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

This is one of those things that suffuses popular culture that I wish we had the temperament to examine critically.

I know of at least one Ph.D. dissertation about lolcat, there are undoubtedly more now

but we always imagine that they don't do it very well.

In my experience, Gary Larson in The Far Side was the first place I saw this trend consistently illustrated. A much earlier counter-example would be Don Marquis, who wrote the Archy and Mehitabel vignettes. Archy the cockroach spelled exquisitely well, but couldn't capitalize, being too small to use the shift key.

he was exactly the right size and wisely chose not to

"cringe" again

Gary Larson in The Far Side

Yes CAT FUD is a classic Far Side reference and even non-Larson fans ime write it that way.

Like, I have had cats for 40+ years and I can't remember ever writing "cat food" on a shopping list. Cat fud or gtfo.

I really hate the use of equity as a replacement for equality. It seems that apparently they have different meanings, but not THAT different and maybe we could have just updated the meaning on the one word.

Saki’s Tobermory was very eloquent: I guess our estimation of cat’s intelligence has gone down over the last century.

Birds are sketchy on grammar and also full of themselves:

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/269/929/cc9.jpg_large

borb

What everyone really needs to accept is that it’s horribly grating to hear anyone say anything that anyone else has ever said before

― devops mom (silby), Friday, July 6, 2018 6:18 PM (five months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, December 12, 2018 9:41 AM (one year ago)

I was talking on Facebook about VP picks earlier tonight with a friend: "I'm not as deadset against Harris as I was, though still a bit worried about the whole stupid 'lanes' business."

"Lanes" is (are?) everywhere right now. The entire political spectrum has been transformed into a bowling alley.

Trying to tell my inner pedant to calm down when it sees 'epicentre' used re: this outbreak.

i'm not a prescriptivist and ppl using formulae i'm unused to is mostly more interested than annoying -- this thread is mainly bad not good -- but when ppl say "coronated" are they just jokingly avoiding saying "crowned"?

("coronated" is a term in zoology meaning "resembling a crown")

? https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coronate

but fine I'll amend to ""looks like charles is finally getting his coronation after all"

i guess the dem primary just unleashed a whole bunch of it into my attention

Americans could have a slight reluctance to say "crowned" w/r/t politics, while "coronated" sounds more metaphorical, i.e., more distant from genuine monarchical practice? idk

whatever spell check my browser is running does not think "coronated" is a word btw

i'm not against it, just unused to it. it seems like needless duplication -- but maybe the avoidance of monarchical implication stops it being a duplication?

the more I think about it, the more it seems like a US/UK divide. When I think of "crowning" or "crowned" my first association is childbirth!

It make me think of Cornuts. I'm hungry.

My first association with "crowned" was with boxing champions.

as in "crowned champion" or as in "punched in the head"

the first. the second usage is becoming quite archaic.

lol my mum used to use the latter, but that largely confirms your judgment

This is totally unfair and a prime instance of bad linguistics, but… I can't stand 'preventative'. #preventive4lyfe

don’t get me started on “orientate”

Reading it just now ruined my day tbh.

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