So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[vitanola]

Changing the oil/filter right now.
Job done, no problemo.
Except I felt dizzy when I got up too fast.
I’m laying down and using my iPhone to text you and
was wondering if you could upload one of your neat tunes
while I lie down here?

You pick the melody...I can wait!
Thanks!

 

[2jakes]

"......a normal person with a fatal gunshot wound would do, and that's either scream in agony or gurgle incomprehensibly.

First, the body goes into shock.
Loosing control of all body functions
and normal behavior with rapid swelling
of the wound.
The amount of time you have to scream
or gurgle in agony depends on the
rate of blood you are loosing.
There is no thought of loved ones or
something eloquent to say before you
depart.

The body is in a state of self-preservation struggling to survive no matter what.
Besides body-shock, shots of morphine helps to numb the pain as you die if the wound proves to be fatal.

If you are one of the lucky ones that survived & come back, you are stripped of your weapon just in case you break down or go "bonkers".
I only broke down once.
My sgt. took care of me and I was able
to make it.
Although for the longest time
I awoke with nightmares.

If you are given an R&R, (rest and recuperate)
you make the most of it.

I flew to Tokyo and bought a
Nikon Photomic FTN 35mm all black
body camera with all the doodads
at the black market. Cool!

 

[GHT]

This absolutely drives me nuts. It's like there are two types of guns in the world: those in the real world that run out of bullets and "movie guns" which keep firing based on the needs of the shooter.

There's a scene in an early James Bond, Dr No, maybe, where Bond makes his bed to look like it's occupied. Later a would be assassin creeps in, fires six shots into the bed, at which point Bond switches on the lights. The assassin fires at Bond only for his gun to click. "You've had your six," says Bond, "I still have mine," and pulls the trigger. Cue a dull, thump, thump. The gun has a silencer.
A fire arms expert went on a TV chat show to demonstrate that to achieve the thump, thump of Bond's gun you would need a silencer over three foot long. He then fired a gun with a silencer similar to the one in the movie. The resulting bang was ear splitting.

On a completely different note, lately I've become massively irritated by some of the new catch phrases or verbal tics that I hear everywhere lately. The one that really burns my biscuits is the addition of "right?" at the end of sentences. I hate to say this, but I only hear it in academic settings or used by academics. I find it maddening and borderline arrogant.
Some of the other verbal tics (not as offensive in my view, but equally annoying) include the following: "d'you know what I mean?" at the end of almost every sentence; "what wuz I gonna say?" when the person hasn't thought through what she was gonna say; and he everlasting "y'know," "I mean," "he was like and then I was like" (as a synonym for he said, and then I said); whatevuh; or the long drawn out aaahhhhhhm when someone wants to keep talking, doesn't know what she wants to say next, but doesn't want to be interrupted by my dopey thoughts.
I hope I don't sound too cranky! Sorry if I do.

Not at all, on the contrary, you make a valid point. As well as what seems a lack of basic grammar, popular music presenters have a very limited dictionary, just three words in fact. And, er & um.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

The interjection "like" drives me nuts. I could be sitting in a restaurant, and at the next table, some young people having a conversation will say something along these lines (n.b. I avoided using "like" there.)
"Like, what are we going to do, like, tonight?"
"Like, well, we could, like go to, like the movies?" (another verbal abomination, making a statement into a question)

Add to these the "reach out to" and "circle back" which seem to have a place in every business meeting. Ugh!

 

[HudsonHawk]

Add to these the "reach out to" and "circle back" which seem to have a place in every business meeting. Ugh!

I guess I don't mind those two so much, as they have a clear meaning. But when I'm told I need to "make my thinking visible", "speak in the way others listen", "avoid anchoring", or "advance the opportunity", I'm ready to "wring someone's neck".

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Reach out to" fills me with a quaking urge to punch somebody in the face. What ever happened to "call" or "contact?"

If Brother Shakespeare was alive and writing today, he'd say "The first thing we do, let's kill all the management consultants." Especially the ones who call themselves "ninjas" or "sherpas."

 

[Trenchfriend]

Um, this strange "sry" in todays youngsters short-sentences is just the shortcut for "sorry"?

 

[2jakes]

"Sorry-bout-that!"

 

[tonyb]

We liken the unknown to the known. We think largely in metaphors, whether we are aware of it or not.

