Comedic "things you would ban": minor things that irritate you

[Techniquest]

Can we just ban the use of "Crimbo" for Christmas, and "arvo" for afternoon.

Beyond irritating, both of them.

Absolutely. Arvo is a new word to me, but oh my it is annoying me. It is bizarre how annoyed by it I am!

Whilst we're on Christmas also calling it "the big day". I find this highly irritating.

Yes! Absolutely agreed on this.

I’d ban youtube shorts/tiktok.

Yes! Please do, I'm beyond annoyed with YouTube Shorts, especially when it turned some of my older videos into 'shorts' and completely messed them up! Ugh! TikTok, the sooner that goes into the history books the better. I've never downloaded or used it, and I never will.

 

[Gloster]

People who, when it is raining, hide in the bus shelter and let someone else stand in the rain to wave it down. The moment the bus’ doors open they move across the pavement at the speed of light and jump onboard ahead of anyone else. The worst was a businesswoman-type who pushed past a couple of passengers who were waiting for an old woman to get off and nearly knocked the old woman down; she had to make a grab to stop herself falling. When the driver tried to give the businesswoman a mild telling-off, she just walked away without an apology.

 

[Calthrop]

Absolutely. Arvo is a new word to me, but oh my it is annoying me. It is bizarre how annoyed by it I am!

Ah, it's just our Australian friends -- they have a passion for abbreviating words, and ending the abbreviation with "-o": I find this -- condescendingly and patronisingly -- rather sweet in its unsophisticated way. At times, Australia has had various forms of obligatory military service: which landed up being called "the Nasho" (National Service). Similarly, unemployment relief, bureaucratically termed "Sustenance": which became "the Susso".

 

[birchesgreen]

I heard someone refer to Sydney as "Syd-o" the other day.

 

[Gloster]

And non-attendance: dingo. (Didn’t go in Strine.)

 

[D6130]

'Uni' is a very commonly-used abbreviation for universitaet/university in German....but pronounced 'ooni' rather than 'yewni'.

 

[Techniquest]

Ah, it's just our Australian friends -- they have a passion for abbreviating words, and ending the abbreviation with "-o": I find this -- condescendingly and patronisingly -- rather sweet in its unsophisticated way. At times, Australia has had various forms of obligatory military service: which landed up being called "the Nasho" (National Service). Similarly, unemployment relief, bureaucratically termed "Sustenance": which became "the Susso".

It just seems bizarre to me. I could perhaps understand it in the days of being charged per individual text message on mobile phones, I don't miss that at all. I could definitely understand it on an old fashioned mobile phone, the less button presses to type a text message the better. In the modern world, no I don't get it. Perhaps I'm just getting old!

 

[cb a1]

It just seems bizarre to me. I could perhaps understand it in the days of being charged per individual text message on mobile phones, I don't miss that at all. I could definitely understand it on an old fashioned mobile phone, the less button presses to type a text message the better. In the modern world, no I don't get it. Perhaps I'm just getting old!

Don't worry, you're not old till you make fewer button presses

 

[Techniquest]

Don't worry, you're not old till you make fewer button presses

I hope I'm not misunderstanding that too much, I'm trying to figure out what you mean! I've reached middle-aged and that sucks enough!

 

[D6130]

I hope I'm not misunderstanding that too much, I'm trying to figure out what you mean! I've reached middle-aged and that sucks enough!

Middle age? You must be joking! Middle age starts at 50 nowadays....although IMO a lot depends on one's mentality.

 

[Techniquest]

Middle age? You must be joking! Middle age starts at 50 nowadays....although IMO a lot depends on one's mentality.

Well I feel middle-aged, by the time I reach 50 I dread to think what I'll be like! Already getting to the point of being clapped out and beyond too much physical work!

 

[cb a1]

I hope I'm not misunderstanding that too much, I'm trying to figure out what you mean! I've reached middle-aged and that sucks enough!

It's just a light hearted reference to old pedants like me who tut when people use less rather than fewer.
In general terms if it can be counted use fewer, if it can't be counted use less.
E.g. there were fewer people on the train.
I put less sugar in my coffee.
Key presses can be counted therefore fewer.

 

[Techniquest]

It's just a light hearted reference to old pedants like me who tut when people use less rather than fewer.
In general terms if it can be counted use fewer, if it can't be counted use less.
E.g. there were fewer people on the train.
I put less sugar in my coffee.
Key presses can be counted therefore fewer.

OK that makes sense, now I've re-read both my and your posts. An impressive bit of pedantry!

 

[adrock1976]

It's just a light hearted reference to old pedants like me who tut when people use less rather than fewer.
In general terms if it can be counted use fewer, if it can't be counted use less.
E.g. there were fewer people on the train.
I put less sugar in my coffee.
Key presses can be counted therefore fewer.

How does this fit in with for example, database queries?

You specify "less than" or "greater than" whatever the value if it is numeric.

 

[Ediswan]

How does this fit in with for example, database queries?

You specify "less than" or "greater than" whatever the value if it is numeric.

That is mathematics rather than English grammar. Different rules.

 

[Meerkat]

How does this fit in with for example, database queries?

You specify "less than" or "greater than" whatever the value if it is numeric.

Its computers, so my instinct is to blame Americans

The misuse of decimate is beginning to really grate - I'm not sure if it due to growing older and grumpier or if it is just being (mis)used more often.

