The Sunday Guardian

This won’t make you mad, just disappoint­ed

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An old flatmate of this writer’s would always finish all the cold water in the fridge, never once refilling the bottles. After many GENTLE REMINDERS, I finally started hiding all the water bottles in the house under my bed. That way, I couldn’t get any cold water, but neither could he. So I know a thing or two about passiveagg­ressive behaviour. People who don’t, though, will never ever get it. They dismiss it as pettiness, a simple-minded emotion that lacks the depth passive-aggressive­ness breeds. Passiveagg­ressivenot­es.com is a website filled exclusivel­y with photos of notes left by cranky, irritable grouches who’ve been wronged in ways that may seem ordinary or trivial but are actually really grave. For instance, that one chump who always “forgets” to close the refrigerat­or door at work, leaving you to shut it 50 times a day to stop the annoying beeping. Or when someone steals your doormat and you’re forced to tape down a sign on the floor that reads: “This used to be a pretty doormat until some dumb f**kin’ a****le took it”. There’s plenty more where that came from if you really have nothing better to do.

From the outside, it seems like people who leave nasty sounding notes and sign off with “hugs and kisses” or smiley faces need to lighten up a bit, but that’s missing the point somewhat. See, it’s always the little things that build up and turn into big things, and not the big things themselves that mess everything up. Like how this website, at first glance, seems to be a fun way to pass time. Not only are there notes and little back stories accompanyi­ng each note, there are also exchanges between multiple passiveagg­ressive types to keep the popcorn flowing. But then it really starts to grate as you realise how the website has an endless supply of them, and you cannot stop yourself from heading over to the next page. The humour dissipates bit by bit. And you really start to hate the site. Whatever. — Akhil Sood

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