, and hope they themselves turn out semi-normal... Can't one parent stay at home? Do both really need to look at the 56" TV set that the NFL will refuse to let them watch football on anyway? :eyes: Or does one parent feel better to go with the other one and have every chance possible to fondle each other while the little one is crying, coughing, being hit, you name it... (most people go to bars on Saturdays. I go to walmart to "people"-watch.)


I can't wait for the semester to start... college sounds infinitely more exciting than people-watching...
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SPKrazy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 03:21 PM
Response to Original message
1. Wear A Mask
and carry an air horn

:rofl:
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Dervill Crow Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 03:26 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. ROFL
I am not racist, but (you knew there would be a "but") I am picturing someone doing this to the non-English speaking people at Winco who are equally inept with shopping carts and cars.

So sue me for insensitivity.
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 03:27 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. !
:spray:

The cynic in me loves it, but despite it all that's stooping beneath them.

People didn't used to need cell phones before.

People didn't used to need to tag the whole herd into what is NOT the "Sunday Family Fun Day" not-a-real-event at the store.

And the "Let's smell like trash and bring the kids to ___ late night so they can't sleep because our new Britney Spears album is far more important!!" lot are still a separate issue...

I know my OP was a tad embellished, but it isn't terribly far from the truth. Most people do want to get in and get out and I did imply most who had children would rather have a parent at home; that point being nobody gets paid enough for such a "luxury" of having proper family time. (That point was poorly woded...)

I just remember things when I grew up and things have changed quite a bit. It's sad. And it's only going to get sadder; just what do those in power have for we, the sheep?

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GirlinContempt Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 03:23 PM
Response to Original message
2. Huh?
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BelleCarolinaPeridot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:31 PM
Response to Reply #2
18. You and me both GirlinContempt.
I am biting my tongue so hard right now. So hard.
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 07:41 PM
Response to Reply #18
35. Why not speak your mind?
Edited on Sun Feb-11-07 07:51 PM by HypnoToad
Is it just confusion or is there a beef? Sock it to me.

And if you followed this thread, now you know how I feel - I bite my tongue often enough too. As a reactionary, it's often the best thing to do.

:hug:

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BelleCarolinaPeridot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-12-07 01:54 AM
Response to Reply #35
38. To avoid conflict and to have a great weekend.
Let it be.
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 07:48 PM
Response to Reply #2
36. Please forgive... It was a long morning this morning...
People will be people, and I am aware of my own flaws (hence my preference to avoid, as I admitted to in replies to others), and I genuinely ought to follow others' advice and relax.
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skygazer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 03:31 PM
Response to Original message
5. Excellent rant
:applause:
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 03:37 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. Thank you!
:) I just had to speak my mind.

(and hear others' input, especially if they disagree. There are plenty of times when I'm wrong too, and half the time I post it's for the sake of genuine edification.)


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skygazer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 03:41 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. I work in a grocery store
I see this all the time. As well as the people who come in on a freezing cold rainy day - they're wearing a coat and hat and gloves but the baby is wearing nothing on its head and has bare feet. I see that all the time.

The blocking the aisle thing is obnoxious as hell. The yakking on the cell phone maddening. They do it in the checkout line - can't get off the thing for five minutes so I can ring them up. Rude? Beyond rude.

Half the time they're so busy on the damn cell phone that I'm almost done bagging their groceries when they pause to tell me in an irritated voice, "Oh, I want paper" - as if I'm supposed to divine that with my superhuman checker ESP. :eyes:

You'll get no arguments from me, my friend.
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 03:47 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Holy sheep!
:wow:

:cry:

You definitely need one of these: :hug:

An unprotected baby in that weather - that's just immoral, utterly wrong.

And, damn, I had no idea customers could be so flippin' rude by demanding you do their job. Have you ever been penalized or reprimanded by management because people were in the queue and nitwit-with-the-phone demanded paper, et al? (I hope not, wow...)

:pals:
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skygazer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 03:55 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. My management team is really good
And they back up their employees which really helps make a tough job easier. I'm always unfailingly professional but I don't take any crap from people - I had one woman call me stupid one day and I stopped what i was doing, leaned right into her face and told her, "You know, you have no right to speak to me that way but I WILL accept an apology" and just stayed there.

