My dad always used to blow his top when he heard "at this moment in time".
― Alba, Tuesday, 12 March 2019 21:52 (five years ago) link
mine would for 'rate of speed'
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 12 March 2019 21:59 (five years ago) link
That’s me and ‘as yet’.
― suzy, Tuesday, 12 March 2019 22:17 (five years ago) link
“At this point in time” is the kind of dumb bullshit cops say
― Dan I., Wednesday, 13 March 2019 01:47 (five years ago) link
"the individual exited the vehicle..."
― heinrich boll weevil (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 02:41 (five years ago) link
as of the present point in time
― j., Wednesday, 13 March 2019 02:46 (five years ago) link
came across "at a more rapid rate" in print today
― mick signals, Wednesday, 13 March 2019 02:51 (five years ago) link
in most cases you don't need "then" or soon" in sentences or, fuck, "going forward." The verb tense indicates when the action takes place.
― Let's have sensible centrist armageddon (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 02:56 (five years ago) link
fuck a “going forward”
― seedy ron (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 02:59 (five years ago) link
Much of this stuff consists of the bad or sloppy habits we pick up from the various influences that always float around us, but even if these constructions are technically forgivable, the basic message should be "Resist!"
― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 03:03 (five years ago) link
at work, I usually write every email by writing what comes into my head, spending a second draft revising and usually overcompensating by bloating up the thing, then pausing, re-reading it, and stripping every fucking unnecessary word, phrase or modifier out of the thing , and it usually shrinks by 33%.
― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 13 March 2019 03:24 (five years ago) link
“I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree”WHAT ?
― calstars, Friday, 29 March 2019 16:45 (five years ago) link
lol
― flappy bird, Friday, 29 March 2019 16:56 (five years ago) link
Biopic doesn't rhyme with myopic, ppl.
It's "BUY oh PICK." Just like if you said "bio" and then "pic" right afterwards.
Not "by YOP ick".
Please.
― Gunther Gleiben (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 29 March 2019 18:00 (five years ago) link
This has been well-covered
― A funny tinge happened on the way to the forum (wins), Friday, 29 March 2019 18:02 (five years ago) link
also it's funny to say it wrong
― mark s, Friday, 29 March 2019 18:07 (five years ago) link
Increasingly bugged by people increasingly prefacing all requests and demands with "I need you to" or (a million times worse) "I'm gonna need you to"
― mick signals, Friday, 29 March 2019 18:16 (five years ago) link
IS there a way to issue commands like this that doesn't rankle tho?
the very worst is obviously "how busy are you right now?"
but there's a whole spectrum of badness.. "if you could (x) that would be graaaaaaate"
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 29 March 2019 18:22 (five years ago) link
Good old "Can you clean the bathrooms before you leave today?" or "Please clean the bathrooms before you leave today" do not rankle. "Make sure to" is okay. "It's your day to clean the bathrooms." "The bathrooms need cleaning; do it before you leave."
Directness is a virtue.
― mick signals, Friday, 29 March 2019 18:35 (five years ago) link
"If you get a chance, can yo wipe the toilet clean with your tongue? Only if you can. Thanks!!! xoxo"
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 29 March 2019 18:36 (five years ago) link
Directness is a virtue.otm, viva plain language for most immediate communicative purposes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_language
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 29 March 2019 18:45 (five years ago) link
my mom is a proponent of 'how would you like to _________?'
i, of course, would prefer not to
― mookieproof, Friday, 29 March 2019 18:46 (five years ago) link
my partner and her sister especially ask "Are you going to ____?" when they'd like me to do something and I try not to be deliberately dense but like, I don't know the future!
― moose; squirrel (silby), Friday, 29 March 2019 18:53 (five years ago) link
these requests are couched in politenesses because it beats getting their heads bitten off for asking directlystill, usually the "politeness" is excessive and unneeded, reading to the receiver as passive aggressiveit's a tactic that is not particularly effective in doing what it sets out to do if it lands the speaker in here :(
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 29 March 2019 18:57 (five years ago) link
If the task is clearly not one of my many recognized responsibilities, my wife usually opens with "would you do me a favor?" to which my standard reply is "it depends on what it is". Occasionally she'll substitute, "can I ask you to do me a favor?", to which my standard reply is "of course you can ask, but I'm not sure if I'll do it". I now accept this little dance as standard operating procedure and it doesn't irk me as much as it used to.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 29 March 2019 19:10 (five years ago) link
mick's bathrooms example suggests they are thinking of a professional situation tho, where yr boss in fact expects automatic compliance w these sorts of requests but chooses instead to phrase them as if you are a pair of yeoman farmers moved only by their own wills, and whether it's to assuage some personal discomfort of their own or to chip in on the maintenance of a superstructure it is annoying.