Still, the more metaphorical the expression, the less accurate and meaningful it is likely to be. (As I tap this out on my phone, a TV ad for AARP playing in the background tells me it's time to "get [my] ducks in a row.") For there are no perfect analogies. One thing may be quite like another thing, but it still isn't that thing.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

Languages aren't static. They are dynamic, and actual usage changes radically over time. At some point, popular usage that is widespread enough eventually becomes the formal standard, while the formerly formal prescriptive standard fades away into obscurity as it's usage in real everyday life ceases.

Otherwise, I'm sure Beowulf would be absolutely appalled at the atrocious way we're all butchering and mangling his language every day.

 

[tonyb]

Languages aren't static. They are dynamic, and actual usage changes radically over time. At some point, popular usage that is widespread enough eventually becomes the formal standard, while the formerly formal prescriptive standard fades away into obscurity as it's usage in real everyday life ceases.

Otherwise, I'm sure Beowulf would be absolutely appalled at the atrocious way we're all butchering and mangling his language every day.

Yup. Usage trumps, no matter what any of us think of that.

This is not to say there are no standards, or that there shouldn't be, but only that those standards change. I remain something of a stickler for spelling, although I recognize standardized spelling owes much to communications technologies -- the printing press, notably, which made for wide circulation of identical texts, which was darned nigh impossible in the age of the scribe.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Simplified Spelling" was a popular cause a hundred years ago, and was embraced by some pretty unlikely people. None other than the most conservative, hidebound, broom-handle-up-the-back, anti-progressive man in the entire US of A, Colonel Robert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune, was a fanatic about the cause -- and at the height of his infatuation with it, mandated the use of "Simplified Spelling" in the pages of his paper. Thus it was that Chicagoans breakfasting with the World's Greatest Newspaper saw "fotografs" taken at "hocky games," or read of the Colonel's distaste for the barbaric "rithms" of "jaz." But enough -- or "enuf" -- criticism finally accumulated that McCormick got a "clew" and abandoned the crusade.

 

[ChiTownScion]

"Simplified Spelling" was a popular cause a hundred years ago, and was embraced by some pretty unlikely people. None other than the most conservative, hidebound, broom-handle-up-the-back, anti-progressive man in the entire US of A, Colonel Robert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune, was a fanatic about the cause -- and at the height of his infatuation with it, mandated the use of "Simplified Spelling" in the pages of his paper. Thus it was that Chicagoans breakfasting with the World's Greatest Newspaper saw "fotografs" taken at "hocky games," or read of the Colonel's distaste for the barbaric "rithms" of "jaz." But enough -- or "enuf" -- criticism finally accumulated that McCormick got a "clew" and abandoned the crusade.

McCormick was one of those people who was born on third base and spent his entire life congratulating himself on how well he could hit a triple. The "colonel" part was the result of a National Guard commission: in Illinois the Guard has long been a haven for political goldbricks, and Robert McCormick took full advantage of his connections to that end. During the First World War, his unit became part of the US Army's First Division, the Big Red One.

The one good thing about him was that after he died, his estate near Wheaton Illinois- Cantigny- was turned into a fine museum and grounds. The First Division Museum is a must see for anyone with an interest in military history, and any impression that you may have that Woodrow Wilson and the Allies could not have attained victory in 1918 without the indispensable input of Robert McCormick is purely intentional. His home, the McCormick mansion, is quite nice as well. Colonel McCosmic himself is planted in the garden: not quite the tomb of Napoleon at Les Invalides... but well worth a look.

 

[HudsonHawk]

"Simplified Spelling" was a popular cause a hundred years ago, and was embraced by some pretty unlikely people. None other than the most conservative, hidebound, broom-handle-up-the-back, anti-progressive man in the entire US of A, Colonel Robert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune, was a fanatic about the cause -- and at the height of his infatuation with it, mandated the use of "Simplified Spelling" in the pages of his paper. Thus it was that Chicagoans breakfasting with the World's Greatest Newspaper saw "fotografs" taken at "hocky games," or read of the Colonel's distaste for the barbaric "rithms" of "jaz." But enough -- or "enuf" -- criticism finally accumulated that McCormick got a "clew" and abandoned the crusade.

