Trivial things that make you annoyed beyond expectations?

[Beebo]

Often happens at bars to me, some dingleberry will be there getting his drink then calling to his crowd "who wants what" and there's always someone who doesn't really know and changes their mind several times before sauntering to the bar for a look at the real ales for minutes.........................Then has a half.

The worst, worst, worst is when there is a very long queue at the bar, and a guy gets to the front, then everyone who he knows suddenly asks him to buy a drink. These people are often already in the queue behind me, but see no problem in pushing forward to get their friend to buy a drink.

The worst I had this was on a bank holiday when a pub was woefully under staffed. I queued for over 30 minutes as everyone who got to the front suddenly had orders which were about 15/20 drinks each.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

When you are in slow moving traffic on the motorway and you get the muppets swerving from outside lane to inside lane and back in a bid to go faster than everyone else.

 

[ColinJ]

I had a near miss earlier, so please allow me to have a whinge about lazy drivers in winter!

If you are going to overtake cyclists at high speed please remember to clear the snow and ice off the roof of your vehicle before doing so!

(A car shooting past hit a bump in the road, which resulted in several kg of snow and ice sliding off and blowing back at me...)

Bonus whinge: Clear your windscreen too while you are at it! You can't see the road properly through those little slots you scraped clear of snow.

 

[Dadam]

Bonus whinge: Clear your windscreen too while you are at it! You can't see the road properly through those little slots you scraped clear of snow.

That's a large annoyance for me too. Some just think if they clear a face sized hole in the window that's job done. Tossers.
I clear every square inch of glass inc mirrors and lights and also brush as much loose stuff off the roof and bonnet as I can.

 

[DaveReading]

You can use both. And they have slightly different meanings.

Home in means to locate and move toward something.
Hone in means to focus on something.

Nope. Hone is not a phrasal verb (i.e. one accompanied by a preposition).

You can hone your skills, you can hone your kitchen knife, but you can't hone in, or hone on, or hone in on anything.

 

[figbat]

Nope. Hone is not a phrasal verb (i.e. one accompanied by a preposition).

You can hone your skills, you can hone your kitchen knife, but you can't hone in, or hone on, or hone in on anything.

I’m totally with you on this, but apparently “hone in” is now an acceptable bastardisation of the language. I accept that language is organic and evolves, but the acceptance and proliferation of ignorant mistakes grates with me.

 

[Jameshow]

I’m totally with you on this, but apparently “hone in” is now an acceptable bastardisation of the language. I accept that language is organic and evolves, but the acceptance and proliferation of ignorant mistakes grates with me.

I aways thought it was home in.

Like a missile homing in on its target?

 

[figbat]

I aways thought it was home in.

Like a missile homing in on its target?

It is that too. Both are supposedly acceptable, in different contexts.

 

[Beebo]

I aways thought it was home in.

Like a missile homing in on its target?

Yes. Like a homing pigeon.

But if you were listening to a complicated piece of music and wanted to isolate the bass line in your head, you would hone in on the bass line.

 

[raleighnut]

you would hone in on the bass line.

No.

 

[bobzmyunkle]

Most usage commentators consider hone in to be a mistake for home in. The use may have arisen from home in by the weakening of the \m\ sound to \n\ or it may have developed simply because of the influence of hone, with perhaps an underlying sense that "honing" figuratively involves a narrowing or sharpening of focus. Whatever the explanation of its origins, it has established itself in American English and has begun to make a few inroads into British English as well. Even so, your use of it especially in writing is likely to be called a mistake. Home in or in figurative use zero in is an easy alternative.

No

The fightback is probably futile, but we will resist as long as possible.

 

[slow horse]

I have the house to myself at the moment, and am trying to write something, with all the winnowing of excess wordage that comes with such an endeavour.

That's right: I hone alone.

 

[DaveReading]

But if you were listening to a complicated piece of music and wanted to isolate the bass line in your head, you would hone in on the bass line.

Only if it contained too many sharps.

 

[grldtnr]

Is that Sharps , or sharks, wouldn't want one of them in my head!

 

[mustang1]

Any of the current Amazon adverts.

There's one where the guy sings "the world needs love, sweet love, then he sings the same line again, and then finally again".

The next Amazon advert, I have no idea what the lady is saying, but then there is a "woohoo" and then another "wooooo" and then a other "woooooo"... Oh bugger off.