our anonymous submitter in dearborn, michigan spotted this gem in a women’s restroom at her office of “several hundred financial and information technology professionals” — perhaps the future workplace of a “trifling” young uc-berkeley student?
what, no highlighting?
November 26th, 2007 · 102 comments
reddit!
stumble it!
Tags: CAPS LOCK · bold underlined italics · comma diarrhea · exclamation-point happy! · hair · michigan · office
102 responses so far ↓
#1 Allister
mmmmm… donot…
P.S. I hate Times New Roman… putting up a sign using it in a public restroom, is just plain NASTY and trifling! I hate to see what your powerpoint presentations looks like!
Nov 26, 2007 at 1:43 am rating: +21
#2 Troy McClure
Allister, that’s gotta be one of the best “first”s I’ve seen. I’m sorry I can only vote for you once.
Nov 26, 2007 at 1:57 am rating: +4
#3 Robin Claire
HAHAHA, Allister, I agree! How many fonts does word come with?! But nooo…
Nov 26, 2007 at 2:02 am rating: +2
#4 amazon
“trifling”… You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. …
Nov 26, 2007 at 2:16 am rating: +12
#5 Robin Claire
Aah, and I just noticed the comma splicing. How annoying!
Nov 26, 2007 at 2:18 am rating: +3
#6 niteraven
So is this woman saying that brushing your teeth in a public restroom is normal?? I think NOT. This is not standard “first world” practice. This sign must be associated with those hippies in the last post.
Nov 26, 2007 at 3:00 am rating: 0
#7 Canthz_B
Brushing after meals is standard “first world” practice.
What seems more odd that the note leaver would rather touch saliva than hair!
Nov 26, 2007 at 3:13 am rating: +4
#8 Canthz_B
I’ll bet her home bathroom is immaculate. That is reserved for guest usage…she does her grooming at the office after all.
Nov 26, 2007 at 3:19 am rating: +2
#9 Tyler
DONOTs? Maple glazed DONOTs? Yum!
Nov 26, 2007 at 3:43 am rating: +5
#10 Canthz_B
#4: yes, it may.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trifling
Nov 26, 2007 at 3:50 am rating: +1
#11 Canthz_B
I was going to mention the missing “would” in the note, but I lost an “is” in #7 so….
Nov 26, 2007 at 4:00 am rating: 0
#12 Canthz_B
This damned basin is all filled with hair.
Did someone rinse out a wig in there?
In desperate need of a clean pate,
Were you hurried? Tardy for hot date?
Wrong to judge you and I should not dare,
Are you trifling, and just do not care?
I’d fix things but I’m hair afraidy,
So I will call the cleaning lady.
Nov 26, 2007 at 4:26 am rating: +7
#13 GezD
tri·fling /?tra?fl??/[trahy-fling]
–adjective
1. of very little importance; trivial; insignificant: a trifling matter.
This is the second time we have seen this use. What do they think it means?
Nov 26, 2007 at 4:56 am rating: +3
#14 GezD
tri·fling [trahy-fling]
–adjective
1. of very little importance; trivial; insignificant: a trifling matter.
If it’s so trifling, why get so het up? This is the second time we’ve seen the word used in this manner. What do they think it means?
Unbelievable
_____________
Nov 26, 2007 at 5:00 am rating: 0
#15 monsieurjohn
I’m a huge fan of the misplaced emphasis on “IT”… until the cleaning lady cleans IT!!!!!!
Nov 26, 2007 at 5:43 am rating: +3
#16 GezD
Note to self: error message doesn’t necessarily mean comment isn’t posted. Doh!
Mmm DONOTs
Nov 26, 2007 at 5:47 am rating: 0
#17 Paul
This is awesome. You can just feel the OCD coursing through her veins as she types FURIOUSLY. I bet she was even foaming at the mouth, almost makes you want to wipe a booger on her cubical wall to see what it does to her
Nov 26, 2007 at 6:17 am rating: +6
#18 GezD
OK, own up. Which of you posted a fucking delicious comment on my blog? http://spandg.blogspot.com/2007/11/no-manners-but-what-critic.html
Nov 26, 2007 at 6:35 am rating: 0
#19 A.A guy
Trifling sounds like a delicious pastry.MMMMMMM…….Pastry!
Nov 26, 2007 at 6:42 am rating: +2
#20 A.A guy
A.A Gill? It’s close but it wasn’t me.
Nov 26, 2007 at 6:53 am rating: +1
#21 park rose
GezD, that anonymously left comment was…you guessed it! (No, it wasn’t me).
