A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1061

I’m reminded of my mother telling me that when my father’s breathing made her crazy, she knew it was time to get divorced.
-Ann Seligman, New York, New York (acseligman msas.net)

My husband cracked his knuckles incessantly. It drove me crazy; so after ten years of gritting my teeth (and wearing them down), I divorced him.
-Sherry Sisson, Westmont, New Jersey (sleesisson gmail.com)

When I married my husband, I had a difficult time putting up with his slurping soup! How have I adjusted? We’ve been married 56 years! I still hate the slurping, but somehow the “allergy” has gotten lost in the shuffle.
-Judy Sabatino, Girard, Ohio (memectp neo.rr.com)

I presume that the sound of fingernails screeching along the ol’ blackboard (for you young ‘ups, this was the predecessor of the ubiquitous white marker board) would characterize misophonia for many of us.
-Joe Galeota, Boston, Massachusetts (jgaleota gmail.com)

What sound drives me crazy? Whistling. Most people do it badly, off key or tunelessly, like a demented teapot. I’d rather listen to someone scrape their fingernails on a chalkboard.
-Jeanne Wetherington, Tampa, Florida (jwetherington1 verizon.net)

I don’t know why but what jangles my nerves the most is empty wire hangers jangling against each other in a closet. We have only wood or plastic hangers in our house. I have even replaced the wire hangers in a relative’s guest room because it is not a good start to a family visit.
-Janine Harris-Wheatley, Tottenham, Canada (janinehw20 gmail.com)

As a small child I hated to look at anybody’s feet and screamed when someone appeared to me barefooted.
-Agnes Stieda, Calgary, Canada (agnesvstieda gmail.com)

What annoys me? The sound of another person chewing! It is so weird. It is not physically painful, but it is as unpleasant as a bad headache. How do I handle it? I eat something. The sound of my chewing completely cancels the effect. So weird!
-Tony Dillof, Detroit, Michigan (dillof wayne.edu)

I can’t stand the sight (or noise) of someone chewing gum. Back in Baltimore, where I’m from, I rode buses everywhere, and it would annoy me no end to see a young woman, well turned out, groomed perfectly, loudly chewing and popping her gum.
-Mary Kaye Bates, West Palm Beach, Florida (wordlady1 comcast.net)

From Psychology Today: “Hate Noise? You Might Be a Genius”
-John Craw, Glenford, Ohio (thecrawh gmail.com)

I can’t tolerate human voices first thing when I get up, especially the artificially cheerful/upbeat voices of morning talk shows.
-Kathryn Smith (via website comments)

People in line at the store, especially those with cartful of stuff, who wait till the end to start looking for their wallets irritate and mystify me. Seriously, are they surprised there will be a need to pay or are they passive-aggressive?
-Lola Fields, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (thisoldwoman gmail.com)

I am from Hungary and was brought up to never wear a hat once inside someone’s house, and especially not at the table. I left Hungary 64 years ago, but to this day seeing someone (a man) in a hat or baseball cap at the table still irritates me. These days it is a daily annoyance.
-Peter Stangl, Palo Alto, California (petersss stanford.edu)

I learned in Japan that slurping soup (usually soba) was expected -- it spread the flavor in your mouth and cooled it at the same time. I totally loved doing it!
-Peter B. Ives, Albuquerque, New Mexico (pives unm.edu)

I’m driven nuts by ubiquitous piped-in music. It’s like an aural assault.
-Ellen D. Murphy, Brooklyn, New York (radochas gmail.com)

I find the following also unbearable: crackling candy wrappers, pen clicking, finger tapping, and any other ongoing and “unnecessary” noises. My understanding husband does his best, but he does love those giant hard pretzels!
-Elka Grisham, Madison, New Jersey (elkagrisham gmail.com)

Politicians (misotheocrats) who think they know what some imaginary god wants for America. Examples:

“Today we wake up in a state where the church doors are open and the abortion clinic’s doors are closed. All the Glory to God the Father! Amen!” (Tate Reeves, MS governor)
“Let’s bring back the basics: God, guns and glory!” (Kari Lake, candidate for the AZ governor)
“In November, we are going to take our state back, and God will make it so.” (Doug Mastriano, PA candidate for governor)

I overcome this intolerance by voting for their opponents or, if that’s not possible, contributing to the opposing candidate campaigns.
-Donald B. Ardel, Madison, Wisconsin (awr.realwellness gmail.com)

What annoys me? The semi-annual flip-floppery of standard time and daylight time. We can fiddle with our clocks all we want, but the Earth continues to rotate on its axis, ignoring us completely.
-Baruch E. Kahana, MD, Miami Beach, Florida (baruch.kahana yahoo.com)

Perfumes. Laundry detergents and soaps. Unnecessary scents that people add to just about everything. A positive outcome of Covid is that wearing a mask has helped with my hyperosmia.
-Bonnie House, Phillipston, Massachusetts (bonbon3444 gmail.com)

We live in the mountains in a beautiful forest and I love the sounds (and smells) of nature. The past few years the natural sounds and smells have been overpowered by the very loud and stinky motorized recreational vehicles that are tearing through the forests. I had found ways to appreciate my husband’s chewing sounds, happy that he was enjoying his food. So far I have not found a way to appreciate the sounds of recreational motors. I’d prefer to hear the song of the hermit thrush and breathe in the scent of the forest.
-Venice Kelly, Western Boulder county, Colorado (venicekelly555 gmail.com)

My life revolves around misophonia. Our daughter, 24, suffers from it. It’s actually a psychiatric condition related to OCD, which she also has. We can all eat together, and she can usually tolerate the sounds, but if someone is eating when she is not, the sounds overwhelm her. While food/mouth/nose noises are the primary triggers, there are others. As a senior in high school, when we were just realizing the breadth of the condition, she spent more time out of the Spanish classroom than in it due to an instructor who constantly jingled coins in his pocket or clicked his pen. My fidgeting makes her leave the room, and I can’t unload the dishwasher when she’s around due to the clinking of dishes and silverware. We have left stores and restaurants due to rattling of ventilation or hangers on racks or even dishes. Super-low bass in the sound systems of passing vehicles is intolerable. She tells us that all of these triggers produce “mental pain”, sometimes physical pain, and a strong fight-or-flight response in her, though normally she is easygoing and joyful.
-Laura Bell, Roseville, California (kiddogardener gmail.com)

The use of “myself” instead of “me” drives me insane. If you have any questions, call myself at 555-1212. Not only does it show an over inflated feeling of self worth, but a sad lack of proper grammar.
-Ursula Schleen, Sault Ste Marie, Canada (ursula.schleen sympatico.ca)

I really can’t stand hearing or reading confusion between cardinal and ordinal qualifiers. Even in respected newspapers one can read e.g. “less voters”. Did the journalist mean “lesser voters”, in the sense of “Children of a Lesser God”? A friend of mine who was an elementary school teacher used to tell her students that they wouldn’t ask for “less cookies and fewer milk”.
-Richard Burris, Alexandria, Virginia (r_w_burris comcast.net)

Pictures on a wall, or rugs on a floor, out to alignment with one another.
-Theo Reiner, Kelowna, Canada (theoisnow gmail.com)