What is your pet peeve of the day?

[easysurfer]

My pet peeve of the day is going to a restaurant and received a large plate of food but the waitress only gives one napkin. You cannot be serious!

 

[aja8888]

My pet peeve of the day is going to a restaurant and received a large plate of food but the waitress only gives one napkin. You cannot be serious!

Especially if it's chicken wings.......

 

[Walt34]

Especially if it's chicken wings.......

Or ribs.....

 

[John Galt III]

I'm seeing this more and more in news articles : using the awkward and weird (but new!) "reach out" instead of the much preferable "contacted" or "asked". Example : this reporter reached out to BP to find out.....

 

[RustyShackleford]

My pet peeve are people who use handicapped parking spots that don't need them.

That's funny, because one of my (very smallest) pet peeves is parking lots having way too many handicapped spaces. At least where I live, the handicapped spaces are never anywhere close to being used up. A cynic perhaps, but I'm guessing it's a heck of a lot easier, for the businesses involved, to put up a sign than it is to do more expensive and complicated (and more useful, assuming there are enough handicapped spaces) things like wheelchair ramps.

 

[Revlefty]

This morning at the local grocery store, a Chihuahua was left in a car with windows 1/4 rolled down. I went inside when I came out, the car was still there. Dog was panting but OK. Sat in my car waiting for owner to appear or I would take the dog out. Owner came out shortly. Didn't feel like confrontation so left it at that. It was 86 degrees at about 10:30 am in the mountains in So. Cal. Too hot for that little girl! I hate the confrontations but will if absolutely necessary. My peeve of the today!

My wife was confronted by a police officer about having a dog in the car with the windows up. She said, "the car is running and the air conditioning is on. Can't you hear it?" That time it was the officer and the complainer who were the embarrassed ones. By the way, she had only been in the store for five minutes.

 

[Revlefty]

My pet peeve of the day are the people who don't know how to use "ly" on the end of a word. The classic example is "I hope you don't take this personal..."

 

[easysurfer]

My wife was confronted by a police officer about having a dog in the car with the windows up. She said, "the car is running and the air conditioning is on. Can't you hear it?" That time it was the officer and the complainer who were the embarrassed ones. By the way, she had only been in the store for five minutes.

Luckily you were in the store only for five minutes. Otherwise the pet peeve might be having your car window smashed while the A/C is running

 

[Andre1969]

My wife was confronted by a police officer about having a dog in the car with the windows up. She said, "the car is running and the air conditioning is on. Can't you hear it?" That time it was the officer and the complainer who were the embarrassed ones. By the way, she had only been in the store for five minutes.

Be careful with that, though...in some areas it's illegal to leave your car running while unattended. I wonder though, if you can do that with modern cars with remote starts and such. Are cars today sophisticated enough that you could turn one on, turn on the a/c remotely, let it run, but if someone tried to break into it, they wouldn't be able to get it into gear?

I've had a few cars where the ignition cylinder would get worn, so you could pull the key out while it was running. In a case like that, I guess you could leave it running with the a/c on, and lock it up. Of course, anybody could still just break into it, put it into gear, and steal it.

 

[Revlefty]

Luckily you were in the store only for five minutes. Otherwise the pet peeve might be having your car window smashed while the A/C is running

The point is...they couldn't hear the car running!

 

[Silver]

+++++! I hate the word utilize. It smacks of someone trying to sound sophisticated when they obviously are not.

My peeve is how people are using embedded. Just heard a news story about how this developer is building a shopping center and 64 unit apartment building embedded in nature. It was an old farm he purchased. It had some trees and a small pond that I guess he's going to build around. That makes it embedded?

On the other hand, I don't think we use the word besotted nearly enough. I am besotted with my dog, who I would never leave in car alone under any circumstances whatsoever.

 

[easysurfer]

The point is...they couldn't hear the car running!

Ah. A case of them seeing what they expect to see.

Kind of like when you are out to dinner waiting for someone to arrive. Before long, everyone one who walks in the door "could be" that person.

 

[Chuckanut]

My current. Pet peeve. Is people who break up their sentences. Into much smaller sentences. That are not even full sentences. In a strange attempt. To create emphasis.

That is all.

even worse are the people who don't use capitalization. capitalization is a huge courtesy to the reader as it visually signals the end of one sentence and the beginning of another. also it helps to emphasize certain important words. capitalizing the first letter of a sentence makes reading a lot easier for most of us. i usually don't read posts that don't capitalize.

please don't get me started on people who think there is no need for punctuation.

 

[robnplunder]

The point is...they couldn't hear the car running!

Maybe it was an electric car ...

 

[Walt34]

Be careful with that, though...in some areas it's illegal to leave your car running while unattended.

