"Use other words please."

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"his / her / my truth"

put "owning" in front to be shot out of a cannon

images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 23 February 2014 17:58 (twelve years ago)

Own your truth

sXe & the banshees (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 23 February 2014 18:18 (twelve years ago)

Describing some bit of policy as a "Rube Goldberg device/contraption"

I got the glares, the mutterings, the snarls (President Keyes), Sunday, 23 February 2014 18:24 (twelve years ago)

"unhelpful"

I got the glares, the mutterings, the snarls (President Keyes), Sunday, 23 February 2014 18:27 (twelve years ago)

"and that's a good thing"

joe perry has been dead for years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, 23 February 2014 18:47 (twelve years ago)

seriously stop telling me what is a good thing and what isn't
similarly, "...what we've learned from this..."

we slowly invented brains (La Lechera), Sunday, 23 February 2014 19:07 (twelve years ago)

katherine otm some words are just annoying but "unlock" is sinister

my dad invariably describes any movie or actor or scene he likes as "watchable" and it makes my eyes bleed

difficult listening hour, Sunday, 23 February 2014 19:09 (twelve years ago)

otm re: "and that's a good thing," ugh. The implied "but," as well as the implied tying of a bow around the goodness of the thing, both just seem so patronizingly "reasonable," and close off objection.

Doctor Casino, Sunday, 23 February 2014 19:28 (twelve years ago)

"transitioned"

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 23 February 2014 19:41 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

"deliverable" (noun)

°ㅇ๐ْ ° (gr8080), Friday, 4 April 2014 16:03 (twelve years ago)

two weeks pass...

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/04/sotomayor-epic-affirmative-action-ban-dissent.html

Oh shit, EPIC dissent brahhhhh!

Doritos Loco Parentis (Hurting 2), Thursday, 24 April 2014 00:39 (twelve years ago)

two weeks pass...

technical difficulties

billstevejim, Tuesday, 13 May 2014 20:53 (twelve years ago)

i used that the other day cuz my computer crashed and i lost 2 podcast segments

dollar rave club (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 13 May 2014 21:32 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

"_________ is ridiculously good"

so lazy

La Lechera, Saturday, 21 June 2014 15:37 (eleven years ago)

three months pass...

"Sunday Funday"

╲╱\/╲/\╱╲╱\/\ (gr8080), Sunday, 28 September 2014 17:41 (eleven years ago)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/Sunday_Funday_cover.jpg

u2 removal machine (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 28 September 2014 19:18 (eleven years ago)

seven months pass...

"you're going to need a kleenex"

gross

Florianne Fracke (La Lechera), Wednesday, 27 May 2015 13:56 (eleven years ago)

two weeks pass...

"small bites"

gr8080, Thursday, 11 June 2015 15:48 (ten years ago)

four weeks pass...

shenanigans

La Lechera, Thursday, 9 July 2015 15:23 (ten years ago)

That was a fun word when it was rarely used, but now I hear/read it too much for sure.

Johnny Fever, Thursday, 9 July 2015 15:26 (ten years ago)

from what i can tell it's used to make ordinary (even boring) stuff people do when they're drunk sound more interesting or mischievous

La Lechera, Thursday, 9 July 2015 15:32 (ten years ago)

are the irish theme bars called 'shenanigans' part of a chain or do they just have the same name?

soref, Thursday, 9 July 2015 15:33 (ten years ago)

No clue

La Lechera, Thursday, 9 July 2015 15:41 (ten years ago)

earnest use of "shenanigans" def screams drama kid/poly/fedora/libertarian to me

gr8080, Thursday, 9 July 2015 16:47 (ten years ago)

See to me, it signals country/white hat/red solo cup.

how's life, Thursday, 9 July 2015 16:54 (ten years ago)

For me it's account manager who feels her partying days are over but she still likes to drink wine and gossip and calls that "shenanigans"

La Lechera, Thursday, 9 July 2015 16:55 (ten years ago)

curate

early rejecter, Thursday, 9 July 2015 17:41 (ten years ago)

'Hilariously'

(no offence to people) (dog latin), Wednesday, 22 July 2015 23:58 (ten years ago)

music writers saying a song is 'all x and y'

