These Are a Few of my Most Hated Things:

Avoiding work and browsing around on the net, I came across a few things that always make my teeth go to edge, so, being that I am as boring as hell these days and have no life story content to offer, I thought I'd share them (in no real order)…

Number 5:
The “Human Interest Story” industry.

“If it bleeds, it leads.” OK, I can understand that from a media perspective… However, I fail to see how the idea of “It’s a dog but it nurses raccoons, it is sacrosanct on page 2” got started.

Number 4:
That some people still use BC and AD!

BC means “Before Christ.” AD means “Anno Domini.” In this pluralistic world of ours, we can at least pretend that Christians no longer rule the planet (or the “important bits”) can’t we?

Number 3:
The persistence of the Canadian media in publishing poll numbers that predict a Conservative landslide in the federal elections next Monday.

While it may be true (or not) that poll numbers show this, I am seriously annoyed over the fact that it covers the front page of every newspaper these days! True, I hate Harper as much as any progressive-educated-non-Christian-Canadian-woman who believes that happiness belongs to more than just straight, married, wealthy, Evangelical, white people. True, again, that I would welcome a landslide from anyone, this side of the Christian Heritage party or the Blackshirts, against that little prick. However, I am not railing against the publishing of the polls out of sour grapes. I am worried about what it is doing to voter decisions.

Am I the only person who worries that the media blitz is yet another ploy of the tired and terrified Liberals to scare NDP supporters to vote Liberal this Monday?

I have less against the Liberals than against the Conservatives, so bless them for luck, but, if we want to save Canada from the Blue Menace, we need the NDP seated in Parliament in large numbers. The Liberals dislike the Conservatives, but only the NDP have enough garlic and wooden stakes to keep Harper in his place.

Number 2:
Anti-blogging comments.

I shall start this by saying that blogging is not for everyone, and, yes, I am a little ashamed of how much I enjoy it. However, I get irate when some dope from Michigan writes a comment on some blog or blog-related site with some bright witticism like:

"i thikn U all r gay and serously need 2 get lifes." (Signed urgay@yahoo, etc.)

It really drives me mental. Please stop. You are an embarrassment. It is clear that you hate blogging because you can’t picture yourself writing a successful grocery list, let alone a journal. Further, what is worse: writing a blog, or writing about other people who write a blog? I think it is you who serously needs to get a lifes, buddy. Then maybe you’d have something to write about… But probably not even then.

And the thing that annoys me most at this particular moment…

Number 1:
The ignorant and ubiquitous misuse of the term “Victorian.”

Here’s a notice for public service. The “Victorian Era” is called such because it is the period in which Queen Victoria ruled Britain and influenced British society the most. She ruled from 1837 to her death in 1901. While the survival of her influence past her death has prompted some sociologists to extend the “Victorian Era” to the First World War, we shall have no more creative negotiation of this term.

For example, Pride and Prejudice is not a treatise on “Victorian morals.” As Jane Austen lived between 1775 and 1817 (with the book published in 1813), and one can assume that she own a crystal ball, Mr. Darcy was not crippled with “Victorian scruples,” “Victorian repression,” or anything else “Victorian.” His era, in fact, is most likely to be “Georgian” or “Regency,” the periods preceding the Victorian one. Further, Lorna Doone was not Victorian (though the book was published in 1869), nor was the story behind Remains of the Day set in actual Victorian times (actually modern, with Edwardian and later home fashions, though the social stratification may suggest the lingering of Victorian values).

A Simple Guide to Pre-Modern and Early Modern English Periods:
General Tudor Period: 1485-1603
Elizabethan Era: 1558-1603
Stuart Period: 1603- 1714
Jacobean Era: ca. 1603-1625
British Civil War: 1625- 1660
Restoration Era: ca. 1660-1685
Georgian Era: 1714- 1830
Regency Era: 1810- 1820
Victorian Era: ca. 1837-1901 (possibly 1914)
Edwardian Era: 1901-1910
Modern Era: 1900- present.

Now, for an example of a true Victorian, Jack the Ripper may come to mind, although if you look hard at some of his probable ideologies he actually was a modernist… Try Joseph Merrick, instead, maybe.

But, definitely NOT Darcy, or his creator Jane Austen.


Please, let’s clean these problems up, soon, OK? Before my head explodes.

Thank you.
Signed, yours, et cetera,
- A Sore Headed Old Crank.