Seriously, you've now stolen a potentially asbestos-containing bag of garbage off my doorstep?! I was going to keep adding to it, but I guess you wanted that plastic sheeting, dried ceiling popcorn goo and potential cancer-causing fibres! (I can't afford asbestos testing so I treated it like it did have asbestos). Between you and the neighbours who steal all of our plastic and paper recycling bags on a regular basis, I'm tired of it. Maybe I'll put out dog shit next time and you can steal that as well? — Careful Of The Asbestos

Dear Bus Buddies: you know who you are. You stand up front near the driver ("your buddy") chewing the fat and blocking the entrance to passengers. Sure, there may be plenty of seats available to choose from, and gasp, sit in, but you prefer to stand and gab, gab and stand, narrowing the aisle, creating bottlenecks with total disregard for others. Could you be distracting the driver? Heck no! They blew past that frigid soul at the last stop because your stories are just sooo interesting. Please Bus Buddy, sit down. Get the fuck out of the way. Leave the drivers alone. Stop for the love of all that is safe and sound. I doubt the drivers will miss you. — Busing Bitcher

To the dog walker along Almon Street who carries yellow or green plastic doggy bags for the poop pick-up: yes, you're doing the earth-friendly thing by bending over to bag your dog’s poop, but only to deposit the bag on the sidewalk by the telephone pole near the Rona on Almon. Please do mother earth a favour and take your poop home with you for proper disposal. Mother earth will love you, as will all of us who walk on Almon and have to observe your poop bags piling up. — Pooped-Out Doggy-Bag Observer

Just lead with, "This is a robbery." That I had to ask, "Is this a robbery?" only served to cost you precious time and make the whole business needlessly frustrating for me. Clear, direct communication is key. — Smokeshop Cashier

Apartment hunting in this city is a mess! Reading ads on Kijiji, you can't even rent a room in this city for under 600 bucks. Now these landlords are getting real choosy. Ads say, "students only," "girls only," etc.  Sounds like a bunch of perverts. Why does it have to be a student? Students can't even afford the rent. How about renting to the first paying customer? Why does it have to be a girl? One ad said "No overnight guests allowed." Who the fuck do these landlords think they are?  If someone hands you over the better part of a thousand dollars every month for rent, what makes you think you can tell them what to do in the home they pay to rent?  No overnight guests? So the female, student tenant must also be single and available for you too, eh? — Reading Between The Lines

I'd like to know what clinical moron invented the standard bathtub, which is a completely subpar invention for anyone above four feet tall who wasn't born with a super-bendy gooseneck. Poured myself a hot bath to nurse my raging PMS cramps, but my knees, tits and most importantly my gut sticks out a foot above the surface of the water. Nothing soothing about pretzelling your limbs into a porcelain coffin built for a child, your head jerked at an uncomfortable right angle, throat folded nearly in half, like a kink in a garden hose to cut off your breath. With today's technology churning out new iPhone after new iPhone, why can't someone reinvent something necessary and worthwhile for once? Like bathtubs, because they fucking SUCK! — Hell Above High Water

There's a special place in hell for "friends" who date their friend's exes without a care or a second thought. Apparently you've never heard of girl code. I guess loyalty is too much to expect in friendships of today's climate, but would a little common consideration be too much to ask? There's a whole city's worth of available men you could date, but you chose someone who used me, manipulated me and then cheated on me. Sneaking around, exchanging numbers and seeing him behind my back on the downlow. How would you feel if one of your friends did that to you, and started hanging with your ex who had treated you poorly? It's quite clear he is using you too, in a narcissistic attempt to get me back or to get back at me. Quit pretending to be some empath online. You don't even know the meaning of empathy, you self-serving phony! I was going to warn you about him but I think I'll let you find out for yourself what you're in store for with him: a season of ruination. — Farewell Fairweather Foe

Just a general bitch about the "friends" that one seems to lose when they quit drinking. I decided to quit this past year because I felt it was really killing my health, my bank account and my emotional well being. I was able to do it, completely cold turkey after 15 years of hard drinking, and was pretty proud of myself for that.

Whenever I told people that I had quit drinking, it felt as if they had written me off entirely. I didn't hear from them again. Furthermore, if I did ever meet up with them it would be “Oh come on let’s just go out for one drink, it won’t kill you" or “Would you be comfortable in a bar?” Like, there's more to life than obliterating yourself with alcohol, despite what alcohol companies wants you to think. Since excising these people from my life, I've been living a lonely, albeit somewhat happier life. Still happy for my decision. — Cheers Without Beers

R

acist and dirty cops, power-hungry cops who use excessive force and arrest people for no reason, need to be stopped. I can't believe that poor woman was punched in the face in front of her children! I was pushed face-first toward the concrete by a cop before with extreme force, I almost had my teeth knocked out, and if I hadn't put my hands there to catch my fall… I too did nothing illegal. HRM needs to screen their officers better and start sensitivity training. Stop hiring these racists, criminals and hot heads to protect us. Go arrest some actual criminals and stop this excessive force toward women who have done nothing wrong! You should be ashamed of yourself. —I’ll Be At The Protest

I

 was always under the impression the "living room" on the fifth floor of the central library was meant to be reasonably quiet, yet every time I've been there it's been just as noisy as the rest of the incredibly noisy library. People speaking loudly on their phone, constant camera shutters from teams of unoriginal wannabe instagram influencers, people having conversations everyone can hear, etc. Is there seriously nowhere in the library with comfortable seating that you can expect a reasonable noise level? Just seems more than a bit ironic that a library is so inhospitable to people who are actually trying to read. — Detective Bookman