More Annoyances

No grand introduction needed. Let's get to it.

• Anyone who exclaims, "it's 2014!" (or whatever year it currently is) to criticize something as unacceptable in our supposedly enlightened times. The object of criticism is usually a lingering vestige of freedom or sanity, such as a golf club that enforces its exclusive membership policy, or a football team whose decades-old name suddenly becomes offensive.

• On webpages allowing for comments, the near-universal default setting of "newest" comments first. The disregard for all things old extends even to here, despite the fact that it makes more sense to read a thread of comments chronologically.

• Invitations stating "please RSVP." Redundant.

• People who fail to grasp that when receiving an RSVP, it is necessary to respond even if they do not plan to attend.

• Anyone who justifies poor grammar or spelling by reaching back several centuries to find an obscure instance of it by someone such as James Boswell or Geoffrey Chaucer. Linguistic evolution is not the same as laziness or ignorance.

• People who cheat at pub trivia.

• In the same vein, pub trivia questions that give senior citizens an unfair advantage by inquiring into events within only their living memory. Ask about things that everyone has firsthand experience of, or of which nobody does. 

• The insistence on calling Indians "Native Americans." They are no more native than anyone else born here, as we all hail from other places and did not magically sprout from the ground. In point of fact, recent archaeology strongly suggests that the Indians were not the first ones to arrive, so they'll have to start calling other peoples "natives" by the metric they currently use. 

• In the same vein, anyone who attempts to dismiss concerns about the hordes of illegal aliens invading America by invoking the Indian experience. At least the Indians had the guts to fight back, which hardly supports rolling out a red carpet.

• The fact that there are no more quiet restaurants. If there isn't loud music or a television blaring, the nearby table full of hyenas will surely destroy any reflective or romantic moments.

• People who curse in public or in mixed company.