READERS SAY they're tired of people talking on cell phones or to each other inside movie theaters, development's toll on greenery, long traffic signals, people who abandon pets and those with boom boxes in their cars so loud they shake up the nights.

And that's just the start.

Recently, I asked readers to get out of their winter blues by sharing some gripes and some grins, things that drive them crazy and things that make them smile.

Today, I share as many of the gripes responses as there's room for.

I'll wind up this latest reader write-in with a similar sampling of the grins on Sunday.

Julie Young of Stafford County is tired of hearing people talk on cell phones in movies, and thinks other patrons need to confront them directly.

She said that when people talk during a show at the local cineplex, we should all "politely ask them to be quiet and then if they won't, get the manager.If more people would stand up to these morons, maybe they'd get the message that their behavior is unacceptable."

Catherine Cheek of Spotsylvania County said her gripe is the drop in quality of appliances.

She pointed out that in year's past, appliances lasted. A friend's mother, she noted, is upset at having to replace a 40-year-old dryer; her own father still uses a vacuum cleaner purchased more than 20 years ago.

By contrast, said Cheek, she bought a new clothes dryer five years ago and just had to replace it when the dryer's motor died.

"And as I write this gripe, my 5-year-old vacuum cleaner is about to croak," she said. "What's up with quality these days?"

Marie A. Grozzi of Stafford wonders why every sketch for new developments includes plenty of trees and bushes, but when it finally gets built, "You're lucky to have a couple of saplings. Why is it so difficult to keep some mature trees as a buffer, or to require that landscaping included in the approved site plan remain in force?"