Annoying Tread #17

Wow, it's surprising how many of the things that annoy me fall into one (or more) of these (unranked) categories:

• Advertising/Marketing
• Entertainers
• Michael Moore (he's large enough to warrant his own category)
• Bad Drivers
• Bad Food
• Smokers
• Blondes
• Bad photographers (focus and framing really do matter)
• Mint flavoring
• Radio morning shows
• People who believe that have some status in life which automatically demands respect/attention
• The Oxygen network
• Work
• Sore losers
• People who can't perform their jobs at an average level
• All people who work in food service
• Good TV shows that "jump the shark"
• Nascar
• Bad Tequila (e.g. As the Colonel says, "anything with the word 'Jose' in the name isn't good tequila.")
• Anything labeled as 'cute'
• Cell phones
• Baggy pants with visible underwear
• The Three Stooges
• The French
• "Irregardless"
• Artificial flavors
• Country music
• Rap music
• People who make lists about crap that annoys them
• software that doesn't easily allow the entry of umlots

All of these, of course, fall into the über-category of Stupidity.

So here's beef #17. Automated telemarketing. Can someone please tell me when this started. The idea that I could avoid talking to another telemarketing person is a nice idea, but not being able to figure out what they're selling or how to actually order it is annoying (and somewhat comical). Not that I'd really buy anything over the phone, but I want ability to say "No." Whether it's to a live person or a machine. I get a call the other day pitching satellite TV. So I listen to the recorded babble and then want more information. But I don't get any instructions. So I push 0. Then 1. It starts ringing. Then I get put on hold. I push more numbers. It starts ringing again. After about 3 minutes (yes I had nothing better to do), a live person answers the phone. I say hello. Pause. I hear them breathing. "Hello?" And then the male voice responded with "Hello? hello, hello......hello, hello, hello, hello........hello, hello, hello, hello....." Until, realizing that his attempt to annoy me isn't working, he hangs up. Oh, you can't out-annoy me you sausage-guzzling phone jockey. I've got mad skills.