A pet peeve should be like a pet theory or a pet story — a tic or fancy that you nurture in your bosom and make your own. You can have a pet peeve about people who mispronounce “mascarpone.” But it’s odd to use the phrase for off-the-rack gripes that everybody shares. Saying that you have a pet peeve about “thinking outside the box” or “Your call is important to us” is like saying you have a pet theory that you should feed a cold and starve a fever.