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

[ParadoxLost]

Summer is better than Spring primarily because my allergies stop.

It gets too hot, but I have air conditioning.

Edited June 11, 2021 by ParadoxLost

[Annber03]

I think another thing that bugs me about this current heatwave is that we didn't really build up to it gradually. That's actually been something of an issue where I live the last few years in general, it seems. We'll have a cool/chilly spring, and maybe we'll get a week or two at most of comfortable spring-like temperatures mixed in there somewhere along the way....

....and then all of a sudden, bam, it's in the 80s and 90s and staying that way for weeks on end. The Friday before Memorial Day this year, our actual high was in the low 40s. Then a week later, suddenly we're in the 90s and we've been stuck there ever since. Just makes it that much harder to really adjust to the summer heat as a result. 

[Kawaiiko]

7 hours ago, Annber03 said:

The Friday before Memorial Day this year, our actual high was in the low 40s.

Memorial Day weekend was a bit of a doozy.

Saturday was rain all day.

Sunday it was cloudy and cold.

But then magically on Monday it turned sunny and hot. Oh, so very hot.

[annzeepark914]

I loathe hot weather. Hurry up autumn!!

[Caoimhe]

I hate winter the most, it's cold and dark and the greatest evil of the season - cold white precipitation that requires huge amounts of work in frigid temps - happens regularly.  I know how I perceive the seasons depends on where I live, but it's been too many years since I was far enough south to have brighter, warmer winters that weren't so bad.  The other three seasons all have their charms for me, but summer is my favourite.  I'm normally so cold all the time that basking in sunshine soaking in the heat is the very best feeling!

[Cobb Salad]

Not a fan of wintertime since it can get so cold around here.  If it doesn’t snow a lot I am happy.  The only good thing about the first day of winter for me is the days start getting longer again.   My preference is the spring and summer when it’s warm outside and I can have the windows open.  

[GHScorpiosRule]

10 minutes ago, Cobb Salad said:

The only good thing about the first day of winter for me is the days start getting longer again

That would be the first day of Spring. First day of Winter, the days start getting shorter.

I love Summer. Pool, Beach, can do so many more activities, well, looking forward to doing more again, than in Winter. 

[WinnieWinkle]

I'm a fall/winter person married to a summer fanatic.  The only season we can agree on is spring - him happy because summer is almost here and me happy because summer isn't here yet!

[Cobb Salad]

9 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

That would be the first day of Spring. First day of Winter, the days start getting shorter.

I love Summer. Pool, Beach, can do so many more activities, well, looking forward to doing more again, than in Winter. 

No, first day of winter is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.  Daylight starts getting longer until the spring when the daylight equals nighttime.  The start of summer is the longest daylight then it gradually decreases until the first day of winter when it starts over again.  

[Leeds]

On 6/6/2021 at 10:48 AM, WinnieWinkle said:

I was Chief Librarian at a public library when the last Harry Potter was released.  We had to sign some non-disclosure type thing with the distributer before we got our copies so we could have them catalogued and prepped ready for the Big Release.  Even though I wasn't a fan I admit I had to go the end of the book to find out what happened and while I didn't tell anyone I did tease my Harry Potter manic  children with the knowledge that I had the inside scoop on Harry's fate days before they did 😄.

 

On 6/9/2021 at 12:11 PM, BookWoman56 said:

I apparently commit blasphemy every time I make lasagna these days. I used to make my own sauce first and then layer all the ingredients. Currently I use two jars of marinara sauce to one jar of Alfredo sauce, mixed with a large bag of shredded mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, the precooked noodles, and the other ingredients such as bell peppers and onions, spices, etc. I don’t care what other people think about it; it’s easy to make and tastes way better than a lot of lasagna I’ve had in restaurants. 

I commit lasagna blasphemy because I use regular noodles and don't precook them.  Comes out great.

 

20 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

My ex of 30 years ago always said "I seen." It bugged me. I corrected him and perhaps shouldn't have. It certainly didn't change anything. He even defended his use of "seen" instead of "saw" because he thought "I saw" sounded like he was cutting something with a saw instead of viewing something.
 

My ex said "like" every second word.  If I had tried to point it out the narcissistic git would have sulked for a week and continued to do it.  Instead I enlisted our kids - I had them hold up a finger every time he said "like" (incorrectly).  When he realized they were running out of fingers within a couple of sentences he started to modify his speech.  Underhanded I know, but once you notice a verbal tic like (sic) that in someone, it becomes unbearable.

