Habits that drive everyone else nuts

[sunbear]

This should be mainly (your)habits that drive everyone else nuts, or those of someone you live with now. Not your boss or your college roommate from 20 years ago.
Sort of a spin-off from "things that irritate you".

I'm sure I have these habits that range from car/driving to use of the bathroom.But I'm ironing shirts this morning, so I will report back.

[Pooch]

I position my foot in that way where the leg starts jumping like the energizer bunny. It bugs people, but my daughter loves to take a ride on my knee when I do it.

[sunbear]

Well, that's a good start. I haven't come up with any really good ones. My wife drives at night when we are on trips. Often she insists on driving ONE more hour. The kids are killing each other in the back seat and I have quit caring hours ago. Since we often end up with the last room at a motel, we don't always get a non smoking one. I guess we'll need a cell phone pretty soon so I can at least locate a motel.

[Mac]

My wife does the twitching leg bit. At night in our full mition waterbed!!!!!!!!!!

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The american people are very generous people and will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible exception of stupidity.---Will Rogers

[Mac]

oops fat fingers

" Full Motion"

[topolino]

I position my foot in that way where the leg starts jumping like the energizer bunny. It
bugs people, but my daughter loves to take a ride on my knee when I do it.

Well, this is a habit that has been attibuted to a condition. Check under "restless leg syndrome." The idea is that your legs ache is you don't bob them. Supposedly, it's worse at night than during the day. It's probably debatable as to whether it really exists but, regardless, you can look it up on the web and read up on it.

My habits: cracking my knuckles. I've tried to stop but haven't been successful yet. I need a patch.

I also do the thing with my legs mentioned previously.

[kanashimi]

Tapping a pencil tip on the counter top, and spinning coins on the counter top. We have very little down time on my job and when there's absolutely nothing to do, it makes me crazy. But doing these make my coworkers crazy, as they have often told me as they swipe the pencil or coin.

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"With enough courage, you can do without a reputation." - Rhett Butler

[sunbear]

I will put down small things from my hand just about anywhere in the house.I will immediately forget I even had it in my hand. Like the TV remote. I don't do this so much away from the house. So then we all spend 20 minutes looking for it, before we can go somewhere.
In hotel rooms, MY stuff has a special place. Stuff from my pockets plus the motel key go on top of the TV.

[Sycorax]

chewing my Nicorette gum when I'm on the phone. Friends and my s.o. get on me about chomping on my gum when on the phone. My s.o. has the bad habit of being a pill. I hate shopping - I know what I need when I go shopping (for clothes or groceries), and I get it and get out; my s.o. browses and looks for bargains while I cool my heels -- it drives me crazy, so we don't go shopping together much.

[Byzantine]

I talk to my plants and animals (even my fish) like they are folks. Drives people nuts! But I think they understand me. I've even gone so far as to tell Tiny Tim (my cat) to, "stop picking on people (meaning the other animals) because no one likes a bully."



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The moon looks on many flowers, the flowers on but one moon.

[Rich Hall]

Sycorax: I've graduated from Nicorette to real gum. But this gum chewing really gets involved in all aspects of my life, so it's a bit of a problem. But I hate those guys that just chew toothpicks.

[dougie_monty]

I used to work with a carpenter (he was from Germany and had a jaundiced view of Americans in general.) I try to walk with a light step, because I am big and heavy and can easily scare people. This day (we were on a concrete floor anyway) I walked up to him to ask him something, and it startled him. He snarled, "I'm going to get you for that!" (In case anyone wants to know "how he got back at me," pleas e-mail me. This part of the matter doesn't belong here.)
It was apparently my soft step tyhat irritated him. So I got in the habit--perhaps odd to others--of now and then whistling a single tone, so he would know where I am and he wouldn't bridle at me for allegedly sneaking up on him.

[Manduck2]

It really bugs me when people whistle tunelessly :)

[Pooch]

Was he from East Germany? Never sneak up on an East German. If you want to get back at him for getting back at you, sneak up on him and say, "Papers, please."

[dougie_monty]

Funny.
No, he was from Kiel, up in Schleswig-Holstein, near Denmark. In fact he was in the Nazi Army (at the age of 12--he asked me, "Didn't you ever hear of drummer boys?"). But he was captured in Ploesti, Roumania, and was in a prison camp in the USSR for a while. I guess he particularly detested East Germany and the Soviet Union. He had a decided Old World manner; to some extent I liked this; he was the only carpenter I ever met who played violin, knew the Bible very well, and had read Jean-Paul Sartre and Benedict Spinoza. But the contempt he showed Americans in general really irked me--and I never hesitated to tell him so.

[omniscientnot]

Benedict Spinoza? Lesser-known brother of Baruch, no doubt :)

[omniscientnot]

People who constantly correct others.

[dougie_monty]

No; Benedict and Baruch were the same person, according to my dictionaries.

[BoBettie]

I am obsessive about chewing pen caps, end of pens, coffee stirers, straws..you name it. Oh, and I actually chew these stupid things so much that I have half chewed ones all over my car. Makes my husband homicidal. And all my co-workers, too- since I don't seem to care who's pen it happens to be. Is that annoying or what? It's pretty close to a compulsion, I'd say. But damned annoying to all,that's for sure!

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An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.

[No Me Ayudes Compadre]

I drive myself crazy with this.... does that count? When I let my moustache and beard grow I can't help but pull on the hairs, until they come out. Depending on where I start pulling, I end up looking either like Hitler or Cantinflas.



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"Anything is peaceful from one thousand, three hundred and fifty-three feet."

