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

BEST phrase/words i read this morning. spent my morning reading shaw letters. this at the end of a 1908 letter to h.g. wells:

"Now I swear that the next time you take that attitude in my presence I will ask you for a farthing paper of pins. I will make a decent public man of you yet, and an effective public speaker, if I have to break your heart in the process."

is that an actual expression or did he make that farthing paper of pins thing up?

the whole letter is great and very emo. there is even a great all caps moment. message board pioneer.

Oh shit ymp, im so glad i wandered to this thread.

There's something really depressing about liberals trying to turn the word "snowflake" back on conservatives, like bullied kids sniffling "no, YOU'RE a loser!"

"fur babies"

xpost OTM. ban all attempted-cutting-humor usages by simpleminded tribalistic democrat tweeters responding to conservative bots and trolls imho.

I am trying to figure out the farthing paper of pins.

wastin' away again in ilxorville
figuring out a farthing paper of pins

kinda stumped me too. i mean i know what that is, but the way he uses it...

oh wait maybe he means he will use the pins to deflate h.g.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Z7MAgLV14

farthing paper of pins would have been an excellent late-60s psych single title.

i'm going to start using it.

"Wow, you are really full of yourself. Do you have a farthing paper of pins I can use?"

that'll show 'em.

(xp) It's like a Bee Gees b-side from 1968.

Hmmm..what were they talking about before the farthing moment? I found a children's song but that does seem to work for this.

you mean in the letter? GBS was pissed at HGW because HGW was acting like a dick at a fabian society meeting.

Ha, I guess asking for the paper of pins so he can prick him every time he says something stupid?

re: farthing paper of pins

In the context of 1908 society, asking Wells for a farthing paper of pins would be treating him as a social inferior, on a level with a shop girl or a street peddler. Such underlings had no education, no manners and no standing, and were expected to efface themselves or even abase themselves in the presence of their social superiors such as a Shaw. Such social distinctions were universally understood and strictly observed.

In short, it would be a very british sort of insult carrying a very pointed social sting.

ah, okay. then i was wrong.

Not very Socialist of GBS.

Ok, early 20th century burn.

Not very Socialist of GBS.

The Fabians were exclusively highbrow, as distinct from the lowbrows of the Labor party.

There's something really depressing about liberals trying to turn the word "snowflake" back on conservatives, like bullied kids sniffling "no, YOU'RE a loser!"

― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Thursday, 10 May 2018 03:39 (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

using their own words to show them what hypocritical fuckbarrels they are is vital imo

A "paper of pins" is how you used to buy sewing pins, as a strip of paper or card with a row of pins pushed into it. A farthing paper of pins would be a quarter of a penny's worth of pins; a farthing was the lowest value coin in circulation so probably not very many pins.

Why is Shaw going on about pins? According to Wikipedia, in his teens "Wells had an unhappy apprenticeship as a draper", and in the letter Shaw appears to be berating Wells for addressing the room more like a grovelling junior shop assistant than a man of letters:

You insisted on having a table; leaning over it on your knuckles;
and addressing the contents of your contracted chest to the
tablecloth ... Where did you get that attitude? In the shop. IN
THE SHOP. ... When your knuckles touched the cloth, you said
unconsciously, by reflex action, "Anything else today, madam," and
later on, "What's the next article?" Fortunately you were inaudible
thanks to the attitude. Now I swear that the next time you take
that attitude in my presence I will ask you for a farthing paper of
pins.

Shaw continues, "thank heaven, I am an ORATOR, not a mulish draper's assistant" . . .

-- https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Working+the+room%3A+the+cases+of+Mary+H.+Kingsley+and+H.G.+Wells-a0188967296

Poor old Wells! After reading this I might forgive almost his remarks about women's intellect and imagination in his book about the war game he devised: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Wars

(Sorry if context has ruined this charmingly out-of-context remark)

no, that's cool! i read it quickly and just jotted down that last part. that all caps IN THE SHOP kills me.

it's an amusingly savage letter! I think that page says the letter was written two years after the speech too (ouch).