She apologised. :)


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philosophie_en_rose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 04:07 PM
Response to Original message
10. Silly parents.
Don't they know they're supposed to drop the kids off at the Fred Meyer kid cage before heading to Target?


:rofl:
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 04:17 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. Fred Meyer? Is that Michael Jackson's pseudonym?
:yoiks:
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philosophie_en_rose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 04:26 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. No that's Mr. Jefferson's super great fun factory.
:P

Fred Meyer stores just have these glass enclosures to keep the children of its customers caged.
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Leo 9 Donating Member (560 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:06 PM
Response to Original message
13. When an isle's blocked, I go around to the other side.
No point in waiting when someone's set up camp.

Also, I rarely use a cart. It's easier to squeeze through that way.
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:16 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. So do I, but still... and especially on a busy day as well...
If it was during a weekday or any given time the store is not jam packed with customers, then it's not as much a concern.

I did go the other way, but many people don't make being inconsiderate of other a conscious habit...

People rushed for time who run through others is annoying to, but that context is far more understandable than perching one's self with cart blocking the aisle just so they can chatter on the cell phone, and they would probably whine if others stood there to listen in on their "private" conversation! :eyes: (and these days, no doubt that happens too...)

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dysfunctional press Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:19 PM
Response to Original message
15. the phrase is "excuse me"...learn it, use it...it REALLY works!
yes, people sometimes block aisles, and are usually unaware of it- a simple "excuse me, i'd like to get through, please" usualy works WONDERS.

we live in a society, and politeness is a two-way street.

lighten up.
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:45 PM
Response to Reply #15
22. Unaware of it, maybe, but not accidentally - unaware because they don't fucking care.
Edited on Sun Feb-11-07 05:45 PM by Rabrrrrrr
Or because they're so goddamned dumb they should be sterilized.

Not all of 'em, no - but I am convinced that most of it is people who don't give a fucking care at all for how their actions affect others.
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skygazer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:55 PM
Response to Reply #15
23. Sadly, that's not necessarily true
I say "excuse me" all day long - it's extremely rare for anyone to say it to me. The people to whom I say it do not strike me as people who are unaware they are in the way - they strike me for the most part as people who do not give a fuck about anyone else on the planet. And 9 times out of 10, when I do say "excuse me", I'm treated to a vacant look and almost no response beyond moving infinitesimally. Sometimes it's worse.

I was working one day and had a dolly on an aisle. I always try to position my dolly so its out of the way but I was standing next it removing a box when a lady came around the corner and barrelled down the aisle - so fast that I barely had time to get out of the way.

A bit miffed, I said, "Excuse ME!" with some emphasis on the "me" (the box was heavy and it wasn't easy getting out of the way quickly) - she immediately turned around and shouted, "Well, what are you doing in the middle of the aisle anyway?!"

I said, "Why wouldn't you simply say excuse me?"

She just rushed off in a huff.

Politeness IS a two-way street - too many people don't even respond to it let alone use any.
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 07:18 PM
Response to Reply #15
32. Politeness is indeed a two-way street...
Have you tried asking anybody "pardon me" lately? Lovely responses, some of them... and they're not as charming as you make it out to be - do you deem me such a naive fool as to have NOT bother trying?

It becomes a survival mechanism to side-step when possible. If they're too thick to think of others in the first place, why should I enter their precious minefield and risk getting blown up by their vitriol?

Again, it IS a two-way street. And it's easier to avoid the proverbial blind drivers in the first place.

We do live in a society. And many people don't seem to remember that, you're talkin' to the wrong dude about it, sorry.

