A few months ago, Macy’s–yes, big, famous Macy’s on 34th Street–had half-a-dozen windows set up as a tribute to the late Katherine Hepburn.
Yes, I told them and no, they didn’t fix it.
Mrs. Gaffer gets receives a home-furnishings catalog called Home Visions every month or so. They had a special “90 Days - Intrest Free” advertisement on the cover.
I sent them the following email:
Drivers who are obsessively ‘polite’ to pedestrians. I’m walk a lot, and it drives me crazy when some fool stops traffic because they see I’m at the curb. Sometimes they do this when I’m just walking by, not even waiting to cross. The law around here gives peds right-of-way whenever they’re in the road, but these morons think they have to give way to people on the sidewalk.
I hate to be the cause of interrupted traffic, and it’s even worse when it wasn’t my idea. I’d much rather wait until the street is clear. I also don’t usually feel like rushing across, but I feel like I have to when this joker decided to delay all the cars behind him on my behalf.
It’s like they don’t realize that cars are faster than humans on foot. It’ll take you half a second to get out of my way, but you insist it would be better if the process took ten seconds out of everyone’s day.
I know, I should be grateful of the consideration, which is so rare in this modern life, but it bugs me.
New Jersey
lurksfromwork I’m right there with you on the fingerprints thing.
I hate that, especially on my computer. I used to have an LCD monitor, and people would jab their fingers at it causing that annoying blackish circle (like when you press on a pocket calculator screen).
I worked at the electronics store from hell, and in our training the computer sales supervisor was teaching us something and kept putting her entire hand on the monitor, palm and all, and shaking it around to emphasize one point or another. Then, a few weeks later, she had the audacity to ask me, not a member of her department, to clean all the screens and to try and keep them clean as she honestly didn’t know why they had all those smudges. I about strangled her.
Also, humming. Off-tune, no music anywhere to be heard quiet room humming.
I’m glaring at you, coworker.
Sorry, but I always push the button. Not only do I push it, but I push it about half a dozen times.
Why? Several reasons:
- The switch, or more likely the relay it activates, may be faulty – the light contact might work, but not the elevator call contact. Unlikely, but possible.
- The switch and relay will wear out faster that way, and that will bring in an elevator repairman. The repairman will also inspect other parts of, and perhaps do some vital preventative maintenance, on the elevator.
- It really seems to bother some people. I see this as character building for them. Consider it a lesson in tolerance.
- It’s something to do while waiting for the elevator. I could whistle instead, but that would be truly annoying.
People who talk in libraries.
Especially at exam time when 90% of people are there on there own studying, and you get a smallish number of individuals who come in and start to have conversations with other people in thelibrary, interupting them and everyone around.
People who drive through red lights at pedestrian crossings
Only yesterday on my way over to college, I hit the button and it went to orange almost straight away, the traffic was heavy on the far lane but quietish in the lane closest to me, the guy in the the far lane stopped no problem, but the idiot in the closest lane, who was actually a fair distance away from the stop, had the gall to speed up and run through the red light as I stepped out onto the road. Only thing that stopped me from being run over was the fact that I saw him from the corner of my eye and just knew he was going to run it.
A couple of you have more or less touched on this one but not quiet said it, I work at a supermarket, and its really only little old ladies who do this, but they carry around 3 or 4 purses in one huge handbag, and insist on opening them all before giving you the money! Me nerves I swear!
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Grammatical errors - too many to mention them all but how about inappropriate use of apostrophe’s when word’s are being used in their plural form (can feel my blood pressure rising already just thinking about it). I saw a pet store emblazoned with the following in very large, painted lettering: “From Guppy’s to Puppy’s”. Good grief! Another one to boil the blood is the incorrect use of the comma to separate what should actually be 2 sentences. Even reputable newspapers commit this foul every day nowadays, in my experience. Also, the use of the phrase “in respect to” drives me wild. You have to choose between “in respect OF” and “WITH respect to”, people.
