LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU MAD (5-2003)

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that bug you the 
most. 

I’ve written about them before, because they’re the things 
that pester me to no end, but everyone has pet peeves, and 
many people share the same ones. So I’m going to revisit 
that subject again this week.

I got on the Internet to see if I could find a repository 
of pet peeves, to see if others are bothered by the same 
things that I am. It turns out, they are.

One of the biggest categories of pet peeves concerns 
people’s driving habits. People tend to hate tailgaters, 
people who don’t dim their lights, “baby on board” signs, 
people who drive too slowly in the left lane, and people 
who drive while talking on a cell phone. 

Of those, I am annoyed by those who drive too slowly in the 
left lane, forcing me to have to pass them on the right. 
I’m not at all bothered by people talking on cell phones 
while driving (unless that causes them to drive too slowly 
in the left lane).

In my Internet search I couldn’t find a category for peeves 
about packaging material, though. And those are some of the 
peeves that annoy me the most.

I am really irritated by those security stickers that are 
wrapped around the edges of DVDs and CDs even after you’ve 
managed to remove the shrink wrap. I also hate those 
packages of whatever that say “easy open” when you almost 
need a PhD to figure out how they work. 

I remember when I was a kid and I would buy a box of 
Cracker Jacks, the side panel at the top always said “Push 
Here.” I could never in a million years manage to actually 
break through the package by pushing on the dotted lines. 
I’m no body builder, but it’s still tough to do it.

I also hate anything packaged in that hard plastic shrink 
wrap. You have to employ scissors to get the item out, and 
if you ever needed to return it to the store for an 
exchange or refund, you’d be out of luck.

Then there are the toilet peeves.

Some women, as I understand it, have a pet peeve about men 
who do not remember to put the toilet seat back down. I’ve 
never understood that one. Why is it always a man’s duty to 
have to mind the toilet seat? If a man has to remember to 
raise the lid before doing number-1, then the woman should 
have to remember to put it down.

During my perusal of the Internet for shared pet peeves, I 
found a few that I had forgotten about having, such as 
people who violate personal space, or people who state the 
obvious – as a question (such as asking, “Are you in line?” 
to someone who obviously is).

Then, of course, there are those most modern of pet peeves 
– those concerning the Internet itself. I hate pop-up 
advertising banners. I especially hate those that pop up 
when you close your Web browser, forcing you to have to 
close another one. 

And the grand-daddy of all Internet peeves is spam e-mail. 
Freedom of speech shouldn’t apply to unsolicited commercial 
e-mail. Personally, I find spam even more annoying than 
telemarketers, because now that I’m on Indiana’s no-call 
list, I seldom get a telemarketing call. But I get more 
than 100 spam e-mails every day.

I could go on and on. There are dozens of pages on the 
Internet where people list all their pet peeves. But I feel 
better now that I’ve vented, so I’ll just stop here before 
I think of another pet peeve I’ve forgotten about.