The Kvetch Thread

I'm kvetching about the crazy Calgary "summer" - my plants are suffering, I tell you, because we have no sun, we get rain, rain, rain, then we get 3 days of sun, then four days of rain, then 2 overcast days, an afternoon of sun, then rain and wind, then 3 days of blistering sun... you get the idea. Make up your mind already!!!

When I went to sleep, I was worried that no one would respond to this thread. (Worrying is another gift of mine.) Glad to see there are responses, but only two are actual kvetches. Phoenix, you go to Florida and you kvetch about the heat? What did you expect? Snowball fights?

Wayne, Yes the summer heat is unbearable. But kiddo, you didn't mention the humidity. I could drop dead from the humidity. My hair is wet all summer from the humidity.

Reyn, How do I define kvetching? It's essentially complaining. Maybe you add a little something extra with a kvetch, but it's not necessary.

Punkey, You're thinking about kibbitzing. Throwing your two cents' worth in when playing card. You could kvetch when you're playing cards. Are you mixing those cards well enough? I remember seeing those two cards in a row in the last hand. I could grow old and die waiting for a pair.

tsar, If I'm gonna get $15 million, I'll make an effort. I usually don't try very hard when I kvetch. What comes out, comes out.

Foofie, Interesting analysis. I've never given kvetching much thought. Certainly, the stiff upper lip part doesn't apply. Was it Roseanne Rosannadana who said, It's always something? That's the mental state of a kvetcher. It's always something.

soz, I too always feel better after a good kvetch. Letting it out. Letting off some steam. It prevents stewing.

FM, Now I gotta try and remember what Tisha Bov is. It's always something. What's kretch?

Now I'm gonna kvetch that there isn't enough kvetching on the kvetch thread. I go to the trouble of starting a thread. I type my fingers to the bone. You people just ain't trying.

Edit: Just saw Mame's two kvetches. I can relate to the phone thing, bit time. Why did the machine ask me all those questions if you're gonna ask me the same questions. Thanks, kid.

OK a kvetch...

One of the kids on my kid's softball team has a dad. That's not the problem. The dad is very enthusiastic about softball. That isn't necessarily a problem. The dad gives really bad advice about how to PLAY softball. This is a problem.

It's especially a problem when he gives my daughter advice on how to play softball and messes her up!

She listens to advice, which isn't usually a character flaw but is in this situation.

Her coach -- who I haven't a single complaint about, he's an ubermensch -- has successfully undone More Enthusiasm Than Knowledge Dad's bad advice twice now. So all is well. But I get itchy when I see METKD launch into the advice again. (METKD is not even a coach! He's just a bystander who jumps in at the slightest provocation, such as when the real coach is going around putting the bases in their little holes. I'd much rather that METKD handles putting the bases in their little holes while the coach coaches.) (What a coach. So good.) (With the exception of METKD blips, sozlet had an excellent season with some mighty hits and her team won the league championship. She has a big shiny EARNED trophy and she's very happy. No kvetches there.)

We need to start a Fantasy Kvetching League. First round draft pick is, of course, Roberta. Then the rest of us complain.

So, my kvetch. I go swimming, 'cause it's hot as blazes here. I go to the Y, which has a lovely clean pool, as opposed to the MDC, where a woman died. So far, so good.

Last week, I was there and there were a buncha day camp classes there and so only 1 lane was open to us grown-up types. And we are trying not to bump into each other but there is a Spanish dude with 2 noodles and so he is wide and slow and just kinda meandering around. The rest of us want to do laps; he wants to marinate.

So I do my lap as well as possible and end up kind of going diagonally around marinating Spanish dude. I keep going this way as I see no one in front of me. I get to the end (note: I'm not wearing glasses, of course) and I see tiny Russian lady. She is -- I swear this is true -- wearing bright fuchsia lipstick.

In the pool.

And she says to me, "You mahst svin in serkul!"

What?

"You mahst svin in serkul!"

Translated: You must swim in a circle, meaning, go on the right, turn around and stay to the right.

I realize I have met The Lane Fuhrer.

So I start swimming in the circle like everyone else. Last I saw of be-lipsticked Russkie Lane Fuhrer, she was saying, "You mahst svin in serkul!" to the marinating Spanish dude.

And so concludes another day here in Brighton, the Gateway to the Galaxy.

funny post - thank you I could just picture it!

tISHA BOV IS THE DARKEST DAY OF A jEWS CALENDAR. The destruction of the TEmple, slaughter of Bar kokbas' disciples, Rome leveled Jerusalem and the SPamish expulsion of Jews.

Tisha bov is "celebrated" in August, 9 days of mourning with eating only really vrappy food and no meat. real Jews really stink on these 9 days.
Its the OYYYYY, "Ets me again' I could kvetch but ya wouldnt believe me.

Me too.

Oh you had to mention rain didn't you, if only we could get a little rain, my lawn is non existent, the river has dried to just a few puddles, I stepped in a crack the other day and had to call for help, by the time the neighbor heard and brought a ladder I was dehydrated so badly I nearly had to go to the hospital which I'm afraid to do for fear they'll raise my insurance again, it's already so expensive that I'm reduced to eating ramen noodles 3 nights a week which is just too much carbohydrates for me so I've got to walk an extra 2 miles a week cause those carbs just go straight to my waistline, now my knee is making a popping noise cause I'm having to walk so much more and when I called my doctor they couldn't get me in til the middle of next month.............................

