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

so wrong

xp ooh that's interesting! good to have a thick skin about stuff like this -- the people who write those sentences are just pissed that their obfuscation was removed. boohoo.

yeah that's it exactly. i'm lucky in that my team is very hardcore in the way we support each other - we all have the same problems and there's lots of solidarity - plus some hilarious meetings.

every semi-public service job i've ever had has involved managers constantly reminding me never to promise anybody anything if possible

During my civil service stint iI as tasked with editing our union newsletter written by our very stupid local president (she routinely put an apostrophe in Obama, which I think nicely sums up her written communication skills). I used a fairly light hand with it and just fixed the mistakes that rendered her copy unintelligible and she not only rejected ALL of my edits and sent out the newsletter in its original form (including the typos I'd fixed and the apostrophes in Obama) but I was informed I had overstepped my bounds by editing it at all. Even though the local VP asked me to do it.

Speaking of civil servants with hurt feelings.

I stayed late to finish that so I'm still bitter.

*I was tasked

Sorry. Typing with plastic things glitter nail polish soak off things on four of my fingers.

also v. true, so many poor stylists who take terrible umbrage if you try to correct their public pronouncements

lol, like o'bama? barry o'bama's irish bar.

every semi-public service job i've ever had has involved managers constantly reminding me never to promise anybody anything if possible

this is the golden rule! but not so bad i'd say if you consider the amount of meetings that go in the civil service. they hunt in packs. a classic is for you to go to a meeting expecting a 1 to 1 chat and there are 6 of them and 1 of you, all trying to take 4 hours of your day.

i just write things down and say "yeah sounds good, we work on the web tho so i need to check the web and think about it" - it is a real study in human behaviour that even when you have real conviction in their madness, six civil servants teaming up can make you concede things you wouldn't.

but the no promises rule especially applies to "external customers" as well, it's a big contributor to that shifty civil service tense people write in

i mean the thing i notice is that with members of the public no matter how much you say "might", "should", "hopefully" etc they still hear it as "i will do this for you right now" so the jokes on us really

that's interesting that promising nothing applies to external stakeholders too - for me the no promises rule would only be for internal. with external it'd be just that the language we use is extremely clear - "must" is the law, "should" is advice, we tend to avoid any guidance that is entirely based on "should" as far as possible.

i don't want to be too explicit here but let's just say for a long time there has been a mismatch between my sense of people's legal entitlements, best practice, and the resources of the organization i work for

a mismatch that is undoubtedly sector-wide i shd add

lol, like o'bama? barry o'bama's irish bar.

YES. This was at a time right after his first presidential election when the three blocks of government buildings that surrounded the government building where we worked were festooned with signs congratulating our hometown hero by name (spelled correctly) so that literally all she would have to do to double check her spelling was look out a window. Also we worked in this building:

http://interactive.wttw.com/sites/default/files/field/image/B13_a.jpg

which as you can see is mostly windows.

i'm lucky in that my team is very hardcore in the way we support each other - we all have the same problems and there's lots of solidarity - plus some hilarious meetings.

same same same at my job

i was thinking recently how accustomed i am to having people lie to me -- like, all kinds of people, that i have almost reached the point where i can detect the structure of a lie as it unfolds

"coeds" for college girls

I always figure writers use "coeds" because it's a word that sparks erotic frenzy in men from an earlier era

it's a) gross and b) archaic

I saw that word in a headline today and thought the same thing!

Even worse, the headline also included the word "groping".

"coeds" for college girls

yeeess I had real trouble understanding this usage when I was in the US.

LG I'm in a civil service (-adjacent) job too and the team really try to make sure we're writing in that active, plain way - it's something that is really appreciated by myself (joeks)
Our copy editors are lovely but kind of unusual folks. There are a few bits and pieces from old style guides that had hung on for way too long that we used to argue about, like 'web-site'.

it's not just the fellas gettin a education no more

PP, I know the exact article you reference and it pissed me off for several reasons.

But that's for another thread. Or not.

I didn't exactly faint from surprise that it was in there.

dying @ o'bama

"co-eds" still exists because it suits the needs of headline writers for short, punchy words that can substitute for several longer words and even the online world needs short punchy headlines

I am kind of surprised @ "coeds" still being used.

Ugh, do not search "coeds AND groping" at work!

I'll just drop this here so no one has to search coeds groping. Got some real problems with this. Not just the headline.

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/aug/19/deal-hit-in-ua-coed-s-bogus-groping-cla/

But again, don't wanna derail.

no one has to search coeds groping.

'course no one's forcing you...

Can't stand when people say "Why does this not surprise me?" when they just mean "this doesn't surprise me" and it's obvious why.

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colocation different from collocation?

colocation = two businesses/entities/schools/etc. sharing a facility.

oh
did not know!

Like when a for-profit charter school headed up by a famously evil woman person has taken over your entire 4th floor and is planning to engulf part of your 3rd floor, you are what's called a "co-located" school. Just as a hypothetical example.

i see
does her name rhyme with whee?

good hypo xp (conveniently that worked both as "x-post" and an emoji of me wanting to barf on Eva Moskowitz)

"close of play"

'what we talk about when we talk about ______'

poor Raymond Carver...

That is annoying, in part because the original title relies on the assonance between 'what' and 'love' to give it balance. You can't just stick any word there and get the same effect.

yeah, I feel like I have posted about/we have discussed that somewhere before. I similarly hate "The Unbearable Lightness of ____" "A Farewell to ___" or pretty much any unearned use of a literary title, particularly where the new title has little to do with the referenced work other than sounding catchy.

When people refer to music —or any art, for that matter— as "smart."

Oddly, no one ever uses "Will You Please ___ Please" or "Where I'm ___ing From"

'[cultural product] is a poor man's [more critically acclaimed cultural product]'

Mumford and Sons are a poor man's Fleet Foxes.

'I'll see your [cultural product] and raise you [more obscure cultural product]'

I see your Mumford and Sons, and raise you Trampled By Turtles.

subtext (for both): 'my taste is better than yours, [internet message board poster]!'

The "see you __ and raise you __" one doesn't even make sense. If you see someone's bet of 10 and raise them 5, you're not saying 5 is better than 10.

OTM

"Let's chat with [talk to] some of those folks [clients/vendors]. I'll send a note [an email]"

The needlessly precious terminology is getting irritating. I think it's to encourage a rapport with contacts that constantly feels like friends getting tea and "catching up", but it comes off as forced to me.

i prefer notes being sent over emails being shot

Heh, that's fair.