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What Are Your Peeves?
I encountered one of my pet peeves on the way to work today. About seven or eight bicyclists were ahead of me on the road. The road had a fairly wide bike lane — easily wide enough for one rider, and perhaps wide enough for two. The riders, however, were ignoring the bike lane and riding in the (only) traffic lane, generally two abreast (occasionally three abreast).
I live in a scenic and hilly area outside the city, which is quite popular for bicyclists. There are “Share the Road” signs up in the area. But I regularly encounter bicyclists whose idea of “sharing the road” is to block the entire car lane.
So, these are two of my pet peeves: (1) bicyclists who use the traffic lane even when there is a bike lane provided, and (2) bicyclists who ride side-by-side, blocking traffic.
I do understand that there are occasionally good reasons for this behavior. For example, there may be rocks or other obstacles in the bike lane, or a rider may be passing another. Neither of these exceptions were present today (or generally in my area).
What are your pet peeves?
Published in General
Re comment #45:
If your “depart by column” proposal were announced by the flight attendants and everyone knew what was expected, I’d be all for it. But doesn’t it seem a bit utopian? The reason it probably wouldn’t be implemented is because families tend to buy seats together in the same row, not column.
My initial complaint was to the notion of there being a select class of passenger that slithers their way up the aisle while the door is still closed. Are you defending this practice?
Not enough language peeves. So here’s one of mine–people who say “I feel …” instead of “I think …” when expressing a thought or opinion. I’ve noticed this especially in class discussions and student papers.
I feel like 2 + 2 = 4 just doesn’t really do it justice does it?
People who refer to highways as motorways annoy me.
Ave, tabula,
Let me articulate that for you, dear: socks can be laundered, while leather shoes cannot.
People who refer to freeways as highways or motorways annoy me.
People who refer to Interstates as freeways or motorways annoy me.
Freeways is a mendacious, statist term. People who use it annoy me.
I think we could be friends.
People who pronounce bouy as boo ee annoy me. Yes, I know that’s the way Webster’s pronounces it. It’s wrong. It’s pronounced boy.
People who pronounce leeward as lee ward. Yes, I know that’s the way Webster’s pronounces it. It’s wrong. It’s pronounced loo ard.
People who pronounce y’all as you all. Go back up North.
People who don’t agree with me.
Cats.
Yes! They got off their butts and got themselves ready. Let my people go!
Perhaps an extreme thought exercise will shed light. Imagine there are 100 people on the plane. One person, for some unknown reason, requires 20 minutes to depart the plane. The remaining ninety-nine are olympic sprinters, and the entirety can depart the plane in 1 minute. However, the one person is closest to the door.
Wouldn’t it be better if the one person, waited one minute, and then began his 20 minute departure? Or must the ninety-nine wait 20 minutes because the one is closest to the door?
Why does proximity to the door convey privilege? Why are the people in the back ascribed slitherer status?
To your other point, yeah, the issue is families sit together by row. So I ask for what can reasonably be accomplished. Let the people who are in the aisle, ready to go, off the plane. Yes, they are often business travelers. Travelling for business is crappy enough. Give ’em a break. Besides, they often have connecting flights.
Seriously, the flight attendants can use a stopwatch. Forget one minute. Thirty seconds. All I ask is thirty seconds.
And the invention of the mobile phone has turned many of the former into the latter. My pet peeve being the endless stream of future posture problems staring down into their phone while, walking, riding their bicycles, driving etc.
And the people at the end of the escalator. How can they possibly not get that????
I’m going to guess it doesn’t talk long for folks to figure out you’re a lawyer.
I say this sort of tongue-in-cheek, but one of my pet peeves is the more-frequent-than-necessary thread asking what my pet peeves are.
Another of my pet peeves is people who post a comment saying they are tired of a certain type of thread.
Tourists in DC who at reaching the top of the Metro escalators stop right there to look around.
People who drive with their blinker on, with no intention of turning any time on the next ten miles. Drives me batty. We call it the eventual left/right. I have to get around them.
1. When I pull up to a red light in the right turn lane, and someone pulls up to the intersection in a lane to my left, but pulls so far ahead he blocks my view of oncoming traffic. If you aren’t in the right turn lane, you don’t need to block my view.
2. Automatic flush toilets. These should be banned. I don’t care if it’s unconstitutional. The manufacturers of these satanic devices should be exiled from the Earth.
Runners who feel the need to post on social media the length/duration/rate of speed in excruciatingly precise detail – “Wow, feeling great after that 7.4813 mile run which I managed at a 8.3612 minutes/mile! That was a PR which I think will be a great MP. Plus I was chatting with my running buddy The. Whole. Time!!!”
. . . dairymen with the propensity, now thankfully rare, to let a cow labor for hours, and let two or three employees try to get the calf, before calling us; when we have gone through the horror show, complain about the bill.
Edit: Somebody has already pushed the “like” button, but may I change my pet peeve anyway? It’s one more ongoing, sadly, and can be deadly. It is the driver who tries to pass a loaded silage wagon.
He’s on a pretty country road, the kind with blind curves and frequent blind crests. He draws up behind a guy driving a big tractor pulling a big wagon full of forage. This wagon is connected to the tractor with a drawbar. So it waggles a bit, as its tons of payload traverse a road made uneven by the frost heaves.
Result: the driver cannot always see the turn signals on the tractor. Neither is he aware of the inconspicuous, almost invisible, dirt lane onto which this tractor will soon turn left.
The guy signals, looks back, sees the driver staying back there, looks forward again. The driver succumbs to impatience and zooms into a pass, while the tractor driver turns left towards his little lane.
Please, do not be that driver. Crop season is coming up again, so remember when you draw up behind that guy: He’s not going far.
My pet peeve is people who have pet peeves. That would include me, as I already ricocheted about one of my pet peeves today.
I’d tell more about it, but I need to do some more prep work for the next two days of bicycle riding on public roads. I hope to visit a dozen or so town halls to add to my life list, and take photos of them.
If any motorists give me a hard time I’ll explain to them that I have more of a right to the road than they do, because I’m having more fun than they’re having. But usually it’s not necessary, because most motorists and I manage to enjoy each others’ company on the roads.
Unfortunately, the NSW government chose to follow British practice when they named our roads.
If a car on the highway signals a turn and there is no one to see it, is it really turning? LOL
2. Automatic flush toilets. These should be banned. I don’t care if it’s unconstitutional. The manufacturers of these satanic devices should be exiled from the Earth.
I don’t mind them as long as they flush in a timely fashion! :)
oh, it’s really turning – but is it really signaling? I say no! :)
Water saving toilets that require multiple flushes.
Give me the jet engine flusher and I will flush once.
Somehow starbucks and wal-mart managed to secure themselves some of these rare beasts.
Did anyone ever stop to think about the fact that most of these “in the road” problems (airplane disembarking, cyclists, escalator obliviods, inconsiderate drivers, wheelchairs, etc.) could be solved (or at least greatly reduced) if more people got run over.
Think about it. Most of us are just too nice for our own good.
My pet peeve is,during business hours, needing to speak to a human being and getting a recorded message instead. The recorded message is usually a menu of choices of which buttons to push for which questions…which just lead to more recorded messages.
…and you’re not still sitting on it.
Drivers who believe they are entitled to be in the left lane regardless of how slow they are driving.