What irritates you Monday

Delores, at The Feathered Nest, decided to designate today as "What irritates you Monday." I don't know what sort of take-up she'll have with this, but I decided to give her some moral support.

As Delores says in her post, she could probably write a book about the things that irritate her. When it came to dump out a few ideas (and I do want to keep this a short post, honest) I realized I very nearly have written a book already on this blog. Several of these notes will therefore link to earlier posts for a fuller rant...

So here is a short list of things that irritate me

Skirting around the word "Christmas": Come on. Last month did we all enjoy days off for "the holiday season"? Or was it, ya know Christmas? Be proud to say it! When the heck did multiculturalism and respect for other people's beliefs turn into allowing everyone else except us to celebrate openly? Fuller rant here.

OK, full disclosure: I don't regard myself as a religious person. Spiritual in my own way, but not religious. All the same, I was brought up in a Christian society and I regard it as an important part of my cultural heritage, and it peeves me that the reason for all those colored lights and trees and decorations can't be named for fear of upsetting some precious individuals who are nevertheless freely pursuing their own beliefs.

Telemarketers: There is a special circle of hell reserved for these scourges of modern society. Fuller rant here.

Of course, telemarketing is just one facet of the capitalist dream of using every conceivable opportunity to turn people into cash donors. I despise advertising in general, and the way Big Money expects to turn everything in life into an advertising opportunity.

Climate change denial: Just one word to say here: Ostrich.

Paparazzi: Kind of up there with telemarketers, and yet another symptom of the sickness that makes it apparently OK to treat anyone out there as a cash opportunity.

Automated customer service centers: All I want is some help, to get a simple answer to a question. Why, then, do I have to joust with a mechanical voice spouting an endless list of options that never quite meet my needs? Worse still is when the machine at the other end pretends it can understand English. I usually resort to hitting zero repeatedly, or raising my voice and sounding as angry as possible until I get a human being on the line. Just when did it occur to big companies that they could get away with treating their paying customers with such open contempt? "Your call is valuable to us." Yeah, right.

Easy-open packaging: You know, those tear-off lids that won't tear off, perforations that won't perforate. This is one major aspect of bad design in general, which I also deplore. Fuller rant here.

I'm sure I could go on, but that's probably enough for one day. Please feel free to add your own favorite irritants in the comments. And go and say "Hi" to Delores too.