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Not being able to find stuff in large supermarkets. This isn’t normally anybody’s fault as I’m sure they’re at least trying to put things together with some sort of logic, but for some reason my patience for traipsing up and down aisles looking for stuff lasts about one and a half aisles. Anybody else with this affliction?
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Losing stuff. Again, I can’t blame anybody other than me with this one (dammit). I really, er, lose it if I can’t find my keys/sunglasses/whatever in less than about 30 seconds.
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Grammatical errors - too many to mention them all but how about inappropriate use of apostrophe’s when word’s are being used in their plural form (can feel my blood pressure rising already just thinking about it). I saw a pet store emblazoned with the following in very large, painted lettering: “From Guppy’s to Puppy’s”. Good grief! Another one to boil the blood is the incorrect use of the comma to separate what should actually be 2 sentences. Even reputable newspapers commit this foul every day nowadays, in my experience. Also, the use of the phrase “in respect to” drives me wild. You have to choose between “in respect OF” and “WITH respect to”, people.
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Not being able to find stuff in large supermarkets. This isn’t normally anybody’s fault as I’m sure they’re at least trying to put things together with some sort of logic, but for some reason my patience for traipsing up and down aisles looking for stuff lasts about one and a half aisles. Anybody else with this affliction?
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Losing stuff. Again, I can’t blame anybody other than me with this one (dammit). I really, er, lose it if I can’t find my keys/sunglasses/whatever in less than about 30 seconds.
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People who take ages to perform an ATM withdrawal. Why do I always end up behind the guy who is using an ATM for the very first time in his life? You’re at an ATM every 2 or 3 days. It shouldn’t take long to come to terms with the procedure. Its not hard.
Roommates who make any kind of noise at night. Like setting off the smoke detector at 3 in the morning. Or having friends over to drink tea at 2 in the morning, all the while talking loudly. Or singing (horribly, I might add) at 5 in the morning(no, this guy doesn’t sleep).
On the spot news interviews. It always seems that the media will seek out the most uneducated person they can find, to put on camera. Maybe, it’s a way to remind the rest of us, just how lucky we are.
People that don’t move over for emergency vehicles. You know that everyone took a test to get their drivers license, but then you remember that a large percentage are driving without permits. Just when you think there is no hope; a police car drives by, and everyone moves over to the right, and stops.
Beggars at stoplights. If people can stand out in the heat, cold, and wet, make signs advertising for work, use the buddy sytem, defend their territory, and finally, show up at the local casino on friday night, they could probably get off the street and get a real job.
Related to the “oh, do I have to pay?” syndrome, people who wait in line (with me behind them, naturally) for several minutes to buy a train ticket, and only realize when they get to the ticket machine that they have no idea how much they’re supposed to pay. They then have to back up and check the price map. The same 10-foot-wide map that was staring them in face for the past five minutes.
This ticks me off for a few different reasons:
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It’s all in their native language. I go through the effort to decipher the kanji names and figure out where I’m going to go precisely so I don’t have people waiting behind me commenting on the dumb gaijin, so it kind of floors me when people who’ve been reading these things all their lives get taken by surprise.
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It’s unnecessary. The great thing about the Japanese train systems is that the people who designed them actually use them every day and have taken this situation into account. If you don’t know the correct price, all you need to do is buy the cheapest ticket, then stick it in a fare adjustment machine at your destination, which will tell you how much more you need to pay, with no penalties or extra charges.
I’m also ticked at people who stop dead in their tracks when they get a phone call (especially on narrow stairways), as well as the idiots who carry their umbrellas horizontally and swing them into the crotches (or faces, if we’re on the stairs) of the people behind them.
buns3000 - I REALLY hate it double posts…
Kidding! 
Welcome!
Blonde - I hate 'em too. I was gonna post that myself after I saw the double post… Damn 'puters!
People that say they were going to do something only after someone else has already done so.
:rolleyes:
Oh how I wish there was a “steaming mad” smilie here (the regular mad smilie just dosen’t cut it). I think you are trying to be funny but just in case…
Oh and the fact that you do it and don’t seem to have a legitimate excuse is even more annoying.
