Words, usages, and phrases that annoy the shit out of you...

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i think all languages might do this though!

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:16 (nineteen years ago) link

I hate when people say "just deserts" and I know if they had to write it down they'd spell it "desserts." Stupid fuckin' twats. People. I hate 'em. Also, it's not "Custard's" Last Stand. I mean, I'm almost positive some thinks it's "Custard," but it isn't. Okay? It isn't.

― off 'is meds, Friday, 19 August 2005 02:17 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't know what you mean, s/c

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:17 (nineteen years ago) link

otm caitlin

― tehRZA gibbons (tehresa), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:18 (nineteen years ago) link

It's late for this, but I really hated the whole "death of irony"/"end of irony" meme. You might say I hated it from ground zero.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:25 (nineteen years ago) link

i like this meme, but only in that irony is so tiring. maybe it's less annoying if you aren't surrounded by ironic morons in college.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:27 (nineteen years ago) link

"purposely" and "purposefully" are NOT THE SAME WORD, ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE, AND DO NOT MEAN THE SAME THING. STOP DOING IT. THANK YOU.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:35 (nineteen years ago) link

"good for the soul" NO IT ISN'T

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:35 (nineteen years ago) link

why, it's our old friend "nuke-ular"!

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:36 (nineteen years ago) link

I actually heard some neocon "expert" on C-SPAN pronouncing it new cue lure with clear, evident intent, presumably for wingnut cred. The white fascist equivalent of "axe," I guess...

― M. V. (M.V.), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:43 (nineteen years ago) link

The laid-back place where I work has unfortunately been recently infitrated by a User of Annoying Speech. Recently BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH . . . so just a "HEADS' UP." And later, to another coworker Can you do BLAH BLAH BLAH . . . "ASAP"?

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:51 (nineteen years ago) link

i like this meme, but only in that irony is so tiring. maybe it's less annoying if you aren't surrounded by ironic morons in college.

-- caitlin oh no (caitx...), August 19th, 2005.

Well, actually, there's some truth to that. But it wasn't college kids repeating this meme, it was journalists. It was like "NOW THAT SOMETHING BAD HAS HAPPENED, CAN WE EVER NOT TAKE EVERYTHING TO BE SOMBER AND SERIOUS AGAIN???" Of course we can you sanctimonious fucks!

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:54 (nineteen years ago) link

To use another meme I loathe, LONDON SURVIVED THE BLITZ and they still have irony.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 02:55 (nineteen years ago) link

Doesn't the more nuanced version of this meme claim that there now exists a "post-ironic" state of mind that is somehow simultaneously sincere and ironic? The future as Andy Kaufman.

By the way...re words what annoy...the shit...out of...

------->"meme"

― M. V. (M.V.), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:01 (nineteen years ago) link

I knew someone was going to bring up "meme". But I find it to be a very useful, if starting-to-be-overused term.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:04 (nineteen years ago) link

"purposely" and "purposefully" are NOT THE SAME WORD, ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE, AND DO NOT MEAN THE SAME THING. STOP DOING IT. THANK YOU.

matos, once again i say YOU'RE A DOLL.

(i like "meme" too.)

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:06 (nineteen years ago) link

i'm happy we're all over doing in-depth investigations of "schadenfreude" now ("wow, did you know there's, like, a TERM for that thing when you're happy about someone's failure? yeah, it's true, a big fancy GERMAN word.")

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:08 (nineteen years ago) link

What word did people use before the rather recent Coinage of Meme?

― M. V. (M.V.), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:09 (nineteen years ago) link

"thing"

― gem (trisk), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:10 (nineteen years ago) link

i think all languages might do this though!

i don't think american english does it so relentlessly though.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:10 (nineteen years ago) link

That's just it, I think I like "meme" because it feels like the first adequate word to describe what it describes. But maybe I'm forgetting something.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:12 (nineteen years ago) link

another one: "presently" doesn't mean "currently."

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:15 (nineteen years ago) link

x-meme

This is what I'm wondering. Trend? Fad? Archetype? Cultural development? Idea?

I do concede that maybe, just maybe, this is a case of a new word engendering new thoughts. A meme meme. If you will. As it were.

― M. V. (M.V.), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:18 (nineteen years ago) link

the verb "trending"

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:20 (nineteen years ago) link

outside of juicy statistical research projects, that is.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:27 (nineteen years ago) link

"the heartland"
"real americans" (where "real americans" are straight white christians who don't live in major cities and who aren't very bright)

and any variations of same.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:38 (nineteen years ago) link

i knew there was one i was forgetting: "all-american" (wtf does this MEAN?)

