From: logan@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Logan Shaw)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Re: Peeves about Teenagers
Date: 4 Jan 93 07:29:59 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin

In article <1993Jan4.010527.29222@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> bberbeni@nyx.cs.du.edu (Bill Berbenich) writes:
>In <86064@ut-emx.uucp> logan@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Logan Shaw) writes:
>
>>You're just *trying* to provoke me, aren't you?  Today in the Dallas/Fort
>                                                               ^^^^^^^^^^^
>>Worth metro area, it rained.  Then, while the roads were still wet, it
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>froze (i.e. 30F, -1C).   Over in Fort Worth (~800,000 in population, I
>>think), they have ONE truck for sanding the roads.  Combine all that with
>>the typical Southerner's inability to drive on icy roads (which are hard
>             ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>for *anyone* to drive on), and you get over 300 traffic accidents including
>>2 fatalities, all in one evening.  Happy New Years!
>
>Logan, you're just trying to provoke me, aren't you?
>
>Peeve:  People who consider Texas a part of the South (it is in geography
>        a part of the Southwest) and consider Texans to be Southerners.
>        The Texas/Louisiana state line is the gateway between the Southwest
>        and the South in the Yewess.  Even then, that's stretching things a
>        bit west.  Southern purists draw the line as God did, at the
>        Mississippi River.

Peeve:  When people think that just because some kind of convention or
generally-agreed-upon notion exists, that I care about it.  Look at a globe
or map sometime:  Texas is smack-dab georgraphically in the middle
(east-west wise) of the nation.  Certainly there are more people east of
Texas than west of it, but that has little to do with geography.  Also,
Texas stretches farther South than any other state (with the possible
exception of Florida).  Why should I consider myself in the West if about
half the land in the country is to the east and half to the west?  (This is
especially true if you count Alaska and Hawaii).  Did you ever stop to
think that the Mid-West is located essentially entirely within the EASTERN
half of the country?  The notion that Texas is in the West is an old idea
that needs to be re-examined.  We're not talking about the Blues and the
Greys here, we're talking about georgraphic regions.  In the words of Sting
(an anti-peeve), "History Will Teach Us Nothing."

The same kind of peeve that there's an expectation that I'll accept others'
decisions applies to lots of things:  traffic regulations, for instance.
Just because some DPS officer drove his worn-out Oldsmobile station wagon
down the road and determined that his bias-ply tires squealed at 35
miles/hour and accordingly set the speed limit at 30 miles/hour does not
mean that 30 miles/hour is the maximum safe speed to drive on the road.
*My* worn-out Oldsmobile sedan can usually go 50% over the speed limit
without much chance of losing control.

RelatedPeeve:  Policemen with attitudes.  I think a large number of
policemen get into the field JUST because they can walk around legally
intimidating people.  They *like* you to be afraid of them.  It's an ego
thing, and they care nothing about protecting people or keeping order.  I
have a friend whose brother is a policeman, and for New Years he went
around confiscating fireworks.  So what does he do with the ones he's
confiscated?  He brings them home to shoot off!  Well, what an example.  He
also walked outside to introduce himself and told me that his friend (also
on the force) nearly gave me a ticket for parking too close to a fire
hydrant.  Well, what a way to introduce yourself!  I'm certainly pleased
and impressed by the show of friendship!  I felt almost as if he were my
dad scolding me or something.

AnotherRelatedPeeve:  If they'd just wise up down in Houston and put little
blue reflectors in the road wherever there are fire hydrants (like they do
in Dallas), I would have actually *known* about the fire hydrant and not
parked directly in front of it (I parked the car at night, BTW).  But
NOOOOO, the City of Houston can't afford such luxuries, since they only
charge $2.25 for their toll-roads ($3.00 if you don't have exact change)!
In contrast, the Dallas North Tollway is only $0.50, or $1.00 if you go way
out into the middle of nowhere.  No wonder they put the Huntsville State
Penitentiary only an hour away from Houston - who cares if they escape and
destroy the whole city?  It's annoying anyway.

BonusPeeve:  Cities without street signs.  When I was on my road-trip to
Houston trying to find my friend's house, I realized that Houston is also
too poor to afford street signs.  We drove and drove until we realized we
had gone too far (according to the map), and so we had to turn around and
go turn on one of the streets that JUST DIDN'T *HAVE* A STREET SIGN.  Also,
earlier in our trip, when we were trying to find highway 90-A at a fork in
the road, the 90-A half was conveniently labelled "OST", with no mention of
which was 90-A until after it was already too late to switch lanes.

Ok.  That's it for now.

Adios,
  Logan
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Newsgroups: alt.peeves