In theory I like GBS but I'm glad he won't be writing me any letters.

Was it like the "Now go home and get your fucking shine box?" bit in goodfellas?

Specificity

This word sucks and is a tongue Twister

Somebody has instructed the cashiers at the supermarket that when they're ready for the next customer to step up, they shouldn't say "Next" -- they should say "Following!"

Wow that’s tedious as shit

"Can I help who's next?" makes me want to say something cheeky like "Nah, it did okay, it was number one on the UK charts and top five in America, with a bunch of really memorable singles. Still I prefer 'Sell Out' or 'Magic Bus'."

Separate topic: "___ is my jam" vs. "____ is in my wheelhouse."

Hah. "Can I help who's next?" is up there with "Your call will be answered in the order it was received" for giving a painful little jab to one's already-sore syntax neuron.

When "wheelhouse" started getting popular in my workplace several years ago I dickishly interjected in at least two different meetings, "sorry, hold on -- what do you mean? I guess I'm not sure what a wheelhouse is."

the bins for the recycling here are labelled 'recycled waste' and not 'recycleable waste'

lol yeah this salad place i go to has three bins: recycle, waste, and "mixed waste." wtf? composting in the salad spot??

I hate guilt-inducing ones like LANDFILL.

BTW in my jurisdiction we do waste-to-energy so almost none of our non-recycled trash goes in a landfill anyways.

In Seattle, separating into recycling, compost, and landfill is mandatory everywhere. This means quick service and fast casual restaurants all have three bins and extensive but occasionally ambiguous lists telling you what to put where. You can still probably find any given service item in any of the three bins, because people are helpless and indecisive.

people here have no idea what goes where though (and it can be complicated*). the council bags have added a thing where they say 'if in doubt leave it out' to (try and) stop people contaminating recycling with normal waste.

the last place i worked had black bins and green bins and the cleaner would just tip the contents of both into the same sack. (i'd take all my recycling home, do it properly)

(* that plastic bottle, is that recycleable? it says PET(1) on the bottom. but what about the plastic film it's wrapped in? and the cap? and the little perforated ring that was attached to the cap to make it tamper-proof?)

ime it's a mess everywhere- plastic in the waste bin, food in the recycle bin, etc. no one knows what to do

If one tries to figure it all out, one can get lost in details. What about cardboard boxes with a plastic window (like pasta boxes)? Some jurisdictions accept pizza box lids, but not the bottom part that the pizza touched. Should we rinse out jars that are going to get melted anyway? I know a recycling expert who told me that lids over three inches in diameter are recyclable but not smaller ones.

Yeah small lids have to go in the trash here lol

Also the bottom has fallen out of the raw recyclables market apparently so who knows where it’s all going.

the great pacific recycling gyre i assume.

There are a lot of restaurants here in Austin, TX that do multiple trash cans like this. It's a well meaning idea that ends up as a mess because people either don't know or don't care about how they are supposed to separate out. I also find it confusing because, at least at home, we are supposed to rinse out recyclables of any food bits before putting them in the bin, and there's no way that's happening at these restaurants.

Moodles I suspect it's like those self-serve parking garages that say "take your ticket with you! pay at kiosk!" But the exit gates still take credit cards.

No batch of recyclable material will be perfect, but its quality will be increase by the extent to which people follow "the rules."

I thought the rinsing thing was mainly for sanitary reasons, to avoid vermin being attracted to sacks of recycling being left around at residential addresses for a week.

I'm under the impression that it makes it harder to process items if they aren't cleaned out.

YMP, I agree, but in my experience, there's little guidance for patrons to follow, and many just don't care, so it ends up being messy and random.

"bridesmaids"

"a memoir"

[husband/wife] *to* [spouse]

?

I have a cringe allergy to "husband/wife" and generally use partner, spouse. It's funny that you are the opposite.

I posted this elsewhere but "buddy" always sounds molestery to me. Why do people call children this?!?