So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[tonyb]

Unique *AND* one-of-a-kind!
(Let’s just acknowledge the battle is lost and surrender.)

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Unique *AND* one-of-a-kind!
(Let’s just acknowledge the battle is lost and surrender.)

View attachment 640223

Many decades back I used to work at a pipe and cigar shop. This store was in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC. This neighborhood is the oldest part of the city. It contained the houses of the powerful and famous (Jackie Kennedy, anyone?) and draws a large crowd of tourists walking by.

The store owner had furnished the store with display cases and cabinets salvaged from a nineteenth century pharmacy in Pennsylvania. The effect was to draw in people who didn't smoke but who were charmed by the "antiqueyness" of the place. In an effort to broaden his customer base he added knick-knacks to the inventory and promoted these in his mail order catalogue as being "unique, one-of-kind, and different", a lesson in synonyms for us all.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
The lovely missus and I speculate when watching a whodunit if someone will get fatally murdered to death before the first commercial break.

 

[ChrisB]

^^^^^
The lovely missus and I speculate when watching a whodunit if someone will get fatally murdered to death before the first commercial break.

I have a unique, one of a kind thesaurus.

 

[Trenchfriend]

whodunit

I learned a new term!

 

[tonyb]

Hey you, fellow at Costco hawking water heaters or furnaces or whatever, I know that everybody’s gotta make a living and I wouldn’t trade places with you. But my name ain’t “Boss,” nor is it “Bro.”

 

[tonyb]

September 20

 

[The one from the North]

September 20, Advent calenders...

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

September 20, Advent calenders... View attachment 641303

To be fair, it probably feels like December more of the year in Finland than in most places.
It always strikes me when I see English text in countries where English isn't the mother tongue.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Seasons Gratings! But then, Halloween doesn't come in July.

 

[The one from the North]

To be fair, it probably feels like December more of the year in Finland than in most places.
It always strikes me when I see English text in countries where English isn't the mother tongue.

After a record breaking heatwave in this September we are finally approaching normal autumn. Very strong possibility for night frost, days around 10°C.
With English, I agree, it does seem to be the Latin of our days. Still, it annoys me, especially that Moomin calender, I mean worldwide probably two most wellknown things from Finland are Moomins and Nokia!

 

[Benny Holiday]

Hey you, fellow at Costco hawking water heaters or furnaces or whatever, I know that everybody’s gotta make a living and I wouldn’t trade places with you. But my name ain’t “Boss,” nor is it “Bro.”

Oh you have that there, too, Tony? Must be a worldwide phenomenon.

 

[GHT]

September 20, Advent calenders... View attachment 641303

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...r-lays-festive-scenes-THREE-MONTHS-early.html

 

[Turnip]

You can't start milking the cow soon enough.

 

[tonyb]

Or, as my friend the late Phil Harper put it, it is the most holy of retail seasons.

 

[GHT]

You can keep this getting older malarkey, what is it about ageing and night time trips to the bathroom? Out of curiosity I looked it up: "Ageing is associated with anatomical and physiological changes of the urinary tract itself that predispose to increased urinary frequency without affecting urine volume."

That eloquent description gets it right on. No matter how much I abstain from liquids, hours before bedtime, no matter that I ensure, a safety pee, as Tina describes it, after night time ablutions, I can guarantee that my bladder will wake me up during the night. Tina, as always, had the last word on it. "It's better to wake up and pee," she said, "than it is to pee and wake up."

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Can anyone tell me what meaning "utilize" has that isn't sufficiently expressed by "use"? I've been listening to a recording of a trainer who has been repeating "we're going to utilize this or that technique/tool/algorithm" for days now.
The material covered is well organized and well presented, but he could save two syllables every time without omitting anything needed.

 

[GHT]

https://www.vappingo.com/word-blog/...e between use,Microsoft Word to draw pictures.
The link might help, chances are though it's no more than ten minutes of fame. I mean, how smart am I using three syllable words?

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

https://www.vappingo.com/word-blog/there-is-a-difference-between-the-words-use-and-utilize-and-you-really-should-know-it/#:~:text=Well, the difference between use,Microsoft Word to draw pictures.
The link might help, chances are though it's no more than ten minutes of fame. I mean, how smart am I using three syllable words?

Thanks for the link. Even using the most generous interpretation of "utilize", in the situation I'm seeing, the tools/techniques/algorithms the instructor describes are being used exactly in the way they were created to be used. So, his use of utilize is bizspeak.

My thought is that such lingo arises when a person with a marginal education attempts to sound more educated than he or she is by misusing longer words where the correct, shorter words are needed. By "marginal education" I don't mean people who have no, what we in the U.S. call "post-secondary education", mostly they do.

Another example that is "fingernails on the chalkboard" to me is the use of the reflexive pronoun "myself" when the proper word is "me", (e.g., "Please contact Ms. Smith or myself if you have any further questions.")

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
That’s it, I think. The more syllables, the more words, the more learned the speaker attempts to portray him- or herself.

And I agree that it’s not just the relatively uneducated who fall into that habit.

The best piece of advice in Strunk & White’s “The Elements of Style” is “omit needless words.” I’d carry it a step further and suggest “omit needless syllables.”