[GHScorpiosRule]

16 minutes ago, Cobb Salad said:

No, first day of winter is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.

D'OH! Right! Forgot about that!

[GaT]

15 hours ago, BookWoman56 said:

I’m currently looking at a 10-day forecast that consists primarily of “highs” in the mid to upper 90s, with one token cool day where the high will be only 90. Soon it will be that point when weather discussion focuses on how many days in a row it will hit 100 or higher. I am very grateful for my central air. 

We're supposed to hit 106 this week, yuck  😢

15 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I think another thing that bugs me about this current heatwave is that we didn't really build up to it gradually. That's actually been something of an issue where I live the last few years in general, it seems. We'll have a cool/chilly spring, and maybe we'll get a week or two at most of comfortable spring-like temperatures mixed in there somewhere along the way....

....and then all of a sudden, bam, it's in the 80s and 90s and staying that way for weeks on end. The Friday before Memorial Day this year, our actual high was in the low 40s. Then a week later, suddenly we're in the 90s and we've been stuck there ever since. Just makes it that much harder to really adjust to the summer heat as a result. 

YES. It was too cold to leave windows & doors open, & then the next day it was too hot to leave them open. Whatever happened to comfortable temperatures?

[emma675]

I loathe summer with a white hot passion. I hate the heat, I hate the humidity, I hate sweating, I hate mosquitos. I'm basically indoors from June to October (when it finally starts cooling down where I live), living in the AC.

[Browncoat]

New day, new peeve -- assholes who don't turn on their car's lights when it's raining.  Especially when they drive a silver/grey car and it's raining so hard that you can barely see the lines on the road.  Not only did I have my lights on, I also had the hazard lights on -- top speed was about 35-40, the rain was so bad.  And yet, there were multiple assholes who didn't even have daytime running lights (which are bad because they don't include taillights), much less actual lights.  Grrrr.

[Suzn]

9 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

That would be the first day of Spring. First day of Winter, the days start getting shorter.

I love Summer. Pool, Beach, can do so many more activities, well, looking forward to doing more again, than in Winter. 

Sorry the first day of winter is the shortest of the year.  The first day of spring, the sun up/sun down is equal.  Vernal equinox.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Suzn

[GHScorpiosRule]

19 minutes ago, Suzn said:

Sorry the first day of winter is the shortest of the year.  The first day of spring, the sun up/sun down is equal.  Vernal equinox.

I know- @Cobb Salad clarified for me up thread.

[RealHousewife]

So even though I prefer being hot to being cold, my pet peeve is an outdoor afternoon baby shower in June. It is going to be in the 90s where I live. 

[Gramto6]

1 hour ago, RealHousewife said:

So even though I prefer being hot to being cold, my pet peeve is an outdoor afternoon baby shower in June. It is going to be in the 90s where I live. 

LOL, I would 1000x prefer to being cold than hot! You can always put on another layer of clothing or turn up the heat...but when it is so hot...once you are down to skin where do you go... run through the sprinklers naked??? JK!

[JTMacc99]

As a person who has beliefs such as there is a correct way to load a dishwasher, I am very peeved that one of my supermarkets turned the self check into 14 items or fewer. 
 

So now I’m funneled into the regular lines where they man every line with a dedicated bagger. The kids do their best, but they don’t do it the “right” way. 
 

This is obviously something I need to let go, but I’m not there yet. 

[Quof]

44 minutes ago, JTMacc99 said:

one of my supermarkets turned the self check into 14 items or fewer. 

Does the sign say "14 items or fewer"?  Because that would be awesome. And rare.  I grow increasingly cranky at bad grammar.  Dammit, people, do you hear yourselves? 

[annzeepark914]

24 minutes ago, Quof said:

Does the sign say "14 items or fewer"?  Because that would be awesome. And rare.  I grow increasingly cranky at bad grammar.  Dammit, people, do you hear yourselves? 

This type of grammar error, IMO, is no biggie (along with "bring/take" and nowadays the "who/whom" battles). The one that really screeches is the mistaken use of "I" by way too many people (e.g., "These grammatical errors don't mean a lot to my husband and I"). If you want to know which is correct, just remove the other person ("These grammatical errors don't mean a lot to I" 🤨). 

