Pet Peeves

Senator William Proxmire announced Golden Fleece Awards to ridicule what he thought was taxpayer waste. Rowan & Martin gave out a Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award each episode of Laugh-In. Andy Rooney earned a good living in his dotage complaining for five out of Sixty Minutes about, "You know what bothers me . . ." Today we have Bill Maher and New Rules.

Pet peeves originate from daily lives. Simple things repeated over and over give rise to irritation. Some regular irritations are inherent in living: haircuts, root canals, the common cold, and tsunamis. Others are unavoidable because they are caused by others: pick-up trucks with Confederate flags or NRA stickers, McDonald's corporate food, and Christmas retail.

W. C. Fields had his three peeves: wet toilet paper, young children, and I forget the third. The bandits in Sierra Madre had no use for "stinkin' badges." You must have your pet dislikes.

It is in a spirit of reconstructive frustration, albeit in a much more humble scope, that I offer my own examples of petty complaints.  After years and years of silently enduring silly irritations on a daily basis, Tucson Tom introduces his Pet Peeves.

Do not expect earth-shaking revelations, or even pointed social commentaries. This is the trivial stuff of modern life. This is stuff that is not so much inherent in nature as man-imposed for little social benefit.

I take it back. These are social commentaries on such fundamental matters as socks, underwear, garbage, blister-packaging, and software updates.