What’s your pet hate

I don’t like the idea of hating anything, so I will go along with the word bugbear, mentioned earlier, or the term pet peeve. That is now off my chest and I have several, as you may have guessed:

1. The ubiquitous abbreviation of the word university to uni. Why? I first heard it c.1981, when an older cousin, who lived in Australia was a university student. We all thought it sounded dreadful, especially with the upspeak which is so prevalent in Australian accents. I suspect the popularity of Australian soap operas in the eighties and nineties is the culprit here.
2. Far too many Americanisms overtaking the English language in the UK. Far too many to mention, but obligate instead of oblige, turning nouns into verbs and the very babyish train station instead of railway station. I find the word butt horrible; even worse than our equivalent bum (which was a strictly forbidden word when we were children). Meh and my bad are simply ridiculous. I can totally understand why the French have a society for protecting their language.
3. Swearing. This is one of my biggest loathings. It is everywhere and the worst words are used. It is bad enough hearing it on TV, but I find reading those words makes it even worse. In older books, phrases were used such as “he uttered a regrettable word,” “he swore,” or, even, “the reply was unprintable.” Unfortunately, the reply is all too printable these days.
4. Bad spelling, grammar and apostrophes used in all the wrong places. I find myself reading “l had went to the shop” rather than “l had gone to shop” far too often. Then there is the confusion between loose/lose, there/their/they’re, off/of and to/too/two. Basic primary school errors. As for would have/could have/should have instead of would have/could have/should have… enough to send me into an apoplectic fit.
5. Political correctness/positive discrimination in historical dramas; especially when it is based on fact. This is very much a result of trying to put modern values and sensibilities into the past. Let things stand. This also extends to hand-wringing “apologies” for historical wrongs, such as slavery. I was always very proud of the fact that the British government was the first to abolish the slave trade. Yes, slavery was terrible and should never have happened (and is still happening in many parts of the world, sadly), but I was not personally responsible for something that happened two hundred years ago. As it happens, many of my ancestors were coal miners. I would imagine that their living conditions were only marginally better than those of slaves.
6. The number of adults who happily admit to being bad at maths. They wouldn’t be so quick to declare themselves illiterate, would they?
7. Badly behaved children in public places and ineffectual parents. If l go to a restaurant for a meal, l don’t want other people’s children running around or screaming. I worked hard to make sure my children behaved themselves.
8. Smoking and vaping.
9. The “woke” movement. This movement is dangerous because a small, but far too vocal, group of mainly men appear to be eroding all the hard-fought battles by women over the past hundred years or so for equality with men. It is now the case that any man can declare that he is now a woman and this gives him the magic password to invade women’s sports, prisons, changing rooms and toilets. It is only women who are expected to give in to this and assaults and rapes on women as a consequence of this are becoming all too common. In my view, possibly the worst part of this is that toilets in secondary schools are increasingly becoming gender neutral. This is particularly unfair on girls, who are at risk of UTIs because they try not to use school toilets at any cost and, of course, as they cope with starting their periods.
10. The fact that babies who have been diagnosed with disabilities can be aborted up to forty weeks gestation (term). This is not only those babies who will be very unlikely to survive, but relatively minor disabilities. The discrimination against the most vulnerable members of society is evident from (before) the cradle to the grave.

This is a really interesting discussion as it gives us chance to talk about relatively minor and light-hearted peeves, but also much more serious issues.

boheminan

The words 'my hubby'

Couldn’t agree more. And to those who detest sniffing - I am with you all the way.