 

[DelW]

It's just a light hearted reference to old pedants like me who tut when people use less rather than fewer.
In general terms if it can be counted use fewer, if it can't be counted use less.
E.g. there were fewer people on the train.
I put less sugar in my coffee.
Key presses can be counted therefore fewer.

You need one of these:

The Pedants' Revolt T-Shirt

The lesser-known cousin of the fourteenth-century Peasants' Revolt. King Richard II is depicted here meeting with the rebels at which he exclaims "I expected there to be less of you", to which the reply comes: "Fewer!"

www.redmolotov.com

(Sales listing for a teeshirt with a relevant cartoon)

 

[daveo]

Culinary abbreviations that really annoy -
Slaw - what has cole done to deserve banishment?
Ju - please! Do you mean sauce (or perhaps gravy)?

 

[D6130]

Culinary abbreviations that really annoy -
Slaw - what has cole done to deserve banishment?
Ju - please! Do you mean sauce (or perhaps gravy)?

To which I can add:
Reduction - melted
Shrooms - reduced funghi?

I think that 'ju' is usually spelled 'jus'....certainly by the French. (Culinary pedant alert!)

 

[Jimini]

The misuse of decimate is beginning to really grate - I'm not sure if it due to growing older and grumpier or if it is just being (mis)used more often.

Yeah that one irks me as well -- however it's now been redefined in the dictionary. Bit disappointing yet not unexpected:

`
verb
past tense: decimated; past participle: decimated

1. 1.
   kill, destroy, or remove a large proportion of.
   "the inhabitants of the country had been decimated"
   • drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something).
     "public transport has been decimated"
2. 2.
   HISTORICAL
   kill one in every ten of (a group of people, originally a mutinous Roman legion) as a punishment for the whole group.
   "the man who is to determine whether it be necessary to decimate a large body of mutineers"

 

[Gloster]

Alibi. It is word that has a precise and useful meaning: that you were elsewhere when something, usually criminal, occurred. More and more it is used nowadays for any old excuse.

 

[Meerkat]

Yeah that one irks me as well -- however it's now been redefined in the dictionary. Bit disappointing yet not unexpected:

I refuse to accept that - its just saying how it is misused, that doesn't make it right!
It even has dec in it to refer to ten. It particularly annoys me that it isn't usually applicable, understating events - ie the referred to deaths/damage is way more than 10%.

 

[Calthrop]

You need one of these:

The Pedants' Revolt T-Shirt

The lesser-known cousin of the fourteenth-century Peasants' Revolt. King Richard II is depicted here meeting with the rebels at which he exclaims "I expected there to be less of you", to which the reply comes: "Fewer!"

www.redmolotov.com

(Sales listing for a teeshirt with a relevant cartoon)

Ah, yes, the dear old Pedants' Revolt -- led by Which Tyler.

Yeah that one irks me as well -- however it's now been redefined in the dictionary. Bit disappointing yet not unexpected:

I refuse to accept that - its just saying how it is misused, that doesn't make it right!
It even has dec in it to refer to ten. It particularly annoys me that it isn't usually applicable, understating events - ie the referred to deaths/damage is way more than 10%.

Perhaps being annoyingly contrarian -- I entertain a certain amount of sympathy for the misuse of "decimate": the "dec = 10 / derivation" factor aside, I reckon that the word somehow looks / sounds more horrific and holocaustic, than just one in ten being killed: people's going with that feeling is unscholarly, but understandable. (I gather that part of the punishment-factor in the old Roman penalty of decimation; was that in the killing of the one man in ten, the legionaries were compelled to slay their own chums -- which must indeed have been nasty for them.)

 

[Meerkat]

the legionaries were compelled to slay their own chums -- which must indeed have been nasty for them

To maintain the pedantry.....they were slaying a colleague, not necessarily a chum. I'm sure your level of horror would vary depending on which of your colleagues it was

 

[Gloster]

which must indeed have been nasty for them.)

I think it might have been a bit nastier for those being slain.

 

[Calthrop]

One does feel that it would be liable to spoil the day to some extent anyway, for those most immediately concerned -- reckon that people don't change very much, through the ages ...

 

[Purple Train]

Yeah that one irks me as well -- however it's now been redefined in the dictionary. Bit disappointing yet not unexpected:

Are they going to redefine "literally" as "kind of a statement of emphasis"? Or "like" as "a word that you can, like, use wherever you want in the sentence"? Or have they done so already?
It's deeply, deeply annoying. I think I might have to start taking Lynne Truss's advice and wander around the streets in a balaclava, fiercely brandishing cut-out punctuation on a stick, and waving a variety of grammatical placards.

 

[D6130]

Are they going to redefine "literally" as "kind of a statement of emphasis"? Or "like" as "a word that you can, like, use wherever you want in the sentence"? Or have they done so already?
It's deeply, deeply annoying. I think I might have to start taking Lynne Truss's advice and wander around the streets in a balaclava, fiercely brandishing cut-out punctuation on a stick, and waving a variety of grammatical placards.

As long as you don't start taking Liz Truss's advice!

 

[birchesgreen]

Talk of balaclavas reminds me of this...

 

[Purple Train]

As long as you don't start taking Liz Truss's advice!

That was going to be my campaign anthem: "I am a fighter; I am not a quitter!"