Pet Peeves

[108 fountains]

People who engage in whispered conversations in libraries (whispering carries louder and is more annoying than just speaking in a soft voice)

"Sidewalk hogs" - people who walk 2 and 3 abreast on a sidewalk and expect you to move out of the way

People who put their bags on the seat next to them on a bus or train to prevent others from sitting next to them

People (generally women, though not exclusively) who feel the need to carry their entire household in bags to work with them. This morning I saw a woman carrying five bags, and one of them contained three more bags! - I don't know why, but this is one of my pet peeves.

Anyone else out there with pet peeves?

[mal4mac]

Whispering? Soft voices?... If only... Here in the UK it now seems the norm to allow people to hold loud conversations, in the spirit of making public libraries "more accessible". How does this make libraries more accessible? It makes me want to get in and get out quickly. Why people can't stop talking for long enough to browse a library in silence is beyond me! And teenagers in my library have a whole shopping mall next door to shout to each other about who fancies who...

[cacian]

bad manners.
people who expose themselves in public expecting the public to put up with it.
for example
nudity/flesh bearing bits/snogging in public for too long.

[Whosis]

People who have to check their electronic devices all of the time (even when in the company of other people) or don't know when to turn them off. This may be the exception and not the trend, but it really is something people should be curteous about in theaters and the like, which they usually are.

[YesNo]

Guys who honk at me when I'm not driving right. I know. I know. The light is green.

[qimissung]

People who think their opinion about a movie is the "right" one, and yours is, well, just an opinion, and the wrong one at that.

[Paulclem]

bad manners.
people who expose themselves in public expecting the public to put up with it.
for example
nudity/flesh bearing bits/snogging in public for too long.

Do you encounter flashers often? I was under the impression it was fairly rare.

[Paulclem]

When I saw the title pet peeves I thought it might be about annoying animals and was about to tell you about my dog. So my pet peeve is misleadingly titled threads. (I have many others which I can't recall at the moment).

[Whosis]

I think it does get tedious when a person thinks he is always right as though he has an extended sense of false pride. It's like having to have the last word, always having to assert your belief, no matter how trivial, or valuing one's opinion over others in anything. I have to admit, though, for something like movies, I tend to always make my own opinion and have become accustomed to it differing from other people's opinions.

[qimissung]

When I saw the title pet peeves I thought it might be about annoying animals and was about to tell you about my dog. So my pet peeve is misleadingly titled threads. (I have many others which I can't recall at the moment).

Feel free to tell us a story about your dog, Paul. It's been a while since we've gotten to hear about him.

[Paulclem]

Feel free to tell us a story about your dog, Paul. It's been a while since we've gotten to hear about him.

Yes. he's my wife's dog, and makes that plain, though, to be fair, he hasn't bitten me for the past few weeks.

I am the one who takes him for a walk, which can be relaxing if there are no

helicopters
push-chairs
trucks
cars
motorbikes
cats
pigeons
wagons
lorries
aeroplanes
jets
hi-visibility jackets
cycles
mobility scooters
certain people
anything that makes a squeaking sound
or especially any other dogs

He doesn't like anyone leaving the room and bounces up against the door with his unusually loud bark for a small dog, and dislikes me attaching his lead to his harness, though he doesn't mind if I attach his lead to his harness and then put that on him. Getting it off is also problematic, but I've solved that by distracting him with a towel whilst I unhook him.

Grr

[cacian]

Do you encounter flashers often? I was under the impression it was fairly rare.

flashers? what is that?

[Lokasenna]

I am the one who takes him for a walk, which can be relaxing if there are no

helicopters
push-chairs
trucks
cars
motorbikes
cats
pigeons
wagons
lorries
aeroplanes
jets
hi-visibility jackets
cycles
mobility scooters
certain people
anything that makes a squeaking sound
or especially any other dogs


I feel your pain. My evil neighbour's dog barks at everything that moves. Sadly, that includes passing clouds.

[Paulclem]

flashers? what is that?

People who expose themselves or flash their bodily parts at others - flashers. Unfortunately they are invariably men.

it is a word we, as small children, were warned of by concerned parents, and those who had been exposed to such things.

[Paulclem]

I feel your pain. My evil neighbour's dog barks at everything that moves. Sadly, that includes passing clouds.

Haha. Did your evil neighbour get him on purpose?

[Lokasenna]

Haha. Did your evil neighbour get him on purpose?

