I woke up with a dreadful headache this morning. That’s not unusual for me but the headaches usually go away after aspirin followed by coffee. It hasn’t worked thus far this morning, so I’m crankier than usual.

It’s time to channel my Monday morning crankiness into something kinda sorta positive with some vexatious venting about irksome things.

I’m writing this hurt and fast, so please be charitable if my prose is on the wobbly side. What’s a bit of wobbliness among friends?

Let’s get irked:

I’m irked about the trend of transforming nouns into verbs. My pet peeve is weaponize. It’s a clunky word used clunkily by clunky people. Unless you’re a House GOPer, do me a favor and stop weaponizing the word weapon. It’s downright irksome. Did I say it was clunky?

Our first musical interlude is appropriate but just made my headache worse.

I’m irked by the war of words over the Israel-Hamas war. In Gaza, they’re fighting with, well, weapons. In the US&A, they’re fighting with words. Some University presidents were suckered into saying stupid shit at a Congressional hearing presided over by the dread Elise Stefanik. It was an ugly and embarrassing spectacle, which led to apologies and resignations. How irksome is that?

It was such a mortifying spectacle that I’m posting this Stevie Wonder classic as an antidote:

I’m irked by the New Orleans Saints’ poor play this season. It’s been a long time since Saints fans have turned on a QB. Derek Carr is the new Aaron Brooks who was booed out of town in 2005. It’s beginning to sound like Philly in the Superdome.

I’m irked that there’s a sequel to Bad Santa. It came out in 2016 but I find its existence irksome. I’ve only watched part of Bad Santa 2 and it bites the big one. What a misguided and misbegotten movie. Why mess with the sleazy imperfection of Bad Santa?

Finally, I’m irked that our perfect holiday plan for yesterday was spoiled by a freezing cold auditorium at the Celtic Christmas show we attended. That was followed by spectacularly bad service at what used to be our favorite Chinese eatery in the metro area. There’s a comic note to this minor disaster: they had a cocktail menu but served none of them. It was Monty Python’s cheese shop sketch brought to life. I am not making this up.

The last word goes to The Chieftains with Elvis Costello: