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

actually i think i do know what bothers me about it, at least w/r/t ordering food, and it's that it somehow makes it sound like the customer is passively acquiescing to their order. like the barista is just dying to make you a drink, so you suppose you'll accept a latte or whatever.

this is obviously an illogical notion on two counts. first because "to do" is an active verb, and second because selling you a drink is exactly what the people operating a coffee shop want to be doing! and yet ... maybe it's that you're not "doing" anything but forking over money?

I work at a restaurant and people use this construction all the time. It doesn’t bother me at all. They do the steak, the chicken, the salmon, the lamb pizza, they’ll do anything on the menu. Maybe it’s a reaction to “I’ll have what she’s having” ? Idk.

"I will kill and butcher the cow myself."

Maybe it’s a reaction to “I’ll have what she’s having”?

Billy Crystal: "I'll do what she's doing."

(Actually, it's another woman in the restaurant--messed up my joke.)

Similar to the Australian construction of "go" as in "I'll go a pie with a Carlton Draught"

A lot of times words have little semantic value in a given exchange and context is doing most of the work. When you're ordering food, any of the basic verbs will do... do, have, make, get, go, be, etc. The server knows you're asking for menu items and that's all that really matters. Try it. I'm doing a burger, I'm having a burger, Make mine a burger, Get me a burger, I'm going with a burger, It'll be a burger for me, or simply "a burger" with no verb at all. No need to lean too hard on the print paradigm and waste effort trying to make every utterance function context-free. Notice nobody fucks around too much with tense, negation, or pronouns... that would actually be confusing in context. That we can do this is pretty amazing when you think about it!

capt save a do

"Burger me do"

Hit me with the burgness and drag it through a garden.

Drinkswise? Beer me.

Server: Say no more fam

https://www.burgerme.de/standorte/kiel/
rather unfortunate

Probably been mentioned before: "do" in place of "get" or "have" or "accept" or who knows what else. Someone's ordering a dozen donuts: "I'll do three chocolate, three honey glazed..." One of the other moderators in a Facebook group I'm in: "Sorry, we don't do posts from out of town." Just hate it.

Not sure I've heard this! In the Facebook example, does "we don't do posts from out of town" mean "no one from out of town posts to this group" then?

“I/we don’t do” seems like a separate usage from the other example & v well established? We don’t do requests, I don’t do mornings, I don’t do drama, we don’t do average — I’m surprised you haven’t encountered this, it’s been around forever. The food ordering thing feels newer def (both are fine)

Oh, I've heard it in those contexts, for sure, but the Facebook one doesn't really fit with that, I don't thin,.

Sounds a bit of a rum do.

For me, "accept" would be the normal thing to say: "We don't accept out-of-town posts."

I realize that "do" gets the point across in all these contexts; language is for communicating, and complaining that you're annoyed by certain words that accomplish that just as well as the words you want is fundamentally irrational. To me, that's an inherent feature of this thread. But it's also a reality, and certain words and phrases do make me wince.

("Accept," by the way, because said posts are waiting in a queue to be approved by a moderator. If it is, we all gather around and chant "Gabba, Gabba, we accept this, post away.")

I think "Let's do lunch" became a thing in the '80s?

I think De Do Do Do was also a thing then

the muppets do manhattan

“Do” usually seems to me to be the person saying that the activity in question is beneath them and really only engaged in by disgusting savages and their ilk.

https://bcdbimages.s3.amazonaws.com/warner/ltmm/dough_dodo.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOP_cPX7JDw

("Accept," by the way, because said posts are waiting in a queue to be approved by a moderator

Ah, the premoderation thing makes the whole thing make more sense to me. But yeah, clumsy I agree.

I don't really do Dallas

The usual food-ordering phrase around me (NJ) is "lemme get." Lemme get two bacon cheeseburgers, large fries, large Coke.

xp it's okay, Debbie does

actually i think i do know what bothers me about it, at least w/r/t ordering food, and it's that it somehow makes it sound like the customer is passively acquiescing to their order. like the barista is just dying to make you a drink, so you suppose you'll accept a latte or whatever.

it also annoys me a bit tbh ... but I think the reason why it bothers me is that it construes the act of having a coffee or food as some "experience" that implies a greater amount of activity and initiative than, paying for someone to make you food, at a place that does such a thing, where you have already chosen to eat there, and you are given a menu of options, and your agency consists of selecting items off the menu, and then eating the food. Like, compare it to other things people "do" that are more active and/or require more agency/initiative: "we're going to do karaoke!" or "We're going to do the El Capitan hike!" or "we're going to do the parenting thing!"

'i did a thing'

lol

"I will eat a hamburger and drink a Coke"

i am going to “take” a part time job at starbucks just so i can shame people who order like this

them: “i’ll take a latte”

me: “NOT WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT FIRST YOU WON’T!”

British people are still vexed about the Americanism of using ‘can I get…’ in the ordering process.

That's OK, we roll our eyes at "whilst."

We had a similar discussion about "I'll do [menu item]" in this thread a while back, starting here: Words, usages, and phrases that annoy the shit out of you...

"bobbins"

Most British people also hate ‘whilst’ or find it as objectionable as people who use ‘myself’ where ‘me’ is sufficient.

Whomst

xp tp Aimless
wow
back then i had a full time teaching job

how times change :-/

Like, compare it to other things people "do" that are more active

I overheard two guys in a cafe talking about all the boxsets they'd done in the last few months. They really made it sound a lot more impressive than just watching a load of telly, to the extent that at first I thought maybe they were designers or subtitlers or some other profession that had something to do with the actual production of the boxsets. But no. Just watched them.

We don’t really do box sets

Like, compare it to other things people "do" that are more active

Every once in a while I do a crossword puzzle. Does this count as more active than doing some food or drink?

right! i'll do you for that innit

i'm sure the first person to say "what can i do you for?!" was met confusion and panic. but it spread like wildfire

Probably been mentioned before: "do" in place of "get" or "have" or "accept" or who knows what else. Someone's ordering a dozen donuts: "I'll do three chocolate, three honey glazed..." One of the other moderators in a Facebook group I'm in: "Sorry, we don't do posts from out of town." Just hate it.

― clemenza, Thursday, December 29, 2022 2:49 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I am guilty of this, but clemenza's post has maybe rehabilitated me. I never really thought much about it tbh. "I'll have" sounds too regal or something, too presumptuous; "I'll take" sounds coarse (and don't get me started on "get me a..."). I really want to say "May I please have," which is what I was taught to say, but that sounds so needlessly formal and politeness, and is often mistaken for snobbery (see also "pardon me," which I also say).

Basically I just want to procure all of my food via a touchscreen or from a buffet table

i do "could i get"

"I suppose you could . . ."

sort of makes all my requests sound like long shots, even if i'm at hot dog on a stick asking if i could get a hot dog on a stick

when on the other side i'm a "what can i get for you" tho so at least i'm symmetrical

xp unfortunately that would put me and zillions of other decent people out of work
that's way more rude/off-putting than ordering your food in any particular way

i have to work tonight and my prediction is that i won't pay an ounce of attention to how people ask for their food; that's a luxury i don't have time for! it's NYE!