The Man Who Hated Hippies
Four years ago. I’m on a date with a man from a southern state that shall remain nameless. I pick the restaurant. Once we’re seated at our table, he looks around and asks me: “They don’t serve hippie food here do they?” But, I don’t know what he means. So, I ask, “What is hippie food?” He mumbles something then, to my surprise, he launches into a very long tirade against hippies. People who play Hacky Sack. Vegetarians. Grown men who throw Frisbees. In his mind, they’re all hippies. And, he can’t stand them. “I hate hippies!” he says. And, I’m telling this story to you now because the hippie-hater came to mind last weekend when, during part of our 12-hour brunch, my friends and I pontificated about things that irritate us. Pet peeves. We’ve all got them. And, hippies were clearly that guy’s.
What’s one of my pet peeves? Subcultures. I don’t particular hate any group based on age, ethnicity, class, sexuality, nationality or whatever. And, I’m not talking about break-dancers, bikers, surfers or skateboarders either. I’m specifically talking about subcultures based on things that never or no longer exist in society*. Subculture Fantasyland. People who go to Comic Con dressed up like their favorite character from X-Men; Trekkies who beam themselves up; American Civil War reenactors; and Ren Fair attendees who party it up like it’s 1499.**
I’m probably mocking what I don’t understand—which of course, in general, is not a good thing. (And, not to mention, I’m sure it probably makes me sound just as ridiculous as the man who told me that he hates hippies.) Hmmm … I’m curious. What’s your pet peeve? People who chew with their mouths open? People who slob on your face when they kiss you? People who don’t use their turn signals? Don’t hold back now. There’s still one more day till Friday; come on, vent your frustration. Use the comment section to name your pet peeve.
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* One exception: Stitch n Bitchers. IR-RI-TATING.
** My girl Bro is right there with my on this one. About Ren Fair, she says: “I don’t understand people who want to romanticize a period in time when there was no indoor plumbing.”
August 17th, 2006 at 9:42 am
OMG - I’m first! And they say being unemployed has no benefits . . .
Where was I? Oh, pet peeves. Since I’m limited to just one, I’m going to say people to tell me they simply cannot pronounce my first name - before they even try! Yes it is African, yes it is uncommon, but yes, you can pronounce it. Really. It’s phonetic. I swear.
I’m going to take liberties and name my second pp - bad grammar.
August 17th, 2006 at 9:47 am
Hypocrites. Can’t stand ‘em. Like this guy I used to know back in another life that proclaimed to be a vegetarian and insisted his daughter be raised with no meat, eggs or dairy in her diet. Except he ate a burger from Mickey D’s at least once a week. That sh*t drives me nuts.
August 17th, 2006 at 10:17 am
jeez, looks like i missed out on a lot of fun stories this week. memo to me: stolies life is always exciting. so don’t miss! ;)
pet peeve:
the fashion mafia. at least that’s what i call them. i live in a small city with tons of people who like to act big. be it bouncers or barmaids, or simply just a crowd of gigglies (+ male entourage) coming down the floor to invade your space at the bar - oh lord. so i guess i should say, snobs in general, especially snobs who have no right nor reason to be a snob. then again - do you ever have a right to be a snob? hm…
August 17th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
With the invent of blogging and the ability to publicly be anonymous, my biggest pet peeve right now is people who vocalize very strong opinions and then post them anonymously.
Then means that they don’t have to listen to your side of it and perhaps make their world a little more gray and less black or white. They cut off any debate which in the long run is probably my biggest pet peeve. Those who won’t listen to other opinions thus leaving their insight as flat as the earth was believed to be.
August 17th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Mine are the people who insist on driving right on your ass and then when you let them pass they get in front of you and SLOW DOWN. Drives me crazy! Literally
August 17th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Subcultures don’t really bother me - if people have silly notions and want to follow them, that’s fine with me, as long as it doesn’t interrupt my life. :P
I have many pet peeves, although they don’t drive me crazy most of the time. Am I allowed to post more than one? I can’t just pick one…
One big one is bad grammar. The abundance of it drives me up the walls (yes, this one does drive me crazy). “You shoulda came/went”, says my friend, as I resist the urge to strangle him.
People chewing with their mouths open and making no attempts to be neat or quiet about it.
Something like what tonito said: People who speed up to get in front of you when driving and then have to turn left in a single lane, busy road. Grrr!
People who don’t wash their hands after using the restroom or worse, rinse them and then use the handle on the paper dispenser that YOU, with CLEAN hands, were going to use.
August 17th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Oh boy, where do I begin?!!
People who are obviously racist and sexist. I can appreciate most racist jokes, even those aimed at me, because if it’s funny it’s funny you know? I appreciate Southpark and American Dad humour. So it takes a lot to offend me. But I really hate people who are really racist, in the sense they treat me like I’m less than them simply because I’m brown.