Vasco da Gama, Thursday, 23 July 2015 00:15 (ten years ago)

reveals

j., Thursday, 23 July 2015 00:28 (ten years ago)

"putting out fires"

gr8080, Tuesday, 28 July 2015 00:07 (ten years ago)

alt.shenanigans was a quality usenet newsgroup

brimstead, Tuesday, 28 July 2015 00:18 (ten years ago)

exclusive

fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 28 July 2015 01:39 (ten years ago)

any ___splaining construction other than mansplaining (straightsplaining, whitesplaining, etc.). None of them work.

five six and (man alive), Tuesday, 28 July 2015 01:46 (ten years ago)

splainsplaining

(no offence to people) (dog latin), Tuesday, 28 July 2015 09:18 (ten years ago)

two weeks pass...

ok, which one of you did it

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/wrg/5176556495.html

for sale: baby shoes, never worn your ass (katherine), Monday, 17 August 2015 16:10 (ten years ago)

Hard to believe there's a lack of decent copyeditors at the Time's

cis terfs /r/ doing it for themselves (wins), Monday, 17 August 2015 16:15 (ten years ago)

seeing various folks using "lane" a lot

Caramanica re Drake: And that’s true — by creating his own sound, and lane, he ensured no one could best him

curmudgeon, Tuesday, 18 August 2015 15:04 (ten years ago)

agitprop
"agit-pop"

marcos, Tuesday, 18 August 2015 15:11 (ten years ago)

I have to let it out: stop the "at once _____ and _____", where the blanks are essentially opposites.

Everything can be summed up in terms of opposites, which is a neat notion about existence in general, but in most cases I've read this, the terms used are either too vague, or one seems obviously more apt for the music than the other, and comes off as hedged (and lazy). If you're describing music that can be at once "this" and "that", then why not also describe "the other", or each of the millions of alternatives? Or, you could just do the much harder thing, and attempt to describe what the music actually sounds like, or makes you feel, without setting these weird limits that traverse almost infinite detail.

Dominique, Thursday, 20 August 2015 13:06 (ten years ago)

I get why it happens, and I'm sure I've done it many times myself - performing this act of reaching for an ineffable thing. It's a construction riddled with pathos - basically trying to catch something of what "bittersweet" conjures with regard to personal experience. But not actually that descriptive... should be dashed away by the same editors who should be catching strings of effusive modifiers that are all near-synonyms for each other.

Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 20 August 2015 13:10 (ten years ago)

yeah, I know I've done it in the past too -- I think that's why I hate it so much

Dominique, Thursday, 20 August 2015 13:14 (ten years ago)

confess to overusing 'at once x & y'
also to 'strings of effusive modifiers that are all near-synonyms for each other'
(bbbbut distinct shades of meaning!)
(have to) make an effort in editing to cut that stuff out

drash, Thursday, 20 August 2015 13:28 (ten years ago)

two weeks pass...

never thought it would happen but i have tired of a function word

"this"

La Lechera, Thursday, 3 September 2015 21:38 (ten years ago)

"swear" as a noun (e.g. "he said a swear") Is THE WORST.

EDB, Friday, 4 September 2015 03:42 (ten years ago)

"mainstream" and, far worse, "underground"

EDB, Friday, 4 September 2015 03:43 (ten years ago)

"this"

― La Lechera, Thursday, September 3, 2015 4:38 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

""this""

Hideous Lump, Friday, 4 September 2015 03:47 (ten years ago)

"Disconnect".

I'm not a prescriptivist (I speak and write in non-standard English every day - heavy Glaswegian dialect). And I'm not opposed to nominalisation in principle (certainly not the word "disconnection"). But there is just something about the proliferation of that word, especially in British print journalism when it's so clearly an Americanised turn of phrase, that just makes my blood boil.

you too could be called a 'Star' by the Compliance Unit (jim in glasgow), Friday, 4 September 2015 04:06 (ten years ago)

I want to call time on "did a thing" on social media, as a coy substitute for "wrote a feature" - e.g. "I did a thing for the New York Times", as if you just scribbled a few lines in your downtime.

mike t-diva, Friday, 4 September 2015 10:48 (ten years ago)

Yep, similarly the use of 'so this happened'

MaresNest, Friday, 4 September 2015 10:55 (ten years ago)


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