Poll | 01/28/2009 12:00 am

What habit most disgusts you?

Read more about: Bad Habits, Culture, Pet Peeves

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Perhaps true. But at least the fumes are outside - more spread out - and therefore less suffocating…as opposed to thick walls being formed in enclosed spaces. ;-)

By Kryssi K on 01/28/2009 6:49 pm

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Merrell, I speak on breathing disorders, and the early signs of … and one thing that I bring up is the critical importance of citizens demanding an environmental impact study, with a public report, before any new highway, road, or housing development is allowed to be planned, not built, but even planned. Exhaust fumes, sustainable ag access, location, prior land management, et al. We are killing ourselves. Right now, breathing disorders are the 3rd leading cause of death in the world, soon to be 2nd by 2012. Anyone who has suffered respiratory failure can tell of the horrific pain involved - I’ve had cancer more than once, and nothing comes close to respiratory distress, or much less acute breathing impairment. One specialist told me that “we can keep the heart beating … but we cannot make the lungs work - we can provide oxygen, and air, but not make the lungs work … the body screams … ” You bet. One example - Just look at new roads and highways, for example. Within 2 years there are tire impressions on them - Arizona’s roads are a good example because the areas are new. They need repaving. Where do people think that surfant went to? We breathed it in. Push is coming to shove - hence, respiratory therapists are in great demand right now, and will be for the next 50 years, at least (we’ll be on telemetry by then, but … ). It is one of the top careers (at all levels) for people to go in to at any age (hospital courses are a great option for those starting out without a Baccalaureate degree). I love those people!

By C jay on 02/01/2009 12:29 am

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Gum chewing. I find this habit very annoying. I don’t care if the mouth open or not, it looks awful.

By Peggy Sue on 01/28/2009 5:13 am

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Smoking bothers me the most to be around it, spitting is the most disgusting but what will just plain drive me crazy is when I am sitting somewhere and a person keeps tapping their fingernails or their foot. I want to nail them down.

By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 01/28/2009 6:11 am

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Oh, Kryssi and others for whom smoking is a dastardly deed I do understand how offensive and intrusive the habit is, but I also revel in those black and white movies of earlier days when everyone lit up with such wild abandaon, guilt monsters locked in their caves. As soon as the movie starts,I announce, ‘Let the smoking begin!’ I quit three years ago after many years of banishment to the garage by my family. I checked ‘eating with one’s mouth open,’ a practice strongly frowned upon in my family; not so much in my husband’s. Of course, he has been broken, but his family, dear as they may be, chomp along. When my children were much younger, and we were dining with my husband’s family, their little eyes would dart over to me as though to ask, ‘My gosh, woman, aren’t you going to do something about this? AND elbows on the table?’ On my daughter’s last visit home, as we dined, she stared at her father and me, ‘You two need to eat more quietly. That’s really annoying.’ My work here is done. Peace and grace

By beth willis on 01/28/2009 6:38 am

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Spitting is the worst for me. A lot of men in my area still chew tobacco. They spit all the time, I just hate to see it.

By Jeannot Kensinger on 01/28/2009 6:53 am

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Totally agree - worse - and sexist - are women who spit. I’ve heard it’s totally taboo in Japan. I like how they wear masks also. Call me germ freak I can’t help it.

By Connie Godin on 01/28/2009 7:35 pm

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Jeannot, i have to confess this - once, trying to avoid tearing my hair out, while a man kept “doing that” I finally mustered my strength, and after his knew spew, I asked him aloud if he’d ever tried to “do that against the wind.” He stopped.

By C jay on 02/01/2009 12:33 am

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Open mouth chewing literally turns my stomach. I think it bothers me more than the rest that were mentioned because in the circumstance under which I’m subjected to it I can’t just walk away.

By Sherrie Crews on 01/28/2009 8:04 am

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I hate gum chewing, especially when they pop it and it sounds like a gun going off. Gross and rude!

By Diana T on 01/28/2009 5:28 pm

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I know this probably isn’t normal but I can’t stand to see pubic hair on public toilet seats…now that is disgusting to me.

By thatsoutherngirl k on 01/28/2009 8:11 am

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Understand completely. It’s one think to know that a thousand people a day are using the toilet you’ve chosen. It’s another to see the evidence.

By Keeping It Real on 01/28/2009 10:37 am

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Think I’d have to go with ‘public’ spitting……….a filthy habit. I do have another pet peeve though and like a previous post it is regarding ‘women’s public rest room’ behaviors and is not listed in the poll but is none the less a source of great irritation. I have long ago decided that women, in the main, are ‘pigs’ in regard to the use of ‘public restroom facilities’. Nothing, nothing annoys me more than to have need to use such only to find the seats spattered with urine from women who consider themselves too ‘pristine’ to place the provided seat covers on the seat and sit while attending to their needs, preferring instead to “hover” and “aim”……..not something we are “designed” to do well I would suggest…….and something that even we/those who are in good physical condition find challenging. These same “pristine princesses” haven’t a care about leaving the evidence of their incompetent “aim” for anyone coming behind to ‘take care of’; trashy, tacky. gauche.

By mc daniels on 01/28/2009 8:15 am

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MC - this has been my absolute pet peeve for years! how many times i’ve run into a public restroom and not thought to look and landed on some other woman’s urine! i’m always mind boggled that the crouchers who consider themselves “above” (literally) sitting on a public toilet seat can’t bother themselves to wipe their piss off! for those of you who think that you shouldn’t sit on public toilet seats… i’ve sat in your left overs for years and haven’t got any disease! sit down or wipe off…

By Chrome Toe on 01/28/2009 8:20 am