1. Using “less” when you should be using “fewer”. Fewer is countable! Less is continuous!
2. Hypocrisy in other people (mine is ok)
3. People who want everyone else to be as stupid as they are.
4. People who think they know about a topic but have a fundamental misunderstanding they refuse or are unable to acknowledge, and they complain about something they shouldn’t be complaining about anyway.
5. People who get to live with their life partner and then whine when zie has to go away on a business trip for A WHOLE WEEK. “Oh, I’ll be so loooonnnnnelyyyyyyyyy.” I want to punch them in the throat. (Exception: people who are complaining that they will be left as sole caretaker to an army of ankle- and knee-biters. For them, sympathy.)
6. Related to 5: people who think they have new ideas to solve my 2-body problem. “Can he telecommute?” Yeah, dorkus, that wasn’t the FIRST THING we thought of or anything. THREE YEARS AGO. “Why doesn’t he start his own business? He could do that from anywhere!” Go away and die. “If he needs health insurance, why don’t you just get married? Then he can get on yours.” Stop thinking you know me. See also: Go away and die. (Disclaimer: We here at Grumpy rumblings do not actually wish death upon anyone,mostly. Any deaths resulting from suggesting 2-body problem solutions are completely unrelated to this posting.)
7. Dirty kitchens and people who don’t clean up their kitchen or bathroom messes. (#2 says, I know why this peeves #1, but it doesn’t bother me as much) (#1 says… bet you don’t have a unisex bathroom at work… ewwwwwwwwww)
8. People who renege on their promises without good reason.
9. Related to 8: People who overpromise with no chance of following through. Also related: People who don’t keep their appointments or don’t show up on time.
10. Radio silence. We’d much rather be fought with than ignored.
What are your pet peeves?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
October 27, 2010 at 1:34 am
1. Lateness
2. Entitlement
3. Laziness
4. Selfishness
With all these things, I generally hate when someone expects something of you that they don’t feel required to do themselves. Eg.., they get mad when you don’t do anything for their birthday, but they don’t even bother to call or send your kid a card for theirs.
Related to this is when people are “too busy” for (insert task). I’m pretty sure you should be saying “too lazy” instead of too busy.
October 27, 2010 at 2:05 am
I totally agree with you on #1. If I can add to it: number vs. amount – amount is measurable (e.g. weighable) and number is countable. You have a number of people but an amount of laundry detergent.
Related to #6: I would say that whenever anyone tries to suggest a solution to singleness or long distance relationships and you’re not really close friends with them is unwanted.
Related to #7: My beef with unisex bathrooms is that men’s washrooms are normally messier than women’s washrooms and when you combine them, then you end up with a washroom that is messier than a women’s one.
I also totally agree on #8 and #9.
October 27, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Entitlement and self-pity. Oh and your #6
I have a few friends who think I had it easy and they are the victims (of what I don’t know). They “ask” for advice on resume and stuff, then come up with some (lame) excuse for why they can’t do it (like it would take time… gasp!). I have been getting better at this, to just ignore these complaints that one should get everything without any effort. If someone is successful it must be because they got a hand out, there is not possibility that they worked hard for it. On the other hand if “they” succeed at something, it took work that no one else could have done, it was that hard. So I have to hear complaints on how hard it was to succeed and how other people have it easy. May be I totally confused you :)
October 27, 2010 at 1:29 pm
How did we forget to mention entitlement? That peeves us totally!
October 27, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Not to mention on a regular basis. Kids today!
October 27, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Get off our lawns!
October 27, 2010 at 7:04 pm
And take your dog’s poop with you!!!
October 27, 2010 at 8:08 pm
Jesus by-jesus! Just before I clicked on to this post I was going off to my family about #4.
It drives me CRAZY when people speak of the evils of public schools (and how much greater private schools are) when they have not experienced them!!!!
Today I had to listen to a Grandmother go off on how her bright grandson in his private school got to do this amazing solar system project that he would have NEVER been able to do in public school. HA! HA! My daughter did the VERY same project in public school!
I’m not saying that public schools don’t have their problems but from personal experience, private school have their problems too AND you have to pay for them (while paying taxes for public). And finally, if you’re going to have an opinion about public school you must have RECENT experience with them. 20yrs ago does not count!!!!
I feel much lighter now…….
October 27, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Glad we could be of service. :)
October 27, 2010 at 9:28 pm
My most frequent frustration with people:
1.) I dislike those that see faults in others but refuse to see that same faults in themselves (a few guys at work does this all the time).
2.) Closed-minded individuals that continue to promote their idea even when it’s incorrect and has been proven to be so.
3.) Extremist, left of right, ultra liberal to ultra conservative.
4.) That people just don’t give me a few million dollars! What are they thinking… holding out on me!!! :)
October 28, 2010 at 8:21 am
less/fewer too
peak interest instead of pique interest
viola instead of voila
one in the same instead of one and the same
phase for faze
ring for wring
for all intensive purposes blah blah blah
it’s/its–now being confused by journalists!
My linguist friend says all these are in process of changing. He thinks its/it’s distinction will be gone soon.
My dissertation director had a fit if I split infinitives; I care not if my students do this. Things change….
October 28, 2010 at 8:49 am
I’ve noticed that linguists are like anthropologists in their acceptance of abnormality (it isn’t abnormal, it’s just our cultural perception that makes it abnormal).
We were looking at private schools for our kid, and were instantly turned off by one in which the director of the school, while explaining the high standards of the school and the lower GPAs compared to other schools, used you’re instead of your. Awful.
My program director dug up a dictionary in which the word, “data” was listed as being correct as either singular or plural. Argh. (Data ARE. Datum IS.)
