There's no doubt about it, alas: Etiquetteer has been asleep at the wheel of his Hispano-Suiza for the last two weeks and was just about to drive off the most Perfectly Proper cliff you can imagine. Fate, however, had other plans, and steered Etiquetteer into a convenient field of poppies, from which Etiquetteer is now somewhat sleepily recovering thanks to the Good Witch of the North. So, where were we? Aha, just about to enter the Final Four Round of Etiquetteer's Spring Madness of Pet Peeves! And how exciting it is to find out what the top Pet Peeve is in each division:
WEDDINGS: Guests who don't R.s.v.p.
DRIVING AND TRAFFIC: Cell phone use while operating a vehicle.
TABLE MANNERS/DINING OUT: Ill-mannered children and complacent parents.
GENERAL PEEVES: Loud public cellphone conversations.
Vote now and help determine what the final Devilish Duo of Pet Peeves will be!
Etiquetteer is interested to learn your pet peeves, and was so pleased to receive this peeve from a reader, who sent it to queries@etiquetteer.com:
You ask for my pet peeve not on the list, and it's overt judginess. This obviously doesn't mean you! Or etiquette! But the trend now to believe that everything that you believe is the only right thing and anyone who isn't voting/raising their children/protecting the environment/whatever in exactly the way that you are, needs to be set straight. For instance, you have on the list, "parking illegally in handicapped spaces," which I actually voted for, but a bigger pet peeve would be feeling that you get to decide exactly who is handicapped enough to park in the space and leaving a note on the windshield of someone without a visible handicap saying that they should leave these spaces for real handicapped people. People who don't mind their own business and feel that they should be able to tell everyone exactly how to live their lives, that is my pet peeve. Which is of course the whole marriage equality issue. Do you want to get married to a person of your own gender? No? Then the normal thing to do would be to say, "Well, it doesn't affect me in any way, so those people can do what they like," not, "Well, it doesn't affect me in any way, so I will try to stop it with all of my power because EVERYONE MUST LIVE AND THINK EXACTLY AS I DO!"
This is my pet peeve. I think it's too long for a survey question, though!
And really, Etiquetteer need not try to say it better than that.
