The other day Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten penned a piece on pet peeves. He had a couple dozen, solicited from friends and colleagues, including “news anchors who blame or credit the meteorologist for the weather” and customer service reps who “do not solve your problem, then ask if there is any other way they can be of service today.”
Well, here’s an addendum, in no particular order:
*Christmas cards with just a signature. The sentiments, I gather, are really Hallmark’s.
*Annual family-and-friends Christmas letters. The other variation on a one-size-fits-all theme. Only this one is boring. Especially the really unfunny parts. If you were really close, and any of this stuff were really important, you would already know it.
* Network TV cameras at football games that persist in lingering on those clowns manifesting the most boorish, look-at-me antics after a play.
*Neighbors who leave their dogs, typically high-strung, yappy breeds, outside for long periods of time. (Yes, this is personal.)
*Awaiting in vain for a response from someone you just spoke to or otherwise communicated with only to determine that they were on Planet iPod or Blue Tooth.
*Those – media and politicians – who have to tritely affix “gate” to any public flap or “scandal,” no matter how trivial. It has been neither clever nor fair, including “Troopergate” and “Rhinogate,” since G. Gordon Liddy and the lads.
*Unimportant people who are self-important. Typically those preening, suck-up, organization types obsessed with the next rung in the corporate ladder.
*Cliché-trafficking – in any way, shape or form.
*Free-lancing, Gasparilla Day “trespissers” who use the parade-adjoining neighborhood landscaping — including mine — as ad hoc port-a-lets.
*Meteorologists in suspenders. It oozes “show biz.” You know killer teases, hype and drama await. Especially during hurricane season.
*Sharing really loud, really awful music with anyone within a half mile of your industrial-sized car stereo.