October 28, 2010 at 10:48 am
Can I add wierd to the list of misspellings? My eyes cross whenever I see that.
October 28, 2010 at 10:50 am
1. People judging my decisions when they have no understanding of my situation.
2. People that can’t wait for you to stop talking so they can tell you their story. Of course, their story will top yours every time.
3. People who are late and never apologize. (I guess I am just supposed to be glad they showed up at all?)
4. People who read headlines and deem themselves an authority.
October 28, 2010 at 10:54 am
But I AM a Lindsay Lohan authority. I read the CNN headlines about her ALL THE TIME.
October 28, 2010 at 10:55 am
ET’s#4 made me think of another one:
5.People who just regurgitate what they’ve heard or read from someone else without adding any original thoughts of their own.
October 28, 2010 at 4:20 pm
My pet peeve = mean people
October 28, 2010 at 4:24 pm
That reminds me of a bumper sticker…
Mean people suck
Nice people (censored)
October 28, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Oh, what a delicious topic. I could have a field day – or evening, technically – based on my challenging week.
Anyway, here are a few:
1. Selfishness – ok, we are all selfish to some degree whether or not we like it or recognize it. Some people take it to extreme heights.
2. Dishonesty – that’s actualy ahead of selfishness as a pet peeve. I cannot stand dishonesty. Burn me once, and I can have the capacity to forgive. But not forget. I try not to get burned twice. Trust is paramount.
3. Here’s a less weighty one: horrendous grammar. I mean things such as they’re instead of their. If someone is not a native English speaker, this pet peeve does not apply at all. Rather, I’m supportive. For those of us born in the good ole USA, their – err, they’re – err, I mean there is no excuse.
Mini-rant over:) Thanks for the opportunity.
October 29, 2010 at 12:57 am
I’m always getting #3 mixed up. It drives me nuts. I’m bi-lingual and an engineer. Does that excuse me?
October 29, 2010 at 5:56 am
My students who are not native English speakers never seem to get the homonyms wrong either. (Depending on their nationality, it’s usually things like articles or plural agreement or tense.)
October 29, 2010 at 1:58 am
[…] and Maggie from Grumpy Rumblings of the Untenured have a juicy article on Pet Peeves. It’s a must […]
October 29, 2010 at 10:04 am
[…] The pet peeves post (Grumpy rumblings of the untenured) […]
October 29, 2010 at 11:16 am
I’ll second #4. It drives me NUTS when people argue or preach about a topic they don’t understand. I asked one girl if she knew any of the positions of a political candidate she was advocating. She gave me the blank stare, so asked her why she wanted to vote for him. She looked at me like I was the idiot here and said, “you just don’t understand.”
October 30, 2010 at 5:05 am
Oh my goodness, you read my mind! I wrote a pet peeves post this past week but posted it on Friday. :-) Too funny! I am finally catching up over the past week on all the blogs I read.
October 30, 2010 at 11:23 am
People. People peeve me. They’re awful in so many ways, as they’re wont to be. Thankfully, there are a good crowd of you good uns for me to pay attention to so I can ignore the other aggravating ones. Oh and terrible spelling gets my goat.
[And my general dislike of most (again, focused on the horrible) people makes comments like “You have a welcoming personality” from people I actually like all the more hilarious.]
October 30, 2010 at 4:56 pm
You are speaking to our secret innermost souls here. Preach it!
October 30, 2010 at 12:14 pm
1. Infer/imply
2. Signs that say, “We apologize for any inconvience.” I’ve seen this in at least half a dozen stores this year. Is it contagious?
3. Meanness, i.e., people who are harsh and hard and judgmental about everything. Extra dislike points for those who are, as you noted, doing this about subjects with which they have no prior experience or real understanding.
4. The misuse of Internet anonymity. It allows people to be incredibly vicious/cruel/racist/sexist/whateverist without having to engage in any kind of dialogue or to be held accountable for their words.
(Note that I said “misuse,” not “use.” Internet anonymity allows people like you two to share what’s going on in the groves of academe without having some cranky higher-up decide s/he doesn’t like your point of view and decide to make your lives a living heck.)
5. People who insist that there’s no such thing as racism or sexism any more. A 20-something man I know has said, with utter sincerity, that this sort of thing has been fixed. Well, to YOU it seems that way because you are, um, a white male. You don’t see it so it doesn’t exist? Got it.
6. People who say that the poor aren’t working hard enough. Maybe some of them aren’t. But seriously: How can we know what every member of a particular group is or is not?
7. People who forward the most hellaciously untrue e-mails without trying to determine their veracity. A close relative of mine does this. Each time I check Snopes and send the URL with the suggestion that he please do this himself rather than add more hatefulness to the Internet. But he keeps doing it. Grrrr.
8. You’re and your
9. People who use “LOL” in ordinary correspondence.
10. Lists that are way too long. Like this one.
October 30, 2010 at 4:56 pm
#10 = see our #1 ;)
February 6, 2011 at 8:25 pm
[…] #2: Before offering any advice, please check out this post. We really should have included it earlier. My […]
May 26, 2011 at 1:50 am
[…] 2. Less instead of fewer. Less is continuous, fewer is countable. (AGAIN.) […]
June 2, 2011 at 1:50 am
[…] Originally this challenge had been scheduled later in the summer, but things got moved around for an exciting reason: my longtime partner is moving to Blighted Town! Hooray, we will be together again! I can’t even TELL you how happy we are. He’s going to work remotely at his current job while living with me. It only took a few years to make this work out, augh. […]
March 6, 2014 at 8:06 am
I echo many many many of these. Though errors in grammar or mechanics rarely annoy me. People not following through — absolutely.