A man walks into a restaurant. He doesn’t have a reservation, but that shouldn’t be a problem; there are ample seats at the bar, visible just over the hostess’s shoulder. “Of course,” she says, smiling. “We can seat you right away.” As she gathers menus, he absorbs the pleasant hum of a busy dining room, breathes in the tantalizing smells from the semi-open kitchen. Then, the hostess stops, Columbo-like, to interrupt with one more question: “And what’s your phone number?”...

Like pretty much everyone else, I am well aware that my information is strip-mined wherever I go, in more ways than I can count and in many that I will never know... Much of the data collection has been justified in the name of customer service—a way to track allergies, preferences, birthdays, and so on, thus bringing technological efficiency to a job previously handled by a heavily notated reservation book or the encyclopedic mind of a gifted maître d’. “We try to build a database on everybody and get as much information as possible,” Vilkhu told me when I called him a few weeks after my dinner. His restaurant uses OpenTable, and he knew, for instance, which bartenders had served me, the friend who had joined me, that I had complimented the cocktail list and enjoyed the crawfish dumplings. This information, he assured me, was shared with the Kingsway’s sister restaurant but nobody else: “We just want to be able to curate the experience as best as we possibly can.”...

Most striking was OpenTable’s promotion of a feature, currently in beta, called Global Insights. Until now, as Vilkhu had told me, whatever data a restaurant collected through the reservation platforms remained confined to that restaurant or restaurant group. Global Insights, which is available to OpenTable Pro subscribers, is the first feature to jump that garden wall and allow other restaurants access to the same information—in OpenTable’s words, to “get an idea of how your diners behave at other restaurants across the OpenTable Diner Network.” With an account, any restaurant can identify big spenders, diners who tend to linger at a table, diners who order a lot of drinks, frequent late-cancelers, and chronic “no-showers."...

Curious to see what insights on me OpenTable might share with that hypothetical restaurant, I sent the company a request for my personal data....

"I really loved hosting at home years ago, before I had kids, when my house wasn’t filled with toys and I had lots of time to plan and shop,” says Rehanna, 41, from Birmingham. Now, if she’s catching up with friends, she would rather go out... When you host, quite often it feels like you’re just a spectator to your friends’ evening,” says Simon, 37, from Glasgow. In the past, he’s found that, as host, he spends so much time making sure his guests are catered for that it can be difficult to connect with them on anything other than a superficial level...

“One reason is that our social networks may have become more scattered as cities have got larger,” he says. “If we live in smaller villages and towns, it is easy to visit for casual get-togethers. There is a thing called the 30-minute rule: if someone lives more than 30 minutes away, we pretty much stop seeing them regularly. The time/effort required becomes too great.”..

In May this year, the Spectator claimed the dinner party was also being killed off “by the modern curse of the ‘dietary requirement’”; both food intolerances and voluntary restrictions appear to have increased over the past 20 years, and so cooking for others might certainly feel like more of a challenge...

I’d venture that the rise of tablescaping has a lot to answer for... Whereas hosts might once have simply given surfaces a quick wipe and emptied the bins, there are now tips for curating the perfect playlist, and rules for creating an aesthetically pleasing “theme”...

Caz has two children under the age of 10 and says her house is therefore always “a complete nightmare zone”. Of course, her friends don’t actually care about the mess. “I know this deep in my heart,” she admits, “but it doesn’t stop me from feeling shame every time anyone comes over.”..

“Until the 1960s, things like homework from school was limited, and children kind of looked after themselves – playing in the street together and turning up only when they needed to get fed. Now the little darlings are under your feet until they go away to university.” In addition, he notes that there is now an “endless stream” of extracurricular clubs and activities that children are encouraged to take part in, which means “families have to be free to do a lot of ferrying”.

Thompson also touches on the idea that it’s now “too much fun to be home alone”. Whereas we might once have invited friends over to stave off boredom – and faced social pressure to attend such events, even if we did not much care for the hosts – today we are “cocooned within personalised entertainment fortresses”. 

The common name originally may have been spelled "chitmunk", from the native Odawa (Ottawa) word jidmoonh, meaning "red squirrel" (cf. Ojibwe ajidamoo). The earliest form cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is "chipmonk", from 1842. Other early forms include "chipmuck" and "chipminck", and in the 1830s they were also referred to as "chip squirrels", probably in reference to the sound they make. In the mid-19th century, John James Audubon and his sons included a lithograph of the chipmunk in their Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, calling it the "chipping squirrel [or] hackee". Chipmunks have also been referred to as ground squirrels, (although the name "ground squirrel" may refer to other squirrels, such as those of the genus Spermophilus).

Eastern chipmunks, the largest of the chipmunks, mate in early spring and again in early summer, producing litters of four or five young twice each year... Chipmunks construct extensive burrows which can be more than 3.5 m (11 ft) in length with several well-concealed entrances. The burrows are complex and include plugged entryways, nseparate compartments for nesting, multiple food chambers, side pockets and escape routes. The sleeping quarters are kept clear of shells, and feces are stored in refuse tunnels.