[Quof]

I got into a "discussion" with a poster on Reddit who honestly though "my husband and I's wedding" was correct.   There was no reasoning with her.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Quof said:

I got into a "discussion" with a poster on Reddit who honestly though "my husband and I's wedding" was correct.   There was no reasoning with her.

I can tolerate improper use of me for I when the speaker is using slang, but the use of I when me is correct is beyond annoying. 

• Dear users of “I” who think it is more impressive than “me,”   
  I hope you didn’t have anything important to say, because I just got distracted by your grammar and stopped listening. It may seem petty of me, but it’s a reflex. 

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by shapeshifter
Typo

[Cobb Salad]

The rental unit upstairs from me was vacated about 6 weeks ago.  The person who left had been there for about 6 years.  On and off over the past several weeks I’ve been hearing activity up there that indicates there’s some renovations going on.  I hadn’t heard anything for about a week then around 8:15 this morning all this pounding and banging started.  It started in the bedroom around the time I was sitting in bed watching TV.  It was so loud I had to turn the volume up. Over the past 4 hours there’s been activity in various parts of the unit.  I’ve been thinking about going up there later to ask with all the activity going on are they thinking about selling (it’s probably a contractor making all the noise but I figure I’d make a point while maybe finding out what’s going on). I’m hoping he’s gone by dinner time at the latest.  
Anyway, my peeve is starting noise like this before 9am on a Saturday morning. During the week, most likely neighbors are at work or getting ready for work in the 8:00 hour but weekends?  C’mon.  

[shapeshifter]

Speaking of pet peeves,   
Regarding the confusion upthread, I am quoting britannica.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-a-solstice-and-an-equinox

Quote

So, in the Northern Hemisphere you have: 

• Vernal equinox(about March 21): day and night of equal length, marking the start of spring
• Summer solstice (June 20 or 21): longest day of the year, marking the start of summer
• Autumnal equinox(about September 23): day and night of equal length, marking the start of autumn
• Winter solstice (December 21 or 22): shortest day of the year, marking the start of winter

I am assuming you all agree with this, but some are just not good at articulating it. For that matter, I don’t think the Britannica writers did a great job either, and may have lead to some of the confusion and seemingly erroneous notions that were expressed above, but, happily, seem to now be corrected.

Edited June 12, 2021 by shapeshifter

[JTMacc99]

1 hour ago, Quof said:

Does the sign say "14 items or fewer"?  Because that would be awesome. And rare.  

Honestly? 

1. I don’t remember, because 

2. My brain would have “seen” fewer regardless of what it said. 

I’ll take a picture next time I’m there and report back. 

[annzeepark914]

My dad used to announce summer & winter solstices, esp winter cause it meant we were now on the march toward spring. That meant thinking about our summer lake cottage (or "camp" as they say in New England😁) and I guess that made NY winters more bearable. Now MrP914 makes the announcements just for the helluvit.

[Maisiesmom]

We used to have a landlord that would show up every Sat. and Sun. at about 6:30 in the AM and just start banging over our heads. Now this was back in the day when we would be up much later-having little parties with friends over, or doing adult things (nudge nudge wink wink) and sometimes wouldn't get to sleep until 5 AM. It would piss me off to the max but there wasn't much we could do about it. He was a huge Scotsman (my hubs called him Mad John) and I was a bit afraid of him. We got some $$ together and bought a house within a few months. I was so glad to be out of there!!

[Cobb Salad]

8 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Speaking of pet peeves,   
Regarding the confusion upthread, I am quoting britannica.com/story/whats-the-difference-between-a-solstice-and-an-equinox

I am assuming you all agree with this, but some are just not good at articulating it. For that matter, I don’t think the Britannica writers did a great job either, and may have lead to some of the confusion and seemingly erroneous notions expressed above.

I’ll save everyone here the long explanation I got when I learned it in school (specifically geography class) so yeah, that brief explanation about doesn’t tell you everything that helps you remember the differences.  

[shapeshifter]

23 minutes ago, Cobb Salad said:

I’ll save everyone here the long explanation I got when I learned it in school (specifically geography class) so yeah, that brief explanation about doesn’t tell you everything that helps you remember the differences.  

