It's partly because they're filled with holes, telephone boxes, grates, craters, broken glass, trees, pedestrians, parked cars, waiting cabs and litter bins; but mostly because they stop and start suddenly, up on high kerbs, so to get off the road and on to them safely I'd have to master some nifty manoeuvre to do with quantum bi-location, atomic wormholes and halting earth time.
"What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable," he said, adding that the closures were "completely inappropriate and unsanctioned".All the same, the news grates against his image as a man who is abrasive, sure, but on behalf of the little guy.
Even in Anglophile Germany, which is facing its own anti-immigration backlash, this grates.
But the mixture of flashy displays of wealth with football grates.
Cowen grates The sultan and the vizier The final furlong Feeling a bit fragile Back from the brink A commission report-card Reprints Related items French politics: Behind the scenesSep 21st 2009 France's Clearstream affair: Villepin v SarkozyDec 4th 2008For Mr Sarkozy, the affair is proof of a plot at the highest level to discredit him and thwart his chances of becoming president in 2007.
But it is not only her policies that people dislike, nor is it only extremists who dislike her.For many, it is Mrs Clinton's personality that grates.
Cowen grates The sultan and the vizier The final furlong Feeling a bit fragile Back from the brink A commission report-card Reprints Related items Germany's election: A change of partners?Sep 17th 2009Ms Maag's bid to unseat Stuttgart North's SPD representative in the Bundestag strikes few sparks in part because the CDU and SPD are partners in Germany's present "grand coalition".
Several gardens overflow with rubbish, and the ground floor of one high-rise block is sealed off with metal grates to keep out vandals.Yet dotted among the half-century-old buildings are a few bright new homes, with large parking spaces, carefully tended gardens and solar panels on the roofs.
Even so, it grates that senior officials so rarely seem embarrassed by apparent conflicts of interest.
In good times, few Americans notice these things, but in bad times, the disparity grates.
The media's fawning coverage of Mr Putin grates.
