PeevePile • A Pet Peeve Archive » Noticing that you repeatedly use certain phrases, but being unable to stop yourself from doing it.

Noticing that you repeatedly use certain phrases, but being unable to stop yourself from doing it.

I teach at a local college and realize that before each example problem I do on the board I say, "Let's say that..." I notice it every time I say it, and I'm sure my students do as well. However, somehow I can't stop doing it! (The sad thing is that this is only one such phrase.)

— Brooke from Florida | Self | 11.20.2008 | Comments (3)

I say "oops!" when something innocuous happens between me and a stranger. I hate it, but cannot prevent myself from squirting out this little bit of social lubricant which squarely lays the blame on me.

— Biffy posted 11/20/2008

I do this, too, but for some reason only when I'm teaching. I have noticed that I always address my students as "folks," as in "hi, folks" or "do you have your papers, folks?" I never use this word in my regular life.

— Layla posted 12/17/2009

When I teach I keep saying things are "really interesting" like I'm trying to convince them that they are. I'm trying to stop and it drives me nuts when I notice myself doing it.

— Acacia posted 12/17/2009

When parents start voicemail messages with "hey [name], it's your mother/father." » My husband does this with his kids! It never fails to drive me bugshit! – Mindy 7/26

Grubby, tangled haired children. » Keeping clean is one thing; the kids I see don't even start out clean. Parents and kids both seem to roll out of bed and go to the local WalMart (where else?) without so much as running as hairbrush through their hair or taking a bar of soap to their bodies. I think we can be quite sure they don't know what a toothbrush is for! The trend of wearing pajama bottoms in public needs to stop as well. – Mindy 7/26

When strangers try to touch my children. » Good god, it's like you read my mind. I absolutely hate it when I'm in the grocery store and people touch my son's feet or poke his little cheeks. Yes, I know he's the cutest thing on this earth but THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN TOUCH HIM – CakeThief 7/24

Air quotes. » use shocker quotes instead. form shocker with fingers, bend to mimic quoting action. – kn obel 7/22

When non-white street beggars call me racist when I don't give them money. » I always want to know if people would feel equally as badly if the opposite were true. Like, if you only gave money to non-white street beggars out of guilt/fear of being perceived as racist. That's racism, too, right? Right? No one complains about that one... – Chelsea 7/22

When non-white street beggars call me racist when I don't give them money. » Ugh. This happened to me when I declined to sign a petition without even hearing what it was about (I was also not a registered voter in that state AND was in a hurry). Jeez, I'm not racist! I hate all petition signature gatherers equally. – Kate 7/21

02.11.10

Send in your mobile phone pet peeves for the week of February 15th! Perhaps the simplest and most common generator of peeves, the mobile phone prods and pricks us in all places, public and private. With skull phones just around the corner, it’s likely these peeves will soon become irrelevant—so let’s spray them across the galaxy while we still can.

01.18.10

For the next week or so, the pictures for peeves will be of Peeve Pile’s national spokesperson, Rob Grace, and his special person, Shana, enacting various peeves. Please feel free to make such pictures yourself. Just include a link to them when submitting a peeve.

01.02.10

Hello. I’ve added a voting feature, so you can vote as you assume that you would – just click on a one-to-five star rating (it will tell you your vote has been recorded); five indicating that you completely agree with, or find the peeve amusing, one meaning the opposite.

Once a bunch of ratings are in, I’ll add a worst, and best rated area to the right column.