The Scope

Summer is almost over, it’s beautiful outside and I am trapped inside this office!!!!!! HEELLLLLPPPPP MMEEEEEEEEEEE

Ranter: trapped

Illustration by Ricky King

Holy Cr*p whats up with the service levels in this city. We’re known nationally.. no.. worldwide, as one of the freindliest and most helpful peoples on the planet, I get it all the time when I travel, people state with wonder how great it must be to live in such a friendly place. But when the rubber hits the road, it’s far short. 15 years ago the first time I left St Johns for another internationally touted Atlantic Canadian city (rhymes with Cali Slacks) I was astonsihed with the level of customer service encountered everywhere! It wasnt just me – my travelling partner noticed as well. We just spent a good chunk of $ doing what our province wants us to do : vacation at home. After 1 brunch, 1 lunch, 2 dinners, and a night at a high end B&B (read where Charles and Camilla stayed in ‘09!) I can only say that the B&B and 1 dinner (Folly) were truly enjoyable – the rest fell short of expectations. Throughout the summer we’ve found it to be true that no-one seems to give a cr*p. Maybe it’s a sign of the level of activity in the city – a growing pain, or a generational thing in the staff typically found in the service industry, or maybe I need a AMEX card and a Nebraska accent to find the legendary service we are famous for, or maybe it is just a legend. Ranter: Whats up with bad service at good places

I would like to comment on your paper and website. I never saw anything about the Regatta where approximately 40,000 plus people attended including some high profile politicians. Its the oldest continuing sporting event in North America and deserved a report in your paper and website. Instead you focus on the small arts scene which only encompasses a small population of St. John’s and area and miss the biggest event in NL this year. Also your paper continues to be anti-development and fails to report on these matters since the Fortis debate. If you want to draw a bigger following and to continue to survive as a media you have to have a focus on more news issues and a bigger Scope on things. Everyone isn’t focused on the small arts scene here in town they want a combination of news ,arts,sports . Thats why I see a lot of your papers piled up in corners or in the trash. This is not a slight against you or your reporters etc… but an opinion from a citizen who wants to offer an honest opinion and help you to reach more people and offer a more balanced product. Good luck and I wish you a prosperous future . Ranter: Frank Power

Downtown traffic. My God people. Did these people get their license in a surprise bag? When stopped at an intersection and traffic isn’t moving on the other side, stop at the light. NOT in the middle of the intersection. Or the crosswalk. It bungs everything up. Vehicles trying to move through the intersection in the opposite direction can’t move because of your lack of driving knowledge, common sense and inflated sense of importance. Are you really in that much of a hurry that you cannot properly stop for a few minutes? I hate crossing at these intersections. Yes. I’m one of the people that cross at the lights. I never know if its safe. Just how aware is the driver of their surroundings? I fear its even less then I give them credit for. I can only imagine how the drivers trying to cross the intersection feel. I certainly would be angry at the idiot that just stopped dead in the middle of the intersection. I’m pissed enough at them for stopping and I can walk around them. And drivers are not just a fault. Crossing at random places on the street slows it all down too. I’m guilty of doing it. Although I attempt to always use a crosswalk. It may add a little time and distance to your important trip to other side of Water street but most of us could use the exercise.

The construction and semi trucks moving through downtown doesn’t help. But that is another rant.

Ranter: I kick cars driven by idiots

why doesn’t the scope classifieds section seem to work? c’mon now. i need to post and read some ads!

Ranter: kathleen

Doggie Bags. They are so great when people know how to use them correctly. If used properly, they should eliminate such incidents as poop on the bottom of your shoe or slipping in a nice big pile of it. How often so far this summer have I seen poop that was clearly once in the bag, but now finds itself splattered all over the sidewalk? the answer I am looking for is a whole lot. For those who love to walk your dogs in the various parks and on various sidewalks throughout the city I ask you as one dog lover to another: Clean up the poop!! It actually involves 2 steps: one to put it in the bag and the second to put the bag in the trash!!

Ranter: Viva La Poop Baggies!!

Illustration by Ricky King

Ok, so I am all for cyclists rights. I bike, I ride on the road, I wear I helmet, I indicate. When a cyclist veers across the road in front of me without signaling on a busy street at peak traffic time, in order to go down a one-way street IN THE WRONG DIRECTION I get mad. When I beeped at this guy and yell at him to indicate like the rest of us, he gives me the finger! Oh well, it’s his neck I suppose but it’s too bad he’s giving the responsible cyclists out there a bad name. Ranter: cycle right

O.k I dunno about anyone else…but if I have to deal with another snot nosed teen,adult,senior who works in a store,behind a counter or what have you serving the public, with a poor attitude. I’m gonna tear off a piece of clapboard from one of St.John’s precious jellybean row houses and bat them in the fuckin face with it! I am originally from Toronto but I have lived here for let’s just say a loooong time and I have never had such horrible customer service as i have encountered here in town lately!WTF is up with you people?If you don’t like your jobs quit!Stop trying to rush me through my order,or throw my money across the counter or ignore me and not respond when I say please and thank you .And ..um it would be nice if some of us customers were acknowledged if we go in to Le Chateau whether we are buying something or not(i’m sure you’ve received quite a few calls about your snooty employees).Get a grip people your dealing with the public!If you don’t like it get a job like sorting clothes at the salvation army or something (I’ve done that and you don’t have to deal with the public there).Just stop takin your shit out on nice cutomers!!!

