Stupid things that instantly piss you off

[malkin]

For me, "Babe" has always conjured an image of Paul Bunyan's big blue ox.

Even in my 20s when I wanted to be called by terms of endearment, I didn't really find it appealing.

[Tuckervill]

The plane story reminded me of something I hate....people who sneeze or cough without absorbing it some way. Waiting for a plane, I heard a woman sneezing over and over and over again. It was probably allergies, you know? But still. What else was she spreading? I made a mental note not to sit by her, but OF COURSE, she got on after me, and her friend sat right next to me on the full plane. She sat across the aisle and one seat back, and sneezed through the WHOLE FLIGHT, while leaning forward and talking to her friend the WHOLE FLIGHT, even when the friend was trying to read her book.

Did I mention that, instead of burying her face in her elbow like I've trained myself to do for the unexpected sneeze...she instead placed her hand delicately over her mouth and held it there while the sneeze built up, and then JUST as the sneeze erupted she twisted her wrist to move her hand away from her face--AS IF TO PREVENT HER SECRETIONS FROM GETTING ON HER HAND!!!!

I only know this because I was giving her and her friend dirty looks, but they were talking so much they didn't notice me and I couldn't get a word in edgewise anyway. I tried to just hold my breath as much as possible. The friend seemed nonplussed by the sneezing. I shall never forget that hand curling away from the mouth as if it were afraid. blech.

Karen

[VeloVT]

I am aware that I am in a tiny minority here, but I hate, hate, hate it when I am addressed by my first name by cashiers, service people, etc. who don't know me, have never known me and will more than likely never see me again. My first name is for people I have personal relationships with. Period.

I am aware that their employers train them to use my name, so I don't blame them, but keep my name out of our one-time business relationship.

Thank you for listening. I feel better now.

Hee hee! One of my credit cards has my first and middle initials, and my last name. This happens to be H. E. <lastname>. Except the card just has capital letters, no periods, so you might interpret the name as "HE." Clerks at this kind of store get very flustered when I give them this card

I'm not a huge fan of being called "Miss Lastname." Although "Mrs. Lastname" would bug me even more. I definitely expect "Ms. Lastname." It so happens that I'm not married, but it's no one's business.

At 30 I've graduated from "miss" to "ma'am", which I feel conflicted about too.

Littering is perhaps my biggest pet peeve. I will carry a cup or bottle for hours (or even home) until I can find a proper receptacle for it (ideally a recycling bin if available). It makes me furious when I see trash that has been obviously left for others to pick up. This is one of my biggest beefs with smokers -- they seem to think it's somehow not littering to drop their butts all over the place.

I also hate that airlines mostly put their recyclables (cans, plastic cups, newspapers) in with trash, when they could easily be separated and recycled.

[VeloVT]

Also, on the "other people's kids" theme, on my last plane flight I had to endure a kid kicking my back and kneading my seat with his feet continuously for the entire two hour flight. At one point, I turned around and said in a nice, baby-talky voice, "you know, when you kick my seat, it hurts my back." The mom glared at me and said, "He's TWO. I'm TRYING." He continued to kick my back for the rest of the flight, with no intervention from mom.

I would never have been allowed to get by with that behavior as a two year old. Unfortunately, I also had the misfortune of being treated as two year old until I was about 20, but at least I was a well-behaved toddler.

[Selkie]

I AND he chewed gum with his mouth open and smacked/blew/popped bubbles the entire time. .

This is one I forgot! Open mouth/smacking gum--falls under the category of rude, I guess.

I've taken to wearing a walkman/listening to music at work because the woman who sits behind me brings dishes---stonewear---to eat her meals off of at her desk (which in itself is weird). She scrapes/bangs her cutlery against the stonewear, trying to get every last morsel. I feel like screaming, JUST LICK THE F'ing PLATE!! And to make it worse: she cooks up the smelliest food (reminds me of a stale bathroom, if you get my drift). Thank goodness I'll have my own office in about a month.

[Galatea]

The guy that throws the "free papers" that nobody wants, that end up littering the streets and disintegrating into mush when it rains. He drives a LOUD manual transmission vehicle...and when I sleep with my window open, the sound of it~ slow then "throw" then fast, then slow then "throw" then fast, from one house to the next, wakes me up at 4am (which is why I am on here so darn early this morning!) and I can't fall back to sleep! Seriously, I can hear this guy's car for about 40 minutes straight, driving all about our neighborhood.