Oh, and I also can’t stand excessively religious people who try and shove their beliefs down my throat. I don’t go on a rant about what I believe to them so I see no reason why they should treat me any different. I hate people who act as if I’d be going to hell simply because I don’t believe what they believe. I mean how small-minded is that?
I gotta agree with mamachristy too, I hate hypocrites. Like a fat lady at McD who orders 3 cheeseburgers AND fries but you know, it’s okay cuz she orders a dietcoke with it.
I also hate people who decide to pop out a dozen kids at age 16 and then choose to live on welfare in council houses and get taxpayers to pay for their breeding. As Scott Adams said, my money is already subsidizing the fat man with the appetite of ten at the all-you-can-eat buffet where I pay the same price he does.
By the way, when I started reading you post, I thought of Cartman going on about his “Goddamn hippies!
August 17th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Nerd Girl: Yeah, that’s annoying. In most cases, even if you’ve never heard a name before, 9 times out of 10, you’ll pronounce it correctly if just do to phonetically. And, yep, I’m a hater on poor grammar, too. (Even though I, myself, have my bad moments.)
MamaChristy: Hypocrites. Oooh, that’s a tough one. I can be slightly hypocritical at times. For example, I don’t like it that one of my guy friends goes sport-hunting and I tell him that I wish he’d stop. BUT, I’m not a vegetarian. Hypocritical? Probably. Or, like, I generally don’t believe in killing living things. BUT, I would actually pay money to see a cat castrate or other torture a mouse as punishment for terrorizing me. Hypocritical? Probably. :)
Firefly: My friend Mags is a big snob. :) ESPECIALLY when it comes to fashion.
Howard: I’m right there with you: if you have something of importance and/or controversy to say, stand up and do it publicly and in a manner that allows people to trace your comments back to you. To do it in an other way is a sign of cowardice.
Tonito Bandito: Taxis. Subways. Walking. It’s been so long since I’ve driven a car, but I TOTALLY remember what you mean.
kypris: Yeah, I probably need to get over the subculture thing. It’s not like they’re bothering me so why should I care? … About grammatical errors, my favorite one to hate (and don’t we all hate the ones that we ourselves don’t make?) are: 1) double negatives; 2) the word “hisself”; 3) the word “conversate”; 4) and 4) men who think the phrase “what your name is?” is not only proper English, but also a good pickup line … Oh, yeah, even though it’s actually “proper” English (in the British sense of the word “English”), I can’t stand it when people correct me can I ask “Can I __” and they snarkily respond, “I don’t know, can you? It’s may I __”.
Darwin: My fellow brown girl, I’m right there with you on the racism thing. Though, I have to say, I had a much harder time with that crap in the UK & Europe than I do in the US. Over there, I had people say things to me that NO ONE has ever said to me in the US — at least not to my face. For better or worse, we had a “PC movement” of sorts here. One of the results is that people don’t say the kinds of things that Europeans and Brits say because, at the very least, we think it’s it’s in “poor taste”. Now, there’s always the question about whether or not changing language actually changes the way that people THINK, but that’s a topic much bigger than this comment section. I’m not saying that I’m going to devote an entire post to that topic, but I’m not necessarily saying that I won’t either. The Funky Brown Chick — where one never truly knows what tomorrow’s post will be ( … not even Stolie herself).
August 17th, 2006 at 3:48 pm
By the way, I linked to this before for different purposes, but The Economist has an article in which they warn American business travelers going to London that Brits are less politically correct than what we’re used to. (By the way, and as example, I don’t think we’ve used the term “Oriental” to describe someone of Asian descent since, I don’t know, 1950.)
But, anyway … back to pet peeves …
August 17th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
First things first: What are “Stitch n Bitchers”????
As for pet peeves, I don’t think I have enough time right now to tell you all those. Ha!
Let me think of one…how about people who asked when you are getting married or having a baby? ;o) Seriously, though…
Ooooh, I just scanned to make sure I didn’t duplicate, and I had to give props to Howard. Those people SUCK.
August 17th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
You are friggin hilarious! I so know what you mean about Comic Con types. But there is this one hippie dude in my apt, who really gives hippies a BAD name by being an uptight grouch but dressing the part of peace-love. Argh.
August 17th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
I hate STINGY people. The one were you buy a drink/ meal…together and they always pretend to want to pay, but never do (they even go to the extend of putting their hands in their pocket, but always come empty). If you demonstrate to me that you can pay once, I don’t mind paying 10 times :~P
OK I feel better now…
OK ONE MORE (sue me for running over my quota).. ;-)
HATE SNOBS!!! The ones who are incapable of smiling, like the whole world is out to get them.
Feeling better still
August 17th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
I have to say “AIII” (as in ai) to Darwin’s comment. Me being a brown boy and all… same experiences, different continents!!!
August 17th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
my pet peeve? Everything
August 17th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Alright, Stol, I see your point, but I don’t agree. I don’t think that you have to be veggie to dislike sport-hunting. I don’t care if you sport-hunt, but eat what you shoot unless you were shooting in self-defense. (I had a friend when I was a kid and her parents had to shoot a mountain lion because it was attacking them. Yet another good reason not to go hunting.) I’m talking about people who say that something is SOOO wrong and yet they do it themselves. You, I like, so you don’t count. ;)
August 17th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
So was the Southern Hippie Hater a good kisser?
