- People who take the elevator to go up one floor when stairs are available. Using the elevator to go up two flights of stairs is almost as annoying. For some it’s a matter of physical laziness, but for many it’s more mental laziness. They just don’t think about taking the stairs. They take the elevator out of habit, even though it is wasteful of both their time and our resources. And that annoys me, especially because I have to take the elevator to get to my office. It’s on the fifth floor, and I’d walk all five flights if I could, but the geniuses who designed this building cut the stairwell off at the fourth floor.
- People who don’t get out of my way. Like I’m walking down the sidewalk and a pair of people is coming the other way. They’re walking two abreast. I, obviously, am not. I shouldn’t have to vacate the sidewalk to make room for them. And yet, I do, to avoid a collision. Essentially they’re running me off the road. That’s just rude.
- People who walk on the bike path. Pedestrians have sidewalks. Cars have the road. Why can’t we reserve the bike path (of which their are precious few in New Orleans) for bikes? But if you have to walk on it, make room for the bikes.
- People who block the bike path with their cars. Because of the way the Jeff Davis bike path is situated, cars coming to a stop on cross-streets often end up blocking the path. I don’t really blame people who do this; it’s confusing. It would be nice if their were markings on the street, similar to the striping for pedestrian crosswalks.
- People who don’t use turn signals. Not signalling your turn makes you unpredictable and therefore dangerous.
- Motorists who feel the need to give a warning honk when rolling up from behind. I’m on a bike, so I’m not enclosed behind glass windows. I can hear your internal combustion engine as you approach. The honk doesn’t help. It only startles.
- Parking honkers. Especially when they’re outside my house. They roll up and, instead of getting out of their car and knocking on the door of the person they’re picking up, they just sit their and honk. And honk. And honk. God, that’s annoying. Taxis are one thing, but regular civilians shouldn’t be so lazy and obnoxious. I’ve sometimes been known to start our car honking (via remote control) in response.
- People who honk for any reason except life-threatening emergencies. I don’t honk to say hi. I don’t honk when I’m mad. I don’t honk the horn of our car ever, really. Neither should anyone else, unless the situation is extremely urgent. Car horns are as annoying as hell.
- The guy who parks his Chevy Avalanche in front of our house every day. Is it a truck, or an SUV, or a tank? I’m not sure, but it’s almost as big as our house. Why would they name a vehicle after a natural disaster anyway?
- Cyclists who ride against traffic. I ride to the right so cars can pass me. It’s quite alarming to encounter a cyclist coming the other way — straight at me. One of us has to veer left (into traffic) or right (off the road) or we’ll collide. Naturally the person riding the wrong way is usually ignorant that he or she is doing anything wrong, so they think they have the right of way.
- People who don’t eat pork. Religious prohibitions against eating pork don’t annoy me. I have no beef with vegetarians either. I can respect that. It’s those non-Jewish, non-Muslim people who eat all kinds of meat — except pork. What the hell? It makes no sense at all.
- Jimmy Pardo. ‘Nuff said.
Annoying People
Published inMiscellaneous
Strongly agree: 5, 7, 10.
Agree but am resigned to it: 2, 8
I self-identify as a driver more than a biker, so I would also add:
– people who refuse to yield the left-hand lane on the freeway to faster traffic
– especially the ones who speed up when you start to pass them
I echo the point about left lane drivers.
To 8 I would add the dolt in my neighborhood with the car alarm setting set far too high. A cat walking to close sets the blasted thing off, and the dolt insists upon getting fully dressed and reading several chapters of Josph Ellis’ biographies before turning it off. The alarm won’t save the car from theft, but has resulted in at least two TPings…
Interesting how much annoyance seems to cluster around transportation. Getting from Point A to Point B is fraught with stress-inducing potential.
#1 I never knew how much the elevator is “abused” until I hurt my knee. I work on the third floor and am amazed at the young people who use the elevator to get to the secoind floor!
#3 Bikers in Europe will ring their bells at you to signal they are approaching. That way walkers can get to the right side of the path. Get a horn B! OOPS, that won’t work…
#11 Eating pork gives me gastrointestinal distress.
#12 Never heard of him. Guess I’m lucky.
Is that Don Pardo’s son?
No relation to Don.
By the way, I should have included this link.
Hey,
Just wanted to let you know that Jimmy Pardo read through this entire list on his podcast this week. Episode 33 availble on iTunes.
[…] Jimmy Pardo just read my list of annoying people on his weekly podcast. Er, pardon me, it’s a “Pardcast.” Check out Episode 33 — the fun begins about 27 minutes into the program. They rake me over the coals pretty well, and I gotta admit I have it coming. “All the insight of bad stand-up comedy without any of the punch lines.” Ouch. […]
Jimmy Pardo is never not funny.
What part of that sentence do you people not get?
Funny? Maybe. Annoying? Definitely.
All this attention reminds me that item #7 apparently made it into Ian Urbina’s book, Life’s Little Annoyances. A friend was reading it and just about fell out of her chair when she came across the reference to me.
Now Jimmy’s going to change his show to “Never Not Annoying”!
Your all so clever we should change your posts to “Never Not Original”!
…..and just in case you are as slow as you are funny, that was sarcasm.
Jimmy pardo pwns u b.rox
Stop raggin on Pardo b.rox!!
lol Jimmy Pardo and the guys attacked you! what do you have against him and people who don’t eat pork?
I agree with both 7 & 8 – simply HATE car horns, but these stances are contradictory, if in fact your remote control (7) honks. I strongly feel that remote locking mechanisms that honk should be outlawed. It’s confusing, and sometimes dangerous, if you hear honks while you’re driving, because you think it’s something important and prepare to respond, yet it’s merely somebody getting in or out of their car. Besides, they really disturb what is supposed to be the peaceful sanctity within one’s home, especially if parked right outside, especially at night when the honk(s) wake you up. Peace is rare enough these days with cell phones and rude cellphoners. Please consider adding honking remote controls to your list, that is, after you disable yours. (Most people don’t realize they can do this in 3 easy seconds. Check the manual.) Do you know if there’s a campaign to get those things banned for safety (and sanity) reasons? I would love to get a simple bill board erected in my city that simply states: “Don’t be obnoxious. You can disable your honking remote lock in 3 seconds.” Thank you.
Jimmy Pardo is Verrrrrry annoying, but funny.
He also has a fragile ego.