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notalwaysright_feedRead Has A Bone To Pick With The Bones
A guy comes over to the customer service desk and immediately starts screaming.
Customer: "My wife choked on the bones of a fish I got at your fishmongers! Get me the manager now!"
The store manager was absolutely not someone you would bother for a random customer issue without a good reason, so I tried to get more info.
notalwaysright_feedRead Allergic To Working
Coworker: "I was working with [Other Coworker] yesterday and she was sick, so I got whatever she's got."
Me: "[Other Coworker] wasn't sick yesterday, she just has seasonal allergies."
Read Allergic To Working
notalwaysright_feedRead Olive And Let Die
I look up and see that he has a mouthful of olives.
Me: *Politely but sternly.* "Bud… this stuff isn't for you."
In response, he flicks the olive juice off his fingers at my face.
Read Olive And Let Die
notalwaysright_feedRead A Super Salad
Coworker: "You know, all food is either soup or salad."
Me: "…What?"
Coworker: "Think about it. If it’s all mixed together in one bowl, that’s soup. If it’s separate, that’s salad."
Read A Super Salad
notalwaysright_feedRead Dine And Dashed
I was eating outside once at a restaurant that shared a building with a high-end Italian place, when I saw some guy try to run out on his bill, literally.
The front door flew open, and this guy is at full speed through the parking lot, and then a couple of seconds later, a waiter comes out at a full sprint chasing him.
Read Dine And Dashed
notalwaysright_feedRead Free Drinker Versus Free Thinker
Customer: "I want [overly complicated and expensive drink]. And I want it free because it's my birthday."
Me: "While our coffee chain does give its account members a free drink on their birthday, I seem to recall you getting a free birthday drink last week."
notalwaysright_feedRead Sounds Like The Next ‘Smile’ Movie
Manager: "We’ve implemented a policy where everyone has to smile at customers all the time, in an effort to encourage them to stay inside the store."
Supervisor: "Uh, manager, that’s the exact policy we use at closing time to get them OUT of the store."
notalwaysright_feedRead Aura The Explorer
Customer: "These crystals, do you have any more of these in the back?"
Me: "I think so, let me check."
Customer: "Oh, but if you do, don’t touch them."
I just stare at her.
Read Aura The Explorer
notalwaysright_feedRead They’re The Biggest Tool In Construction
I used to work at a small construction company. Our old boss’ nephew (who was forty-eight years old) worked with us and generally made everyone’s lives miserable.
He complained about EVERYTHING constantly. Always angry.
notalwaysright_feedRead The Fumes Make Them Fuming
Customer: "You have a gas leak! I would know. I used to be an OSHA inspector."
Me: "Ma’am, we don’t, and never have, had gas lines to this building."
notalwaysright_feedRead A Stalk To Remember
Customer: "I need a stalk of celery."
Convenient timing. I hand her a stalk I just trimmed and rubber-banded.
Customer: "No, a stalk."
Okay. I hand her a celery heart, the pre-packed trimmed stalk bundle.
Customer: "No! I said a stalk!"
Read A Stalk To Remember
notalwaysright_feedRead Addressing The Messes Of The Masses
Boss: "Why do your closing duties always take so long?"
Me: "I do the fitting rooms. You do realize how messy the customers leave those, right?"
Boss: "Well, you need to figure something out because I can't keep waiting on you."
Seeing as my boss never ventures close to the fitting rooms anyway, and I was left to figure it out, I came up with something.
smartbitches_feed
Not Safe for Work by Nisha J. Tuli is $2.99! This is a standalone contemporary romance with workplace rivals. I really like this cover too!
Two workplace enemies find themselves in close proximity on a tropical company retreat that challenges their assumptions—and just might make them to fall for each other—in this romcom by a beloved TikTok author.
Engineer Trishara Malik once dreamed of being the first woman of color to smash the glass ceiling at WMC Purcell, but after years of dealing with white male privilege and blatant nepotism, she watches her hard-earned promotion go to her nemesis, Rafe Gallagher—the boss’s son. Teetering on the edge of burnout, Tris is stunned when she’s picked to attend WMC’s corporate leadership retreat in Hawaii. It’s a chance to revive her stalled career and compete for a coveted spot in an executive training program—plus, three weeks in paradise! The only downside? Rafe is her co-attendee.
Tris plans to avoid Rafe entirely, but when she arrives in Maui, a booking error has them stuck sharing the honeymoon suite. Sure, it’s not all torture. Rafe is a smoldering ten—okay fine, an eleven—but after years of competition, they can barely stand being in the same time zone. As they vie against each other during aptitude tests and team-building exercises, Tris begins to realize Rafe might not be the villain after all. With her dreams at stake, can she learn to trust the man who might have been standing in her corner all along?