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:40 (nineteen years ago) link

Speaking of political terms:

"Values Voter" (as if people vote on anything else)

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:40 (nineteen years ago) link

also "Limousine Liberal" - doubly annoying because it suggests that there is some inherent contradiction in being rich and liberal, and its usage suggests that this is actually a significant demographic.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:41 (nineteen years ago) link

i hate "limousine liberal" too. did the libertarians invent that one?

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:43 (nineteen years ago) link

HOMELAND SECURIY

why? why not American Security, U.S. Security, of just plain Security.

What are the cultural ramifications of this antiquated, underused, in the contxt of this country, phrase being given new life.

Homelands are where people come from, they are not the new, shiny America. But homelands are often under siege, is this why it must be Homeland Security, so we will realize the great importance of the endeavor. If it way US Security, would we not feel so comforted, protected.

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh god, I hated the "homeland" so much when it was first introduced; that I haven't thought about in a while is even worse - it means I've gotten used to it.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:48 (nineteen years ago) link

That reminds me, a few months ago, there was a news story about a fraud where a guy had gotten people to invest in a device that was supposed to be a "biological attack detector" -- in fact it was nothing but a filing cabinet with a flashing light on top.

That's exactly what the Homeland Security dept. is.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 03:49 (nineteen years ago) link

a device that was supposed to be a "biological attack detector" -- in fact it was nothing but a filing cabinet with a flashing light on top

in other news...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/images/300-HSAS-Chart.jpg

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:10 (nineteen years ago) link

But if you cannot communicate and people cannot communicate with you how can you possibly learn math or anything for that matter?

That's why Ebonics proponents wanted the state to provide more funding to teach these students English just like it funds ESL programs for kids who speak only Spanish.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:12 (nineteen years ago) link

funding is funding is funding, but i'm still weirded out by the implication that if you speak "ebonics," english is your second language.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:21 (nineteen years ago) link

(also the implication that all black americans have the exact same speech patterns no matter what part of the country they live in or what their ethnic background is.)

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:24 (nineteen years ago) link

"it's unaustralian"

― gem (trisk), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:25 (nineteen years ago) link

I just heard that one a few minutes ago! It's only used ironically around here. It's almost used as a term of approval. 'If it's Unaustralian, it's worth doing', that's my motto.

― moley (moley), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:28 (nineteen years ago) link

used ironically is completely fine. but i just read it in an article in the oz about parliament house security officers being banned from using the word 'mate' to address visitors to parly house. in that context it shits me.

― gem (trisk), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I thought only Americans used that un-nation-like construction.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:32 (nineteen years ago) link

we learned it from them

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:34 (nineteen years ago) link

As much as I hate the term "unamerican" (and should you capitalize the A in the middle of the word?), hearing the term with some other nation sounds much sillier, which I guess is a product of my American prejudices. When someone says "Unamerican" it sounds like they mean corrupt, debased, without values. But Unaustralian just makes me think of violating some quaint, peculiar national character.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:38 (nineteen years ago) link

That's right. The term is particularly egregious when used by our Prime Minister.

― moley (moley), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:42 (nineteen years ago) link

http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/25th/kc50b.jpg

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:54 (nineteen years ago) link

"unamerican" (and should you capitalize the A in the middle of the word?)

there should definitely be a hyphen in between, otherwise it looks like "unabomber." (heh heh.)

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 04:57 (nineteen years ago) link

http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/25th/kc55b.jpg

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 19 August 2005 05:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Neither of those typefaces is genuine Futura. Each is a devious impersonation.

― M. V. (M.V.), Friday, 19 August 2005 05:12 (nineteen years ago) link

the british habit for diminution i think rather bespeaks a fondness for their own language that americans appear to lack totally

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 19 August 2005 05:34 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm not sure how much the folks who pushed Ebonics into the limelight were very interested in how it might apply on a national scale. I'm not sure they fully thought through the massive implications their program would have for race and culture and education as ideas. I'm not sure they all particularly made sense or had very good arguments about the whole issue. But at root, as a kind of everyday fix for their particular classrooms, the idea wasn't in the least irrational. They were asked to teach students in standard English, and a significant portion of their students didn't really speak standard English. If these students had spoken, say, Spanish, their teachers would have been given money and time to concentrate on bringing them up to speed with standard English. So ... you give the dialect they do speak a name. You classify it as something distinct from standard English -- the same way employers and college admissions officers are going to -- and you acknowledge that you need to spend time teaching them a kind of language that's not yet their own.

I mean, this is just a pet peeve of mine -- the fact that the whole thing was interpreted as some attempt to not teach kids standard English, to be "tolerant" and just say they speak a different language and that's fine. Whereas the actual root of the program was to acknowledge that they did need to be taught standard English, just as much as someone who doesn't speak any kind of English at all.

― nabiscothingy, Friday, 19 August 2005 05:36 (nineteen years ago) link

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