That's the best you can do? You kvetch like a goil!

You can walk? The luck in being so fortunate.

that reminds me of all the thread derailure that goes on just when a thread starts to get off the ground it's either the christians derailing a decent atheist thread or the anti feminist turning a cooking thread into a battle ground, I just can't seem to get a break anymore these people I work with just won't do things the way they are supposed to be done I'm constantly having to straighten out their messes..................

soz, Where do these people come from and why don't they shut up? Yes, they're just trying to be helpful ,but they're not helpful. Glad to hear that the menschy coach set sozlet straight.

jes, First I must applaud your transliteration of the accent. Outstanding. I'm embarrassed to admit that I understood that without the translation. I'm liking the fuschia in the pool. Why is there always somebody trying to boss the rest of us around. Swim in a circle. I can do that. Just stroke with one arm.

fm, The thing with Jewish holidays is that there's almost always a crisis to overcome, and there's often some kinda food restriction. I like Thanksgiving.

Wayne, Your knees are popping from lack of rain? That's a hell of a complicated kvetch. I don't know from lawns. I'm a city kid. I see a blade of grass, and it's an event. Wayne, what does derailing a thread have to do with your coworkers? I eshew discussions of religion so I don't know about such derailings.

Thomas, Yes, kiddo, I kvetch like a goil. I am a goil. As for the best I can do, I specifically said this is not a competition. Just a way to let off steam. I don't see you winning any kvetching prizes. (IMO, my best kvetches are the the Surgery Again thread--so far.)

roger, Wayne doesn't know how good he has it. Climbing a ladder and walking. He thinks he's got problems. Hah!

I live near a fire station, a police station, and several hospitals. I'm not kvetching about the sirens. You gotta get someplace in a hurry, blast the siren. There was a giant and locally newsworthy fire tonight. I'm not kvetching about the fire. A terrible thing. Fortunately no humans were caught in the blaze. What am I kvetching about? Better get to it before I forget. The sirens blast just when something interesting is happening/being said on the TV show I'm watching. Now I'm left wondering what the hell happened. I gotta look for reruns.

No one would ever use a siren just to let wifey know to get dinner ready. Sure they wouldn't.

Somebody might, Roger, but this time an old (over 100 years) house of worship was on fire--a few blocks from my apartment. Major, long lasting sirens. I heard them si until they got to the fire.

All krechtzs are kvetches, but not all kvetches are krechtzs.

Just for a for instance, one may kvetch about the state of the union, the lousy goil up the block, or the price of tea in China. It is a generic word, and can be used to bad mouth almost anything.

A krechtzs is another breed of cat, and is very personal. When I get out of a chair, and the pain stabs me in the back, I let out with an "oy", that can be heard on the next block. I want everyone to share my pain, and make sure that they know about it. Now THAT'S a krechtz!

See the difference???

Phoenix, Thanks mucho for the explanation. I never heard of a kretch until fm brought it up, and now I can use it in a sentence.

Something I could not have anticipated has happened. I've become self-conscious about kvetching. How humiliating. How demoralizing. I gotta let go and just kvetch.

I have a little fan I right by the computer. Poifect to keep me semicool and semicomfortable when I'm computing. So yesterday it dropped dead. Now I gotta schlepp the big fan from the bedroom into the living room so that I don't melt when I'm working. Then I gotta schlep the damned thing back when I want to sleep.

Well why don't I just get another little fan? No money till next week.

Timing is everything.

I think a kvetch a day does you good.
Sometimes they're big kvetches, sometimes they're little ones, but it's the act of kvetching that matters.
Life would be very boring if we all just talked about positive stuff all the time, yes?

Today's kvetch: a middling-sized one.
On & off rain is forecast for today, when a friend is coming over to help me get stuck into some of my more challenging gardening jobs, which require an extra pair of hands.
Yesterday, when I did the same for her (& we got heaps done!) the rain held off all day.
I will kvetch like mad if the weather god thwarts today's plan!

Language is alive, regardless of what a dictionary states. Yiddish is mixed with usually Polish or Russian, based on where the immigrants came from. Anyway, kvetch has the meaning in New York that the New Yorkers, on the thread, understand. Please do not get all academic on us.

Freud, Schmoid. There is an unconscious. And, who can say that the kvetcher is not more aware of his unconscious thinking than the "stiff upper lip chap"? Kvetching may reflect the conscious awareness of what another person is not conscious of.

I was through with Freud when I started. What a pile of mishugana, a word I learned a few years later, after the then me in beginning psych classes with a prof that is still, um, revered, gave us the known stuff then. I liked him, learned, didn't just nod along; I was a lambent catholic back then, but I only got worse re any of it, when everyone around me was spouting Jung and Casteneda and then some guru people. This all taught me testiness. No wonder I need to avoid beginning philosophy folk. I simply have no patience, so the kvetch would be re me except I have no patience for kvetching at me about this stuff.