CitCom: The View From My Place – Pet Peeves
August 28, 2026
Details
As summer comes to a close, Bob reflects on the importance of taking time to relax and meditate. But even in moments of reflection, there are still plenty of things that get under his skin. In this CitCom contribution, which Bob calls The View From My Place, he shares a short list of his pet peeves, political and otherwise.
CitCom is a community-driven series that invites local residents to share their perspectives on the issues that matter most to them. GNAT-TV is nonpartisan and does not endorse any political party or point of view. Our role is to provide a space for open, respectful dialogue and to encourage people to participate in local civic life. Interested in adding your voice? Learn how to host your own episode at gnat-tv.org/citcom.
Transcript
[00:00:25] Speaker 1: Pet peeves. [00:00:26] By the time your eyes fall upon these words, the summer of 2026 [00:00:30] will be winding down. [00:00:32] And man, did that go by fast. [00:00:34] John Lennon once said, life is what happens when you're busy [00:00:37] making other plans. [00:00:40] Chewer words never spoken. [00:00:44] As I sit here in Cape Cod and gaze out over a lovely salt [00:00:47] marsh, I reflect on how things [00:00:49] are going and how they have gone. [00:00:52] And I think about how fast things are happening and the [00:00:56] struggle to find a way to slow things down. [00:00:59] For those of you who can relate, I might suggest meditation. [00:01:04] I had the occasion to hang out with the nomad monk who was at [00:01:08] the Manchester Community Library a few weeks ago. [00:01:14] He led a small group in a meditation session. [00:01:17] It was perhaps one of the best things I've ever done. [00:01:22] Time gets pretty crazy when you meditate. [00:01:28] But even meditating cannot dissuade me from thinking about [00:01:32] the variety of things that I find either annoying, [00:01:37] disturbing, or simply drive me nuts. [00:01:43] Some refer to these things as pet peeves. [00:01:46] I don't care much what you call them. [00:01:49] I'd be more interested in finding a way to alleviate [00:01:52] and or eliminate them. [00:01:54] Here's my list in no particular order. [00:01:58] And I bet you'll have a few more that you could add to it. [00:02:03] Number one, [00:02:05] pedestrians walking the wrong way on the road. [00:02:09] At a very young age, I was taught by my mom that whenever I [00:02:13] walked on the road, I was always walk facing the traffic. [00:02:18] I was never to turn my back on motor vehicles. [00:02:21] Today, at least 50 % of the people I encounter walking on [00:02:26] the road are walking with traffic. [00:02:30] Who raised these people? [00:02:34] As if walking with your back to oncoming traffic [00:02:37] isn't bad enough. [00:02:40] I really get annoyed when a group of two or more people are [00:02:45] walking blindly in the middle of the road. [00:02:49] Perhaps the thought process is that if they're going to get run [00:02:52] over, they don't want to know about it in advance. [00:02:57] I couldn't hate them for that. [00:03:00] Number two, toothpaste. [00:03:02] Do we really need to be told to squeeze toothpaste starting [00:03:07] from the bottom of the tube? [00:03:10] Seriously? [00:03:12] Also, have you noticed that the new toothpaste no [00:03:16] longer rolls up? [00:03:18] It's all stiff. What's up with that? [00:03:22] Number three, the TV remote control. [00:03:25] I have a thing about knowing where my remote control [00:03:28] is for my TV. [00:03:30] I always keep it on the table right next to where I [00:03:32] sit to watch TV. [00:03:35] And I bet you do too. [00:03:37] I hate wasting what little time I have left hunting [00:03:41] for the darn thing. [00:03:43] However, whenever the grandkids show up, I can spend hours [00:03:48] searching for my remote control. [00:03:52] More often than not, I end up finding it stuffed way down [00:03:56] inside a piece of furniture. [00:03:58] When I raise this issue with any one of my four grandchildren, I [00:04:02] get that vacant stare [00:04:04] that implies they are contemplating the creation of [00:04:08] the universe, and they can't. [00:04:11] And why can't they see the dark side of the moon? [00:04:18] Number next, tariffs. [00:04:20] Yeah, so about this obsession the President has with tariffs, [00:04:26] along with multiple vanity projects and endless wars. [00:04:31] Have you all figured out by now that tariffs are nothing more [00:04:34] than the largest sales tax imposed on Americans [00:04:38] in our history? [00:04:39] Think about it. [00:04:41] The President willy -nilly decides one morning at 2 a .m. [00:04:45] that he doesn't like Canada [00:04:47] because they said something unflattering about it. [00:04:51] So he decides to tax Canada on their goods coming into America. [00:04:57] Great. [00:04:58] The tax revenues theoretically go to our Treasury. [00:05:02] Well, that's great too. [00:05:04] The additional cost is put on our businesses who [00:05:07] rightfully, in turn, [00:05:09] pass those costs onto who? [00:05:13] You guessed it. [00:05:14] You. [00:05:16] That would be a freaking sales tax. [00:05:20] Funny how I mistakenly thought that the party in power today [00:05:23] was the party of no new taxes. [00:05:28] My next pet peeve is endless wars. [00:05:31] After 75 years of being on this planet, I sort of thought we [00:05:35] might have learned something, [00:05:36] anything, from the Vietnam War. [00:05:39] Nope, I watched Russia go into Afghanistan and fight there [00:05:43] for nearly a decade. [00:05:45] They were smart enough to pull out. [00:05:46] And so America went in for two decades. [00:05:51] One might think that it'd be a good old slap upside the head. [00:05:56] But no, now the President on his own with no valid explanation is [00:06:00] taking it upon himself to start a war with Iran. [00:06:04] Does he not have a clue of the implications of his actions? [00:06:07] It would seem to me as though Steady Wonder could see that [00:06:11] this was A, a bad decision, [00:06:14] and B, a war that will go on for generations. [00:06:20] Not secretly putting the tops on jars is my next pet peeve. [00:06:26] Nothing more annoying than picking up a jar by the lid only [00:06:30] to have the contents splatter all over your feet. [00:06:34] Now, upon further investigation, I have just determined that on [00:06:40] the new impossible to roll up from the bottom tube [00:06:43] of Crest toothpaste, [00:06:45] that they have now eliminated the language describing how [00:06:48] you're supposed to extract toothpaste by rolling up the [00:06:52] tube from the bottom. [00:06:55] I guess I shouldn't be so cynical. [00:06:58] We're making some progress. [00:07:01] Happy end of summer. [00:07:02] Fall is coming right up, and we'll be stuck in the snow with [00:07:07] our all -seasons tires [00:07:08] that are really just summer tires with a little better grip. [00:07:12] We'll be stuck in no time. [00:07:16] I'm Bob Standard, and this is a view from my place. [00:07:19] Thanks for watching.
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