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

any time a song uses the metaphor of a romantic partner as the singer's 'drug', i turn it off

What if love is the drug you're thinking of.

what is drug

might as well face it, you’re addicted to drugs

lol

haha

'melt' as an insult

But what are we going to call the melts then?

it's the shortest and most euphonious of the available terms imo

I googled it when comrade alp or cal called me it once and remain none the wiser

onimo otm

Patty Cheesesquish

Wait, is a melt the same as a squish?

resultant paste, iirc

idk if it "annoys the shit out of me" rn but there something about "trying times" (esp. "these trying times") that... idk, distracts me? like it's this weird dusty old phrase that nobody used for years until they realized there was no other phrase that communicates the gravity of the situation without like, being crass i guess?

anyway it doesn't "bug" me but every time i hear it i just fixate on how musty it sounds and EVERYONE is saying it now (p sure i've used it a few times too).

I kind of like it tbh.

i'd probably like it if it didn't keep giving me one of those "don't think about a polar bear" type brain reactions

although it is lyrically a 4/10, it forces you to slow down and really round those vowel sounds, which doesn't fly for a midwestern-ontario-accented closed-mouth talker like me. can't say "thiz trine times" and not sound like you're making fun of it or something

I find myself saying "under the circumstances" or "given these unusual conditions." I don't think I've said "trying times" but I'm not sure.

Please provide us an approved list of phrases that we can use to talk about the potentially difficult 24-hour periods that we currently are experiencing, thanks

'In this post-Covid-19 world…'

Seeing how shit is fucked...

I keep saying “in our new environment” to my students mostly referring to our online classroom but it works elsewhere as well

After using "new normal" in a lecture last Monday, I ran to the bathroom and threw up.

You're not alone, Alfred:

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1722270787918

Please provide us an approved list of phrases that we can use to talk about the potentially difficult 24-hour periods that we currently are experiencing, thanks

― cuomo money, cuomo problems (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, April 9, 2020 4:23 PM (fifty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

wish i could think of one that felt like the right balance of respectful, descriptive and casual! but i can't! "while things are tough" is close idk im not a magic wordman

"current shitshow"

I’m happy to inform you that here in the Netherlands this terminology question has already been settled for us by our prime minister. According to him, we will be living in a anderhalvemetersamenleving, a “1.5-metre/5-feet society”, for the foreseeable future. I fully expect the rest of the world to follow this coinage pronto.

'Mericans aren't gonna use no namby-pamby panty-waist commie Euro-units.

Gonna go with "gatorlength."

As in, "Cletus, you'd best stay a gatorlength away from me."

thing about it is if I use the phrase trying times it sounds mellifluous and wonderful, of a piece with my tone and tongue and not at all jarringly

but if you hear it in your own local accent or with a tin ear or whatever that cannot be helped but should be lamented imo

I'm using "with all that's going on" with some success but I'm not 100% happy with it.

This thread needs a part II; like the last-x-movies thread a couple of years ago, if you want to check to see if something's already come up, it takes five minutes and your computer will probably freeze the first time.

(Turned out I was checking on something that turned up three days ago, so loading the whole thread was unnecessary: "the new normal," which is back with a vengeance, ready to challenge Lil Nas X for most weeks at #1.)

The combination "off of"

fucking otm alfred, one of the very best posts in this entire thread

also, “inside of” and “outside of”

outside of a few exceptions?

deems

I keep saying writers use "based off of" and I think, uh, don't your prose triggers sound? Even if you didn't know the correct phrase is "based on" in most cases, "based off of" is the visual equivalent of a booger in a pint glass.

saying = seeing

All those needless "of"s are present in common speech. Like many double negatives that are used simply for more emphatic negation, they're essentially harmless 'pillow words', unworthy of your ire. When they appear in formal settings, they are mere slips into vulgarity.

off've is not only fine, its good

I like "based off of". The alliteration of the voiceless and voiced fricative sounds great.

In poetry.

nah, anytime

they're essentially harmless 'pillow words', unworthy of your ire.

they’re like jamming 14 eggs into a carton made for 12

Who made the carton in that analogy?

jesus

divinely mandated, eh?

hosanna in eggshell sits

that... that's just... I have no words

"Off of" is the only way in Our Queen's English to explain which TV programme you've seen an actor in before.

What's wrong with 'from'?