It's bugging me

 Gift  Noun "A thing willingly given to someone without payment; A present"

Gift can also be used as verb, if you say "gifted" but for the purpose of THIS rant, I am referring to the Noun.

Recently, because of the pandemic, I have been purchasing things online.  Invariably, I get an email screaming "FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE"   Just WHAT TYPE of gift is NOT free, I ask you?  By the nature of the word and the meaning ANY gift is free- except, these gifts are not free.  You need to pay Shipping and handling and I have discovered that  half the time, it is some piece of junk I do not need.

The use of the word "myself" instead of  "me"

I was taught, and although I also make grammatical errors from time to time, that the word "myself" is a reflexive pronoun, meaning it does not stand alone or in place of another pronoun.  I listened to a person drone on and on the other day, a person who has- in theory- an advanced degree and he said "send that to myself" at least TWICE in his presentation.  Ugh.  I am glad it was Zoom and I had my mask on, maybe my camera was off, because my eyes certainly rolled.  Bugs the crap out of me.  My mother made sure I spoke correctly and for the most part I do.  The I or me parts of speech were a particular bugaboo and remain so.

Recall election

Well, my state, California, was just forced by outside money from the Rethuglican Party ( a faction of the quickly disappearing Republican Party) to hold a 300 MILLION dollar exercise in futility in trying to recall Gavin Newsome.  Is he the BEST governor ever?  No.  But there is an election next year and if they wanted to replace him, they should start now, start putting forward real options, not some version of Trump that is supposed to appeal to people of color ( please don't pander, it doesn't work that way)  Larry Elder is a talk show host on a conservative radio program.  He is also an idiot.  They "Sold " him as being anti-mask, anti- quarantine, and anti -vax and the Trump base ate it up with both hands. NO ONE seemed to notice that he was anti-equal pay, anti-minimum wage and had no practical understanding about how government actually works.  I know there is a movement to elect "outsiders"  But frankly after we were stuck with an "outsider" who desperately wanted to be an "insider" , I  am not sure that is the best course of action.  California needs to take a hard look at the recall process.  It allows a small faction to force everyone through hoops we should not have to go through unless there is GROSS malfeasance,  not just a small group of unhappy campers.  The landslide NO vote showed the cracks in that system.

 By venting, I feel better.  There's probably more, but this  will do.