Damn That Makes Me Mad!

Sore spots. Pet peeves. Violence triggers. We all have them. Sometimes we can let them go, ignore them. Other times, we can be out for blood.

Yesterday’s “The Board” blog – one of the 45 new blogs the New York Times has created – started a conversation entitled, “Cell Phones — Here Come the Jammers”. I read it, and all 40 comments a few hours ago. Now, the 40 comments have flooded into 74, and I hope that Pet Peevers will type their frustrations away, before the streets of New York City become victim to their newly-expressed irritations.

The blog post is based on a Times’ story about “the increasing use of cell phone jammers to cut off conversations of annoying people blabbing on the cell phones in public places.” It goes on to remind us that ‘[t]he devices are illegal, since they interfere with protected radio frequencies“ and caution us to not spend the $200 it costs to buy one. (They also carry an $11,000 fine if you use them. Damn!) (The Times’ Matt Richtel also has a post entitled ”The Debate Over Cellphone Jamming,“ with another 70+ comments.)

So we can get it out of the way, my pet-peeve-cum-(fantasized)-violence-triggers include:

• Every car that runs the red light at one end of my block. I imagine having a BB gun and shooting out their tires. Don’t worry – I haven’t a gun, and my aim is probably terrible.
• Every horn beep from the drivers who are trying to get through the intersection at the other end of my block. Just a few blocks from the Lincoln Tunnel, yet, no traffic cops.
• The one-side-of-the cell-phone-conversation. Count me in on that one, too.
• Groups who take up too much side walk real estate. I know you’re a couple/family/group of friends. Do you have to walk side by side on a busy side walk?
• Buying food at the grocery store, and having zero conversation with or acknowledgement from the cashier. I smile, you say hello. You tell me how much, I pay you. You say ‘thank you.’ I say ‘thank you’ back. Simple, right? Never happens.

OK. I’m stopping at five.

Here are some of the other frustrations from the Times’ readers:

• ”text messaging in darkened public spaces like movies theaters.“
• ”the sob’s who use the phone while driving.“
• (on airplanes, sans cell phone) ”a talker so loud that even my noise-cancelling headphones do nothing, unless I play music through them.“
• ”people whose iPods are turned to ear-shattering volumes so that half the (subway) car can hear whatever junk they’re listening to.“
• Loud use of the ‘F’ word.

Looking for more? Try Carolyn Gargaro’s ”Pet Peeves“ site. Since 1996, she has been posting other people’s pet peeves, and linking other people’s pet peeve sites. Currently, she has (I counted) 4186 pet peeves listed. I’m hoping there are a lot of duplicates.

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Elsewhere:
Google Video offers 762 videos on pet peeves.
Flickr offers 612 photos tagged pet peeves.

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Special thanks to the really cool You’re On Notice! The Stephen Colbert ”On Notice Board“ Generator. And make sure to click to photo up top here.

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Tags: cell phones, civil liberties, etiquette, jammers, loud iPods, NYC, Pet peeves, texting, The New York Times