Readers’ gripes include my words about Trump supporters
The response to my call for your Pet Peeves suggests that people have a lot of complaints to get off their chests.
This is no surprise. Whenever I’ve opened the doors for Pet Peeves in the past, I’ve been swamped. I’m amazed at all the things people are stewing about.
Interestingly, instead of the usual brief comments like “My husband says supposably instead of supposedly” or “My stupid neighbor cuts his grass at 7 a.m.,” the ones I’ve gotten so far have included longer essays, some of them really excellent.
Space restrictions will force me to cut them down, but I hope writing them had a cathartic effect. I urged one guy to send his in as a Your View column.
Even cut down, I have way too many peeves for one or even two columns, so I’ll be continuing this series for a while, perhaps interrupted when I find something else I need to write about. Feel free to keep them coming.
I’ll start with my usual disclaimer: These are not my complaints. I agree with some, disagree with others. Unless they’re offensive or target specific political figures, I’ll try to include or at least summarize all of them.
Speaking of summarizing, I’ll acknowledge that a bunch of responses targeted me and my brief comments about Donald Trump and his family. Some of them called me mean names. The Morning Call and journalists in general weren’t too popular with them, either.
I’ll offer one that was somewhat constructive.
“My biggest peeve is columnists that encourage people to be civil but then proceed to label those who view events differently as ‘cultists,’ ‘loopy’ or ‘shrieking harpy persona.’ Such writers are quick to accuse others yet remain blind to how degrading and divisive
their own words can be.”
Here’s one more, mildly taking me to task for invoking “Karen” in referring to obnoxious women in videos:
“You perpetuated a real thorn in my side by mentioning and adding to the momentum of a ‘Karen video.’ I have a wonderful daughter for whom I
carefully chose a name which to me is classic with a warm sound; she is kind, tolerant and compassionate and does not deserve this connotation. I thought this movement would quickly pass but that is not the case. I find myself resentful of whoever started this. Thanks for letting me vent.”
Karens everywhere: I apologize. I’m sure most of you are very nice.
OK, enough about me. Here are more of your peeves — quotation marks indicate they’re your words; otherwise they’re paraphrased — starting with two obvious ones:
“People who don’t wear masks.”
“People who wear masks without covering their noses.”
“My most recent pet peeves include how people have disposed of their masks and gloves by just taking them off and throwing them on streets, sidewalks, parks, etc.”
“Soooooo, just as the era of sentence fillers like ‘at the end of the day’ is finally dying a cringeworthy death, along comes the sentence starter ‘so.’ It is so prevalent, if one doesn’t start a sentence with ‘so,’ listeners will tune out.
“I recently survived a sentence that started with a double ‘so.’ The person was responding to a question, looked skyward and began with an elongated, somewhat musical ‘Soooooooo,’ immediately followed by the mandatory regular ‘so.’ I have no idea what their answer was. I was too busy translating the ‘so’ bridges in my mind.”
“Mine is the increasing frequency with which people (mostly young and mostly women) use ‘up-speak’ when talking. I’m stunned when I hear so many people speak this way on conference calls and during Zoom meetings.
“I find it annoying — but also very sad to hear statements presented as questions. When did we become so insecure about what we say? When did we become so needy of approval from others? Whatever became of assertiveness? Or are we so afraid of offending others, and being bullied and dismissed (or even trolled and threatened as often happens on social media platforms) that we cloak everything we say in uncertainty?”
“I see this and hear it all the time. When referring to a human being, people say ‘that’ instead of ‘who.’
“Example from a CNNarticle about Trump: ‘Trump was largely cordial and likely came across as strong to voters that love him.’
“I need your assurance that this is not the new normal in grammar.”
I’ve just scratched the surface. More peeves to come.