In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Pet Peeve

Jill

If you’re riding the subway during rush hour and it’s time to get off the train and walk up the stairs, it’s also time to put your newspaper down. I understand you may be reading a really interesting article, but when you read while walking you run into people, block the entire staircase and slow everyone down. For the love of keepin’ it moving, please take your nose out of your newspaper and exit the station properly.

What’s on your nerves today?

28 thoughts on Pet Peeve

  3. The yahoos who get in the left lane of the highway where all us speeders are doing 75-80 mph and they go 55 mph. REALLY??? AND GET OFF THE DAMN PHONE!!!

    I can’t believe I have to do it again tomorrow.

  4. I get letters from customers of the bank I work for, 20-30 daily, and they are often titled “Dear Sirs,” which pisses me off to no end. Today, though, I read a letter addressed “Gentlemen,” from another woman, who also happened to be a PhD. Granted, the purpose of the letter was to address a complaint by an area of my department that is only occupied by “gentleman,” but still. She had no way of knowing that. None at all.

    A PhD! You’d think that a woman who has been through that much of the academic world and presumably put up with as much of the nonsense that I’ve heard is rampant in higher academia, that she would refrain from assuming that only men work at banks. Or that only men should work at banks.

    Biggest work-related pet peeve ever.

    I once asked my supervisor if I could address my return correspondence to the opposite of whatever the offending customer’s perceived gender was (address Andrew Smith’s letter “Dear Madam,” for example). He said that our department was not a vehicle for third wave feminism.

    I left the conversation feeling satisfied that he even said the words “third wave feminism” out loud.

    I need a new job.

  5. Well, aside from the fact that several thousand assholes in Maine voted to deny marriage rights to other people and still can get married (or stay married) themselves?

    Umm, phthalo pigmented oil paint’s refusal to wash off? My hands are stained blue and green from this morning and even turpentine didn’t put much of a dent in it.

  7. Today and everyday:
    People who sign their internet posts when their name is already noted at the top of the comment.

    – FW

  9. Second Pockysmama, New Jerseyans are the worst, esp. down the turnpike; I turn into a raving madman. Other pet peeve: this god-damn blog still being down. And the Yankees.

  10. The newspaper thing made me think of: People who are SO glued to their cell phones that they stare at them while walking down the street (at a snail’s pace), up the stairs of busy stations (still at a snail’s pace), going down the stairs (more slowly than a snail’s pace) and WHILE RIDING THEIR BICYCLES. I have had way too many close encounters with a-holes who need to text someone or stare at the internet while riding a bicycle. People already cycle like they own the sidewalk when they’re paying attention. Not paying attention makes it far worse.

    Pet Peeve 2: People who do not look in front of them while walking. Related to the previous one. Obviously people who are staring at cell phones aren’t really paying attention to the area in front of them (if you ever come to Japan you will realize that people here have no peripheral vision–it’s quite amazing), but the rest of them are spending all their time looking anywhere but straight ahead. Looking to the left, looking to the right, looking up, looking over their shoulder … but walking forward just the same. A young woman plowed into me once because I assumed she would notice me (at that moment I was about 2 feet in front of her) in her peripheral vision. She was busy staring in the opposite direction. From that moment I began walking defensively. But it still pisses me off.

  11. I’ll continue to read the paper as I walk, but as a fairly hyper-polite person I am very careful not to be in anyone’s way. And if I bump into you, it’s almost certainly your fault and, yes, that was my elbow you felt in your gut.

    The following people must be destroyed: (a) people that stand in the way of or next to the subway door; (b) people that do not obey the walking lane / standing lane flow on the escalator; (c) people that do not hold the door for others; (d) people that do not offer their seats to the elderly & the pregnant on the subway (although I will admit I hew to David Sedaris’s exception for the youth-mongering elderly: if the elderly person is dressed as if s/he is on The Hills [that’s a youth referent, no?], then s/he forfeits his/her claim to said seat)

  14. White van drivers who overtake at speeds vastly over the speed limit on dangerous corners, tailgate till they can overtake and put everyone on the road in danger. I don’t even drive and this gets to me. (incidentally, the one I encountered today got stuck behind a lorry for half of the way back, it was most amusing).

    Also, pubs whose only concession to teetotallers or the designated driver is soda. Do you have any idea how sticky your throat feels after drinking that in large amounts? No wonder nobody wants to be the driver.

  15. On my nerves today: the media reporting a 3rd Circuit decision as “STRIKING DOWN!!!!!!” a combined buffer and bubble zone around abortion clinics in Pittsburgh. Really, the court ruled that both types of zones are constitutional and that Pittsburgh may have one or the other, but not a combined one.

    Our blog post on the subject tries to clear it up.

  17. (d) people that do not offer their seats to the elderly & the pregnant on the subway (although I will admit I hew to David Sedaris’s exception for the youth-mongering elderly: if the elderly person is dressed as if s/he is on The Hills [that’s a youth referent, no?], then s/he forfeits his/her claim to said seat)

    Actually, I disagree with this one — you cannot tell by looking at a person if they have an invisible disability. It may be that the fit-looking teen or young adult who isn’t getting up suffers from muscular weakness or recently injured their back or has some other physical weakness that you can’t see, and if you’re silently glaring at them, you may pressure them to give up something they need to someone who might not need it as badly as they do, or just make them miserable or angry.

    It’s just not your place to judge other people like that. You have no idea what other people’s medical condition actually is.

  18. From what I’ve seen on the subway, it will be a whole string of young people not giving up their seats. That’s a lot of injuries.

  20. I have a knee injury that can make it extremely painful to stand on the subway because of how it throws you around so you can’t control how you support yourself. I’m wearing a knee brace under my pants so not only am I getting leered at for the seat but I can’t bend my knee very far so ppl think I’m taking up extra space too.

    I’m only annoyed by it for the part of the trip I’m awake tho which usually isn’t very much of it.

  21. 1. Winter. It messes with my circadian rhythm, so I’m still up, not tired, even though I know that I have to be up for work tomorrow.

    2. People who do not get up to highway speed on the on-ramps. That’s why they make (some of) them nice and long–so you can freaking get your damn ass up to speed before you try to merge! Which, incidentally, will make it easier for you to merge, because you’re already going with the flow of traffic.

    3. Bikers who use the crosswalks and yet don’t obey the pedestrian signals, or who use the road and don’t follow the traffic signals. There’s one entitle asshole I run into once in a while who seems to think that it’s perfectly okay for him to cross the street when he has a red light and oncoming traffic has a green turn arrow. Someone’s going to hit him one day, and I’m not going to feel very sorry for him.

  22. Actually, I disagree with this one — you cannot tell by looking at a person if they have an invisible disability.

    I don’t doubt it. If they ask, I’ll happily give up my seat. Not being omniscient, however, I have no idea if someone with an invisible disability is, in fact, disabled.

    People who push their way on the subway before we’ve had a chance to get off. I will run you over.

    Oh lord, yes.

  23. Point taken regarding invisible disabilities, but damn, every train car I’ve ever been on must be full of people with them.

    My pet peeve is also people who don’t look up from their cell phones when walking. I am a jerk and will bump into them if they wander into my pathway.

    My other pet peeve is bicycle messengers who don’t obey traffic laws, don’t wear helmets, and then yell about being almost killed. Yes, motorists in cities are huge jerks. However, wear a helmet. Please. And stop at the red light.

  24. No, I totally get it about invisible disabilities, and I’m not talking about glaring at any one person. I’m talking about the phenomena that I’ve seen happen over and over where there are rows of seemingly able-bodied people who don’t even think to give up their seats. It’s not about asking people to move, its about, if you happen to be able-bodied, being willing to give up your seat. Hope that clarifies.

  25. Today’s pet peeve: people who think “single female with cats” is a phrase that also means “pathetic and also ludicrous.”

    Also? Sidewalks blocked by the amblin’ ramblers. No, I do not blame you if you walk slowly; you may have a disability I cannot see, and I sympathise. But when you and your ONE companion space yourselves to block the entire sidewalk, so that I’m stuck or walking in the street? Sympathy OVER. And if it’s you and your GROUP of friends, no, you are NOT entitled to spraddle across the sidewalk and block it. Stop contributing to urban sprawl.

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