I myself love whining. It's just that I've learned, as an Eagle Scout watching the workings of my own brain, that it never helps anything. Not only does it not improve a situation, it just makes me crankier and tires the person I am whining at. That person already has enough on his or her plate just by being alive. . . . Finally a homeopathic solution surfaced. We would cure whining with whining! A whining hour was instituted. Every evening from five to six we could only whine. If the phone rang or a friend showed up, they were instantly introduced to the remedy. Within three weeks it was over. We had stopped. Where there used to be whining, there was now either quiet or a thank-you for something. While we both fall back into whining occasionally, given the deep roots of habit, mostly we don't. And mostly we're grateful for our lives and all their wild and wonderful components. Life became measurably easier, calmer, and more sane from this single shift.
— Geri Larkin, The Chocolate Cake Sutra