Pet Peeves?

Consumer Reports has come out with its year end study of what annoys people most, and I'm flabbergasted. They are: hidden fees on bills, not getting a person on the phone, tailgating, inaccurate weather forecasts, incomprehensible bills, not picking up dog poop, unreliable Internet service, discourteous cellphone use, waiting for repair people, and e-mail spam. Less bothersome were passwords and PINs, speeding drivers, checkout lines, and radio and television shouting.

While I heartily agree that these are irritating, most are nothing that can't be abated by a little anger management and perspective. What amazes me is that we've become so petty, or possibly that the Opinion Research Corp. of Princeton, N.J. only polled well-to-do people with too much time on their hands. No one mentioned continuing world hunger, no health care access for a majority of Americans, corruption in government, militarized law enforcement that looks more like Big Brother every day, and no end to wars caused by us in 120 countries. And if this is too heavy for y'all - heck, they didn't even list telemarketers, robot-calls, or the fact that we can't fly anywhere any more without a strip search!