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dysfunctional press Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 07:29 PM
Response to Reply #32
33. i say excuse me or pardon me to people several times a day, at least...
and i've found that if you say it with a smile, you generally don't have any problems...at least i don't.
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 07:40 PM
Response to Reply #33
34. It is possible I wasn't saying it incorrectly. Inflection is 9/10ths of the law...
When I'm shopping, I am there for a purpose. To shop. Not hog the aisle while placing telephone calls and holding my list in the other hand. It looks and is ridiculous. And that's just as uncivilized as not interrupting them to say "Please excuse me while I pass" and it is also rude to interrupt people, or so I've been told. What if, for her, I did ask? If I got a polite response, would I still get flamed? If she gave me a rude response (which is likely), I'd still be flamed for interrupting. That is all inference and conjecture, but based on previous experiences, it's best to not interrupt people talkin' on their cell phones...

Unless one is a teacher in a classroom... and if the teacher takes the phone away they get suspended too... :crazy:

I am best off shopping during typically non-busy periods. More charismatic people can spend the day fighting or begging each other to do, IMHO, what shouldn't have to be done in the first place.
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astral Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:27 PM
Response to Original message
16. Toddlers not dressed for the weather!
I see that so much. Tiny toddlers in a diaper and bare legs and bare feet and a bare head, while the adults have their coats buttoned and their hats on. Kids are MORE likely to get hypothermic from not enough clothing on than adults. And if they're too young to think for themselves how much clothes to put on, no wonder they get cranky and go into tantrums.

Imagine, young parents, dressing in SHORTS and BARE FEET to go to the grocery store on a not-so-hot- day. Okay you can't legally go barefoot (it's for HYGENIC reasons, which includes toddlers whose feet touch the floor) so try bare feet with sandals on. See how chilly you are by the time you get back home.

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skygazer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:36 PM
Response to Reply #16
19. And the children usually aren't moving
They're in the cart or a stroller so there's no movement to get the blood flowing. It always amazes me when I see that and I see it a LOT.
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:28 PM
Response to Original message
17. Ah, yes, that subspecies of subhuman shit called "Aisle Blocking Filth".
They are the bane of my existence.

The shitwipes who stand right in the supermarket doorway while they put their hat, gloves, and scarf on, button their coat, get their purse ready, and adjust their filthy little sugar-addled jackalspawn children...

The fuckbags who set up camp in the middle of an intersection of two major aisles and decide to have their fucking pow wow there, with their carts arrayed just right so that no one can get past them...

The person B assholes who, with person A already in the aisle and pulled off to the side, innocently doing their shopping, decide to stand directly next to that Person A's cart, thus blocking the aisle entirely for Persons C, D, E, and F, all of whom person B knows full goddamned well are right behind her fat spandex-wearing ass...

Or the Person A donkey-raping scum who park their cart on the left side of the aisle, and stand right next to it on the right side of the aisle, blocking the whole goddamn thing...

The stop-and-go shitbags who can't decide if they are gonna move with their cart, or just sit there, and so they go, then stop, then go, then stop, then go, then stop.... then stay stopped, so you figure, okay, I can pass this fucking poster-child for the worst of the illiterati, and then as soon as you are next to them, and they know you are next to them, they take off with you...

Fucking trash, they are.

Look, you Judas-worshiping subhuman filth, there are more people in the world than just you. Look around once in a goddamned while, you stupid shitbags.
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mainegreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:38 PM
Response to Reply #17
20. I imagine the people who pull up to ATMs and then proceed to take an envelope
fill it out, fumble for their paycheck, sign it, seal the envelope, fumble through their purse for their ATM card, insert the card, somehow spend three minutes going through an apparently very complex set of menu options that you never get when using the ATM, and then deposit their paycheck, (often this type will repeat this process once or twice more), then when finished, they will not pull forward, but will apparantly rearrange their purse, fix their makeup and perhaps adjust their hair before pulling forward, this type must also drive you nuts?

:P
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 05:41 PM
Response to Reply #20
21. Yes, the "Doesn't Prepare For Then Doesn't Leave the Queue Filth"
Fucking asswipes.

Or the goddamn old people who wait until their groceries are checked out to open the fucking purse and THEN dig around for exact fucking change.

