Upside Down Under: Pet peeves...

We all have pet peeves that drive us absolutely nuts, right? It might be a wet dog shaking itself off on the couch or a delivery driver consistently delivering your packages to your neighbor. Let’s admit, we all have some.

I have some too, 10 in fact, that I’ll share with you in this article.

1.) Motorists not using blinkers: For some reason, people don’t use blinkers any longer, and I’m talking in heavy traffic. The biggest issue is when I want to turn left on a highway and someone is coming at me. I wait for them to pass, only to see them take a left turn also sans blinker. Irritating isn’t the word here!

2.) Sitting at a green light: Motorists will be stopped at a traffic light and when the light turns green, they continue to sit there… sometimes for up to 5 seconds, and again, this is in heavy traffic. It’s as if whoever is doing this is the only person on the road. Lay on the horn and then it becomes your fault.

3.) Blowing through red lights: I used to see this a lot during the oil boom when I worked on the Fort Berthold Reservation. Some drivers would completely disregard stop signs, even with oncoming traffic. That dangerous phenomenon faded away until recently. In the past few months,a I’ve noticed a lot of it and I don’t know why.

4.) Bringing the wrong food or beer: So, you go to an upscale bar and grill and you order a deluxe burger and a Moosehead beer. The meal comes out and it’s an egg salad sandwich and a Moose Drool. Or, if you go to a fast-food burger joint and you order a burger without mustard and onion rings. The food comes out and the burger has mustard, and you got french fries. What would you do?

5.) Passing the buck: It seems like fewer people in management positions are willing to take responsibility for mix ups. It always seems to be somebody else’s fault. You’re told you have to call this number. You dial it, explain the problem. Oh no, you have to call this number. You call the second number and they tell you to call the person you originally called. With higher pay and title comes greater responsibility, right?

6.) Mispronouncing place names: This one is actually kind of funny because when someone comes here who has no connection to us, you can’t really blame them for missing a pronunciation. For instance, Bryan Adams played at the North Dakota State Fair and when he took the stage, he said, “Good evening Minnow.” He got booed. What’s unacceptable, however, is TV and radio people who get it wrong. Part of their job is to learn or be told. Let’s see, Windmeer, Medeena, Pembeena, Belle Forchee, Pole ock, Bow bells, well, you get the picture. When in Rome, act like the Romans do.

7.) It’s the same in sports and politics. Names are frequently pronounced wrong. You’d think that after a day or two new reporters would get it right. Some go months and you still havethe wrong pronunciation. My own name has also been pronounced wrong… as in (Baaker). How hard is Baker to pronounce.

8.) Spelling words wrong in official documents: For eight years I taught officer candidates how to become Army lieutenants. Part of that teaching was to show them how important it is to get words spelled right in an official document. Let’s say the officer has to reprimand a soldier and documents it. But when the soldier reads it, there are numerous misspellings. That instantly damages the credibility of that officer. And, if they don’t understand it right away, they’ll be doing it when they’re a captain and that could be devastating to an officer’s career. It doesn’t happen a lot anymore, but it was once a big issue.

9. Terrible geography: Is geography taught in schools anymore? Americans are so bad at geography, it’s almost scary. One night I watched Jimmy Fallon and he had a reporter on the street asking questions. One of them was “Where is North Dakota?” The guy’s response, “isn’t that over by Chicago someplace.”

Our daughter’s birthday was in February. We told other family members at a gathering in Bismarck that she and her best friend were going to Regina to celebrate. Some said they had never heard of it…. That big city in western Canada that sits right atop North Dakota? Somebody missed that geography test.

People will ask me about my military career and part of it was spent at Fort Irwin, Calif. They’ll ask where is it because California is a big state. I’ll say it’s next to Barstow. “Nope, don’t know where that is.” OK, it’s close to Victorville. “Never heard of it.” Well then, does San Bernardino ring a bell? “I’ve heard of it, but don’t know where it is.” Do you know where Los Angeles is located?

10.) People telling me I can’t grow something in North Dakota: I’ve been growing unusual plants within reason and getting bounty for the past 18 years and “experts” still tell me I can’t grow it here, such as okra, peanuts or even cantaloupe. There are tricks we can use to get a lot of things to grow here. It’s not a cookie-cutter process. It just takes a little ingenuity.