The Alphabet of Modern Annoyances

Steinberg, a reporter for the Chicago-Sun Times, takes aim here at 26 of his pet peeves ranging from advertising to zealot. Along the way he skewers such past or present personalities as Elvis and Oprah, firms such as Disney and McDonald's and bugaboos of modern life such as bureaucracy, journalism and traffic. As a country, Yugoslavia comes in for his barbed and not-so-funny asides. After excoriating the omnipresent Disney--corporation and cartoons--he concedes that it may really have meant to run an authentic Civil War theme park in Virginia but would have been as subtle as Bozo the Clown officiating at a wedding; sooner or later he'd bring out the bottle of seltzer. One of the funniest things about this book is that you can't always tell where the indignation stops and the humor takes over. This is sure to tickle anyone who ever had a pet peeve, unless it was the h-word (humor). (Dec.)