38

Just Sayin’: You’ve Got a Peeve, I’ve Got a Peeve. All God’s Chillun Got Peeves

You think you don’t have any peeves? Oh, come on now. Sure you do. We all have peeves. You know, it’s that little something that consistently annoys us, but not enough to do something about.

Or else it’s the something over which we have no control,  but annoys us anyway. It may be something never articulated or it may be something you mutter about under breath, or you may have mounted your proverbial soap box and expressed your annoyance to the world.

That’s not all. I also bet you treasure those peeves. Yes, you do! They’re like an old sweater of familiarity you put on when the occasion arises.

Right now my pet peeve is the word “got”. Never mind the title of this piece, It’s a quote.

“You’ve GOT mail.” Are you kidding me? What happened to, “You have mail?” And in many forms: “I got this at the mall.” What’s wrong with “I purchased, (or picked up, or bought, or even stole) this at the mall?”

Take “I’ve got to go there,”  and “You’ve got to see this.” In both of those sentences the “got” is superfluous. In fact, it is a rare sentence where the word “got” is appropriate.

And as successful as it’s been (and what kind of a person criticizes milk, for heaven’s sake) I HATE the “Got Milk?” campaign. OK,  not the campaign, because it’s been extremely successful, but the slogan.

But wait, as they say on TV,  there’s more. You didn’t really think I’d let you off the hook with only one pet peeve, now did you?

Since I teach at a studio in Cottonwood, I travel SR273 several times each week. Invariably there will be cars traveling side by side at exactly the same speed. Dear driving friend, if you’re traveling the same speed as the car in the No 1 lane, please either speed up or slow down and get in the same lane. BTW, this does not always apply on city streets where there are signals controlling the flow of traffic.

One must be a little careful with those peeves, however. They can backfire. I recall being stopped at a red light. I was behind a van who had his right turn indicator on (Oh, turn indicators . . . yet another peeve. USE THEM!) I was also turning right. The light turned green and there he sat. I waited what I thought was a gracious amount of time then, rather patiently, “tapped” my horn. He still sat. So I “tapped” my horn a little more vehemently, and just then a motorized wheelchair that had been crossing in the crosswalk came into view. I wanted to run up beside the driver’s window and yell, “I didn’t mean it,, I didn’t mean it!!”

But enough about me and my peeves. What about you? What are yours?

Adrienne Jacoby is a 40-plus-year resident of Shasta County and native-born Californian. She was a teacher of vocal music in the Enterprise Schools for 27 years and has been retired for 11 years.
A musician all her life, she was married to the late Bill Jacoby with whom she formed a locally well -known musical group who prided themselves in playing for weddings, wakes, riots, bar mitzvas and super market openings. And, oh yes … she has two children, J’Anna and Jayson.

Adrienne Jacoby

Adrienne Jacoby is a 40-plus-year resident of Shasta County and native-born Californian. She was a teacher of vocal music in the Enterprise Schools for 27 years and has been retired for 11 years. A musician all her life, she was married to the late Bill Jacoby with whom she formed a locally well -known musical group who prided themselves in playing for weddings, wakes, riots, bar mitzvas and super market openings. And, oh yes … she has two children, J’Anna and Jayson.

38 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments