Pet Peeves in no Particular Order

Empty ice cube trays in a communal freezer. I think the inconsiderate clods who take all the ice cubes out of a tray and put the empty trays back into the freezer without refilling them, should be shamed into shape. If they attempt to place an empty ice cube tray into the freezer, they should hear a very loud, foghorn-type alarm and an angry voiceover that shouts the following message over and over again until the empty tray is filled and replaced: "What the he&&'s the matter with you? Why are you putting an empty ice cube tray back into the freezer? Since you obviously don't care about other people having icy cold beverages, why don't you just leave the empty tray on the God Da$% counter? Shame on you!" This alarm would, of course, be loud enough to be overheard by all surrounding co-workers.

Seat savers. Sometimes meeting rooms or presentation spaces have a limited amount of preferred seating. These chosen chairs might be cushier than the other seats, positioned to see or hear better, or maybe they're close to the snacks or the door. People who have a particular seating preference should show up early enough so they can use their own butts to save their own seats. Yes, your neighbor can put a coat or purse on "your" chair and avoid eye contact with people who glare at the seat saver and stare longingly at the empty seat, but why should these kind friends be put in that position? If you're fortunate enough to get one of these sweet spots, don't just put down your things and go mill around the room. Sit there and consider yourself lucky. If you get up to go to the bathroom or something, fine. Put down your own coat to HOLD (not to be confused with SAVING) your seat.

At a meeting earlier last week, a heard about a variation on this pet peeve: Parking Space Saving. Apparently, a certain CEO tried to park in a certain office park that houses the CEO's company and a bank. The CEO saw an empty parking space in front of his office. When he tried to maneuver his car into the space, however, he encountered a security guard standing guard in the middle of the space. This particular parking space was near a bunch of other spaces that were reserved for customers of a bank. When the CEO asked the security guard what was up, the guard told him that he was "saving" the space for the CEO of the bank.

Universal male reverence for Caddy Shack. Why is it that all men, regardless of sexual orientation, age, IQ, or political affiliation, can quote scene after scene from this movie? Sure, Caddy Shack is funny, but does is really reflect and/or comment on society as a whole? I actually heard a particular bald man who shall remain nameless, describe Bill Murray's performance as "brilliant." Sean Penn is Dead Man Walking is brilliant. The groundskeeper blowing up gopher holes, not so much.

Petty edits. If I'm sending something to be printed, I try to go over it with a fine tooth comb (not so much with the blog, as you can tell). If it's a work project, I usually ask a fresh set of eyes to proof it, as well. When I write an internal email to another member of my department, however, I just do a quick spell check and hit send. If, in a rush, I write "the" instead of "their," spell check will obviously not catch that. So, let's just say this kind of typo slips through the cracks in an internal email that is not printed and does not go to anyone outside of the department much less the company. Tell me this: Does a "the/their" mistake really constitute a critical typo that should be printed, circled in red, and brought to the sender's attention with a note that this kind of error should not happen again in the future?

That's it for now. I'm sure I will get peeved some more in the future at which time I will add to the pet peeve saga.