Or wait until the groceries are checked out, and then open the fucking purse and start looking for the goddamned checkbook.
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 07:14 PM
Response to Reply #17
30. Well, nobody's perfect...
:)

And the person who stands just to the left of the queue when almost everybody in the queue asks if that person is next and they say "no", and repeat the procedure with the person behind the one asking "Are you in the queue" because each followup person doesn't bother to look around (that's the usual core problem afoot) and the dingaling standing to the side can't get the hint they should be loitering in a more convenient place?! :crazy:
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graywarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 06:08 PM
Response to Original message
24. Come to fucking Florida where the fucking shuffle board crowd takes up the fucking aisles in the
fucking supermarkets talking about their 401K's and who's the best Early Bird of the week. Then watch them all back into each other in the parking lot and swear and yell at each other over it. Sometimes there's a fist fight between two 80 year olds.

Try that!!! Parents with coughing kids and cell phone idiots? Pffffft!. Try old people YELLING into cell phones in the movie theater lobby or not answering their cell phones fast enough while you're watching a movie.

No wonder old people die off eventually...they're fucking menaces!!
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NC_Nurse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 06:18 PM
Response to Reply #24
25. Bwahahaha!
You're killin' me! :rofl:

We're going to Orlando Thursday. I have to go to a nursing conference and then it's down to Ft. Lauderdale
to check on my husband's granny and her sister - they are 90 and 91 respectively.

If you think Sarasota is bad, try Ft. Lauderdale! The elderly drivers alone will leave you breathless, and SHITLESS too!

Yes - they are effin' menaces!!!
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graywarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 07:01 PM
Response to Reply #25
27. Stay off 75 and 41. Some old person drives the wrong way EVERY DAY
Or they back into eachothers mobile homes. It's like living inside an elderly pinball machine.
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bridgit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 06:35 PM
Response to Original message
26. oh i like the people that walk eevvver-sooo-slllooowly right down the geometric...
Edited on Sun Feb-11-07 06:38 PM by bridgit
middle of the isle their heads slowly turning each to a side they're a hoot too; or the ones that block as you have mentioned, to stand back themselves in the middle, or opposite side of the isle chin-in-hand, people trying to scoot past as their eyes are perusing slowly again from item to item for what i have no idea, just looking up, over, across, back down, back up, over, etc; i'm all like,

"Would you please just buy something already, sheesh! Some of us dislike being here to begin with, and now you!!"

or the people that exit an isle left while looking right to bonk right into your ankle bone, had it with them too x(
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u4ic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 07:05 PM
Response to Original message
28. Have you ever noticed people on cell phones
rarely have interesting conversations? If you're going to talk loud, at least make it something worth listening to!!


The people at the Superstore here are insane. I rarely go, but feel the need to put padding on every time I set foot in there. If I come out only bruised, I feel lucky.

They need to give lessons on driving those damn shopping carts. :grr:
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Redstone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 07:08 PM
Response to Original message
29. Jesus, I'm glad Mrs R does all the shopping. By the way, don't you have anything
better to do than to be at Target at 1 in the morning? How about getting some sleep?

Redstone
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Deja Q Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 07:15 PM
Response to Reply #29
31. Actually, it's Wal-mart...
And why is people-watching a sin?

(I was unable to sleep those nights and I had to get out of the house...)
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joneschick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-11-07 08:06 PM
Response to Original message
37. I can't believe there's not one mention of the miniature shopping carts!
omg, I hate those things. We really don't need more idiot "shoppers in training". Children do not, I repeat, do not need their own f'n shopping carts! most especially, when you are shopping with more that one child. They will form some sort of competition and it will be a pain in the ass for everyone else. Just sayin'.






:hi:
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KT2000 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-12-07 02:39 AM
Response to Original message
39. Had that experience
with the shopping cart blocking the aisle and the woman yelling into her cell phone - oblivious to everything around her.

Actually I am so sick of the rude cell phone users in public - yelling their inane conversations as if everyone wants to hear them. Finally have started asking these people to stop YELLING and/or take it outside!

Had a friend who was sitting in a doctor's waiting room and a woman sat down and started yelling into her cell phone. The friend then started reading out loud - and I mean loud - from the magazine he was reading. He stopped when she stopped her phone call.
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leftofthedial Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-12-07 03:09 AM
Response to Original message
40. those bastards!
Edited on Mon Feb-12-07 03:15 AM by leftofthedial
how do you cope?
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