Pet Peeves: Aka Things That Make You Go "Gah!"

[backformore]

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Backformore, have you ever combined the two? I put dark chocolate chips in my pumpkin cake and it's so yummy. I like the baked goods they serve at Starbucks (including the pumpkin bread), but I don't care for their coffee.

Yes, dark chocolate chips are good in Pumpkin cake or muffins! 

I love starbucks coffee, but I rarely go to starbucks for it, I can't justify the cost.   I did go once, after an evening workout, to try their new granite - it's like shaved ice, they have a berry flavor and a fruity tea one - delicious!  But only available after 3 PM, as part of their evening menu.

[ABay]

Tenure is not an absolute bar to getting fired. Most administrators and HR take student complaints seriously, especially if they already have it in for the instructor. In the last 3 years, I've seen 3 older tenured faculty members forced into retirement based on student complaints, 1 younger one forced out because of a sexual relationship with a student (the student was 34 and not the complainant), 1 forced to leave because of mental health issues, and 1 for truly skeevy behavior. Those are just the ones I'm aware of.

My pet peeve about instructional faculty is that they don't listen any better than their students do. We (librarians) tell them every year that they can put textbooks on reserve so students can use them for free (unless they print out copies, because IT charges for printing), either scan or have us scan a few chapters and put them on electronic reserve, use open access journals, link to articles in our many electronic databases, put articles on electronic reserve, etc. All of these save students money and make material more available. So what is the most common student question at the reference desk the first week of every semester? Do we have the textbook for class X because it costs $180 dollars/isn't at the bookstore yet/is sold out and has to be special ordered, etc.. No, we do not buy the text books for the 450+ classes that are taught every semester.  It's a state university; the library doesn't have a huge budget any more than our students do. 

[janestclair]

2 hours ago, ABay said:

Tenure is not an absolute bar to getting fired.

It's the same thing in public schools, at least in NJ.  You can be removed from your job if you have poor evaluations for two years without any sign of improving. Tenure is not a job for life, it's just a little bit of security so you know they can't end your contract because the kid of someone on the board of education needs a job.  

 

10 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

You just reminded me of the thermodynamics class (generally speaking, the most difficult class that an underclassman has to take for a bachelor's in physics) that I took. Worst. Teacher. Ever. Let me count the ways:

1. Chose to use the densest, most impenetrable textbook available because it "had everything we needed to learn", never mind that we had to shell out $150 for the damned thing.
2. Raced through the lectures at a breakneck pace. Good luck taking notes.
3. Stood directly in front of the blackboard while he was writing on it, all 600 pounds of him, and immediately erased everything as soon as he was done, despite the fact that there was another board available to write on right next to it. Good luck Reading anything from it, let alone writing any of it down.
4. Was incapable of showing us how to do the homework, which we naturally needed lots of help with. About 90% of the time he'd take the entire class period to get the wrong answers, then say something like "well, it's all there in the book", then give us the new homework assignment.
5. Was unavailable about 1/2 of the time during his supposed office hours. I ended up getting my faculty adviser and two other profs to help me out once in a while during their office hours , because they were the nicest professors ever.
6. Was tenured. There was nothing we could do to save future classes from him.

It was hell.

That teacher sounds terrible and reminds me of my college calculus teacher who wouldn't let us take notes during class.  He'd come take your pencil. "No write! Just listen!'  Ok, but I can't understand what you're saying through your accent so I'd like to write it down and figure it out later.  I used to bring a supply of pencils so that when he took one, I'd have more.  We all did.   He was the worst. 

[zxy556575]

This was during graduate school so classes were small and you couldn't get away with much, but I had one professor (also foreign) who could not stand anyone eating while he was lecturing. He was a nice guy and good teacher but woe betide a student who dared crinkle some plastic opening a snack: "You Americans and your constant eating! This is study time, not dinner time!"

(Except his danged class was 6-8 pm.)

[backformore]

There are a bunch of options for "renting"  textbooks now.  When I was in college, you would buy the book, then sell it back to the bookstore for about half, and they would re-sell it, making a profit.  (essentially, I paid to use the book, then got back a deposit).   When my son was in college a few years ago, he could rent a textbook, have it delivered, use it for the semester, and send it back.   If he didn't send it back in a certain timeframe, his credit card would be charged the purchase price.   It worked out well, because as few books he decided he wanted to own, so he just kept them.  The bottomline price is just about the same as buying and selling it back, it's just called renting instead.

