Trucks with Trump and American flags gall one reader
It is time for me to put a serious dent in the long list of pet peeves that readers sent me since I put a call out for them several weeks ago.
I’m still accepting peeves since I expect this occasional series to continue for a while yet. So, if you haven’t weighed in, there’s time.
I’ll give today’s collection to you rapid-fire, starting with a grammatical peeve that grates on me, too, and that inspired two readers to complain.
If you see material in quotation marks, those are the exact words of the reader.
Let’s go:
“I am in mourning for Who. Over and over again, ‘that’ is substituted for ‘who.’ I don’t like this shift in grammar. It has spread everywhere, like the COVID-19 virus. ‘Who’ is reserved for a human being; ‘That’ is for an organization or company or government.”
“My mother was an English teacher, and I cringe at the loss of ‘who,’ which has been replaced by ‘that.’ ‘You are the person WHO will survive to live to a ripe old age.’ ”
“If we can ever offer COVID-related peeves, I would like to know who designed the vaccination card. Do they not have driver’s licenses or credit cards? The cards are impossible to store securely in a typical wallet. And I object to the glib answer ‘take a photo on your phone,’ which is based on the assumption that we all have those things permanently attached.”
“Disgusted with trucks festooned with large flapping flags.
“Here, the American flag is displayed at the same height as other political flags, including those supporting a president who incited the highest form of national political disgrace, an insurrection that injured over 140 faithful officers of the law, endangered our vice president and other lawmakers, caused $14 million in damage to our Capitol and has so far resulted in over 600 arrests, with more daily.
“There are rules surrounding how to properly fly the national flag with other flags that are not honored in these displays, which are additionally a distraction to drivers.”
“I hate seeing people in new jeans that are full of holes and rips. Would you buy a brand-new car with scrapes or dents in it? An umbrella with holes in it? What’s next, wearing your underwear on the outside?”
“It drives me crazy whenever someone labels anything provided by the government as free. As a hardworking person — now retired but still paying big taxes — it drives me nuts to hear a politician or poorly informed citizen refer to anything provided by government as free. As you know, everything in the government is paid for through taxes or borrowing against future taxes (including placing the debt burden on future generations without their consent).
“It should be illegal for a politician to say anything they provide is free or at no cost. Someone is paying by giving their tax dollars to government.”
“People who will not, civilly, listen to someone else’s opinion. People who are too lazy to move their fingers two inches to use a turn signal. People who are too lazy to return a shopping cart and leave them in another parking space. Politicians who gorge themselves at the taxpaying public trough. Businesses that try to conceal price increases. Tiny print, at the bottom of an ad, that cancels out the bold print.”
“The overused and often incorrect word, ‘literally.’ I was literally climbing the walls.’ Did you find any spiders near the ceiling?”
“My current pet peeve is fair/ festival food. I go places solo, and I also enjoy my annual junk food fix at the Allentown Fair or Musikfest. Unfortunately, the food at many of the stands is far too much for me to consume comfortably, and I object to buying something and discarding half of it. I must commend the Pennsylvania Dutch funnel cake stand (near Fair Gate 6 this year) for offering ‘mini’ funnel cakes, and do not object to paying a premium (more than 50%) for a half-size serving.”
“I remain mystified as to the reason store clerks, friends and acquaintances are unable to reply with ‘you are welcome,’ when I say ‘thank you’ to them. The response I hear too often is ‘not a problem,’ which has a cold and almost rude sound to it. It is a shame that in today’s chaotic world we cannot even exchange simple pleasantries.”
Thank you for unloading all those. In the next edition, I’ll catch up with a lot of your complaints about bad drivers.