Things That Really "Grind My Gears..."

Of course. Farage could eat a whole bag of Cox, for all I care.

Okay, I’ll stop.

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see this all the time when driving…pisses me off to no end

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Any double-entendre is merely a happy coincidence, I assure you!

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One of the worst peeves is people dropping letters from their words. This happens especially with hard consonants on the ends of words, for some reason. When people prefer sloppy enunciation for spoken communication, at least there was the refuge of textual communication. I do empathize if you have crazy teeth, or a tongue made of putty, or some other physiological problem which affects your speech. But text appears to be something of an equalizer in that regard. It does not seem too difficult to actually type that extra r, g, or t at the end of a word.

I hate that posting trainwrecks of poor diction netside such as “dunno”, “gotta”, or >choke< “prolly” and " 'em" seem to strive to normalize lazy speech. It inspires me to feel that people hate their language, or at least certain consonants. I can cope with a silent e and gh, but not silencing most hard consonants.

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Or maybe it’s because they sell so many better local options!

U-Pick apples is a thing in this area of the country. Once you’ve picked 12 different varieties from various trees in an orchard and tried them all, the so-called “Delicious” apples just don’t stack up.

Now I know: whenever any other Boinger comes to town, we plan a meal or a beer or a coffee; but when you come to town, we’ll have to drive to SW Michigan and pick us some apples! (Hint: late summer, early fall)

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Preserving engineering efforts solely on AutoCAD. It’s 2016, make a goddamn 3D model.

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I spent quite a few years in the 1980s saying things like " 'e" to avoid saying he or she, as a way to play with people’s sexist assumptions about whether or not the doctor or police officer or teacher or love interest I was mentioning was male or female.

You, of all people on this forum, should be thrilled by this sort of language use.

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Playing with people’s assumptions I agree is helpful. But I was quite specific in complaining about language mangling as a consequence of laziness. I suspect that people would be able to explain if using “dunno” achieved anything beyond sounding lazy. If new and creative uses of language serve a purpose in communication, then I would not call those lazy. I grew up with this problem, in the form of my family dropping r from the ends of words, with no apparent reasoning.

Sure, it is snobby of me. But I struggle to understand why people decide to do it, and how they think it actually sounds/looks good. What goes through people’s minds when they decide to elide the enunciation of those 5-10% of syllables?

Dude, where are you shopping, that they carry Red D apples that have some sort of pleasant flavor/texture?

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My guess is that poor diction and similar informality is a minor act of nonconformity to the system.

And then some people, ironically, imitate the poor diction as an act of conformity to their social group.

I find that when I am too formal, especially online, I come across as insincere, or even mocking. So, I often write out exactly what I want to say, and then go back and sprinkle with informality to taste. The formal language is more genuine to myself, but the informal feels more genuine, and thus is projecting a more genuine representation of the message.

If that makes any sense at all.

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I feel ya, bro! :wink:

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I use xe instead of 'e.

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You know the joke about the guy who tried to explain Spivak pronoun?

“E, em, eir, eirs…”

“Quite stuttering and just spit it out already!”


Getting back on track.

You know what really grinds my gears?

Esprit de l’escalier.

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Only three weeks ago did I learn about Google Timer. What saved me from abject humility was teaching my family about Google Timer.

I do like the spam-filtering and the procedure for getting back into Gmail when one’s using an unusual IP address (like from another continent) and device. Outlook doesn’t have half as elegant and efficient procedures.

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Only when I saw your comment did I learn about google timer.

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Absinth: yes. Ketchup on hot dogs: no. Granny Smith. (I wonder where that puts me.)

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Someone needs to start an Apple/Ketchup/Anise specific thread, methinks.

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Walla vs voilà. Just typing it makes me irrationally angry.


Why the hell doesn't this ever happen when I go shopping?

https://twitter.com/firstsheriff/status/804066548134662147
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Obligatory:

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Imma keep doin’ that, k?

Bingbingbing. :smiley:

Yep. After having the shite kicked out of you for talking posh, you adapt real quick.

You get it.

What shits me is assholes that can’t see the message for quibbling about the method of delivery, then get all pissy when people do the same to them.

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