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

Again: calling the ground/the road/the sidewalk/the pavement “the floor”. UK police and their spokespeople seem to be serial offenders here.

"we need to have this conversation"

meaning some vague societal 'conversation' rather than an actual back & forth between two people

"tulip bubble"

There are enough other bubbles to reference that you don't need to keep pointing to one from hundreds of years ago that you're only familiar with because the professor in the one economics class you took pretended to read the book his economics professor assigned him.

tulip bubbles are a specific type of bubble though

it can have more weight to refer to a precedential historical antecedent than to cite beanie babies, depending on the audience or intent of the writing

its also kind of a gross sounding phrase. i agree it's kind of useful though

tulip bubbles are a specific type of bubble though

agreed, and I think the "beanie babies bubble" (if it existed to the extent tulipmania did) is different re the underlying origins and "value" of the thing in question.

The South Sea Bubble is the one that got the bubble name first iirc, so, I also agree with man alive

then there's the Bubble Bobble bubble of 2019-2021

The Teletubble of xmas 2001 was real

Bubble works beautifully as a metaphor for a speculative mania, in that a real life bubble consists of a very small amount of substance inflated to an enormous size.

that wasn't anyone's annoyance but thanks for sharing?

Weirdly, I'm sick of "the venn diagram is a circle" but I will never tire of "time is a flat circle"

we need to establish an ongoing cadence

as part of an ongoing business conversation

Tracer, your workplace is cursed.

it is

i wouldn’t be surprised if we “laddered up” to outright demonic position

POSSESSION see my phone is already possessed

'ongoing cadence' is a+ honestly

any way to avoid 'going forward' is okay with me

need to give absolute clarity that we still have too much wheelspin in some aspects

Just got a meeting request asking to tie in with my skill code "to help us understand what the art of the possible is related to s/w and testing requirements", and "art of the possible" has me grimacing. Just say "options" instead of nine other words.

wow that's a new one for me, and yeah it stinks

i'm pretty sure it means they want you to cut corners and call it 'agility'

Wait what the heck is “tying in” with your “skill code”

the fart of the pissable

I really, really hate when writers (and I'm seeing it a lot in manuscripts I edit) use the word "prior" when they could use "before." It's a romance novel, not a contract.

controversial take ahoy but referring to the pandemic as "the end of the world"

I don't think I usually take much notice when someone says out loud "a couple __________" rather than "a couple of __________".

When reading, though, that missing "of" makes me (irrationally?) angry.

Happy belated birthday

Motherfucker the birthday was on time

omg yes
this has started to bother me more and more. clearly not enough other stuff to worry about, eh, brain?

I fucking hate getting PR emails offering me an "Advanced Download" of an upcoming album. What's advanced about it, exactly? These are often the same idiots who will offer me a "Sneak Peak" at a new music video.

imo the "belated" has implied apologetic brackets around it

the reaction is worth the annoyance tho

yeah i still dont see how the placement is correct tho

just scans better, bb

hbb

yeah i still dont see how the placement is correct tho

Two reasons. Because opinion adjectives precede age ones in the English order of adjectives, which is an implicit ordering people know and use with being really aware of it. But more importantly, because language does not proceed from logic so logical analyses will not lead you to the "correct" way to say things in a language.

Thanks

Its referring to the birthday which isnt an opinion and its incorrect

"happy" is the opinion adjective though

I believe f. hazel is saying the more logical "belated happy birthday" isn't common because it violates the naturalized adjective order

Hmm not to my ear at all

What a world

I have a new theory

since belated can mean "existing or appearing past the normal or proper time," I think these people wish you dead

"Belated birthday" is a noun phrase. "Happy" modifies that noun phrase.

It's not that you're wishing someone a birthday that is both belated AND happy.

They can't go back in time to have a happier birthday than they already did. So you're wishing them happiness while also acknowledging that you're doing so belatedly.

i’d say the “happy birthday” is a noun phrase and so shouldn’t be split up i.e. “and a belated ‘happy birthday’ to you” - that scans, feels right, and has the benefit of being logical

what also sticks in the craw is that the lateness of the wishing is literally interfering with the wish itself linguistically. just wish me a happy birthday, properly, and apologise to me about it separately

one thing I think we can agree on is that the proper response to this phrase is "get fucked"

tracer otm re noun phrase. the 'happy' is not functioning as a pure adjective per the adjective order there.

rob otm that the person saying it to you is not your friend, therefore by definition they cannot wish you anything because they are dead to u.

wow i'm never gonna wish anyone a happy belated birthday again in case one of them turns out to be you fucks

j/k