# Little things that you are irrationally picky about **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 19, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309 "2015-01-19T20:27:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/161 "2015-01-26T20:12:55Z")
I hate, hate the word fart. I don’t say it, and I cringe when anyone else says it. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/162 "2015-01-26T21:00:34Z")
[ul] [li]Fully-justified documents. I think the “holes” in the text look awful, and if I have to read a document that’s fully-justified, I will left-justify everything as soon as I can. [/li] [li]Store employees that ask for my store bonus-points-card, then refuse to ring up my stuff until I’ve dug the card out of my wallet and handed it over. Just ring stuff up, scan the card when I dig it out of the wallet, and ring up the rest of the stuff. It works in any order! (I’m looking at YOU, CVS!)[/li] [li]Fruit. I’m really picky about fruit. It can’t be too hard or too soft. It can’t be too ripe or not ripe enough. IF the texture is wrong, yeeech. [/li] [li]When the hell did “Neanderthal” become “Neandertal”? I saw the latter on the cover of [_Scientific American_](http://www.scientificamerican.com/magazine/sa/2015/02-01/). (I’m sure there’s an actual answer to this one…)[/li][/ul] > [@YogSosoth](#): > > I hate when people do a powerpoint and they just read off the slide. A billion times, yes. And if this does occur, don’t call it training. No one was trained on jack shit. They were read to and tortured with Power Point. > [@freckafree](#): > > You may think your sparkly eight-sided doodad looks like a snowflake, but if it has eight points, it’s not snowflake. Sure it is; it’s just a \*\*\*special \*\*\*snowflake. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/163 "2015-01-26T21:26:32Z")
Whenever someone in a film or show drinks soda from a cup with a straw, the sound used is always the sound of a cup that has only 1/2 ounce of fluid left. Don’t know why, but it drives me bugshit. And now it will drive you bugshit too. You’re welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/164 "2015-01-27T02:42:23Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > [ul] > [li]Fully-justified documents. I think the “holes” in the text look awful, and if I have to read a document that’s fully-justified, I will left-justify everything as soon as I can. )[/li][/ul] When there’s large holes, it’s bad justification. Given than English doesn’t even require words to be broken up between syllables when moving part of one to the next line, an algorithm which takes that into account to avoid holes over a certain size shouldn’t be so fucking difficult. For example, no hole should be more than two spaces wide (or wider than an m, for faces with varying widths), but at the same time there should be at least two letters of a word in any line (so, no splitting a-ny or an-y). ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/165 "2015-01-27T02:58:18Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Given than English doesn’t even require words to be broken up between syllables when moving part of one to the next line, … Really? When did that rule come into play? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/166 "2015-01-27T18:18:41Z")
Well, the rule about requiring the ability to break up syllables doesn’t appear to be used by any of the English-language documents I’ve read which do break up the occasional word (I’m referring only to documents by EFL writers: people whose first language syllabizes do it in English as well); only one of the EFL writers I’ve supervised in several contexts even knew you could break up words, mind you (and she spoke Hebrew as well). If there is such a requirement, then maybe EFL speakers should start by learning how to syllabize - most can’t do it to save their lives. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/167 "2015-01-27T18:42:47Z")
I have almost never seen a native English speaker break a word not at a syllable. I wonder if you are looking at documents which were scanned in or otherwise manipulated by a computer? I am not sure what EFL is – English as First Language? And I don’t know what you mean by syllabize. Can you explain? ---
**Author:** ![TheFaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TheFaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFaerie)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/168 "2015-01-27T18:47:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Here: check this out [xkcd: Kerning](http://xkcd.com/1015/) My sweet husband made a plaque for our house address last week. It’s very nice and he worked hard on it. I will never mention to him that there is too much space between the 4 and the 2. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/169 "2015-01-27T19:05:44Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Given than English doesn’t even require words to be broken up between syllables when moving part of one to the next line… Professional editor here. Of course, there is no official authority on English, but in every style manual, publication, and book that I’ve ever read, and in every word processing program I’ve ever used, words are always broken at syllable breaks when spread across two lines. Always. > [@Nava](#): > > …maybe EFL speakers should start by learning how to syllabize - most can’t do it to save their lives. This is absolutely true, and is undoubtedly the source for any incorrect examples of word breaks you have seen. (FYI, the English word is syllabify or syllabicate.) ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/170 "2015-01-27T21:03:07Z")
No mayo on a burger and no ketchup on a hot dog. Ew. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/171 "2015-01-28T05:12:32Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Writers – _journalists_ in particular, of all people – who mix up _stanch_ and _staunch_. Or newsreaders who say “flaunt” when they mean “flout”. Drivers don’t flaunt the road rules, 2UE newsreader, they flout them. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/172 "2015-01-28T05:14:51Z")
I’m irrationally picky about many things. I won’t eat margarine. If no butter is available, I’ll go without. I hate mixed prints (e.g. spots with plaids, florals with stripes). I did say they were irrational pickinesses. ---
**Author:** ![LouLou7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LouLou7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouLou7)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309/173 "2015-01-28T05:29:00Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > I hate, hate the word fart. I don’t say it, and I cringe when anyone else says it. What word do you use for the expression of malodorous effluvium? My mother said “toot”. Very ladylike. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-that-you-are-irrationally-picky-about/710309.md?page=8)