[voguevixen]

I have no idea why this is, but for the longest time I would crack my knuckles at the movies. I think it may have something to do with it being the only chance I'd had to sit down and be still during the day or something. I never even realised I was doing it until the friend I usually went to the movies with started holding her hands up and making exaggerated (sp?) "Krrrrrk! Krrrrrk!" noises. Oh, also, instead of looking up the correct spelling of a word I put (sp?) after it. ;)

[Czarcasm]

It's hard to choose between my perfection or my modesty. I'll let YOU choose.

[AuraSeer]

Oh yeah? Well, I've got more humility in my little finger...

[Satan]

http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000131.html

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Brian O'Neill
CMC International Records
rockuniverse.com/cmc/cmc.html (http://rockuniverse.com/cmc/cmc.html)

ICQ 35294890
AIM Scrabble1
Yahoo Messenger Brian_ONeill

[sunbear]

I'm sure I have annoying habits that are hard to get rid of. My son, on the other hand, has some hope. He's 7 and has started making squishy noises with his mouth almost continuously.This is not a dental problem. Will he drop this, or should I keep yelling at him as I have been doing for weeks now?

[Polycarp]

Spinoza...yep. Remember the "if it's important, write it in Latin" thing of that time? Benedict is the Latin translation of Baruch (I'm not sure the meanings are precisely the same, but that's what they used for it.)

Contemporaries: Karl von Linne' AKA Carolus Linnaeus, and Joachim Neander, who wrote the same music as Johannes Neumann.

[BunnyGirl]

My bad habits:
1. I snort. Not like a pig, just a little delicate snort to get the constant PND out of the back of my throat. My hubby doesn't seem to understand that there is NO OTHER WAY for it to come out and just despises it! I try not to do it when he's around but...
2. I finish people's sentences! OOOOOh, this' a biggie! I'm really trying hard though! I figure if I finish your sentences it's for one of two reasons: 1) your boring me stiff and/or talking to slow and I want you to hurry up (I talk and think fast) 2)I'm totally into your conversation and really excited about getting to the next part.
Albeit, it is very rude!
3. I have an opinion about everything. Of course, I personally don't think this is a problem, but some people do. Aww, screw 'em!

Other than that, though, I'm perfect in every way. Just ask me!

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And can it be that in a world so full and busy, the loss
of one weak creature makes a void in any heart, so
wide and deep that nothing but the width and depth
of vast eternity can fill it up!
-Charles Dickens "Dombey and Son"

[eden]

i can't look at pointy things, such as pencils or pens used as gesture aids. this is particularly noisome in job interviews or important meetings in which some mucky-muck is aiming some such gesticulation my way and i can either 1) screw up my face like i have something in my eye or 2) ask them to please not point at me. either way, i know i'm not winning brownie points.

[sunbear]

BG: as long as it's a cute snort that goes with your personality

[OfficeGirl]

I have absolutely no short term memory, and often walk into a room with a mission, only to forget what the hell that mission was.

Guess that's not really a habit but...
hm.



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OfficeGirl in action (http://www.homestead.com/allusions/allusions.html)

"Argue for your limitations; sure enough, they're yours."

[BurnMeUp]

I'm obsessed with cooking, When it's bre3akfast i think of the meals for the rest of the day. It really bugs people when you're sitting down to breakfast and I say "what should we have for dinner?"

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Don't let the loveless ones sell you a world wrapped in grey.

[dougie_monty]

i knew a woman I would facetiously address as George." She would really blow up at that! ("My name is Sheila!!!") And when we were going to go to some restaurant or store once, she asked if I was ready, and, remembering a comment I added to an open recording I made of a Victor Borge performance (off an album), I said "Ready whenn you are, Borge!" She blew up at me again.

[eden]

With a name like Sheila, she should have gone with it. Did she have no sense of humor? I mean, people call me "Ed" sometimes (not many nicknames for Eden) but I don't blow up at them.
*cue for everyone named Sheila to flame me*

[OfficeGirl]

what am i doing here? who are you people?

[dougie_monty]

Actually, more often I referred to her not as Sheila (her given name) but as Shanna, given her by a godparent. (Rhymes with Dana.) I guess if she were to address me as Gertrude or Lucinda I might bridle. (I apologize to all the Gertrudes and Lucindas among the Teeming Millions--please don't flame me about this!!)

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"If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully--because I walk in my sleep."--Victor Borge

[eden]

OfficeGirl...you remind me of the joke about the Old Lady and the Minister:

Old Lady:...And I think the pews smell bad!

Minister: At your age, you should be worrying about the hereafter!

Old Lady: Why, I do that already! Every time I walk into a roon, I think, what am I here after?

[Sassy]

No; Benedict and Baruch were the same person, according to my dictionaries.

In my house we are convinced his name was Cheech...

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The reason gentlemen prefer blondes is that there are not enough redheads to go around.

[dougie_monty]

I would never be convinced of that, Sassy. I've heard some of Cheech and Chong's stuff. I regret never having read Spinoza like Kurt did...

[dougie_monty]

I drive myself crazy with this.... does that count? When I let my moustache and beard grow I can't help but pull on the hairs, until they come out. Depending on where I start pulling, I end up looking either like Hitler or Cantinflas.
This reminds me of a bit of dialog from Benson.
(Pete Downing, the press secretary, has decided to start looking as stylish and trendy as the insufferable Clayton. Part of this is that he has added a mustache, that looks like the one Groucho Marx put on with greaspaint.)
BENSON: What's that on your upper lip?
PETE: It's a mustache. What does it look like?
BENSON: It looks like you've been snorting charcoal briquettes!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :D :D :D :D :D