Another pet peeve -- the word "whatever". I cringe when I hear it, it is so overused, cliched and juvenile. It amazes me how many grown people will use this word as if it still had the freshness it possessed in 1972. Used as a sarcastic dismissal, it is enough to convince me totally that the person using it thus is totally lacking in intellect and wit. I think anyone who uses "whatever" in that manner should be made to pay a heavy fine to the grammar police.