The worst sound that I can think of is the splortch of a medical examiner pulling the pelvic organs out of the lower half of an open body cavity.
But I’ve never actually heard that.
Worst that I’ve actually heard? Baby crying in a nice restaurant. Any restaurant this happens at bugs me, but at a nice one that I’m paying a healthy chunk of money to eat at?
Dammit, take that kid and roast it alive, and make the dumbass parents watch. At least then it’ll have a reason to cry, and I’ll feel like a Babylonian Empress.
Rabbits sometimes do this thing called agonal screaming before they die - I never ever ever ever ever ad infinitum want to hear that sound again (rabbit dies in my arms)
Oh yes, that too! Weedwacker/lawn mower/circular saw on a lovely summer evening makes it a trifecta. What the heck are they DOING with all those circular saws in their garages? Not a day goes by I don’t hear one whining away.
I’ll add now - telephone ringing. It’s never anything good. It’s either bad news or someone wanting something.
Dogs barking at night. There’s one around here that has a particularly high pitch bark, followed by a whine, that’s like a drill on an un-novocained tooth. And a couple of hounds got loose once and ran into the woods across the street and barked! barked! barked! for hours (having treed a cat or raccoon). I actually got up at 2 a.m. and walked outside to see if I could spot the M.F.s, and a man in a car driving by saw me and stopped and said, “I’m looking for those dogs, too, I have to get up and go to work in 4 hours.” (don’t know what we would have done if we found those dogs, though.)
You and me both. I have a coworker who brings carrot sticks to work every day. I don’t know where in the fuck she buys her carrots because they are the loudest goddamn carrots I have ever heard a person eat.
It’s not just the crunching. It’s this huge SNAP!! with every bite she takes. One day I was having a particular cranky day and I had to leave the office for 20 minutes while she was eating her stupid carrots because I was about to burst into tears of rage and frustration.
Eating sounds (and that does include gum-snapping—who on earth considers that an acceptable sound?? Why would you do that in public? Why would you think that was OK?) make me stabby.
This may land me squarely in the “crabby old man” bin, but: Children singing.
Yes, I know it’s all precious and adorable and everything, but any song sung by a child or children just makes my temples tighten. I don’t care if it’s one kid or a chorus, on key or off key. I just can’t stand those shrill little voices piercing through the air.
The sound of my own voice. Not the way I hear it, but the way others hear it. And yes, I do get occasional comments on it, none of which are complimentary.
I can’t stand it either, but then again I don’t like little kids or babies in general. They actually sell CDs of current songs covered by children’s choruses. How they ever sell a single CD is beyond me.
Me, too. I have such a dumb, whiny, little-girl voice that people find it hard to take me seriously. They express astonishment whenever I say something deep or intelligent.
isn’t an infant crying supposed to be annoying, when you think about it? it’s a sound that’s intended to grab the parent’s ears to respond to distress. It’s just annoying when it’s someone else’s baby
I think it’s more the really little kids, who don’t really “sing” as much as they talk really loudly with some sort of cadence. it’s usually unintelligible mush. It’s especially bad when local businesses run those cheap commercials and use (what are presumably) their kids in them. As if a few little kids “singing” is going to make me want to hire you to put a new roof on my house.
The sudden unexpected sound of a siren in the vicinity of my rear bumper. Followed by a red/blue flash in the rearview. Always tends to ruin my day.
SS