*thinks* work it into the topic.
Leaving relevant comments is normal. Commenting on offal is just plain NASTY. Or is it offal that is just plain nasty? Or just plain offal! Hah-hah, at this time of night I can crack myself up.
He or she had a sense of humour, anyway.
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:02 am rating: +2
#22 raiseyourglass
Why wash your hair in the bathroom? The sink in the kitchen area is a lot bigger and much more sanitary. You never know who has used a PUBLIC sink. I have news about the cleaning person, they probably don’t go too crazy sanitizing the sink they are too busy cleaning the pee and other stuff off the toilet seat. Team ick!
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:03 am rating: +4
#23 park rose
And GezD, re # 14 (and 13), I’m thinking she is hoping to use ‘trifling’, to indicate ’small minded’, petty and so on.
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:06 am rating: 0
#24 Troy McClure
I just can’t believe it; I stare;
The plug-hole is clogged up with hair!
Someone in Dearborn
Should be held down and shorn …
And donot crumbs are everywhere!
The capitalisations seem too random. I think it’s a special message between secret agents trained in the mysterious ways of the anagram. Perhaps it’s the final report from an agent, just before employing her cyanide-filled tooth: I Drain Tooth
Or calling off (temporarily?) the attack on the broadcast antenna: Not Hit Radio
Veiled impertinence to the ideologues back home: Rant, Oh Idiot
Or (because even spies can’t talk shop all the time), a meteorological report: I Hit Tornado
Bold zoological reclassification: Rhino, It Toad
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:10 am rating: +3
#25 park rose
Or maybe, atrocious spelling, and a strange accent ??
Here! Donut it! (A new noun-verb), or
Hare! Donut IT (appealing to the Mad Hatter/ Homer Simpson users of the Net).
Can’t follow all the anagrams. Sorry, Troy.
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:17 am rating: +3
#26 park rose
Re-read, got ‘em.
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:18 am rating: +2
#27 Andy
Man, this is awesome. As said before, you can just see the rage being poured into this note. It’s great to see that this person is defining which is normal public bathroom sink behavior (washing hands, brushing teeth), since I thought that another great use for a public bathroom sink is to rinse my salad greens out.
The last line is the best, though: “I hate to see what your house looks like!”
See, the thing is about this statement is that they’re probably imagining some run-down trailer with no running water, pizza boxes all over the place, and feral cats coming to and fro.
Mmmmm… trifle for dessert, please. Trifle layered with donots.
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:18 am rating: +7
#28 Troy McClure
This reminds me a little of a sign up at the gym where my daughters have swimming lessons. The sign hangs on the shower door, saying that for sanitation reasons, you shouldn’t spit or blow your nose in the shower. Now, I can kind of see that, but, especially given that there are little kids using those showers all the time, it really seems futile. I fantasise about scrawling underneath, “but I can wash my ass, right?”
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:27 am rating: +11
#29 park rose
Sorry, CB, #10. Just read the urban dictionary definition of ‘trifling’ from the link you left. She’s probably using it to mean what she wants it to mean.
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:28 am rating: +2
#30 park rose
Troy, #28, LOL a lot.
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:30 am rating: +2
#31 Sharona
Unbelievable
Someone had a meltdown because of a few stray HAIRS, DONOT tell me you can’t just grab a paper towel and wipe the sink!!!
Nov 26, 2007 at 7:39 am rating: +8
#32 Reality
I think it took a lot more time to write stupid note than to clean sink. Person probably has maid at home to clean her hair clogged drain, I just know she must think s/he will get “cooties” if she washed hands in sink. I wonder where she washed hands? DONOT wash hands in toilet!
Nov 26, 2007 at 9:03 am rating: +1
#33 GezD
re #10
Trifling is slang for disgusting? Not in my name!
Nov 26, 2007 at 9:05 am rating: +1
#34 anglophile
Clearly the note writer needs to read passiveaggressivenotes.com. Once she finds out what other things go on in public bathrooms (stolen soda sipping, underwear abandonment, tampon non-disposal), a little hair or two in the sink won’t phase her.
And I’m pretty sure we found out where Lisa (http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/2007/10/03/losing-lisa/) got a job after college.
Nov 26, 2007 at 9:20 am rating: +5
#35 Ariadne
This note reminds of a time I was using the washroom in a restaurant, and a woman was dyeing her hair in the sink. When I got back to the table, I mentioned this hair-tinting gal to the waitress. Bizarrely, she looked totally unfazed and said to me “Oh, maybe she’s a fugitive”!
