How's it goin, Sport?

Someone was complaining about being called "Hon" or "Sweetie" by people they don't know. They felt quite put upon, and had a lot to say about how it annoyed them. I think they need to lighten up.

People are going to treat us badly -- whether on purpose or not. It's a fact of life. As I see it, we can consider others' bad behaviour toward us as falling into one of five arbitrary tiers:

Level 5: Torture, Rape, pillage, murder.
Level 4: Mugging, assault, stalking, destruction of property.
Level 3: Threats, insults, trash talk.
Level 2: Subtle social putdowns, intentional rudeness masquerading as courtesy.
Level 1: Being called Buddy, Guy, Pal, Chum, Chief, Hon, Sweetie by well-meaning but clueless people.

If your life is so great that all you have to worry about is Level 1 offenses -- or even Level 2 or 3 -- then be grateful and move on ahead. Life is short, and then you're dead -- so don't worry, be happy.

Disclaimer: The above sounds very smug and self-satisfied, like I'm always completely level-headed and nothing ever annoys me. I am pretty calm, but we all have little stuff that bugs us, and I'm no exception. But I just can't see getting my knickers in a twist about something like this, that's generally so well-meant and innocuous.