My evil neighbour has no purpose. He is motivated entirely by aimless and undirected malice. However, it does seem that he releases his dog into the backyard as soon as I or any of my housemates try to enjoy our garden... it's one of the many weapons he has decided to employ in his utterly arbitrary, unprovoked and entirely one-sided war against us.

[cacian]

People who expose themselves or flash their bodily parts at others - flashers. Unfortunately they are invariably men. it is a word we, as small children, were warned of by concerned parents, and those who had been exposed to such things.
invariably men??!! that is not fair I have seen more women at it then men or maybe as much as a man to be fair. :)

[Paulclem]

My evil neighbour has no purpose. He is motivated entirely by aimless and undirected malice. However, it does seem that he releases his dog into the backyard as soon as I or any of my housemates try to enjoy our garden... it's one of the many weapons he has decided to employ in his utterly arbitrary, unprovoked and entirely one-sided war against us.

He sounds the very Devil. I can almost hear the celestial laughter.:biggrin5:

[Paulclem]

invariably men??!! that is not fair I have seen more women at it then men or maybe as much as a man to be fair. :)

Ok Cacian - Flashers - people who expose themselves to others for the purposes of their own sexual gratification. Not exhibitionists, naturists, topless sunbathers, those accidentally unslung or members of the naked hiking club.

flasher
ˈflaʃə/Submit
noun
1.
an automatic device causing a light to flash on and off rapidly.
2.
informal
a man who exposes his genitals in public.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=flasher+definition&oq=flasher+definition&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.12304j0j8&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

In fact this definition has it referring only to males. It does omit the sexual gratification thing which has been a feature in stories I've heard.

[The Comedian]

Picky Eaters: -- Seriously, save the picking olives off your pizza for the deathly allergic and children under 5. If you are old enough to pee by yourself, then you're old enough to eat an onion and smile.

[Lokasenna]

I spent an hour today stuck in a cramped church hall sat opposite an obnoxious brat (of indeterminate gender) who spent half the time throwing a series of violent but short-lived tantrums, and the other half excavating the contents of its nose with what I can only describe as religious determination. Seriously, if its fingers had gotten any deeper in there it could have been classified as surgery. As for what happened when it attempted a tantrum and an excavation at the same time, the results were too horrific to describe.

To say that children are my pet peeve might be too much, but I believe there is a special circle of hell reserved for people who don't keep their odious and screeching offspring under control in public.

[YesNo]

Once you have a child, the tolerance toward children increases.

Regarding picky eaters, I only mind them if they expect me to eat what they don't want to eat so as to conserve food resources or for some other reason especially if I don't want to eat it either.

Regarding flashers, I think cacian might be right about females doing it more often, not that that bothers me.

[Ecurb]

My litnet peeve is people who write "book" when they mean "novel". A book is a physical object. Poetry, history, math, comic strips, chess problems, and essays can all be found in "books".

In this forum (for example) there is a rewcent thread discussing how many "books" one reads per month. I don't read most books from start to finish. If I am reading a book of essays, or history, or bridge puzzles, or poems, or short stories, I generally skip around (for poetry and short stories, I often employ the lazy man's method of reading the shortest ones in the book first). I go to the library once a week or so, and take out 5 (or more) books. I read (small) portions of all of them. So the thread makes no sense unless "book" is a synonym for "novel" (novels are generally read from start to finish).

[YesNo]

I can't remember the last time I started a book and continued reading it until I reached the end. I think I reported in that thread about 50 books a year. That might be an overestimation.

I need a pet peeve, so here's one: being required to finish a book I started to count that book as having been read. When I stop reading, it's been read enough.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

When the cat misses the box

[papayahed]

People (generally women, though not exclusively) who feel the need to carry their entire household in bags to work with them. This morning I saw a woman carrying five bags, and one of them contained three more bags! - I don't know why, but this is one of my pet peeves.

Anyone else out there with pet peeves?

That bugs me too, especially when I do it. Sometimes I'll be walking into work with 4-5 bags and stop and think "What the hell am I doing with all these bags?" It made sense at home.

[Snowqueen]

It's so annoying when I’m talking to someone on mobile-phone in a public place and suddenly notice a complete stranger is all ears. (if it happens to be a cool dude, then it is a different matter altogether :D) I usually try to avoid receiving calls in a crowded place.