Eating in class?   I recall in grad school one woman who had a ritual (I think she actually she had an eating disorder, but that's another story).  She would bring a large red apple to class, always sat in the front of the class.   then she would spend several minutes shining, polishing that apple to a high shine.   Seriously, it was an obsessive ritual.   Then, finally, after inspecting every millimeter of the apple, she would CRUNCH a loud bite - you know that sound of biting into a crisp apple -  chew slooooowwwllly, and then,  Put the apple down, take notes, then pick it up again  CRUNCH.   it was a small class, about two hours twice a week, and her ritual never varied.   it would take her over an hour to finish that ONE apple. 

After a time, all the seats around her would be empty, because nobody wanted to sit next to the "apple girl". 

[Blergh]

20 hours ago, Qoass said:

My birthday is coming up soon and maybe it is childish but I do wish somebody would be a little enthused.  Cake and cards are fun.

So is mine but, to tell the truth, other than my mother being around to enjoy it (and the fact that she CAN enjoy it despite her advancing years), I'm a bit blah over it as it's not a milestone and I honestly can't think of anything I really want other than for my mother to be around as long as possible.

 

backformore,

    The college should NOT have allowed Apple Girl to eat in class- VERY disruptive to the rest of the class and disrespectful of the teacher's time and efforts.

 

sandman,

  MY worst teacher ever had similar habits but what was even worse was how blatantly he played class faves/ whipping boys- even going so far as to encourage gifts from said faves and would  openly gloat about gifts&favors they and their families had given him while treating everyone else like dirt for not being rich, connected or on a team.

[auntlada]

You studied potions with Professor Slughorn, @Blergh?

[StatisticalOutlier]

You know those word-a-day calendars?  (One year, the word on my birthday was "charnel."  Nice.)  I'm thinking I should make up a peeve-a-day version, and I could even do leap year because there are that many.  Seriously.  What a grouch.

The most recent is long-standing, but I noticed it on a show last night:  the overhand handshake.  It's when you go to shake someone's hand and your hand is rotated with the thumb at top, to meet their rotated-with-thumb-at-top hand.  You know, like a handshake.  Only they do this annoying thing where they instead have their hand cupped, palm down, and they put the cupped part over your hand.  The hell?

Okay, it's one thing if you're John McCain and when you were a prisoner of war they fucked up your body and you can't do a regular handshake.  He gets a pass, especially because I'm quite certain that if he could do a regular handshake, he would. 

But otherwise, what the hell is wrong with you?  Why do you do that?  It's always women, and almost always artsy types.  I've heard that there are men out there who will give you a handshake that will break your fingers, but I've never experienced anything quite that extreme (some pretty strong handshakes, but nothing that actually hurt), and I really really doubt they do it to women, who are the biggest offenders with the overhand nonsense.  So that's not it.  (But notice that politicians use the overhand thing in crowds, for that very reason.  But I'm quite confident than when Hillary Clinton was meeting world leaders as secretary of state, she wasn't using the overhand thing.  Probably not when she was first lady, either, now that I think about it.)

Is it the artsy thing?  They're so unique that they just can't abide participating in a regular handshake?  The problem is that this overhand thing requires that the other person does come in with a normal handshake, or there's nothing for the overhander to grab onto.  So their specialness is incumbent on everyone else doing it regular, which is just obnoxious.

Although I wonder if that's how the fist bump started--two overhanders met and just collided.  I can only hope it was incredibly awkward.

[Bastet]

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It's always women, and almost always artsy types.

Yeah, what is that?  Are they taught in drama school or something?  I have a peeve about weak handshakes to begin with, and an extra one about the ones you describe -- where it should be a normal handshake, but they turn their hand over.  And pretty much every single person who's done it to me is a female actor.

[MargeGunderson]

3 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

You know those word-a-day calendars?  (One year, the word on my birthday was "charnel."  Nice.)  I'm thinking I should make up a peeve-a-day version, and I could even do leap year because there are that many.  Seriously.  What a grouch.

I would buy that.

[Moose135]

On 8/29/2016 at 4:41 PM, Qoass said:

My birthday is coming up soon and maybe it is childish but I do wish somebody would be a little enthused.  Cake and cards are fun.

Well, tell us when, so we can have a little celebration here on PTV!

