This NYT piece looks at dealing with any number of issues that bring avoidable stress into one's life.

And afterwards, I ask for advice on coping with one of my pet peeves! :)

An excerpt:

hen Seth Shepsle goes to Starbucks, he orders a "medium" because "grande" - as the coffee company calls the size, the one between big and small - annoys him.

Meg Daniel presses zero whenever she hears a computerized operator on the telephone so that she can talk to a real person. "Just because they want a computer to handle me doesn't mean I have to play along," she said.

When subscription cards fall from magazines Andrew Kirk is reading, he stacks them in a pile at the corner of his desk. At the end of each month, he puts them in the mail but leaves them blank so that the advertiser is forced to pay the business reply postage without gaining a new subscriber.

Life can involve big hardships, like being fired or smashing up your car. There is only so much you can do about them. But far more prevalent - and perhaps in the long run just as insidious - are life's many little annoyances.

These, you can do something about.

To examine the little weapons people use for everyday survival is to be given a free guidebook on getting by, created by the millions who feel that they must. It is a case study in human inventiveness, with occasional juvenile and petty passages, and the originators of these tips are happy to share them.

My pet peeve is being upsold on popcorn, that fantastic profit centre for movie theatres.

Usually, a small is just fine for me, as is a small pop. But then some 17-year-old will earnestly say, "Would you like to get the medium for 50 cents more? It's twice the popcorn."

If I don't have a splitting headache, it's easy to brush off.

If I do have a splitting headache, it becomes tougher.

If I have a splitting headache, and the kid doesn't take no for an answer, the conditions have been established for a potentially volatile response.

So folks, if you're dealing with some eager beaver kid who is determined to up-sell you so he can make deputy assistant napkin manager, what is the socially preferred way to do it -- and what is the dark fantasy way? :)