Indeed that is the case in MD, or it was when I retired. The law was passed in response to idiots who leave their cars running and then whine when said car gets stolen.

I wonder though, if you can do that with modern cars with remote starts and such. Are cars today sophisticated enough that you could turn one on, turn on the a/c remotely, let it run, but if someone tried to break into it, they wouldn't be able to get it into gear?

I think that is how at least some are set up, that without the key fob near or in the car it won't go into gear. Also the "run time" for remote start is limited to a set time - 15 to 30 minutes. I have no idea if MD has changed it's law in response to these technological changes.

 

[samclem]

Use of the term "diversity" as shorthand for "racial diversity". "We are striving to increase the diversity of our faculty" almost certainly means only "we want to hire more faculty members of different races than the present ones", not "we want to hire people who have professional backgrounds, educational backgrounds, and perspectives that differ from our present faculty."

And, on the same page, the use of "discriminate" as shorthand for "illegally discriminate." "We don't practice discrimination in our hiring." I sure hope you do!

 

[Major Tom]

I'm seeing this more and more in news articles : using the awkward and weird (but new!) "reach out" instead of the much preferable "contacted" or "asked". Example : this reporter reached out to BP to find out.....

YES. Only the other day, I received an e-mail from someone who said he had been meaning to "reach out" to me for a while now. Needless to say, he is working, and for a large corporation too.......

 

[ls99]

Yesterday found a new one. Morbid obesity.

Yesterday we went for a birthday dinner with a couple who 'been married 60+ years. He turned 84, still drives for a limo company. His wife does private nursing, and is a few years younger.

Of all the diners in the restaurant we were the only four of normal weight. All the others, men and women were hanging off all sides of the chairs. The waitresses, barmaid, owner, all were huge in girth. Pretty gross sight. The diners were stuffing down enormous amounts of food, and drink, some had two desserts. Nerly ruined my appetite.

Each of us took home half the meal in boxes. Half of dinner was way filling.

 

[Major Tom]

even worse are the people who don't use capitalization. capitalization is a huge courtesy to the reader as it visually signals the end of one sentence and the beginning of another. also it helps to emphasize certain important words. capitalizing the first letter of a sentence makes reading a lot easier for most of us. i usually don't read posts that don't capitalize.

please don't get me started on people who think there is no need for punctuation.

A friend of mine does this on a regular basis when communicating with friends via e-mail and Facebook though, to her credit, her work-related e-mails have proper capitalization. I asked her about it, and she doesn't think it's that important to have proper capitalization in personal communications. She's not a fast typer, so it could be that proper capitalization involves more effort than she wants to make while, for me, a fast typer, it's not hard at all.

I don't really know what's behind it but I think that for some of us, proper capitalization and correct grammar comes naturally. Others can still do it, but seem to have to work a bit harder.

 

[beach]

my pesty non-paying tenants constantly calling and making false promises

and in response to major tom, maybe some of us only have the use of one hand. we should bypass such trivial issues, as we never know when we maybe stricken with some handicap.

 

[Major Tom]

my pesty non-paying tenants constantly calling and making false promises

Aaah yes, people who say things and don't follow through - another of my bugbears. Some people cannot bring themselves to say the truth, even when it's painfully obvious to everyone around that they are lying.

You know, I was in a good mood when I woke up, and now this thread is getting me all riled up

 

[ERD50]

...
and in response to major tom, maybe some of us only have the use of one hand. we should bypass such trivial issues, as we never know when we maybe stricken with some handicap.

But it isn't trivial, it is much harder to read something without capitalization, punctuation, and/or paragraphs to break up ideas. Those caps give visual cues that make reading easier.

Now if one truly has a handicap (how can a reader know?), sure I can decide to take some extra effort to read their writing. But they could also use the caps-lock key, it takes a bit more work (one extra key-stroke per sentence generally?), but so does reading something w/o caps.

-ERD50

 

[Andre1969]

I think typing something in all caps makes it harder to read. Unless you just do a word here and there for EMPHASIS. But yeah, doing all lower case and missing punctuation marks definitely makes it harder to read, as well.

Now, when I'm sending a text on my iPhone, where I have to hunt and peck, I might get a little sloppy and lazy. But on forums like this, where I'm sitting down in front of a full-sized keyboard, it's just easier to type properly. Heck, I still do the old fashioned two-spaces-after-the-period thing, which many people consider a no-no these days! However, I noticed that the software is smart enough to take out that extra space.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Andre, that is a generational thing. I do the two space thing always and probably always will! Rejoice in the fact that you probably learned to type the same way I did, on a typewriter!

 

[Meadbh]

My current pet peeve is corporations that send you emails despite unsubscribing multiple times from their email list.

American Academy of Pediatrics, I'm looking at YOU.