It's SMTT Day

There has been, in the last month or so, a strong focus in Australia on mental health. It is an important issue and the change in community attitudes and improvements in treatment options in recent years have been excellent.

In support of this noble cause, in acknowledgement of the tragically irrational nature of many of our dislikes, and with tongue firmly in cheek, Sound and Fury is proud to inaugurate International Shits Me To Tears Day.

As a celebration of what is perhaps the strangest construction in the English language and to give us all a good laugh, Shits Me To Tears day is a way to vent. Not about the big things. SMTT isn't for rants against refugee policy or gun control or the ongoing existence of Alan Jones, but for those little things - innocuous or perhaps even slightly beneficial in and of themselves - that just shit you to tears.

So, dear reader, I will start with a couple of my own and I invite you to spread the good word about SMTT day and share tear-jerkers of your own.

Lane filtering.

Motorbike riders do it. They ride up between lanes of stationary cars at traffic lights to they're first off when the lights go green. In NSW at least, it's perfectly legal and doesn't really harm me but it shits me to tears. Stay in the bloody queue like the rest of us! You too should know the frustration of a neutral-at-the-lights driver that causes you to miss the change. Suck it up!

From, to, to, to

"We can meet all your flooring needs from carpet to tiles, to lino, to floating floors and lots more". Aaagh! Journeys are from, through (or via) and, ultimately, "to" as a final destination. "I traveled from Sydney, via Newcastle and Tamworth, to Armidale" not "I traveled from Sydney to Newcastle, to Tamworth and to Armidale". This particular construction isn't the worst abuse of the Queen's English that's out there in the ether but it just shits me to tears.

And a quick recap of our main advertisement.

The habit of TV stations to run an advertisement at the start of the ad break and then give you a little recap of that ad again at the end - the 15 second version. Some genius with a PhD in Marketing or some other thing that's not a real discipline that you should be able to get a PhD in, probably thought that it was a way to keep the product fresh in the viewer's mind. No, it isn't! It just keeps the tears fresh in my eyes because the whole thing shits me to tears!

And now it's your turn. Remember, dear readers, SMTT day is about the little things, the small stuff that you know you shouldn't sweat but gets so far under your skin that you're beyond sweating - it just shits you to tears.