Ranter: PickPicktillyaPickShit

I am so sick and tired of self rightious non smokers glaring at me as if I killed a puppy because I choose to smoke. Not only do I not smoke in my house, car, or around children, I purposely find the most remote location possible to not offend the non smoker. Is it bad for me? Yes. I’m not a moron and don’t need to be told everytime I light one. Am I intruding on the delecate senses of others? Short of building an air tight bomb shelter as a smoke house, no. So bite me and stop treating the already guilt ridden considerate smokers like war criminals.

Ranter: Smokin’ mad

Am I the only one annoyed with the people that sit in front of Hava Java and glare at you as you go by? I’m not going to say ‘They look down on you’ but at least look somewhere else – not directly at you with a brutal glare.

Ranter: J.

I don’t know why I do it to myself, but I do…and keep doing it. I read the web comments posted on CBC news stories and am hit with paroxysms of pointless rage. If it’s not some jackass airing armchair philosophies on the criminal justice system (with heavy emphasis on more punitive measures), then it’s an insensitive fool offering holier-than-thou advice in the aftermath of tragedy. What really gets me, though, is that most people pass commentary under the cover of anonymity. It’s cowardly. Don’t say anything you wouldn’t put your name behind.

Ranter: Mark Callanan

O.K. so i get it… you want a local (nb?) focus… right… i understand … but, WTF telegram? The decision of an effing cranberry farm NOT to set up in NL makes the front page? a cranfrigginberry farm… no, no wait the LACK of a cranberry farm. Canadian government’s 9 – 18 billion $ on purchase of fighter jets, meh. Devastating attacks in Uganda that threatens to destabilize a whole region, naaaah. but NO CRANBERRIES IN NL? top story!!

Ranter: Commando

Why is it that pretty much every commercial for toilet paper shows some skinny supermodel trotting around in a T.P. dress, or fluffy kittens running about.. It’s @$$ wipe people!! I swear to f*#k if I ever see a T.P. commercial showing someone taking a big dirty dump and wiping their @$$ clean and NOT getting it on their hands I will buy out the entire company..

Ranter: Heather

Illustration by Ricky King

So I don’t know if this happened during my day off yesterday, but whatever. I work in the downtown. I have for quite a while, and what is UP with the meter increases? I remembered hearing it would happen – with increased funds going to increased parking… STILL… $1.25 an hour? What a horrible time to have to keep track of when you’re at work as opposed to the faithful toonie per two hours!! And what about all those people who work in some of the franchises down here? Employees who work in the same stores in the uptown have no parking at all… It’d be great if parking increased… but is that quarter on a dollar really gonna do it? And TWENTY FIVE dollars for a parking ticket??? … too bad I work/school/party/love downtown… :(

Ranter: ILiveAnHourAway

To the nightly egg throwers in the city, please don’t waste any on my car anymore… I don’t like shells in my breakfast when I get up for work.

Ranter: Yolks on Me

Illustration by Ricky King

Why did Afterwords have to go and get rid of their classics/literature section?

Ranter: Walter White

$52 million demanded by a company wishing to purchase (?) the mill in GFW? Who pays the buyer to buy something? Kathy Dunderdale apparently, not an accountant I’d want to have.

Ranter: Newfie

Is it not bad enough that some of you aren’t picking up after your dogs when you walk them downtown? That’s disgusting on its own. But if your dog is taking a dump *in the middle of the sidewalk*, that means he can’t possibly hold it any longer! Dogs *want* to go in the grass or somewhere off the beaten track. Every time I see a turd in the middle of the sidewalk, I know that you’ve refused to let your dog do his business until he can’t hold it any more. Then you just left it in the sidewalk for someone else to pick up or step in. Way to go, responsible pet owner!

Ranter: Sidewalk Slalom Champion

Illustration by Ricky King

Who the F*&K steals a garbage net? I go out, buy a $30 garbage net, and two months later some piece of shit decides that it is OK to steal your neighbours garbage net rather than go out an buy your own. So… I’m one of those places on Gower Street with a bed sheet over my garbage now.  F*&K it.

Ranter: Not liking petty thieves

Why don’t people at the gym put the weights back when they are finished using them? And why don’t people wipe off the equipment they use? I mean, really, how hard is it to do?

Ranter: Chris

Illustration by Ricky King

I pick up after my dog, I love him, but his shit stinks. I love horses too, but walking over their sun baked shit on the roads is not my idea of a nice day. Why the hell is it a law for us to clean up after our dogs (and cats, according to the new improved by-law) but the police can ignore that the animal their atop of is shitting in the roads?!!!? Justice, mates. It is not fair. I’d be even more pissed if I was a driver and ran horse shit into my driveway because the cops are lazy. I know horses have a herbivore diet and it makes wonderful fertilizer and is totally okay for the septics, but really? It mocks our “clean city” repertoire with the tourists.

Ranter: sick of the shit

Dear Bikers, GTFO the sidewalks. You are traffic. Claim your space on the roads. The sooner you do that the sooner we will have bike lanes. The next biker that grazes me on a sidewalk is getting a bony elbow to the guts.

Ranter: gawkyonlooker