 

19 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

You just reminded me of the thermodynamics class (generally speaking, the most difficult class that an underclassman has to take for a bachelor's in physics) that I took. Worst. Teacher. Ever. Let me count the ways:

I had a few real winners in my mechanical and aerospace engineering classes.  One professor - multiple PhDs, worked with NASA over the summers, but also extra large, with a thick Turkish accent - would stand in front of what he was writing, mumbling into the board.  When he moved to the next board, we would all quickly copy what he wrote and try to make sense of it later.

 

6 hours ago, backformore said:

There are a bunch of options for "renting"  textbooks now. 

The lady I was seeing for a while (probably a topic for the Relationships thread) went back to finish her degree, and ended up renting most of her textbooks, after a run in with the manager of the campus bookstore.

Edited August 30, 2016 by Moose135

[Sandman87]

You kids these days, with your textbook rentals and reserved textbooks and less bulletproof tenure!

[ParadoxLost]

22 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

You just reminded me of the thermodynamics class (generally speaking, the most difficult class that an underclassman has to take for a bachelor's in physics) that I took. Worst. Teacher. Ever. Let me count the ways:

It was hell.

Sounds pretty standard for thermodynamics.  My professor was nicknamed Dr. Death.  But he added the joys of some version of grading on the curve.  Which is all well and good up until someone breaks the curve.  I never felt so bad getting a decent grade.  I think I literally got something in the 90s when the average on the test was in the teens.  I really did not appreciate him announcing that to the class.  It was a nightmare class.  I studied a lot.

Rumor was he graded on a curve because he was under some kind of suspension because no one could pass his class.

I had a couple of friends who flunked his final a couple years later and weren't going to graduate.  I ended up cramming some last minute tutoring into finals after they went to the Dean and somehow managed to get a retest.  I have no idea how they managed to get a redo on a final.

[bilgistic]

On 8/29/2016 at 10:57 PM, forumfish said:

Backformore, have you ever combined the two? I put dark chocolate chips in my pumpkin cake and it's so yummy. I like the baked goods they serve at Starbucks (including the pumpkin bread), but I don't care for their coffee.

The Fresh Market has a yummy pumpkin-chocolate chip "pound cake". It's chock full of mini chocolate chips, and is dense and moist and pumpkin-y delicious.

3 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

You kids these days, with your textbook rentals and reserved textbooks and less bulletproof tenure!

When I was in school 20-odd years ago, I paid $150 per book and was lucky if I got a buck and a quarter when I sold them back at the end of the semester! There was only one option for books--the school bookstore. Just as I was finishing school, a competing bookstore was opening off campus.

[Demented Daisy]

9 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

Sounds pretty standard for thermodynamics.  My professor was nicknamed Dr. Death.  But he added the joys of some version of grading on the curve.  Which is all well and good up until someone breaks the curve.  I never felt so bad getting a decent grade.  I think I literally got something in the 90s when the average on the test was in the teens.  I really did not appreciate him announcing that to the class.  It was a nightmare class.  I studied a lot.

Rumor was he graded on a curve because he was under some kind of suspension because no one could pass his class.

That sounds like my high school physics class.  Our final exam was curved so badly, I didn't even answer half of the questions on the test -- and I scored a 95.  

What is it about physics?  Is it one of those things that people understand but can't teach?  

[Moose135]

10 hours ago, Demented Daisy said:

What is it about physics?  Is it one of those things that people understand but can't teach?  

I had a couple of good physics professors in college (and even a nun in high school who was great) but some of my engineering profs in college couldn't teach their way out of a paper bag.

[TattleTeeny]

On August 29, 2016 at 3:32 PM, janestclair said:

Does anyone even really want pumpkin waffles, pumpkin cereal and pumpkin marshmallows?  Someone must, but it's definitely not me.  I have one serving of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner and I'm good.

I do. But those Dunkin' Donuts asses ruined the pumpkin coffee in recent years, probably due to Americans' weird obsession with cloying sweetness! It used to taste mostly like unsweetened coffee with just a suggestion of a spicy smell. Now it's grossity-gross garbage!

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And isn't most canned 'pumpkin' not actually pumpkin, but some other squash? 

Maybe pie filling is but the plain pumpkin is pumpkin. I used to have to buy it for my aging pet ferret who had digestion issues (miss you, my little Finster!). I also use it in a hummus recipe; it doesn't change the taste all that much though, but does make it a much less bland color!

