Did you know . . .

The term “pet peeve” was popularized in part by the cartoonist that created the comic strip “Gasoline Alley?”

A “peeve” is basically an annoyance and your pet peeve is personal to you – not everyone gets as annoyed as you. 

Here are a few of my pet peeves:

Jewlery

It drives me bonkers (and yes I know that’s a short drive) when I hear someone, especially jewelers pronounce the word J-E-W-E-L-R-Y as jew-lery. It sounds like a Jewish person possesses something called a “lury.”  I looked it up and found that a lury is a type of squid, so perhaps a jewlery is a store that Squidward’s favorite aunt owns.

To clarify, the word is jewelry.  Jewel-ry. 

Sending in the Calvary?

Fortunately, this is not one you hear very often. In case you didn’t know though, you can’t send in a Calvary because Calvary is a place. One that happens to be outside of Jerusalem, by the way.  A cavalry on the other hand, is a bunch of soldiers on horseback. 

In short, you can send the cavalry into Calvary, but you cannot send the Calvary into the cavalry. I hope that clears things. If not, I’ll send in the English cavalry. 

I Could Care Less

If you can care less, go right ahead and do so. I’m not sure why it matters that you can care less, but to each his own . . .

On the other hand, if you couldn’t care less, then there is no lower level of caring attainable by you, and that may matter to the parties with whom you’re communicating. 

I know, these are petty little grammar and pronunciation mistakes that oodles of people make and as my mother used to say, “What’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?” 

Absolutely nothing, but they still irk me. That’s why they’re my pet peeves. 

On a separate note, perhaps the next time we adopt a dog we’ll name it “Peeve” just so I can say I have a pet “Peeve.”

Stepping off my soapbox now – have a great day today and thanks for reading my rant.