#834 Eating or drinking after brushing your teeth

Smile now, you won't be soon.

You want to ruin the taste of something you love? Clean your teeth first. Mission accomplished.

My personal least favorite combination with toothpaste? Orange juice. Bleh.

It's just slightly annoying.

#844 Texting with greasy fingers

Your phone cringes when the waiter
brings your greaseburger out.

Greasy food and texting don't really mix. Go nosh on some fries while you text a buddy. Even if you're texting correctly with no big problems, you still can't feel good about the grease that's very clearly being smeared all over your screen or keyboard.

It's just slightly annoying.

#851 Stepping in gum

You know it the second you do it and you're faced with a rather disgusting choice. Do you pick off the used gum that may have been frying in the sun all day? Or do you just let it be and feel the stickiness in every other step you take? It's a lose-lose situation.

Gum throwers of the world, stop throwing your gum on the ground!

It's just slightly annoying.

#853 Pop-Tart crust

Ah, Pop-Tarts, the snack that many of us have grown up on as a kid. Your cinnamon sugar filling has always satisfied. Your strawberry goo has never let us down. How much time was spent, mouth salivating as we stared at the toaster oven waiting for you to cook, we will never know. It's a shame you were just a bit flawed. It's a shame you had to bite through the dry flavorless crust to get to your flavorful center. We tried avoiding the problem, we really did. Breaking the crust off really cut your surface area down quite a bit and it also took 30 seconds of our mornings that could have been spent watching cartoons. We'll still stand by you, Pop-Tarts, but it's time to lose the weight and cut the crust handles.


It's just slightly annoying.

...but thanks for the awesome breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack, Kellogg's.

#855 Underpopping the bag of popcorn

If you peek into the bag and see this,
you've done something terrible wrong.

There's a feeling of failure and disappointment when you open the bag of popcorn you just made only to find way too many kernels unpopped. You underpopped the bag. You failed to turn those caterpillars into butterflies and now you have to live with the consequence.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. You enjoy gnawing on those kernels. Most of us do enjoy a kernel or two, but definitely not a kernel or 30.

It's just slightly annoying.

#886 People who don't eat the crust

How are you going to eat 95% of your food and just leave the rest? In some countries, that's punishable by death (citation needed). It's only a few more bites. Delicious bites.

You people may be slightly annoying but I am slightly grateful for you. 10 times out of 10, I will be the guy that asks...you gonna eat that? Chances are that if I asked you, I know you're one of these people. That crust is mine, thank you.

It's just slightly annoying.

#888 Not being able to touch anything after eating wings

Mmmm...chicken wings. It's amazing that this food's sauce can render our hands useless. After our hands are covered in sauce, we abandon our opposable thumbs and we pick things up with the awkward wrist grab. You know the one.

The awkward "my hands are covered in sauce" wrist grab is simple. Put your arms out straight in front of you. Turn them so that each palm is facing each other. Point your palms straight out in front of you. Pick things up not with your hands, but instead by placing them in between your wrists. Be sure to fumble around with whatever your picking up, dropping it several times and knocking over over things in the process.

It's just slightly annoying.

#894 The chip-to-air ratio in a bag of chips

A display of delicious chips? More like
a display of bitter deception.

The ultimate deception lies within your standard bag of chips. It's no secret that any given bag of chips, regardless of its size, is 60% full of air and 40% full of chips. Even those percentages are extremely generous. How have we stood by and let this happen for so long? The first chip company to make transparent bags, so we can really see what we're buying, will make a loyal customer out of me.

It's just slightly annoying.

#895 Soggy hoagies

Looks perfect, right? We won't know
until we get our hands on this bad boy.

Regardless of what you may call it, a hoagie or a sub or a grinder, it can be agreed upon that a soggy sandwich can turn a great eating experience into a slightly annoying one. Is it our own fault for piling too much into one sandwich or, if we are ordering one, is it the sandwich creator's fault for using bad bread or going too heavy on the condiments? There is no clear answer to that question and there is no clear remedy for the problem. If you see that your delicious sandwich has succumbed to sogginess, prepare for sticky hands and a meal that crumbles in your hands and try to make the best of it. You will live to see another day and another sandwich; there's always next time.

It's just slightly annoying.

#897 Eating a caramel apple

It just doesn't feel right to call this slightly annoying. We must face the truth though. As delicious as caramel apples are, you know it's going to end in sticky fingers, gunk in your teeth, nuts all over the floor, and a stick to dispose of.

Caramel apples should be like Fun Dip, where everything is edible and nothing is too sticky. A child's dream come true.

It's just slightly annoying.

#914 Unusable broken chips at the bottom of the bag

All guilty of hiding unusable broken chips.

You can't reach them. You can't dip them. You can't even pick them up with your hands. The best you can do is turn that bag upside down and enjoy the pieces of chips as they cut your throat on the way down. Mmmmmm.

They should make a bag that can't crinkle. Problem solved.


It's just slightly annoying.

#924 When people only eat the liquid part of the salsa

This goes out to all of the people who do the salsa dip instead of the salsa scoop. You navigate your way around the salsa, making sure not to get any of the actual salsa ingredients on your chip, but instead just the pool of "salsa juice" that surrounds the good stuff. If you are this person, you tread dangerous waters. All of your navigating could result in a broken chip in the salsa, and we all know that's bad news.

It's not a tomato soup. It's salsa. It's time to man up and go for the scoop. You'll be happy you did; I assure you it's delicious.

It's just slightly annoying.

#928 The size of free cups of water

Contrary to this photograph, Starbucks is
 not guilty of this slight annoyance.
You get the picture though.