Loving You Always by Kennedy Ryan is $1.99! This is book two in The Bennett Series. This was released in 2014, but I believe is having a resurgence from the publisher due to new cover designs.
Secrets emerge and romance sparks in this irresistible suburban romance from the USA Today bestselling author Kennedy Ryan.
The man she can never have . . .
Kerris Moreton should be the happiest woman in the world: She has a successful business and is about to start the family she’s always wanted. But the man of her dreams-the one whose green eyes see straight into her soul and whose gentle hands make her body hum with pleasure-is not hers.
Each secret moment with Walsh Bennett serves to remind Kerris of what she’s missing. And every stolen hour makes it harder to see her future without him. But being with Walsh would betray a sacred promise and upend her perfect life. When tragedy strikes, the razor’s edge between love and loyalty grows sharper than ever. And Kerris must decide where her heart will fall . . .
Don’t miss the first installment in The Bennett’s Series…When You Are Mine.
RECOMMENDED: The Woman from the Waves by Roslyn Sinclair is $3.99! Tara reviewed this one and gave it an A:
This is a book that got under my skin and left me flailing for a few days after I finished it. As much as I loved and believed in the romance, the character arcs and exploration of religious trauma stole the show for me.
Love and hunger are not the same.
Six years ago, on a remote Scottish island, a mysterious woman saved Sister Madeleine Laurent from drowning. Now, after leaving her convent, Madeleine crosses the ocean again to find the rescuer who changed her life. Instead, her search is disrupted by Hæra North, a brazen, provocative local who stirs Madeleine’s repressed desires—and keeps a secret out of legend.
Hæra has one dream: to become the first female Stormhorse, a powerful leader in her clan of fearsome ocean horse spirits. To do so, she must capture, drown, and eat a worthy human. When she first saw Madeleine, she knew she’d found the one. So why did Hæra save her instead?
Now Madeleine’s back. All Hæra has to do is remain in human form, earn her woman’s trust, then devour her.
But Madeleine is awakening another kind of appetite…
The Woman from the Waves is an epic sapphic romantasy about the power of unleashed desire, the courage it takes to change, and a love so vast it spans the sea, earth, and sky.
RECOMMENDED: Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames is $2.99! Queen Beverly Jenkins recommended this one on a previous podcast:
The book is amazing! It’s laugh-out-loud funny in some parts. The writing is wonderful.
Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best — the meanest, dirtiest, most feared crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld.
Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk – or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay’s door with a plea for help. His daughter Rose is trapped in a city besieged by an enemy one hundred thousand strong and hungry for blood. Rescuing Rose is the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for.
It’s time to get the band back together for one last tour across the Wyld.
notalwaysright_feedRead That Poor Kid Is Getting A Raw Deal
Customer: "My kid is allergic to sesame."
I pause.
Me: "Allergic or intolerant?"
Customer: "Allergic."
I immediately decline.
Me: "I’m sorry, I can’t make that. I can’t guarantee there won’t be cross-contamination."
notalwaysright_feedRead Stepmom Needs To Step Off
Stepmother-In-Law: "Why aren’t your parents listed on the wedding announcement?"
It’s so sudden that I freeze.
Me: "Because… we both have divorced and remarried parents. There are eight parents between the two of us. We wanted the announcement to focus on us, not a giant list at the top."
otw_news_feedIn November, Fanlore ran the Fanlore No Fault November challenge: a catch-up event for earlier badges editors missed! The challenge ran from November 16 to 30, with many editors participating and earning badges from previous months.
Curious about editing Fanlore? Check out the New Visitor Portal and Tutorial for getting started!
On November 14, we celebrated AO3’s 16th anniversary! \o/
Accessibility, Design & Technology continued to prepare emails for translation and improved how the download and chapter index menus behave with each other on smaller screens.
AO3 Documentation updated the Contacting the Staff FAQ.
Open Doors finished importing Oz Magi, an Oz annual gift exchange, and Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive, a Saint Seiya archive. They also shared an annual roundup of the fanzine collections created in the last year for fanworks imported through the Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP) and announced the upcoming import of a Harry Potter archive, PhoenixSong.
In October, Policy & Abuse received 5,061 tickets, setting a record high for the third month in a row. Support received 3,043 tickets. Tag Wrangling wrangled over 600,000 tags, or over 1,380 tags per wrangling volunteer.
Tag Wrangling also continues to create new “No Fandom” canonical tags and announced a new batch of tags for November.
TWC continues to prepare for the two upcoming 2026 special issues: “Disability and Fandom” and “Gaming Fandom”. The submission deadline for the two 2027 special issues, “Music Fandom” and “Latin American Fandoms”, is also quickly approaching on January 1.