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 29 March 2019 19:14 (five years ago) link
wait no i was conflating mookieproof's mom w mick's bathroom owner. rly what i want to complain about is "do you want to".
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 29 March 2019 19:16 (five years ago) link
I was indeed thinking of professional bathrooms, where the boss-peon power dynamic makes any indirectness sound passive-aggressive, as LL said.
In personal relationships, there's more leeway in phraseology. If my spouse said to me, "I'm going to need you to not leave your shoes on the kitchen counter," the formal tone would sound hostile, while "Do those need to be there?" is fine.
Depends I guess on whether you fundamentally like or hate each other.
― mick signals, Friday, 29 March 2019 19:27 (five years ago) link
"Agree to disagree" is fine to my ears, it means "mutually accept for the moment that we disagree, rather than continuing to debate and to fail to sway each other from our opposed positions"
― mick signals, Friday, 29 March 2019 19:29 (five years ago) link
I consider "agree to disagree" to mean "agree that this is getting us nowhere, so let's stop", except it is shorter and easier to say.
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 29 March 2019 19:33 (five years ago) link
I don’t know when I hear this it’s less “we’ve reached an impasse” and more “I am unilaterally ending this rather than concede your point.”There a great Curb where Larry refuses to agree to disagree.
― d'ILM for Murder (Hadrian VIII), Friday, 29 March 2019 19:39 (five years ago) link
Usually in an agree to disagree moment, the person who suggests it is trying to assert power over the other person.
― suzy, Friday, 29 March 2019 19:42 (five years ago) link
― mick signals, Friday, March 29, 2019 12:27 PM (seventeen minutes ago)
there's gender dynamics in play but I respond much better to orders than hints
― moose; squirrel (silby), Friday, 29 March 2019 19:45 (five years ago) link
like "Do those need to be there?" I don't know the answer to that question.
― moose; squirrel (silby), Friday, 29 March 2019 19:46 (five years ago) link
this is a boring thing to say but probably when it comes to requests different ppl respond to differently to different approaches maybe
― mark s, Friday, 29 March 2019 19:48 (five years ago) link
we shd call this "winsing the thread"
― mark s, Friday, 29 March 2019 19:49 (five years ago) link
best if we all check in w each other
― moose; squirrel (silby), Friday, 29 March 2019 19:49 (five years ago) link
Silby dear, let's just talk about this at home
― mick signals, Friday, 29 March 2019 19:56 (five years ago) link
― A funny tinge happened on the way to the forum (wins), Friday, 29 March 2019 20:05 (five years ago) link
there's a poorly formed example in the post immediately preceding
― mark s, Friday, 29 March 2019 20:20 (five years ago) link
Is it a recent trend to blurb or review a book by calling it "wise"? Have people always done this? Really annoying, usually at the end of a list of compliments like "this was heartwarming, funny, down to earth and wise".
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 30 March 2019 13:12 (five years ago) link
probably not that recent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Wisdom
― mark s, Saturday, 30 March 2019 14:05 (five years ago) link
"you deserve better"
― groovemaaan, Monday, 1 April 2019 09:10 (five years ago) link
You deserve better than 'you deserve better'.
― pomenitul, Monday, 1 April 2019 09:19 (five years ago) link
"funds" instead of "money" (eg "please send funds for my upcoming book project")
― groovemaaan, Wednesday, 10 April 2019 11:22 (five years ago) link
Prefer dosh.
― Do you like 70s hard rock with a guitar hero? (Tom D.), Wednesday, 10 April 2019 11:23 (five years ago) link
Lettuce
― Gunther Gleiben (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 10 April 2019 13:07 (five years ago) link
Filthy lucre
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, 10 April 2019 13:13 (five years ago) link
Lorne Greene
― Boles to the Wolds (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 April 2019 13:15 (five years ago) link
spondoolies
― Lil' Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 10 April 2019 14:12 (five years ago) link