We All Have a Pet Peeve

What does Yours Reveal About You?

Everyone has at least one pet peeve. Come on now, admit it. Don’t you have that one thing that bugs the hell out of you when you see or hear or feel it?

I actually answered a poll years ago that focused on “Pet Peeves”. It was in a writing group I belonged to:

“Do you have a Pet Peeve? Would you share it? and Why does it irk you?”

They came from every direction! Some were sad, some comical, and I even saw one that —in my opinion, looked like fun and I was envious ...

What is your biggest pet peeve? Where did it originate and how long have you had it? Is there just the one, or do you have a lot of them? What does your main Pet Peeve reveal about you?

My biggest pet peeve by comparison is ordinary. It’s grammatical and so ordinary, it might even be boring to most people, because it’s so universally used that it’s almost grammatically acceptable these days.

(drum roll …d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d … )

My Pet Peeve is whenever I hear someone say “at” at the end of a sentence --I cringe! Used in that way, it sounds wrong —because it IS wrong.

I don’t even understand why it’s done. It actually uses less words with “at” knocked off the end of the sentence:

Wrong: “Where is he at?”

Right: “Where is he?”

Wrong: “I don’t know where it’s at.”

Right: “I don’t know where it is.”

I had a 5th grade teacher who drilled it into everyone’s head so often in class that it left me as a blushing grammar nut. Even all these years later, it still bothers me when I hear it.

What does it reveal about me? I suppose it shows how I’ve grown over time. Coming out of 5th grade, I was a blushing grammar nut. Now I’m even more intense. I’m a raving grammar Nazi.

I’ve noticed there are other words that are used wrong, too, but they’re not up there with “at”. It’s my biggest personal pet peeve -–like gum stuck to my shoe, the splinter in my finger, the pebble in my shoe, the thorn in my side, something caught between my teeth, fingernails on a ....

Well, I think you get my drift …

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