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Words/Phrases You're Sick Of Hearing?


Snake45

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I'm thinking there must be a link between the open-kimono concept and the identification and accessing of low-hanging fruit...

Now that you mention it, it would just be my luck that all the wrong ones would pick up on the concept. I think I'll just keep the OK thing to myself....:huh:

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"Lipstick on a pig." I haven't actually heard this one for a while, but it's on my mind this morning for some reason. I just have a funny feeling that we'll ALL be sick of this one at some point in the next four, five months. :lol:

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"Stance". Something about that word just makes my skin crawl. But as far as irritating phrases, the most irritating one I encounter here is "Has anyone built..."...... NO, NOBODY EVER BUILT one of those kits; every last one of them is still sealed up and locked in a vault waiting for the big BANG part 2 so we can unload them for millions of bucks. Look, I get it; you wanna know what to expect when building it... so search the kit reviews or be a brave little toaster and dive right into it yourself.

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Having spent most of my adult life in the military I have a bunch of words and phrases I'm tired of hearing but I will mostly stick with the ones that have made the jump to the mainstream.

"Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions." It sounds like you are empowering your people but what your really doing is shirking your responsibility to teach somebody how to solve a problem. If the guy had a solution he wouldn't be telling you about the problem in the first place, he'd be telling you that he fixed it. This is a good way to get the people that work for you to stop telling you about problems.

"It is what it is." Yeah, only if you are to lazy to do everything you can to make it what it's supposed to be.

"Living the Dream". The guys that live in one of the berthing areas on my current ship say this so often we started calling that berthing "Inception".

And one that you may have never heard unless you've spent time in the military. When doing a comms check in the old days the response would be 5x5, these days everybody says "Lima Charlie". If you ask why they will tell you its short for Loud and Clear (phonetic alphabet L = Lima, C = Charlie) and then they look at you like your stupid when you point out it actually takes longer to say 4 syllables then to say 3. 

 

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... they look at you like your stupid when you point out it actually takes longer to say 4 syllables then to say 3.

 

I've often noted the same thing about "VW" and "Volkswagen." :lol:

Thought of another one for the list: "pop." I'm tired of colors, fonts, styles, anything that's supposed to "pop." When everything pops, nothing does.

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I just saw someone in another post mention "testers" when they meant "Testors".  GRRRRRRRR!  That one drives me nuts (and I don't want to hear "auto-correct" as an excuse - this mistake has been made long since before schmart-phones were around).  If you use a company's product, learn how to spell the name correctly! :angry:

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Phrase: "get your/my (whatever) on." Really?

Almost any phrasing that makes you sound like a brain-damaged teenager; there's so much of it out there now, I can't even think of it all.

Anything that steps around the truth- I have no problem with trying to avoid escalating bad situations or trying, as much as possible, to avoid causing someone unnecessary pain or upset, but we've become so PC'd, that we're afraid to speak anymore. I find that very disturbing.

And then...my one of my favorite words to hate- "selfie." 

And, to go along with it, one of, if not the worst song, ever recorded. To its (dis?)credit, it perfectly encompasses everything about modern society that royally ticks me off. 

Charlie Larkin

Edited by charlie8575
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IMG 3964

And here's one that drives me completely nutz...  It's friggin  $5  The dollar sign goes before the digit.   I can understand someone from another country doing this since some currencies are expressed this way... but these guys are American born,  American raised,  have been in stores for most of their lives and they didn't notice  $5!

I'm completely with you on this, Tom. I remember seeing kids who were from here that did that, and I'd constantly correct them.

I've even seen packaging in stores feature that, and it's not a foreign product. Drives me bananas. 

Charlie Larkin

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Carlin was one of the best observers of the ordinary.

I ran across this joint a couple of years ago while in the South Bronx. The guy who owns this deli paid some serious change for the neon sign in the window. You should have seen the expression on his face when I pointed out that it's "Doughnuts" or "Donuts", not "Donnas" and it's "Bagels" since he sells more than one kind. I also mentioned that the sign maker owed him a comma. 

CoffeeDonnasBagelAndMore.thumb.JPG.f318a 

That's sad.

By the way- I looked up Coney Island whitefish. Ain't no way I'm cookin' with that! :blink:

Charlie Larkin

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Comparing language to a mechanical device is a stretch, at best, but the analogy holds fairly well.

Let's take the '57 Corvette as an example. Fuel-injection replaced the previous carburettor (English spelling), performed essentially the same function as the old part, functioned better in some respects, and was bolted together and to the engine with similar hardware (fasteners). The transmission was also upgraded with the substitution of the Borg-Warner T-10 4-speed box, again something that performed essentially the same function as the earlier part, but did it slightly differently and better. It was also held on and held together with the same kinds of fasteners.

Is the '57 Corvette not "correct"? Well, only if you hold the '56 version as the perfect example of "Corvetteness".

Now let's look at today's C7 Corvette. All the same basic parts are still there, they perform essentially the same function as a whole, but not a single one of them will interchange from a 2016 to a '57...except MANY of the fasteners.

The evolution of any system, when things work right, increases the "fitness" of the system (whether car or language or animal) to perform its task efficiently and well, as long as the purpose and function of the system is understood and defined.

I insert the caveat "when things work right" because sometimes evolution creates dead-ends. Both the panda and the koala have evolved to rely on a very specific diet. Their evolution has been too narrowly focused, and has created species too specialized to survive for long in a changing environment.

Likewise, the evolution of the Corvette has taken it from being a vehicle that was easy to maintain and as reliable a brick for as much as 63 years...assuming it was maintained...to a vehicle that's insanely complicated and heavily dependent on technologies that change so fast as to make it obsolete almost overnight, and WILL make it very difficult to keep running in its present form in another 63 years.

Evolution of language should focus on its fitness as a vehicle enabling communication. If a slightly different use of the word "build" is an improvement to the ease with which an idea can be communicated accurately, I see no rational reason to try to block it.

On the other hand, office-speak and political-speak exist primarily as means to AVOID actual communication of ideas and thoughts accurately. Those are the things I'd send the language police after.B)

 

 

 

Agreed.

Absolutely, completely, without reservation, agreed upon.

Charlie Larkin

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Her's an interesting story regarding auto insurance.

I got a call from Allstate (or was it State Farm?)... one of those two. Anyway, they wanted to give me a quote on auto insurance. So I said fire away! But you aren't going to beat the rate that Geico is charging me.

And here's the weird part... they asked me what car I was insuring. So I told them, 2007 Mustang GT. And here's the really weird part: they told me that they do not insure my car! Yep, they flat out refused to offer me insurance based on the car I own.

Needless to say, I was pretty shocked. If my car is some sort of "high risk" car, you'd think they would jump at the chance to insure me and stick me with some outrageous premium! But no... they just said that insurance for my car was not available.

I believe.

The big boys won't even talk to me. 

Why?

My newest car is 21 years old. In simple language, they can't make any money off of me.

I also have the added problem that I live in Massachusetts, where no insurance company wants to do business. 

I have it form a smallish company, Safety, that only does business in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

And two cars (1995 Buick, 1992 Chevy,) cost me less than $1000/year with slightly upgraded coverage and comprehensive fire/theft/glass (cheap- one windshield pays for it.) 

Charlie Larkin

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When I worked in construction, there were five stages to a project:

-Anticipation (while preparing the bid)

-Apprehension (after submitting the bid)

-Search for the guilty (when the bid turned out to be too low)

-Punishment of the innocent (when it was realized that the screwup was made by someone's relative)

-Accolades for the uninvolved

Trust me, it applies in almost every industry.

Charlie Larkin

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