Hype the Gripe: Pet Pee-ves and Other Annoyances

Last year, a nationally representative survey, reported by no less an authority than Consumer Reports, found that we Americans are annoyed by many of life's little complaints (being surveyed about them apparently did not make the top-ten list).   That list runs from hidden fees to inaccurate weather forecasts and reveals as much about our public wrath as it does our personal foibles.

The cure for many of these complaints is beyond modern science, but some of them seemed easy enough to remedy.  Like putting all of the very slow drivers (complaint #12) in traffic jams (#14).  They won't know the difference. Or putting tailgaters (#3) in the same lane with speeding drivers (#19).  They can chase each other to oblivion.  And speaking of oblivion, how about pairing complaint #4 cell phone use by drivers and discourteous cell phone use (#8) with #13 unreliable cell-phone service -- no service, no obnoxious talking-while-driving.  Bingo.

The synergy seems endless - how about putting noisy neighbors (#15) next to shouting on TV or radio show viewers (#17)?  Or using shrunken products (#11) to solve the problem of dog poop (#6). One estimate puts the average dog's contribution at 276 pounds per year. Less in the bag, fewer trips to the potty.

It appears that complaints about dog waste have been piling up for years, and the matter is getting out of hand, so to speak.  Things are coming unwrapped.  In Massachusetts, an apartment manager is using doggie-DNA to apprehend the canine culprits and fine their irresponsible owners.  And in Virginia, of all freedom-loving places, a woman recently gave new meaning to the people's business.  In her Circuit Court testimony, she accused a doggie defendant of wasting her neighborhood with its unclaimed land mines. 

In a huge win for privy privacy, the judge believed the owner's claim that she always obeyed the local popper-scooper law. Without asking for cheek swabs or saliva tests, he at least cleared the court's docket if not the neighbor's lawn.  

Ever since B.F. Skinner invented the pigeon, we Americans have been searching for the right mix of negative reinforcement and punishment to avert irresponsible human behavior.  Short of death, deterrence is not an easy thing to achieve.  

Leave it to little Loganville-Grayson, Georgia to provide us with a worthy alternative.  The town paper recognizes random acts of kindness and is creating a kindness community that everyone is invited to join.  In fact, towns all over Georgia are asking their denizens to practice and report such acts of kindness.  

Now, that's positive reinforcement worth scooping up.