Edited August 31, 2016 by TattleTeeny

[Sandman87]

5 hours ago, forumfish said:

The backhoe at the school across the street has returned. The noise, the noise! *holds ears*

Earplugs! Foam earplugs! Available at just about any place that sells sporting goods and a lot of hardware stores. I keep some within easy reach at all times, since my next door neighbor is liable to fire up his backhoe or his small tractor at the oddest times. Not to mention his goats going nuts for several weeks every spring.

[ganesh]

On 8/30/2016 at 8:20 PM, ParadoxLost said:

Sounds pretty standard for thermodynamics. 

I've made it my mission in my academic career to make sure no one takes the chemical engineering thermodynamics. 

In my class, I told them to get any edition of the book they could find. Price ranged from $3 - $17. And, I have a free, online text book with all open source material. 

[Bastet]

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Earplugs! Foam earplugs!

I've only blocked out snoring (a noise that makes me homicidal), not a backhoe, but in my limited experience silicone ear plugs work exponentially better than foam; they seem denser and more pliable, so that they truly seal off the opening and block the sound.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Bastet

[FormerMod-a1]

I don't like the loud noises, but I can deal with it if alone.  But when you're expected to interact with people and carry on conversations it's hard.  So I don't get it when people insist on sitting outdoors, whether at a restaurant or bar or their apt or house, to "enjoy" the weather, just because it's like 90F outside, even though there is MAJOR CONSTRUCTION going on literally (yes, truly literally and not figuratively) on the street right in front of them.  This peeve happened recently at a work lunch.  "It's so nice, let's sit outside".  The street the restaurant is on is having major construction, with trucks so loud that even them idling makes it hard to hear, and not only was that going on but major digging, and crane work, and constant "beep beep beep" as one or several of these vehicles were constantly moving and backing up and going again.  And then to top it off, everyone was moving around umbrellas and trying to get out of the sun because we all work at a bank and are in suits and it's HOT, and it's noon so the sun is right on us and people are squinting on this "rooftop" deck.  But yes, let's sit outside and enjoy the weather, (and the noise and the heat and the lack of ability to hear anyone talk and being blinded).  What is up with that?  Why must we always sit outside just because it's summer?

[DeLurker]

Even when restaurants have decent outdoor seating conditions, a lot of them allow smoking there.  That kills it for me.

[zxy556575]

2 hours ago, aquarian1 said:

Why must we always sit outside just because it's summer?

Oh, I always put the kibosh on that! The terrace or patio or goddamned boiling hot sidewalk is not "nice." Every person in the group jumps for the chairs shaded by the umbrella, leaving 1-2 people to sweat it out and possibly even get a sunburn.

My enjoyment of al fresco dining ends at any temperature above 75 degrees. I'd also be "uh, nope" about the construction noise.

On a different note, I need to stop reading the thread on celebrities we hate, because it's started to depress me.

Edited September 1, 2016 by lordonia

[FormerMod-a1]

It's hard to 'kibosh' when 8 out of 10 people are all "Let's sit outside" and the other doesn't care and goes with the flow and the last one is you.  ;-)

[ganesh]

I like sitting outside because typically it's ok to have your dog there. 

[topanga]

9 minutes ago, ganesh said:

I like sitting outside because typically it's ok to have your dog there. 

Okay, I love my dog, and I don't mind sitting outside to eat. But when I'm eating with a group of people, I don't have my dog around. Some people don't like dogs around when they're eating. And I'd respect that. 

[zxy556575]

1 hour ago, aquarian1 said:

It's hard to 'kibosh' when 8 out of 10 people are all "Let's sit outside" and the other doesn't care and goes with the flow and the last one is you.  ;-)

I'm loud, large, and not above playing the recurrent skin cancer card!

[ganesh]

That's why I rarely go out to eat. 

[zxy556575]

4 hours ago, topanga said:

Okay, I love my dog, and I don't mind sitting outside to eat. But when I'm eating with a group of people, I don't have my dog around. Some people don't like dogs around when they're eating. And I'd respect that. 

That's because you're a lovely and considerate person. One of the angriest and longest online debates on my community discussion board is about people who take their dogs to patio restaurants. The #1 angriest thread? Dog walkers who let their pets pee on other people's lawns. That one has been going on periodically for the six years I've been here!

