In general, bad manners and rudeness, but where to start?
1) the old classic,
spitting on the side walk. If you need to hawk a wad of phlegm, at least make sure that ball of green goo goes in the street or the bushes where nobody will see it or step in it.
2)
broken glass on the road or sidewalk
Next are some pet peeves involving annoying sounds. I'm half deaf. If these things bother me, they must bother people with good hearing even more. It can't be "just me," right?
3) loud
eating noises:
- LIP SMACKING -- Gross! Is that an Asian custom? I see Asian immigrants doing it more than natives.
- slurping
- sucking sounds. I went to a coffee shop the other day, and an old lady sat 2 tables away and immediately started attacking a cookie. She would peel the plastic wrapper bit by bit and alternate between nibbling the cookie and doing something that sounded like sloppy fellatio to the inside of the wrapper. It took her nearly an hour to finish and she was busy working at it the whole time. It was a frosted cookie, and the wrapper had frosting and crumbs stuck to the inside of it. The fact that I had headphones saved my sanity and her life that day.
- tapping and scraping eating utensils against the vessel, especially in public: plate, dish, bowl, cup
If you are so poor that you need the sustenance form the last morsels of food that are stuck to the inside of your bowl at a restaurant, you should probably be saving your money by eating home-cooked food at home, preferably in private so you don't annoy your housemates.
- saying "AHHHH!" after every sip
- eating potato chips in public. This happens most at sandwich shops and is done by college age or younger people who still have a lot of irritating little idiosyncrasies and lack social skills. I don't eat at sandwich shops. The most obnoxious way to eat potato chips is to rattle the bag, stick you hand in it, rattle it some more, get exactly one potato chip, crash it in your mouth with you lips open so it makes that irritating crunching sound, and finally smack your open hand against your jeans or shirt and wipe. Repeat that sequence of irritating sounds around 1000 times. Rattle, smack, rattle again, and wipe -- for each potato chip in the bag.
4)
Loud nose blowing in public. If you really need to take care of a runny nose, wipe it quietly. If that doesn't work, excuse yourself and do it where nobody will hear you. If you really can't avoid doing it around other people, GET IT OVER WITH! Don't sit there blowing noisily for 5 minutes. Cold season is here already.
5)
cell phones and video teleconferences (Skype) at cafes or enclosed public space.
6)
talking too loudly in public (indoors)
7)
Proposing a toast and clinking glasses before every sip of a single alcoholic beverage. When it's a pint of beer, that's a lot of toasts. It's excruciating and I'll never drink with you again.
8 ) When you're at a restaurant and
your date reaches across the table and helps herself to a bite of your food. Over and over. If you want to sample my food, ask me and I'll set some aside on a dish or on your own plate. If that's not enough, order your own.
9 ) Writing
"loose" or "looser" when you mean "lose" or "loser." Why does everybody do that?
10 )
Smileys when I'm trying to make a numbered list 8)
11 ) driving a car when a bicycle or even walking is faster.
Bad driving habits such as nuisance driving, cruising, and idling. All this does is make a bad situation worse. America has some severe traffic congestion problems, and San Fran is one of the most congested. And that's without getting into the ethics of wasting petroleum products obtained from war-torn regions of the world or AGW.
12)
Nuisance barking. If you can't keep your dog reasonably quiet (multiple sessions of more than 15 minutes of non-stop yapping per day), you shouldn't have one.
Fashion pet peeves of the day:
Here are some sartorial mistakes that hurt my eyes as I sat here and typed:
13 )
Acid washed blue jeans (including the high waistband that goes halfway up the chest) from the 1980s and cut off shirts from the 80s. A 20-something year old female German tourist wearing this get-up just walked by. These outfits were on display a few weeks ago in the window of the clothing store "Forever 21."
14 )
Sleeveless shirts with flabby arms. A decrepit Baby Boomer just walked by sporting a sleeveless vest over a sleeveless shirt. He doesn't have the arms to pull off the look. The effect was of reverse biceps that look like turkey waddle.
15 ) Drumming on the table.
16 ) Extreme extroverts who can't go without talking in between breaths. Being in the presence of someone with this diarrhea of the mouth is exhausting, especially when you can't leave. Silence is a good thing. Why does it make some people uncomfortable?
I noticed all of the above within the past week, and it's impossible not to encounter some of it when going out. I ignore it all as much as I can, but some of it just too hard to tune out.
17)
Hats with animal ears. These things just will not go away. Unless the person wearing it is younger than 10 months old, she looks like a like a mentally disabled person. The other day day, a 60 something year old woman was wearing one of those things, and she and her non-mentally handicapped 'helper' sat at a table near me.
I have no idea what the appeal is. They think the hat says fun-loving and care-free, still-young-at-age-60, but all anybody else sees is Ree-Tee.