And now I need someone to pull me out of the rabbit hole of The Old Farmer’s Almanac (e.g., this page: https://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-summer-summer-solstice) which has a lot of details that could cause even more confusion, but are also fascinating. For example:

Quote

SOLSTICE FUN FACTS

THE SOLSTICE DOES NOT BRING THE EARLIEST SUNRISE

Although the day of the solstice has the most daylight hours of the year, the earliest sunrisesof the year occur before the summer solstice. The exact timing will depend in part on your latitude: In the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, it occurs about a week earlier than the June solstice.

The reason for the timing of sunrises is related to the inclination of the Earth’s rotational axis and Earth’s elliptical (rather than circular) orbit. 

The latest sunsets of the year will occur several days after the solstice, again depending on latitude.

THE SUN SETS MORE SLOWLY AT THE SOLSTICE

Did you know that the Sun actually sets more slowly around the time of a solstice, in that it takes longer to set below the horizon? This is related to the angle of the setting Sun. The farther the Sun sets from due west along the horizon, the shallower the angle of the setting Sun. (Conversely, it’s faster at or near the equinoxes.) Bottom-line, enjoy those long romantic summertime sunsets at or near the solstice!

And now back to our regularly scheduled kvetching. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

Peeve-at myself-for messing up a very simple recipe. Basically, when I forget to put in all ingredients that makes the dish delicious.

Too long to get into, but I made one of my favorite Indian dishes which is simple summer dish, and I forgot not one, not two, but THREE key ingredients! I knew it tasted...off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. So of course I called my Mum, and when she told me, I felt like the biggest IGNORANAMUS!

I'm making up for it by making another dish I know by heart. After I make a grocery run for some cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes of course.

[SoMuchTV]

3 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

The one that really screeches is the mistaken use of "I" by way too many people (e.g., "These grammatical errors don't mean a lot to my husband and I"). If you want to know which is correct, just remove the other person ("These grammatical errors don't mean a lot to I" 🤨). 

But hey, if you're ever not sure, just throw in a "myself".  That'll make you sound like you have one of those fancy educations!

[Quof]

Ah, the Middle Management Myself. If I have more syllables, I must be more important. 

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Peeve-at myself-for messing up a very simple recipe. Basically, when I forget to put in all ingredients that makes the dish delicious.

Too long to get into, but I made one of my favorite Indian dishes which is simple summer dish, and I forgot not one, not two, but THREE key ingredients! I knew it tasted...off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. So of course I called my Mum, and when she told me, I felt like the biggest IGNORANAMUS!

I'm making up for it by making another dish I know by heart. After I make a grocery run for some cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes of course.

Were you making Gazpacho?

My most bone headed, rookie mistake was when I was making green pea soup, which is pureed after cooking. I forgot to take to the bay leaf out before I put it in the blender. It was like eating a million tiny razor blades. I chucked it.

[GHScorpiosRule]

3 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Were you making Gazpacho?

My most bone headed, rookie mistake was when I was making green pea soup, which is pureed after cooking. I forgot to take to the bay leaf out before I put it in the blender. It was like eating a million tiny razor blades. I chucked it.

No. I was making the Pani for the dish Pani Puri, and forgot that the Pani puri masala wasn’t the only ingredient! 🤪🤪🤪

[shapeshifter]

I thought this peeve was a thing of the past, but it seems to be making a comeback:   
Spoken or recorded directions to a web address that erroneously say “back slash” instead of just “slash” (since all URL slashes are forward slashes, not back slashes).

And now I think it would have been cool if I could have used left-leaning italics for “back slashes” —just to emphasize the difference.

Today it showed up on the Rochester Gas & Electric site, and I heard it somewhere else this past week. 

Edited June 12, 2021 by shapeshifter

[Suzn]

5 hours ago, Quof said:

I got into a "discussion" with a poster on Reddit who honestly though "my husband and I's wedding" was correct.   There was no reasoning with her.

That one is so egregiously bad!  It is painful to hear.

[Bastet]

10 hours ago, Quof said:

Does the sign say "14 items or fewer"?  Because that would be awesome. And rare. 

I know I've mentioned this somewhere on the site before, and most likely this thread, but here I go again anyway:  At the Smart & Final (grocery chain in the southwestern states) near me, the express lane has one sign reading "or less" and one reading "or fewer".  The placement and attachment of each leads me to believe the "or less" came first, so I like to imagine they got so many complaints they put up the "or fewer" version and just didn't feel like dismantling the first sign.