My PEEve would therefore be people who join a new board and post a question without searching past topics. ;)

Edited September 1, 2016 by lordonia

[Bastet]

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My PEEve would therefore be people who join a new board and post a question without searching past topics. ;)

Oh, yes.  On the Nextdoor group for my neighborhood, barely a week goes by without someone posting to ask for housekeeper recommendations.  It's ridiculous; just click on "Housekeeper/Maid Service" and read the recommendations from the umpteen times they've been posted in recent months.

And speaking of annoying posting habits, Nextdoor has but seven categories (although Recommendations has a ton of subcategories).  These include a Classifieds section for sales and the aforementioned Recommendations sections for recommending/soliciting a recommendation for local businesses and services.  Yet, time after time, people advertise their garage sale or ask for a gardener recommendation in General instead.  This is not hard, people! 

I could be here all day with Nextdoor peeves, but I'll limit myself to one more.  One of the rules is to communicate via private message, rather than posting to the newsfeed, when it's a private conversation, such as responding to someone's classified ad.  But time after time, people reply to the group.  If the ad has been posted to nearby neighborhoods, you can be flooding thousands of people's inbox (and cluttering up the archive) with shit like, "Is it still available?"

Edited September 1, 2016 by Bastet

[Mountainair]

Since the topic of neighbors has been brought up let me pose this scenario to the group. 

My neighborhood is not the friendliest on the block. Our immediate neighbors in front and beside us refuse to wave to us even if I initiate the wave. They are just assholes pretty much. The two neighbors in front of us peeve me daily. One set of neighbors close their blinds anytime I am in my yard- which is often. As soon as I go in they open them back up. Whatever. The ones that really irk me also live across the street from us and have two teenagers. When the boy gets off the bus from school at 3 he immediately goes and sits outside to wait for his parents to get home-an hour and a half later. If it's too hot/rainy/cold/snowy, etc he will go open up the hatch that leads to the crawl space underneath the house and wait there. I feel like this is wrong on so many levels. The teen daughter comes home at 5 with the dad. Why can't this kid go inside the house after school? Why doesn't he have an appropriate after school location to hang out until his parents can get him and bring him home? During the summer her left every morning with one of his parents and came home with them at the end of the day. I don't get it. In what world is it ok to make your kid wait in the crawl space of your home for you to get home?

[Quof]

Gotta ask, Mountainair, why do you care about any of those things?  If I'm reading them correctly, they have absolutely no effect on you.   Presumably, there is a reason the parents don't want the son alone in the house; be glad he sits patiently in the yard instead of raising hell in the neighbourhood.   And neighbours who don't interact with me?  My favourite kind.

[Mountainair]

I don't mind that the neighbors don't interact with me- it's the fact that they are so blatant about not interacting that bugs me. There's keeping to yourself and then there's being a rude asshole.

The kid bothers me because we have really hot weather and dangerously cold weather here and the fact that he has to sit in a crawl space underneath his house borders too much on Harry Potter and the cupboard under the stairs for me. If they are that obvious about it outside of the house what is going on inside of the house?

[Quof]

If you want talk about neighbours...... Riddle me this:

The house across from me is occupied by a three generation family, a boy about 10, parents and grandparents.  The grandparents are young enough they may still work.   There are three vehicles in the yard.  From the time I wake up until the time I go to bed, the three vehicles are in a never-ending rotation in the driveway. (I can see this while I sit on my sofa watching tv, I'm not purposely looking out the window at them).  One car will pull in, a person go inside, someone come out and leave in the car.   Later, a person will get in the minivan, leave for a few hours, then come back. The first car will return, the driver will get out then get in the second car and leave again.    Each vehicle comes and goes dozens of times a day. There doesn't seem to be a pattern - for example, Grandpa always leaves in the Ford at 8, or mom takes junior in the minivan after school.... It appears to be entirely random.  Perhaps if I devoted an entire day to tracking it, I could figure it out.  If they were younger, I would think they were dealing drugs.  I know it's none of my business, but it's driving me crazy. 

[Bastet]

Was she parked outside the lines of her spot, or just in a way that didn't leave you the extra clearance you need?  Because it's unlikely I would happen to look at the sticker on your window, so I wouldn't know you needed extra space.  So if she parked within the lines (just crooked within the allotted space), I don't think you can fault her for that (the parking itself, not the attitude), because maybe she didn't see the sticker, either.  But if she took up more than her space, screw her. 

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Our immediate neighbors in front and beside us refuse to wave to us even if I initiate the wave.