In November, the OTW filed an Amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court, arguing that the Supreme Court should clarify the rules surrounding who can challenge a trademark registration application. In a case involving whether someone should own the trademark “Rapunzel” for dolls of the character Rapunzel, the OTW argued that the Trademark Office should consider the interests of the public—including fans—in deciding whether to award private ownership over a word or symbol that may be in the public domain.
Legal also worked with Communications on a news post about recent legislation and have responded to a number of comments and queries on this post and other issues.
Board continued work on annual turnover and meeting with all committees. They made progress on the OTW Procurement Policy and expected to get it finalized soon. They, along with the Board Assistants Team, also continued to work with Volunteers & Recruiting and Organizational Culture Roadmap on the ongoing Code of Conduct review.
Development & Membership has been catching up on post-Drive tasks.
December 5 was International Volunteers Day! As a volunteer-run organization, the OTW would not be possible without the support and diligence of our volunteers. We thank all our volunteers, past and present, for the work they’ve contributed to the OTW.
If you’re curious about volunteering for the OTW, we recruit for various positions on a regular basis, and recruitment will next open in January.
From October 25 to November 22, Volunteers & Recruiting received 287 new requests, and completed 270, leaving them with 63 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below). As of November 22, 2025, the OTW has 983 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.
New Fanlore Volunteers: Luana and 2 other Chair-Track Volunteers
New Policy & Abuse Volunteers: Anderson, Araxie, corr, Aspenfire, Klm, Mothmantic, Nova Deca, vanishinghorizons, and 1 other Volunteer
New Tag Wrangling Volunteers: 90Percent Human, Aeon, Alecander Seiler, ambystoma, Astrum, Atlas Oak, batoidea, Bette, Bottle, bowekatan, Bruno, Chaosxvi, Destiny, DogsAreTheBest312, Dream, elia faustus, Ellexamines, Elliott W, Gracey, jacksonwangparty, Jean W, Kalico, Keira Gong, Kiru, lamonnaie, Lavender, Loria, Lucia G, LWynn, Max, Nikki, Nioral, noctilucent, Our Hospitality, Primo, Rie, Salethia, Sapphira, sashene, Schnee, Scylle, sneakyowl, soymilk, Thaddeus, TheCrystalRing, thewritegrump, Water, Wintam, yucca, and 1 other Tag Wrangling Volunteer
New Translation Volunteers: 1 Translator
New TWC Volunteers: Lys Benson (Copyeditor)
New User Response Translation Volunteers: Cesium (Translator)
Departing AO3 Documentation Volunteers: 1 Editor
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: Irina, Paula, and 2 other Import Assistants; 1 Administrative Volunteer, and 1 Fan Culture Preservation Project Volunteer
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Communications News Post Moderation Liaison
Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Julia Santos (Tag Wrangling Supervisor); blackelement7, pan2fel, and 7 other Tag Wrangling Volunteers
Departing Translation Volunteers: weliuona and 2 other Translators
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: Alisande and 2 other Volunteers
For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages on our website.
notalwaysright_feedRead I Think, Therefore I Squat
My gym has one squat rack. I reach it at the same time as another guy.
Guy: "We can alternate sets?"
Seems fair, so we start. I realise what was initially a kind gesture was just a way for him to entrap me into his motivational personal training.
Guy: "The squat is the foundation of physicality. You descend into your fears and then rise with purpose."
notalwaysright_feedRead Noise Pollution Meets Noise Delusion
I work in a high-end theater with an IMAX. An older couple comes to the customer service counter with their teenage grandkids. One of them is holding up a phone with an app that measures decibels.
Customer: "The volume is too high. We’re going to be deaf!"
notalwaysright_feed - Has A Bone To Pick With The Bonesnotalwaysright_feed - Allergic To Workingnotalwaysright_feed - Olive And Let Dienotalwaysright_feed - A Super Saladnotalwaysright_feed - Dine And Dashednotalwaysright_feed - Free Drinker Versus Free Thinkernotalwaysright_feed - Sounds Like The Next ‘Smile’ Movienotalwaysright_feed - Aura The Explorernotalwaysright_feed - They’re The Biggest Tool In Constructionnotalwaysright_feed - The Fumes Make Them Fumingnotalwaysright_feed - A Stalk To Remembernotalwaysright_feed - Addressing The Messes Of The Massessmartbitches_feed - Fantasy, a Recommended Read, & Morenotalwaysright_feed - That Poor Kid Is Getting A Raw Dealnotalwaysright_feed - Stepmom Needs To Step Offotw_news_feed - November 2025 Newsletter, Volume 206smartbitches_feed - Saturday December 13: A Crafty Zoom, With Zoomy Crafts!notalwaysright_feed - I Think, Therefore I Squatnotalwaysright_feed - Noise Pollution Meets Noise Delusionnotalwaysright_feed - (no subject)![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carisma_sensei