Edited June 13, 2021 by Bastet

[stewedsquash]

Merriam-Webster is a rabbit hole that I go down on the regular:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/fewer-vs-less

Especially when there is a link in the article (like in the one above) that goes to Ask The Editor:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/video/old-school-grammar  (added discussion about how words came to be accepted, like the two in the above link)

[JTMacc99]

On 6/12/2021 at 10:59 AM, Quof said:

Does the sign say "14 items or fewer"?  Because that would be awesome. And rare.  I grow increasingly cranky at bad grammar.  Dammit, people, do you hear yourselves? 

 

[annzeepark914]

14 hours ago, stewedsquash said:

Merriam-Webster is a rabbit hole that I go down on the regular:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/fewer-vs-less

Especially when there is a link in the article (like in the one above) that goes to Ask The Editor:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/video/old-school-grammar  (added discussion about how words came to be accepted, like the two in the above link)

I started grinding my teeth while reading the info' re: less vs fewer. The hell with it. I'll continue using whichever word comes into my noggin first. I bet most people don't even notice when the "wrong" word is used.

[Quof]

And that's the problem - people use whatever word first comes into their mind.  That's how we get "I seen" and "I's" and " Mary and me are" and "between you and I".....

Maybe if people would think for a second about which word is correct, my blood pressure would come down.   And truly, if one takes a second to think about why a word is correct, they will should remember it forever.  

Edited June 13, 2021 by Quof

[shapeshifter]

25 minutes ago, JTMacc99 said:

 

Wow! Signs with proper grammar, shiny clean floors, what next? Fresh green lettuce? 

[annzeepark914]

8 minutes ago, Quof said:

And that's the problem - people use whatever word first comes into their mind.  That's how we get "I seen" and "I's" and " Mary and me are" and "between you and I".....

Maybe if people would think for a second about which word is correct, my blood pressure would come down.   And truly, if one takes a second to think about why a word is correct, they will should remember it forever.  

Nah. Fewer? Less? IMO, it's just not egregious enough. Not like the infamous "I" that feels like long fingernails on a blackboard (are blackboards used anywhere any more?)

[annzeepark914]

OK...I have just become an editor at Wikipedia! So, now I can say I've gone back to work, right? I saw the name, Wallkill, in that photo and wanted to check the spelling...it looked odd for some weird reason (my excuse is that I grew up on the other side of the Hudson so I don't really know the town). First sentence at Wikipedia said Wallkill is in Ulster County. Wrong!! So I opened an account (so I could correct this mistake to read Orange County) and, eureka! I was welcomed as an editor 😁. I'm really feeling cool right now.

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, annzeepark914 said:

I started grinding my teeth while reading the info' re: less vs fewer. The hell with it. I'll continue using whichever word comes into my noggin first. I bet most people don't even notice when the "wrong" word is used.

I do. It's like lit up in neon to me.

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

I do. It's like lit up in neon to me.

Worse yet, it's starting to get the me/I overcorrection.  "It's fewer than 5 miles from here."  "I have fewer than $20 to my name."

[annzeepark914]

59 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

Worse yet, it's starting to get the me/I overcorrection.  "It's fewer than 5 miles from here."  "I have fewer than $20 to my name."

OK, now this example is glaring.

[JTMacc99]

Fewer and less is on my radar screen, and my brain definitely rejects “clearly wrong“ usage. 
 

To me, “Less than 14 items” is CLEARLY wrong. Fewer is pointing directly a NUMBER of ITEMS. That is precisely when you are supposed to use fewer. 
 

I don’t hear a problem with less than $20. (Although I’m giving the eye to make sure nobody says then as opposed to than, but that’s another topic.) To me, less than is correct because you can be $2.47 less than $20. So you’re not counting a specific number of dollars in the statement. You’re saying it is some amount of money less than $20. And you don’t have fewer money. 

[Bastet]

19 minutes ago, JTMacc99 said:

I don’t hear a problem with less than $20.

There isn't.  The poster said that because using "less" in place of "fewer" is so infuriatingly common, there has also emerged an over-correction problem where some change all instances of less to fewer, even when less is correct (I, quite the Grammar Pedant, did that once here - I was tipsy, and thankfully a poster corrected me so I could fix it for future readers the next morning, but I had it right, then second guessed myself in my muddled head and changed it before posting).  Like what happened with so many people using "me" when it should have been "I" - people "fixed" even correct uses of me to I.