****DUCKING****
August 17th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Cheers for the Rainbow graphic on this post. Was that intended to make moi feel comfortable? You know I love my rainbows!!
August 18th, 2006 at 10:53 am
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa - no hatin’ on us comic book nerds! So, okay, it’s been ten years since I attended Comic Con, and, okay, I didn’t dress as an X-Men character…Justice League maybe, but not X-Men. I keed, I KEED! ;-)
But, yeah, I’m with you on Renaissance Faires 110%. I’ve gone on and on about Renaissance Faire folken, although people who are a little too much into Lord of the Rings (and the Fantasy genre in general) run a close second.
There’s something about watching those people walk around in costume that makes me want to put down ye olde pimpe slappe.
August 18th, 2006 at 11:29 am
AmyD: Oh, where to a BEGIN with those “Stitch n Bitch” people??? It was this craze that gripped major US cities a couple of years ago. Somewhere, someone thought that it would be “cool” if urban women got together on a regular basis to knit and complain about life. It smacks of the 1950s Leave it to Beaver types. And, it’s annoying.
Heidi on Vashon: THANKS! Glad you like the post!! :)
momok: Oooooh, I’ve had people do that. Maybe they think you won’t *notice* that they said they’d cover drinks (or dinner, or whatever). Yeah, it’s annoying. … And, yeah, Darwin hit the nail on the head.
kirillovsrant: Ohhh. :( I hope that there are also things that make you happy.
MamaChristy: YAY!!! Glad to know that I’m still okay in your book. I was worried for a second there.
Raymond: I soooo didn’t kiss that guy. On dates, kisses are by no means a guarantee; I save them for guys that I like and/or the guys that I think are cute.
Tonito Bandito: And, you know that I love Tonito!!! :)
Andy: WHERE ON EARTH HAVE YOU BEEN?!?!?!?! And, yes, I add the extreme “Hobbit Lovers” to the Subculture Fantasyland group, too.
August 18th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
oh Lord. Thank goodness. Thanks for giving me a place to post my pet peeve concerning trashy-dressing Moms who bring their equally-underdressed 5 year olds to concerts and use their children as a means to squeeze their way up front. Disgusting.
To the skeevstress who brought her macrame-bikini-clad kinderkartener to the Gnarls Barkley shoe: you’re gross. You are so very gross. You used a small child (with no earplugs) to worm to the stage. You let her get squished up against the metal fence and claimed, when concerned onlookers saw this “it’s ok! She’s from Ner York, she’s totally used to this!”. Even teenagers–people not known for their good judgement–gave you nasty looks. You took her to a concert where there was mucho swearing and talk of “titties” and although it was a fabulous show, you should have absolutely known it was not kiddie-appropriate. There was weed and booze everywhere. Shame on you, you trampy ho.
And you stepped on my foot twice.
(phew…that felt soooooo good!)
August 19th, 2006 at 3:16 am
That woman sounds like a freak.
Glad I could be of help! :) Anytime you need to vent, you know where to find me.
August 19th, 2006 at 9:20 am
I don’t like people spitting in public or when guys scratch/adjust themselves whilst talking (to me!!)
Bad spelling is also a pet peeve ..
:o)
August 19th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Ewwww!!! I can’t stand Public Adjusters. I had this punk kid adjust himself in front of me for like FOUR STOPS on the E train the other day. ANNOYING!!! I don’t want to see that.
August 20th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Mags:
Are you just going to take that? Stand up for yourself! You may be a fashion snob, but you’re not any other kind.
August 21st, 2006 at 8:32 am
Our poor little Mags hasn’t been reading my blog, so she can’t defend herself. She just got off of her international flight a couple of days ago. We spent the weekend partying it up like rockstars. And, now she’s on another plane headed to your parts. She’ll probably weigh in on the “Stolie called you a snob” thing once she has time to catch her breath. :)
August 21st, 2006 at 10:36 am
missbhavens reminded me of a big pet peeve. I can’t stand the fact that society turned all family-friendly. I’m tired of people who think children have to be everywhere and everything has to be family-friendly. Fuck that. I don’t have children for a reason and spending more time than necessary with your children is not one of them.
I’m glad Vegas went to back to being an adult playground.
BTW, I dated (briefly) a woman who dressed up for the LoTR premier and I thought it was kinda hot.
August 21st, 2006 at 11:41 am
Children are precious. And, they’re even more precious when they aren’t in grown-up places. If I see one more woman pushing a stroller through Times Square at 1:00am, I’m going to scream like a maniac
October 8th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
suck on my cock
bukkake facials deep throat and gag gay blowjob
October 9th, 2006 at 7:43 am
public pissing
smoking in public places fucking in public fantasy fest