Pet Peeves

Recently, I've really started to focus on all the things that seriously irritate me and subsequently wondering why said thing bothers me so. What is in a pet peeve? What is it made up of?

Some are fairly generic (e.g., people yammering on cell phones in close proximity to others in public places) and some are genuinely unique (e.g., "I hate it when I drive up to a gas pump, and the person who used it before me did not round up to an even dollar! [e.g., $19.86]").

Here I submit a list for your perusal in hopes you will know me better and not do the things that annoy me when you are in my presence. Also, please add your own unique peeves!

• When people loudly and physically reprimand their children in public in hopes that onlookers will think to themselves, Man, that person is a really good parent and the child's misbehavior obviously has nothing to do with their parenting skills. If you've never witnessed such an occurrence, simply spend about 10-15 minutes at your local Wal*Mart.
  
  
• This most commonly happens on business calls, or calls you receive at home from a business when you answer the phone:
  - "Hello?"
  - "Hello, sir, how are you doing today?"
  - "Doing well, and yourself?"
  - "Just fine, thanks for asking. Is Mr. Allen available?"
  - "Speaking."
  - "Oh, hello Mr. Allen, how are you doing?"
  Well, I'm doing the same as I was 10 seconds ago when you asked the first time. The problem here is the caller is entirely too anxious to be courteous, and cannot identify the anonymous person who answered as being the same as the requested party when he self-identifies. The caller is addressing two different people.
  
  
• People that treat their pet(s) as children, or talk about their pet(s) more than other, more important elements of their lives (e.g., their actual children). A neighbor across the street from us can be heard occasionally yelling various phrases, as if to another person. For the longest time I thought she was talking to a friend--turns out, she's been talking to her toy poodle. This is a true pet peeve.
  
  
• Incorrect grammar in general, but more specifically when people use adjectives as adverbs (i.e., omitting the -ly suffix). A few years ago, there was a local commercial for a computer repair store, in which the spokesman said, "At CPU, we take our work real serious." And it made me want to punch the television set in rage.
  
  
• People who, themselves, perpetuate the hyper-stereotype of being a "country boy" or a redneck. This includes, but is not limited to, roundly abusing the English language, overemphasizing the twangy "country" accent, acting tough or going out of their way to prove how tough they are, listening to country music, owing a truck that is larger than they would ever have humanly need for, telling cock and bull stories or unnecessary discussions on the operations of any manner of machinery no matter how trivial ("I got an electric toothbrush, man, using that thing takes some doin'), using popular redneck terms "Get-R-Dun", and all the infinite other things that are too voluminous for me to list here.
  
  
• Spam email is, quite obviously, another broadly generic peeve, but an interesting piggybacking peeve is when you follow the link to unsubscribe, enter your email address, or click the radio button, the confirmation tells you to "allow 6-8 days to be removed from the list." B.S.! They honestly expect us to believe they don't have the technology to instantly remove you from their automatic email delivery system?
  
  
• Store clerks/cashiers who seem annoyed and putout when you're at the cash register to buy something, with their constant eye-rolling, exasperated sighs, and glancing around like they've got somewhere more important to be. Most of these people, I'm sure, despise their jobs, but it's no reason to make me feel guilty about buying Fruit Loops and diapers.
  
  
• People who attempt to impress others as being a history buff, but can only drone on about WWII, especially about Hitler and the Nazi party. This is simply a byproduct of someone who has a TiVo and the History Channel. It is nothing more impressive than being able to discuss the finer points of Blue's Clues or Dora the Explorer because you watch Noggin all the time.
  
  
• NASCAR and NASCAR accessories.