A friend was just complaining to me about her neighbors doing (or not doing) the same thing, saying it happens all the time.  My response was, "So why do you keep waving at them?"  Don't get me wrong, I agree it's rude to completely ignore someone who offers a friendly wave.  I just don't know why she keeps doing it, when she knows the neighbor isn't going to respond.

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In what world is it ok to make your kid wait in the crawl space of your home for you to get home?

That is really weird!  If they don't trust him to be alone in the house for some reason, they should have someplace for him to stay between school letting out and them getting home on the days when the weather makes it uncomfortable for him to just hang out in the porch/yard.  That they seem to have something like that set up for the other teen really makes me wonder what's going on with that kid.  I wonder if he get kicked out of something, or mouthed off about what they had arranged.  You now have me oddly curious about why this kid can't go in the house.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Bastet

[zxy556575]

1 hour ago, Mountainair said:

The kid bothers me because we have really hot weather and dangerously cold weather here and the fact that he has to sit in a crawl space underneath his house borders too much on Harry Potter and the cupboard under the stairs for me.

That would bother me, too. Standard online I-know-nothing legal disclaimers apply, but I would call CPS if they were my neighbors. Anonymously, because of not wanting to start any kind of escalating payback feud. I'm still scarred from that "Trouble on the Hill" Dateline episode!

[DeLurker]

Hmmm...how odd.  I just went to "like" @Bastet's post and got a message saying "You are not allowed to like this poster's message (or something like that)".  Of course, it did log my like.

[Bastet]

That has been a recurring bug.  There's a thread in the Bugs forum where Dave asks for info from those who get it, to try and pin down what's causing it.

[bilgistic]

10 hours ago, lordonia said:

I'm loud, large, and not above playing the recurrent skin cancer card!

I'm a bitch who doesn't care what "the group wants" to do. I'll be happier eating by myself.

[Maharincess]

4 hours ago, Mountainair said:

I don't mind that the neighbors don't interact with me- it's the fact that they are so blatant about not interacting that bugs me. There's keeping to yourself and then there's being a rude asshole.

The kid bothers me because we have really hot weather and dangerously cold weather here and the fact that he has to sit in a crawl space underneath his house borders too much on Harry Potter and the cupboard under the stairs for me. If they are that obvious about it outside of the house what is going on inside of the house?

I think you care about these things because it's the nice, decent thing to do.  Seeing the kid outside for 90 minutes would bother me as well.  I think it would bother anybody with a heart.  The not waving back would bug me too, it takes no effort to be polite. 

My peeve for today is able bodied assholes who think it's ok to park in the only handicapped parking spot in the lot because they're "only going to be a minute" and then cuss out the person in the wheelchair who called the police on him.   We saw him get out of his car (which had no sticker) and my daughter told him we needed the spot, he said he'd only be a minute and walked into the hair salon. We waited thinking maybe he was just picking up somebody in the salon and would be right back out.  He wasn't so we called, as his car was being ticketed he ran out and started calling me and my daughter effing bitches because we called the cops. 

I just don't understand people sometimes. 

@bilgistic, I would do the same thing and go eat by myself. 

Edited to add:  I understand that all handicaps aren't visible so we gave the guy the benefit of the doubt in case he did legitimately need the handicap spot.  

Edited September 2, 2016 by Maharincess

[bilgistic]

And she's back!! How are you, @Maharincess??

[Maharincess]

Hi guys!!  I'm not doing too bad actually.  Feeling pretty good and refuse to let this shit get me down. I had a couple of bad weeks right after the surgery but I'm good now.  Thanks for asking.  

I joined a local Facebook group a few weeks ago called Trash and Treasures where people in my city sell or give away things they don't want anymore.  I bought a beautiful planter and a few other things on there.  My peeve is that every time I've sold or given something away I have somebody who makes plans to come and get it and never shows up.   I ended up selling the stuff to another person in the group but I always have somebody who flakes.  Why the hell do people do that?  A few times I had other things to do but I cancelled my plans to be here, all of these people had my number and could have texted me but I got nothing.   I gave away two big boxes of books,  one woman who said she wanted them never showed up so I went to the next in line and she never showed up the third in line showed up.   I would never do that, if I'm going to be even five minutes late, I always call to let the other person know.  