We need water to survive. Water comprises 60% of our bodies. This earth is almost entirely covered in water. Everyone likes water. Literally, everyone.

Regardless of how much we love water, when we order a cup of water at most restaurants and food establishments, we are given an undersized cup of water. This water cup is smaller than its soda-filled counterparts and unfulfilling over the course of the meal. This inadequately sized cup leads to a lot of waiting time for refills and an unhappy food experience altogether.

It's just slightly annoying.

#931 Black licorice

I don't care what country you hail from, what ethnicity you are, what you believe in or anything of that sort...everyone knows that black licorice, and black licorice flavored things, is the worst kind of candy out there. It has a taste that can't quite be put into words, but if I had to try, it would be something like "bleeghh." How could such a licorice be sold in stores? My theory is that it's not sold at all; black licorice is just red licorice gone bad. Instead of taking it off the shelves, candyshop owners just leave it there and get lucky when the few people in the world that eat black licorice decide to buy some.

Maybe you need to be 65 years old or older to enjoy black licorice, because it seems like a lot of older generations don't seem to mind. Any 65 year old readers out there care to comment? Back in their day though, you had to walk 15 miles, uphill, in the blizzarding snow if you wanted to go to the candy store; any candy was probably worth it.

It's just slightly annoying.

#948 When a lemon seed falls to the bottom of your drink

When a lemon seeds falls to the bottom of your drink, it's not only slightly annoying, but it's also slightly dangerous. We have to sip our drink in the constant fear that the lemon seed is going to zip up through the straw, get lodged in our throat and kill us. Don't act like that's not crossing your mind when you see that seed falling gracefully and slowly to the bottom of your glass. I, for one, would rather not sip my drink in constant fear.

Luckily, there's a solution to this problem. A solution that requires physics and actual skill. This solution consists of jabbing the seed with your straw, so it's stuck across the submerged end of the straw. Once you have it cornered, you can begin the extraction. To extract said lemon seed, pucker up and suck that straw fairly hard, forcing the seed to be stuck to the end of your straw, allowing you to do the suck-and-lift technique to bring it to the top. Don't get lazy as you lift up, because there's still the challenge of getting past the ice and then holding the seed there out in open air. Once you've successfully extracted the lemon seed, high fives are in order. Congratulations, you cheated death.

It's just slightly annoying.

#955 Having a hole in your straw

This child would simply not have the
strength required to drink through
a broken straw.

Drinking through a straw is great. Drinking through a straw that has a hole/slit in it, not so much. The drinking experience is just not the same. Prepare to pucker those cheeks extra hard to get your delicious drink out of that cup because you're gonna work for this drink.

Sure, the solution is obvious, get a new straw. But that requires energy that you and I both know we don't want to use, especially after just using so much of it trying to suck up that drink through a damaged straw. What are we, made of energy? I think not.

It's just slightly annoying.

#964 Pouring cereal into a bowl and realizing there's no milk

Worst start to a day ever.

There's nothing like a nice bowl of cereal to fulfill your hunger. There's also nothing like the let down you feel when you come to the realization that there's no milk in the fridge. If you don't want to man up and go for the ol' OJ and cereal maneuver or eat dry carbohydratey cereal, there's always the simple solution of putting the bowl of cereal back into the box. Unfortunately, the simplest solution is also the messiest solution.

Enjoying picking your Cheerios up from all over the floor, especially after you step on a few by accident.

It's just slightly annoying.

#972 Food encroachment

A plate in danger of food encroachment.

Food encroachment isn't in everyday vocabulary and it's definitely not in the dictionary, but it should be. Here's a freebie for you Webster.

Food encroachment [food en-krohch-muh-nt]
noun
The act of one food (normally a condiment of sorts) infringing on another food.

This is pretty much the slightly annoying occurrence that happens on your plate when, for example, your gravy spills over from your turkey into your asparagus. Sometimes we do this to ourselves by accidentally placing a food too close to another food, and sometimes its an act of God at work. Regardless, you usually end up with an unwanted food combination that's not the end of the world, but still kind of sucks. When you put that ketchup on your plate for your fries, little did you know that it would end up on your turkey club sandwich. Your best solution is to grab a french fry (or whatever food that condiment was intended for) and use it as an edible mop to mop up the invading condiment before it's too late. Edible cleaning supplies...mmmmmm.

It's just slightly annoying.

#973 The top and bottom piece of bread

What are you even supposed to do with this piece of bread? It looks so innocent from the reverse side, and then you flip it over and wow, would you look at that? It's just one giant piece of crust.

We all know the piece lurking at the bottom.

Here's a genius idea: make a loaf of bread, throw out the top and bottom piece, replace them with edible pieces of bread, sell it. I'll be your first buyer. Step your game up Wonder Bread.

It's just slightly annoying.

#977 Chips breaking off into the salsa

Isn't it great when two delicious foods come together and make one super mega delicious food? Brownies and ice cream, peanut butter and jelly, nachos and cheese, anything edible in this world and ranch, and a fan favorite, chips and salsa.

Chips and salsa may be a fan favorite, but when chips break off during a salsa scoop, our delicious snack's enjoyability and perfection goes Tiger Woods on us (no, you misunderstood me, our chips and salsa don't cheat on us and have sex with lots of other chips and salsa...it just goes from beloved and perfect to sad and depressing). Everything seems to be going so well with your delectable snack when all of the sudden you hear it. The "crack" of the chip breaking off into your salsa bowl. You look down, and there it is, your chip, sinking into the salsa like the Titanic in the Atlantic. If you act fast, you can quickly grab two more chips and do the scoop and rescue, but regardless of the outcome of your actions, you know that your chip will be too soggy to ever be the same again.

It's just slightly annoying.