Many languages are much simpler than English, both to write and simply the number of words for this very reason. For example, Arabic is mostly written without vowels. The vowels are implied and are spoken, but not written (there are some times a long vowel is written to show emphasis, and markers to indicate short vowel sounds, so it's not a hard an fast rule). So for example "Washington" would essentially be "Washntn" or "baseball" would simply be "bsbl". Other languages don't complicate things by conjugating verbs. In Bahasa, there is no verb tense. Everything is understood from the context of the discussion. Consequently, these languages are much easier to learn in many ways.

 

[vitanola]

Colonel McCosmic himself is planted in the garden: not quite the tomb of Napoleon at Les Invalides... but well worth a look.

Yes. If only for the relief which comes from the certainty that he is permanently out of circulation.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Other languages don't complicate things by conjugating verbs. In Bahasa, there is no verb tense. Everything is understood from the context of the discussion. Consequently, these languages are much easier to learn in many ways.

And many others do complicate, such as those with more than two genders (maybe they were ahead of the times, what with Chaz Bono and Caitlyn Jenner). An excellent writer and authority on language is John McWhorter. I recommend any of his books, in printed or in audio form. One thing I think I learned from him (he's off the hook if I got this wrong), is that the languages of groups which have little contact with others is frequently more baroque, while languages which rub up against others tend to become simpler.

 

[GHT]

Languages aren't static. They are dynamic, and actual usage changes radically over time. At some point, popular usage that is widespread enough eventually becomes the formal standard, while the formerly formal prescriptive standard fades away into obscurity as it's usage in real everyday life ceases.

You make a good point, there was a time when 'Bus' was Omnibus and 'Pram' Perambulator. We no longer use an apostrophe to denote the missing part of the word, as in 'bus. There will come a point when until stops being 'til, although I have seen until, now 'til, spelt till, as in cash till. It's a question of usage. When does usage of the currently, incorrect, stop being a cliché?

Ask any younger person what splitting the infinitive means, they wouldn't have a clue, that's why to boldly go, is ok with them. But those of us for whom the infinitive isn't split, we can only (to) go boldly.

English, as a language, has become complex over the centuries simply because every language that we have been exposed to by conquest, has simply been added to our dictionary rather than replacing it, so we have Gaelic, Latin, Saxon, Normandie French and some chap name of Shakespeare who also had a go at simplifying things. The Bard was the one responsible for deleting gender & verb endings. He also popularised the possessive apostrophe, as in: The Bard's play.

 

[Zombie_61]

Um, this strange "sry" in todays youngsters short-sentences is just the shortcut for "sorry"?

I've seen "sry" used in place of "sorry" in texts (i.e., "textspeak"), but can't recall seeing it anywhere else. I chalk it up to laziness and agree with the self-proclaimed "experts" who define it as the least sincere version of an apology.

Back in the days when "flip" phones were the dominant form of personal communication technology we had a friend who would text "l8tr" instead of "later". When I asked why, she said, "Because it's easier than texting 'later'". Now, anyone who has ever used a flip phone to text probably remembers how they worked--"L" was three key strokes, "A" was one key stroke, "T" was one key stroke, and so on. So "later" required 10 key strokes, while "l8tr" required 11 key strokes (including the redundant "t", that is) and was actually not easier. When I pointed this out to our friend she thought about it for a moment, then shrugged and replied, "Well, I'm still going to do it." The expression on her face informed me that she would indeed, largely because she knew it irritated me.

I know language is in a constant state of evolution, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn the spelling used in "textspeak" is supplanting the current spelling of those words, but I sincerely hope I don't live to see that happen.

...When does usage of the currently, incorrect, stop being a cliché?...

I think that ship sailed when the "experts" were forced to recognize "irregardless" as an improper form of "regardless" because of it's common-yet-still-incorrect usage. Sometimes the idiots do take over the asylum.

 

[tonyb]

Yes. If only for the relief which comes from the certainty that he is permanently out of circulation.

And, to paraphrase Mark Twain, the regret you weren't there to see it happen.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

It does bother me when "impact" is used in the sense of "influence" or "affect/effect." To me, "impact" should be used in relation to something physical, like a car crash or a wisdom tooth.

One of my professors (with a PhD) always said "impact on" in practically every other sentence in his lectures. Argh!