[108 fountains]

I can understand that you wouldn't want anyone listening to a private conversation, but in the other hand, I'm surprised how many people carry on private conversations on cell phones in public places. Also, I guess it's a natural phenomenon since it's so widespread, but people generally do tend to talk much louder when they are on the phone than they do when conversing face-to-face so that it's impossible to avoid hearing private conversations when they take place on the phone in public places. Of course, if it's a cute girl, I don't mind at all, even if she is carrying six bags with her.:nod:

[YesNo]

Another pet peeve I've got is being asked to connect to a site that I rarely go to and that requires a login and do something like logging time worked or scheduling time off or requesting reimbursement for expenses or paying taxes. I know I'm going to forget likely both my password and username. Or the site won't work. Or the layout will have been "improved" since the last time I've been there.

That costs about a hour of mental aggravation even though it only takes five minutes. I know the math doesn't add up. But there's 45 minutes of procrastination all the time worrying that I won't be able to get connected. Then there's the 5 minutes it takes to actually get the job done. Then there's about 10 minutes of post-traumatic winding down.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Another pet peeve I've got is being asked to connect to a site that I rarely go to and that requires a login and do something like logging time worked or scheduling time off or requesting reimbursement for expenses or paying taxes. I know I'm going to forget likely both my password and username. Or the site won't work. Or the layout will have been "improved" since the last time I've been there.

That costs about a hour of mental aggravation even though it only takes five minutes. I know the math doesn't add up. But there's 45 minutes of procrastination all the time worrying that I won't be able to get connected. Then there's the 5 minutes it takes to actually get the job done. Then there's about 10 minutes of post-traumatic winding down.

If it helps any, imagine the time it would take on a dial up modem.

[AuntShecky]

Another pet peeve I've got is being asked to connect to a site that I rarely go to and that requires a login and do something like logging time worked or scheduling time off or requesting reimbursement for expenses or paying taxes. I know I'm going to forget likely both my password and username. Or the site won't work. Or the layout will have been "improved" since the last time I've been there.

That costs about a hour of mental aggravation even though it only takes five minutes. I know the math doesn't add up. But there's 45 minutes of procrastination all the time worrying that I won't be able to get connected. Then there's the 5 minutes it takes to actually get the job done. Then there's about 10 minutes of post-traumatic winding down.

If I listed all my pet peeves I'd be here all night, just mentioning grammar mistakes by otherwise well-educated Americans. But since the sub-topic deals with phones (#27 and #28 above ^^), I have been fed-up by two relatively recent phenomena about this modern inconvenience:

Calling a business or a medical office only to have to listen to a long spiel of "options" : "If you're calling about so and so, Press #1, "if you're calling about something else, press #2. Sometimes an order comes to press the "pound" key (#) as well.
What do you do if the robo-answerer goes through the entire menu and you haven't heard an option addressing the issue as to why you're calling in the first place. So you have to hang up and listen to the whole routine again in order to guess which one comes closer to your problem. BTW, it used to be you could skip this Optioning Filter by pressing "0" for operator, but that doesn't always work nowadays.

But what I really hate more than that is playing phone tag. Nine times out of ten the person I'm calling is "away from her desk right now," and I get Voicemail. So I have to leave a message, but seldom is the call returned.

Doesn't anybody answer the damn phone anymore?

[YesNo]

After thinking about my fears about connecting to a site that I am expected to be familiar with but am not, my main worry seems to be that if I can't navigate the site I will then have to give someone, perhaps a computerized answering service, a phone call.

Sometimes pressing * does the trick. Or #. Usually, I hang up.

[Snowqueen]

Calling a business or a medical office only to have to listen to a long spiel of "options" : "If you're calling about so and so, Press #1, "if you're calling about something else, press #2. Sometimes an order comes to press the "pound" key (#) as well.
What do you do if the robo-answerer goes through the entire menu and you haven't heard an option addressing the issue as to why you're calling in the first place. So you have to hang up and listen to the whole routine again in order to guess which one comes closer to your problem. BTW, it used to be you could skip this Optioning Filter by pressing "0" for operator, but that doesn't always work nowadays....



At least you have one language, here we've to listen to robo in English, then in Urdu and then it offers to explain the whole thing in a couple of more languages. Fortunately there is always an option to skip it all. :D


I can understand that you wouldn't want anyone listening to a private conversation, but in the other hand, I'm surprised how many people carry on private conversations on cell phones in public places. Also, I guess it's a natural phenomenon since it's so widespread, but people generally do tend to talk much louder when they are on the phone than they do when conversing face-to-face so that it's impossible to avoid hearing private conversations when they take place on the phone in public places. Of course, if it's a cute girl, I don't mind at all, even if she is carrying six bags with her.:nod:

Lol... I never discuss private matters in a public place, they wont be private then! :)