[Bastet]

I've been using Freecycle to give things away for years, and mostly have good luck but have definitely endured some flakes.  And on some big ticket items, too.  It's bad enough when someone flakes on buying something from you, but when you're giving them something, especially an expensive item, and they don't show?  And then don't follow up with an "I'm sorry, here's what happened, can I still pick up?" email?  Or when they know damn well it's something I can't just leave out for porch pick-up and have thus stayed home to hand over?  It's ridiculous, and they permanently go on my "not even if you were the only person who responded" list.

Also, the people who ask for every.freakin'.thing I offer.  You're either a) a hoarder, in which case I feel sorry for you but am not enabling you, b) someone who's scooping up inventory to sell at your swap meet booth even though that violates the rules, in which case get stuffed, or c) just a greedy twit, in which case see b. 

The flip side of that is the people who post unending "Wanted" requests, for basically an entire life worth of expensive stuff.  That's obnoxious enough on a gift registry (the acceptability of "I'm getting married, so please furnish my home" is just lost on me), but at least that goes out to friends and family.  Asking random strangers in your city is another level.

[Maharincess]

I've seen some strange stuff on Freecycle. Things like two cans of diet Coke and a bag of cat food that was almost empty. I put my old 35 inch RCA tv on Freecycle and nobody wanted it. I don't blame them, the thing was in a console cabinet and it was huge.  It was over 20 years old and still worked great but I couldn't give that thing away. 

[Bastet]

I am always so tickled by the random stuff that gets offered and taken on Freecycle.  I'll see an offer post for something seemingly useless, with a note like, "I have no idea what someone might do with this, but in case there's someone out there who can re-purpose it," and then a taken post with a note saying, "This has been picked up, and will be turned into X" and I just get the biggest grin.  I still smile thinking about hodgepodge of things I offered at the tail end of cleaning out my grandpa's house - some bamboo posts, part of a light fixture, etc. - and the update photo the person who picked them up sent me, showing the cool items she'd transformed them into. 

[backformore]

Pet Peeve - recently I have read, and twice been told by people, what my politics are because of my "demographic".   It pisses me off.  Yes, I am  white, and I live in the suburbs, and I am past a (ahem)   certain age.  But how the heck does that add up to an assumption that I MUST be conservative?  I'm still capable of independent thought - I'm a person, not a demographic.

[DeLurker]

I've been told, repeatedly, that because of my demographics I should be X politically because their values more consistently further my interests.  And this is by members of my own family.

I am a person, not a demographic indeed.  I am also a member of the human race which is much broader than my subset of demographics.

[Blergh]

 Agree with you all backformore and DeLurker. May I also say that I get REALLY peeved when folks of my demographic/s (or ANY demographic) say that I and/or other members of said demographics are supposed to behave, speak, etc. certain ways that often are barely veiled stereotypes ? I mean if one chooses to degrade oneself and attempt to justify it by saying that one is supposed to be that way just because one is a member of said demographic then what will stop the OPENLY bigoted from using that as a hammer against the demographic/s by going 'See? They themselves view themselves like that!'

[ABay]

The demographic stereotyping I hate is the generational crap: Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, etc. as if all members of a certain age group are the same regardless of gender, race, or class. 

[Demented Daisy]

New peeve!  I've been wearing a certain brand of shoes for years, but have always bought the mens or unisex styles.  Well, they recently released a new pair that I want, but only in the ladies style.  I'm not sure what size I need so I went to the brand store at the mall to try them on.  Unfortunately, they didn't have the design I wanted yet, but I thought I would try on some other shoes to determine which size I should get when I order the pair I actually want online.

So I walk into the store and pull up the pair I want on my phone.  Before I can get a word out, the young lady says, "We don't have those."  "Yes," I reply, "I know, but I wanted to know if I --"  "We can't have them delivered to the store, but you can have them delivered to your house."  "Yes," I reply again, "but I wanted to try some other shoes on in the same style --"  "We don't have that style."  "No, not this design, but the same style --"  "We don't have that style."  I stare at her for a second, then turn and look at the wall of shoes in the exact same style, but with different fabrics and designs.  "You can have them delivered to your house," she repeats.  At that point, the last thing I want to do is give her a sale (you know, in case I tried on a pair that I liked just as much, but didn't have to wait to be delivered to my house), so I said, "Okay, thanks."  And walked out.  Another sales person tried to stop and help me, but I was done.

Why work in sales if you have no interest in selling anything?  

Edited September 2, 2016 by Demented Daisy
Fix grammar typo. Should have proofread better.