Every person is different, and being in a relationship often means navigating and compromising on those differences. Though we frequently highlight the gross or irritating things men do that women find revolting, we rarely stop to ask whether men experience similar feelings about their female partners’ habits.

If you take a look online, however, hundreds of men have been ranting about the moments when their partners’ behaviour left them exasperated or even disgusted. We’ve collected the most common and striking complaints about wives’ and girlfriends’ annoying habits and shared them in the gallery below.

#1 Does Anyone Else’s Wife Do This?

Image source: theveryfriendlynlb3

My wife doesn’t take the sauce packet out of the bowl for her ramen. She squeezes the sauce out and then puts the packet back in the bowl for an easier cleanup.

#2 How My GF Eats Her Fried Egg

Image source: devzangel7

This is the work of a psychopath. She’ll do this even if the yolk is dry…

#3 Wife Keep Putting This Tray On Our White Stairs. Dangerous

Image source: Flat_Shape_3444

I’ve told her to stop. She was gonna clean the toilet and thats very good and nice (putting stuff from the toilet room on the tray). But putting a tray like that with a house that has 3 kids i dont think its very safe. Its hard plastic so if somene steps on it ur gonna go sliding. Coming from upstairs its actually very hard to see the tray. Melds in very nicely.

#4 The Way My Girlfriend Fills The Dishwasher

Image source: SliverCobain

Just throw it in, where there’s some room. Especially bad, when pots are in there…

#5 GF Goes Through Full Tube Of Toothpaste Every Few Days

Image source: TitaniumKneecap

I don’t even know how. Maybe she’s eating it.

#6 This Picture Sums Up Living With My Girlfriend

Image source: Fittest_Hypnotist

Whoever uses the last of the roll replaces it and whenever it falls on her there’s a 50/50 chance I’ll find it like this. She swears it’s by accident.

#7 My Wife’s Desktop

Image source: JustSomeGuyInOregon

What are desktop hoarders called?

#8 The Cord Of My Wife’s Vacuum

Image source: SuperLarrio-

#9 I Present To You: My Girlfriend’s Razor

Image source: Structureel

She acted surprised when I asked her if she had her tetanus shot.

#10 The Sandwiches My Girlfriend Made

Image source: xuuxi

My girlfriend is from Colombia and has never heard of or seen a PB&J sandwich. We had a 20 hour road trip planned and I suggest turkey/cheese and PBJs for the road. She mixed all the ingredients together. She made 20 of them.

#11 My Girlfriend Moved In

Image source: spankpeggysfeet

#12 My Wife Only Eats The Skin And Cheese Off The Food

Image source: Cheese_Salami

Her “diet” doesn’t allow her to eat more.

#13 Wife Thought My Favorite Iron Griddle Got Too Dirty And Tried Cleaning It With A Sharp Metal Scraper

Image source: abhee5

My blood curdled at the sound of that scraping.

#14 My Girlfriend Says She Doesn’t Want A Whole Donut

Image source: RealEzraGarrison

#15 The Way My Girlfriend Uses The Butter

Image source: White_Noise_exe

#16 How Much Ice Cream My Wife Left For Me

Image source: reddit.com

She said she did it to be nice.

#17 What A Traitor

Image source: The__Bolter

#18 Who The Hell Eats A Pie Like This?!? Apparently, My Wife Does. She’s Crazy

Image source: Robby_W

#19 The Way My Girlfriend Just Opened My Fresh Tortilla Bag

Image source: Flat_Button_886

#20 Wife Says The Steak I Made For Her Isn’t Cooked Enough

Image source: FreeRealEstate313

I cooked this and broiled it and made sure to temp it and she says the red means it’s still raw.

#21 My Girlfriend Uses Up So Much Of My Toilet Paper. And Oh, Doesn’t Change It Out

Image source: Ok-Connection6656

#22 My Girlfriend Refuses To Eat The “Crust” Of A Pancake

Image source: yelpisforsnitches

#23 Girlfriend Couldn’t Open Lid So She Cut A Hole In It

Image source: Objective-Slip-1714

#24 My Girlfriend Insists On Keeping These Things In The Sink. (I Prefer To Keep Them Outside The Sink). A Minor Thing, But I Just Don’t Understand

Image source: I_AM_VENNLIG

Been dating an awesome woman for 4 months now. Past the honeymoon stage but definitely in love with each other, I learned that she thinks it’s better to keep the dish soap and scrubber IN the sink, but I feel they get in the way–I like access to the WHOLE sink, and like to have the sink empty when it’s not in use. Maybe I’m just too picky here, but I find her preference truly annoying, but in a cute way.

#25 I Was Finally Allowed To Pick A Colour For The Kitchen And My GF Now Thinks It Clashes With Her KitchenAid

Image source: theproblemdoctor

Am I wrong to think it’s a perfect match? She said it’s the wrong kind of green…

The post 25 Annoying Habits Women Display That Irritate Their Significant Other appeared first on DeMilked.