What Am I Sick Of?

Boyfriend and I are both ill with colds, so we were unable to go to the premiere of "Three Days of Rain" presented by the theatre group to which I belong. Sure, we'll have plenty more opportunities to see it, but tonight he was to meet, among other friends, AnnieGrace! I'm terribly bummed.


Feeling headachy and a little congested, I am in a pissy mood. So, I've decided to make a random list of things or people I have had enough of. Let's begin:







Baby-doll dresses and tops: they make everyone look pregnant. I abhor them.















Paris Hilton



Britney, her sister, her mom, her ex-, her boyfriend, her babies, her lawyers, et al



Commercials where "apply directly to forehead" is repeated several times-- or any other commercial lampooning this phrase repetition



Disrespectful middle-schoolers



The writers' strike



Reality shows-- with the exception of "Project Runway," "Dancing with the Stars," and "American Idol"
















Tom Cruise and his "wife"




Movies or tv shows featuring an African-American man playing many roles, among them an older, fat, African-American woman













Pop-up ads mimicing dialog boxes telling me to click for my prize, or any pop-up mortgage ad featuring a scary animated dancing person or creature



The View



Clay Aiken



Tattoos





Broadway musicals based on movies that were bad movies to begin with









Paper-wasting "neighborhood shopper" newspapers that are in my mailbox almost every day



The war, the administration, the impending election ads



Commercials for Washington Mutual (WaMu) featuring a nice young African-American man against a large group of fat old white male bankers




YouTube losers being touted as celebrities










Anything related to "High School Musical"-- sequels, stars, ice show incarnations, tours, amateur productions



















Spam email that assumes I have a small penis, trouble getting it up, or an interest in "teen barnyard sluts"


Will Farrell

Thanks for letting me rant. I feel ever so much better now.

My Pet Peeves.

Okay, I have a lot of pet peeves... the usual, you know. People who dial a number on their cell phone, then start up the car and talk incessantly while driving. Or people talking on a cell phone loud and clear in a store or a public place with no regard for others around them. In fact, a good many of my pet peeves are associated with the cell phone.

But it's grammar that's on my mind today. I'm talking about very simple, very basic, yet very common mistakes that an alarmingly huge percentage of the population is making.

The worst-- by far-- is the use of an apostrophe with a plural s. "Cookie's for sale here." "No exchange's." I could go on and on, but you get the idea. If you do this, please stop. And on the subject of apostrophes, it might be a good idea for everyone to double-check the old rule about "it's" and "its." This is probably the most common grammatical error in the English

language, but if we all try very hard, we can correct it.

The other one I'd like to address today is the dangling participle. The worst offenders with regard to dangling participles or misplaced modifiers are newswriters, both on radio and television. Here is an example:

"Missing for three weeks, police found her remains in a nearby garbage dump."

The implication of this sentence is that the police were missing for three weeks. The corrected sentence makes it even worse:

"Police found her remains, which had been missing for three weeks, in a nearby garbage dump."

Well, her remains weren't missing; she was. A better version of this sentence would be:

"Police found the remains of the woman, who had been missing for three weeks, in a nearby garbage dump."

Seriously, this is an extremely common error. Next time you're bored watching or listening to a news report, try to catch one of these. You'll be surprised how often you run across them. Here is a wonderfully helpful guide you can use to find them... and to avoid them.

Yes, perhaps I'm being a harshly judgemental Virgo. Perhaps I'm making a big fuss over something many would consider trivial. But I take pride in what I learned at a young age and I believe it's important to remember and respect the guidelines and rules for intelligent writing.

I feel so much better now.