Nov 26, 2007 at 9:44 am rating: +11
#36 WanderingPenguin
Maybe she spilled the stolen soda in her hair and had to wash it out before her big power-point presentation on “The Tragedy of Using Ugly Fonts in the 21st Century”.
Also, that missing “r” in “washing you[r] hair” was… removed for the greater good. Plus the commas are making me dizzy. I think this woman is so upset she is hyperventilating.
Nov 26, 2007 at 9:47 am rating: +5
#37 WanderingPenguin
LOL, Ariadne. Was she cutting off her beard as well?
Nov 26, 2007 at 9:48 am rating: +4
#38 anglophile
Ariadne, excellent! I think the “Oh, maybe she’s a fugitive!” rationale could explain multiple disturbing behaviors.
Nov 26, 2007 at 9:52 am rating: +5
#39 anglophile
It never seems to occur to these OCD types that if a cleaning lady can wipe a couple of strands of hair out of the sink, so too can they. Or does the cleaning lady have some sort of superpower enabling her to withstand Washed Hair Cooties?
Nov 26, 2007 at 9:55 am rating: +5
#40 ro-nonymous
That hair was fucking delicious.
Nov 26, 2007 at 10:01 am rating: --5
#41 Ariadne
#37 - LOL - never checked if she was shaving as well! The incident was strange enough, but the fact that the waitress was so non-plussed was what really made it memorable.
As for the note-writer of today, I have to admit that hairs in the office sink bug me too (from women brushing their hair at the counter, I imagine) - I’m a total germaphobe. However, I just use another sink, and don’t leave a Times New Roman-typeface-set, typo-ed, enraged OCD note!
Nov 26, 2007 at 10:11 am rating: +2
#42 Lurker
OK, urbandictionary be damned. You cannot just take an adjective, give it a new arbitrary meaning, and expect other people who just speak plain English to automatically understand your new super-secret code word definition for it. Especially in a business setting. That’s just smooth. Or striped.
Also, she leaves out the detail of why it’s objectionable. Did the washer leave hair in the sink? Or shampoo suds? Or did she just walk in on someone washing her hair and get squicked out at the sight? If the washer cleans up after herself in the future, would it be OK then?
Nov 26, 2007 at 11:09 am rating: +4
#43 mere
um.. maybe this person did not wash their hair in the sink. maybe she was just brushing her hair and a lot came out.
maybe she’s on chemo. that’d be HORRIBLE.
wow, that note writer is an ASS. picking on the poor lady with the chemo and the hair coming out in clumps…
Nov 26, 2007 at 11:16 am rating: +4
#44 Wade
If the hair-washer is in some sort of dish washing, cup stealing dispute with her no apologies roommates, and brought the shampoo from home, maybe a public restroom is the most appropriate to, um, lather up.
Nov 26, 2007 at 11:39 am rating: +3
#45 Troy McClure
Another recording, mercifully short:
http://www.last.fm/music/Troy+McClure/_/Unbelievable
Nov 26, 2007 at 11:44 am rating: +1
#46 Huh?
Maybe a coworker lives in her car and can only wash when at work.
But really, if a co-worker *wants* to stick her face in a public sink, what’s the problem? Why should the note-ranter care? How is that worse than a co-worker’s ass on the toilet?
If the note-ranter really meant “do not leave hair in the sink”, then she was triflingly unclear in her message.
Nov 26, 2007 at 11:50 am rating: +4
#47 Ariadne
I think that anyone washing his or her hair in a sink at work is probably having a fling of some sort, and didn’t go home the night before. Hmm - they’ll make a “Workplace Detective” out of me yet!
#44 - Wade - if the note writer also knew of the urine-laced shampoo contaminating the sink, she/he’d likely have a coronary.
Nov 26, 2007 at 11:53 am rating: +7
#48 Centaurea
I’m trying to figure out why she considers hair so much more dirty than post-toilet-using hands.
Nov 26, 2007 at 11:59 am rating: +5
#49 Andy
I just thought of something: could it be she didn’t mean that hair?
Team Rocket Pubes.
Nov 26, 2007 at 12:09 pm rating: +3
#50 Paul
Maybe there were fleas in the sink with the offending hair.
Hell, I can’t even get the slobs in this building to wash their hands after peeing, but I see her point. We should slap a flea collar on that filthy bitch and tell her to wash her hair in the toilet.
Nov 26, 2007 at 12:40 pm rating: 0
#51 Mishee
Well Paul, fleas can be rid of easily, as long as you make sure not to over-spay…
Nov 26, 2007 at 1:00 pm rating: +1
#52 Mishee
Maybe this bathroom was invaded by Britney Spears? She seems to make her rounds every day and God only knows what she does in there!!
Nov 26, 2007 at 1:02 pm rating: 0
#53 unholyghost2003
GAH!!!!!! PROFESSIONALS using the word “trifling” in such a way is why the world is going to HELL. WHY? Why do that? There are many serviceable words that could have been used.
Also, how is the note writer so certain that hair was WASHED in the sink? If it is the matter of some hair in the sink how can she be so sure the person didn’t simply brush their hair over that sink? That is normal, public/office building bathroom behavior and could also result in hair in the sink. My first thought would be hair brushing, not washing … I wonder why she assumed washing? was a bottle of shampoo left nearby? Did she walk in on the person washing her hair? THAT would make for the PERFECT PA note. Walk in on someone washing their hair in the bathroom. Say NOTHING at the time but leave an insulting note for them to read when they come back to the bathroom.
Nov 26, 2007 at 1:29 pm rating: +3
#54 A.A guy
Maybe she washed her ass in the sink and it was,well you know,hairy.
Nov 26, 2007 at 1:46 pm rating: +3
#55 Paul
#51 Mishee - lmao
#54 A.A you insinuating that she had a butt rug/ass fro?
Nov 26, 2007 at 1:56 pm rating: +2
#56 Canthz_B
Ariadne earned “Word!”
Congratulations Ari.
Nov 26, 2007 at 1:58 pm rating: 0
#57 Wade
I think Destiny’s Child could handle this business.
At first we started out real cool,(cool)
Using the restroom just to brush your teeth
But now your getting comfortable
Ain’t doing those things that you did no more
You’re slowly makin me mad at things
Your home sink should be handling
And now you ask to use my prell (prell)
Rinsin’ all day and don’t clean up the sink
And you have the audacity
To even come and step to me
And ask to hold some money for you
Until you get your perm next week
(bridge)
You triflin’, good for nothing professional
Mercy me, how can you work for financial?
Stop it now, we need a cleaning lady to help us out
instead of, a scrub like you who don’t know what a sink’s about
(chorus2x)
you
have made me ill
no more hair washing that’s the drill
I’m gonna have to take a pill
then maybe I can chill
unbelievable
so you and me are through
Nov 26, 2007 at 2:05 pm rating: +6
#58 Ariadne
#56 - Thanks CB - I’m in shock! I was very surprised to see my story in “Word”.
Nov 26, 2007 at 2:15 pm rating: +2
#59 anglophile
Maybe we have it all wrong. Maybe she’s a bad speller, and what she really found Unbelievable is that someone was washing their HARE in the sink. I might also have issues with that sort of thing going on in a public restroom.
Nov 26, 2007 at 2:25 pm rating: +3
#60 unholyghost2003
mmmm grooming ones pets should be done at home
Ariadne, your story is awesome and deserved Word!
Nov 26, 2007 at 2:36 pm rating: +2
#61 Ariadne
#60 - Thanks UHG! I still wonder why that gal was tinting her hair in a restaurant bathroom. I guess I’ll never know - but thanks to her, I had a story to tell.
Nov 26, 2007 at 2:46 pm rating: +2
#62 anglophile
Ariadne, she was probably trying to not get dye all over her own sink. Makes perfect sense to me. Or–I just had a thought–maybe she was a fugitive!
Nov 26, 2007 at 2:48 pm rating: +4
#63 A.A guy
Butt rug/ assfro .One of the funniest things that I’ve read in a long time.
Nov 26, 2007 at 3:12 pm rating: +1
#64 fussbudget
a few notes:
1. i wonder who the “their” refers to. this is in a women’s bathroom (right?) so assuming the hair washer is a “she” would be reasonable. therefore i conclude that the “their” refers to a group of people/fugitives (perhaps having their hair washed/dyed in preparation for being smuggled over the canadian border)
2. are we not to use the hair until the cleaning lady cleans IT? why would we want to use “their” hair anyway. And isn’t it already clean if it just got washed. maybe we can fashion a merkin out of it (or would that be trifling?)
Nov 26, 2007 at 3:16 pm rating: +1
#65 Lurker
Team Clairol Fugitive Gang!
Nov 26, 2007 at 3:32 pm rating: +3
#66 fussbudget
also, the author has not clearly defined her audien