Lets see…
I do it in case its broken excuse: Do you use this excuse for everything? Do you constantly pick up a non ringing phone in case the ringer is broken? If so, I would hate to live in your world. Consider it working unless reasonable circumstances show it may not be.
I do this to break it and upgrade the parts excuse: There already is regular scheduled inspections and maintenance for elevators. They surely don’t need your interfence to figure out that the cable is going to snap. In fact, you may be distracting them from actual problems the elevator might have not only in your building but in others.
I do it becasue it annoys people excuse “Just five minutes, Worm your honor, him and me, alone” - Pink Floyd
I do it to waste time excuse: Those 2 seconds sure go by fast don’t they? Why don’t you try doing a long division problem in your head instead.
Sorry but I needed to vent. I can’t say this to people who do this at work or I may piss off a boss but I can say it to you without any repercussions. I feel better now. Thanks.
You have bestirred my public transit rage …
I love public transit, don’t get me wrong, I just hate all the other people who use it (all of these, of course, are compounded by a million times during rush hour) :
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People who stand on the left side of the escalator.
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People who don’t step aside to let people off the subway first. (This is Toronto. This is how it works here. You look like an ass when you shove that old lady aside.)
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People who stop dead at the top/bottom of the escalator in order to ponder where to go next. Step aside, people!
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People who don’t move to the back of the bus/streetcar, and then ignore my ‘excuse me, please’ and glare at me as I elbow past them to get to the vacant back end. Actually I’m glad they don’t move back, because there’s lots of room for me. But don’t glare at me, jerk. I’m leaving you with more space!
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People who don’t remove their backpacks. Look, I’ve been a student in this city for eight years and I always take off my pack if there’s someone else nearby. It’s just common courtesy.
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People whose walkmans are so loud you can hear the sibilants and/or the beat and nothing else.
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People on the bus who don’t read the “To open door stand on step/push the bar” sign on the back door of the bus, and stamp and yell at the driver to get them to open the door.
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People who are totally unaware of personal space and stand with their ass in your face despite the fact that there’s lots of room for them to move
gah ! I’m sure there are more, mercifully I haven’t been subjected to this in a while so I’ve no doubt forgotten a few.
Yeah, I see the illiteration involved. But this isn’t a poem. This is a political/media speech.
I think I see what irritates me so about this. One of those words would have sufficed by itself. If the allegations are wrong, then they are also untrue and unfounded. Why do you have to use three words? I’m to the point where I can see it coming in a speech.
It also irritates my wife when I point this out to her, every single time it happens.
The biggest cuprit of this and reading their speech word for word, who I actually first noticed this speech pattern with?
Janet Reno.
Ooooo, she just annoys me.
The BCS for college football. Extremely stupid way to pick a championship game. Just create a playoff. Everybody outside of Oklahoma and Nebraska hates it.
On a similar note, college football overtime. WHy do you completely change the strategy of the game to decide the winner? It can take forever. Its just a dumb way to pick a winner.
I am surprised with all the driving peeves no one has mentioned my biggest one : people who follow you CLEAR THROUGH THE PARKING LOT to get your space OR people that hold up traffic for like five minutes while waiting for someone to get in their car and vacate their spot so they can have it. I don't like in a city where you can enever find a spot. Its just for some reason people just HAVE to get the spot that is about two feet closer to the freakin' mall. After all, you'd hate to have to walk far to the mall.....since you'll be walking around the whole time anyway ??? Idiots. Get out of my way so I can get a spot and be inside before little miss priss packs her one thousand bags in her trunk.
Bad advertising. If you have a slogan, especially a generic one, at least back it up. There is a local radio station that claims to play "The best variety on the radio." Everytime I hear it, I think, "No you don't! "Variety" does not mean sucky top 40 lite rock from two different decades."
Pointless, overhyped news stories. I don't really care about the details of the Michael Jackson case and I really don't need daily updates on it. Ditto any other celebrity scandal.