The Slice: So many people, so many pet peeves

READERS SHARED A few of their pet peeves.

“Cell phones in restaurants,” wrote Eric Rieckers. “I was having a drink at The Globe recently and a younger, 20-ish couple was sitting at a table next to me. He gets a call on his cell and proceeds to talk out loud like no one else is around. After five minutes of this, the girl opens her phone and begins a conversation of her own. This went on for a solid 15 minutes at least.

“She was very attractive, and the last thing I would do on a date with her is carry on a conversation with someone else.”

Jeff Guilford was one of several readers citing driving annoyances. “People in Spokane who do not know that a freeway on-ramp is for gaining speed so you can merge with traffic that is already going 60 to 70 miles per hour,” he wrote. “The ones who start to slow down and then come to a stop and expect to merge with 60 mph traffic are just waiting to cause an accident.”

“It’s all about the hair,” wrote Dianne Cook. “I am constantly annoyed at actresses and other long-haired women seen on TV talk shows who attempt to anchor their unruly locks behind their ears – every two seconds. Barrettes and hair-clips were invented eons ago, people.”

“When people say ‘I could care less!’ ” wrote Nick Britz. “I usually respond, ‘You could?’ ”

“Fast talkers on voice mail,” wrote Connie Bantz, who offered another one. “People I don’t know who call me ‘hun.’ “

“My pet peeve is the word ‘got,’ ” wrote Richard T. Brown. “Most often, ‘got’ is used after a word denoting possession, where it is completely redundant. Things such as ‘I’ve got,’ ‘we’ve got,’ ‘they’ve got.’ “

People who don’t seem to understand what a “Yield” sign means irk Jim Alford.

Paul Halttunen had another driving-related beef. “Those selfish individuals who park outside the main door to the grocery stores, in the NO PARKING/FIRE LANE zone,” he wrote. “And especially those who sit and wait in the car for someone inside. Are all these people so lazy that they can’t make a loop around the lot?”

Joe Southwell’s pet peeve – “Rude, in-your-face behavior” – is actually a lament for lost civility and a weariness with the attitude that winning-through-assertiveness is all that matters, even if you are in the wrong.

But Spokane’s Keri Yirak brought things back to a more manageable focus. She said it bugs her that the nearest Red Lobster is in Coeur d’Alene.

Oh, and one more thing. Doesn’t it annoy you when a guy gets a byline for “writing” a column that essentially involves typing in what other people said?

Not really? Well, me neither. Just checking.

To be continued.

“Today’s Slice question: What getting-dressed mistake did you not discover until you looked in the mirror at work?