One day I am going to run out there in my pj's and throw the paper back at his car. That would be quite a scene!!

[Tuckervill]

Oh, Galatea! The free newspapers drive me insane! How can the newspaper get away with littering like that? Can't they see that the people at the house down the street are NEVER going to pick them up? So they just pile and pile up in their yellow bags and it drives me crazy. And I don't want one in my yard, either. It ticks me off so much that instead of taking it to the recycling, like I do with the paper I pay for, I put it straight in the trash, yellow bag and all. Irrational I know, but at that moment, I couldn't care less.

Karen

[Deborajen]

Interesting reading all the opinions on being called Mrs., Ms. or Miss. I guess it's just a sign of my age and upbringing but I've always thought that the titles Mrs. and Miss were just signs of respect - no underlying implications or insults intended. We used those titles when I was growing up and if we didn't know whether or not a woman was married, we quietly asked someone else so we could address the woman properly.

On the other hand, nowadays I have no problem being called Ms., either. I guess that's because women today have so many different preferences in how they want to be addressed. Some women prefer to keep their maiden name if they get married, some take her husband's surname, others prefer not to get married but are in a long-term/permanent relationship, etc. -- Ms. just sounds respectful to me.

I'm easy on this one. Mrs. or Ms. is fine. I don't get called Miss very often anymore.--

But being called "hon" -- THAT, to me, is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Don't like it at all!

[Galatea]

Deborajen~Oh yeah, I hate the "hon"...hate it hate it hate it!!!!!!!!!!!

Karen~ I really REALLY want to find out who the head of distribution is and gather up all the wet mushy papers and dump them all at the end of his driveway!

(Someone should do a study of the environmental impact of disintegrating newspaper...if we can get the environmentalists to lobby against it, we are SET!)

[Pedal Wench]

I HATE it when people let their dogs run loose in the back of a pickup truck. If that truck stops quickly or is in an accident, that dog is going to go flying. HATE THAT. Fine, if you have people in the back, they can make their own decision on the safety of it. A dog can't think for itself.

And for some reason, lately, gum-chewing in public, especially when someone's being interviewed on TV, it just bugs me. I don't know why this is suddenly driving me crazy.

[kermit]

Pedal Wench-I totally agree about the dogs in trucks. I can tell you that everyone I come across when I'm working, at least gets pulled over, maybe a ticket. I usually tell them put the dog in the cab with you or I'm calling animal control. In the city it is completely unacceptable! I actually had a friend who was walking his dog on the sidewalk and an akita jumped from a truck bed and attacked his dog. Just a bad day! He got his vet bills paid but the dog was torn up!

[Mr. Bloom]

Amen! Kids in the back of a pickup too!

[badger]

I haven't read all the posts here, but I thought I'd put in what set me off this morning.

My supervisor was talking to my co-worker. Sup went to a chinese restaurant and had something vegetarian, a prawn dish. Said she's being vegetarian this month.

Eh? since when did prawns become vegetables? I actually ripped right into her saying prawns are animals ("no they're not", she claimed ), and how shrimp harvesting is so devastating as they troll everything in the nets' path.

What's worse is that another goof standing by listening in said that fish are considered part of a vegetarian diet. That set me off even more.

Grr

Oh my god, just as I put this up, my coworker says "ever been to the Crab Pot? sounds good, they take a crab and smash it with a hammer for you".

Yeah, that sounds great.

[malkin]

Searching for BIKE BELL getting a bunch of Bell Helmets etc.

I'm not sure why that bugs me so much in light of the fact I am endlessly delighted by a search for a BROOKS SADDLE turning up a bunch of "Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles" hits.

[Aggie_Ama]

+1 million on the dogs in the bed of the truck. At A&M I had a friend that worked as a vet tech, she showed me some horrific pictures of dogs they tried to help after being thrown or jumping from a truck. Only one or two made it which is why the vet she worked with took the photos. He would show them to clients that brought their dogs in the bed of the truck, he didn't care that he sometimes lost the client.

Another huge pet peeve is people who throw their gel wrappers. At my recent half marathon they were all of the roads, no wonder the locals seemed so hateful to us. I try to pick up as many as I can on the mountain bike trail. People are so stupid to not realize they need to pack out what they pack in.