Maryland native, Seven Oaks resident
My List of the Overrated
We all have our own opinions on what we think is overrated. I thought I’d share mine. Please note that these are my opinions and don’t reflect the opinions of the Patch or its local, fearless editor, Tim Lemke. I take full responsibility for this list.
- Starbucks. The easy thing to point out here is the price, but that’s too easy and no fun. Instead, I think what makes Starbucks “coffee” overrated is mega-charged, industrial-strength liquid they say is coffee. To me, it tastes like the stuff you would scrape off the side of a fast-food restaurant’s fryer, process it, stir it with some caffeine, and add water.
- Any movie with Johnny Depp. Be honest, is the guy really a great actor or is he just so weird that people feel obliged to say that he is talented and makes great movies? I will rest my case with Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2, 3, and 4.
- Superbowl Commercials. For 364 days of the year, we all complain about commercials and DVR our shows so we can skip them. Then one day of the year, everyone foams at the mouth to sit through some mediocre football just to watch commercials. And what do you get? You leave each commercial break feeling like you ate too much of the bean dip and that last buffalo wing-like object that’s fallen on the buffet table.
- iEverything. Are Apple products good? Sure. They are great gadgets. Do they deserve the cult-like following that they get? No. Steve Jobs was treated like a messiah for making cool stuff. But when you consider how the uber-controlling Jobs failed to address or acknowledge the horrible conditions in the “factories” where many of the components that went into his devices, you should think of him as he really was—a business man, plain and simple.
- Having kids. I congratulate those who do it. But no way is having kids “the best thing that ever happened to me." Or all those similar sayings that parents use to try and hide the fact that they are miserable, tired, sex-starved servants to a small, helpless, germ fountain. The best thing that ever happened to me? A vasectomy.
- Camping. Without a doubt, camping is one of the silliest things people do. “Hey, honey, I have an idea. Let’s leave this comfortable house, bed, shower, air conditioning, and toilet paper behind while we go sleep on the ground in the woods.” Camping erases several thousand years of human development and progress. It’s voluntary homelessness.
- Dave Matthews Band. I think I’ve heard one DMB song in my life. Then again, all their songs sound the same. DMB concerts are just an excuse for fans to not shower and to score weed.
- Reality TV. There’s a whole generation of your kids growing up on Housewives of the Jersey Shore, Swamp Truckers, Dance Toddlers, and innumerable shows about trying to find a suitable spouse. While those groups are raging on about content of music lyrics and video games, these “reality” shows are demonstrating the worse behavior people can exhibit.
- Twitter. Don’t get it. I tried. I failed to grasp the real usefulness of it. And it often forces people to use that crap txt-speech that I can't unde...
- Ashton Kutcher. Charlie Sheen killed Two and a Half Men, but Kutcher dug it up and shoved it into a wood chipper. He is what ruined the show, not Sheen. I should have never even tried to watch the new season—just like I should have never seen the Hangover 2. Kutcher almost taints my vast love of the original. To me, he’s still that annoying kid from That 70s Show.
John
10:21 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
Great article - made me laugh. Finally someone agrees with me that Starbucks has, hands down, the worst tasting coffee on the planet. It simply tastes horrible but like the sheep people are, we feel if it's expensive then maybe it's supposed to taste that way and we have unsophisticated pallets. You're pallet is fine - their coffee is horrible.
Dave Matthews. It's a known technique for the FBI to use in order to get suspects to confess. They pipe in Dave Matthews music. I have one album which means I have all of them.
I get Facebook and it's a great connection with my family and close friends. I also do not get Twitter. Never have. It's a non-stop carnival of spam.
Mary
11:55 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
YES! My husband and I talk about #6 all the time - camping. It's the worst. Our friends do an annual camping trip and become almost offended when we explain we won't be going because we just don't like camping.
Andrea
2:31 pm on Friday, February 17, 2012
Great article! And I thought I was the only one who thought Johnny Depp was just weird. And camping, reality TV, imadness, you are right on! But, Dave Matthews is kind of cool...
McGibblets
3:23 pm on Sunday, February 19, 2012
Frankly, I believe lists like such are overrated and while i do agree with some of your opinion two things stood out to me. Regarding DMB, I too find him over rated however when you state that you've heard one DMB song all your life while in the next sentence say they all sound the same, that seemed a silly comment. Second is that yes most iEverything items are over rated but your comment moreso seems to be more focused on steve jobs as opposed to actual apple products.
Carol B
10:17 am on Monday, February 20, 2012
Epic.
As in the use of the word "epic" to describe everything from pop stars to auto accidents to basketball games to . . . this morning's breakfast. The adjective overrates most of the things to which it's applied . . . which is, I suppose, one surefire way of identifying a candidate for your list.
Tommy Warshaw III
9:11 am on Saturday, February 25, 2012
Starbucks is overpriced swill. I'll enjoy my $1.35 cup of 7-11 coffee while watching the urbanites spend $5+ on coffee I wouldn't serve to my dog.
As for Twitter...while it may not serve a purpose for you, it certainly does for others. I've found it to be quite useful for a number of ventures. While the 140 character limit does often lead to illegible posts, it keeps things short, sweet and to the point.
Carol B
12:06 pm on Saturday, February 25, 2012
"Iconic." The word should be banned from the media's vocabulary.
Text-speak (including Twitter). It's destroying the ability of the younger generation to formulate even the simplest sentences in correct English--and as for their spelling . . . !!
Gangsta-speak and whatever other lingos produce the linguistic abominations one hears even in newscasts these days. It's not "cool." It's lazy, sloppy, and detrimental to those who so avidly learn it in lieu of standard English. You can't "rap" your responses in an interview.
Tommy Warshaw III
8:06 am on Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Putting Twitter in parenthesis like you have is to classify it incorrectly. Twitter is not a form of "text-speak". It is a social-media website. While text-speak is sometime used on Twitter, it is not indicative of all Twitter postings.
Carol B
9:31 am on Tuesday, February 28, 2012
"Putting Twitter in parenthesis like you have" is poor English.
"Putting Twitter in parentheSES as you have done" is correct. We all have our areas of expertise--and since, judging by your recent posts, you seem to enjoy informing others when they err, I know you will appreciate someone else returning the favor for you.
Tommy Warshaw III
9:38 am on Tuesday, February 28, 2012
As a matter of fact I do appreciate it. When attempting to do multiple things at once, sometimes my fingers get ahead of my brain. Thank you for correcting my misspelling.
It doesn't change the fact however, that you falsely characterized Twitter. I would expect that someone who so smart (that they need to list PhD in their username) would have been able to do a little more research. So feel better about yourself because your grammar is so much better than mine. You still failed.
Tim Lemke
1:26 pm on Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Fine readers: we've gotten a little off track in this comment thread. Let's try to tone it all down a bit, or else I will have to shut off commenting. And I don't like doing that.
Peace and love,
-Tim
good vibrations
10:56 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
funny