BS: Things that get up your nose

Subject: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 07:46 PM

People on the road who pass you and immediately turn off. Especially when they don't signal and they leave a distance between you and them that can be measured in millimeters.
And those who can't wait for you to go by and they pull out in front of you and poke along like a snail with gout.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 07:53 PM

If you wear one of those dust-filter masks, they can't get up your nose, Kendall, eh?**bg**

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 07:56 PM

Snuff!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 08:03 PM

An occasional mosquito and people who park their carts to chat in the supermarket aisles so no one can get by. Nobody cares that Martha's cat has fleas or so and so's daughter got married. Get the hell out of the way!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 08:17 PM

THEY DO care about that stuff, SINSULL! If they didn't, they wouldn't be standing there in your way and yakking. What they don't care about is your precious time. ;-)

Or maybe they don't actually care about the stuff they're talking about (which is quite possible)...well, then, they're trapped by the old situation that goes like this...

"Oh, shit! That's my neighbour/acquaintance/friend/coworker Joyce. I can't just flash by her like I don't care...she might think I was being rude! I've got to stop and chat for a minute or two about something or she might realize that I basically couldn't care less about her and am actually really rather inconvenienced by having to stand here and yak to her about Martha's cat and Jeanie's wedding. Sheesh! What a bore. Oh well, I can probably get rid of her easily enough in a minute or two after a bit of polite chit chat. Ho-hum. Now why is that stupid bitch over there glaring at us? Hasn't she got even 5 seconds to spare out of her incredibly important little life while I fulfill my social obligations here?"

They are probably both thinking something along that line. Basically, you've got 3 people in each other's way, 2 of them trapped by the social conventions and fears that hem them in, and the 3rd just trapped, period.

It gets up their noses!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Janie
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 08:25 PM

My nose stays so stuffed up that not much gets up it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Midchuck
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 08:54 PM

People who drive on the highway while talking on cell phones.

People who walk on the sidewalk while talking on cell phones.

People who push their cart around the supermarket while talking on cell phones.

...but you get the idea.

Politicians who oppose anything the other party proposes, not because they're afraid it won't work but because they're afraid it will work, and make the other party look good. (I'm not talking about any party in particular here. They all do it.)

People at a song circle who, just when your turn has come and you've played the first few notes of an intro, decide to comment to the group in general about nothing in particular. Once, not long ago, I stopped dead, put my guitar in its case, and left without saying anything. It was the only way I could avoid doing anything that might have caused the cops to be called.

I could go on, but somebody else should have a turn.

Peter

PS: Also what Kendall said in his first post.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 09:02 PM

Cocaine!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 09:05 PM

In college, I ate a good portion of a freshly cracked cocunut, with friends. It was just before going out drinking beer. I drank far too much and later got sick. What went in, came up, assisted by a bit of carbonation .

The exiting coconut experience was not nice. Much of it irritated my throat. Some of it ended exiting via my nose. It was not pleasant.

So, my simple message is you do not want want coconut "up your nose".

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 09:09 PM

Right Kendall. even worse are the ones who don't turn off but just slow down. I had one guy do that to me and he slowed down until there was only a two feet gap between us.

I figured that if he was happy with that gap then so was I. I kept that gap for about half a mile and the guy nearly had a heart attack, he didn't have the guts to keep it up.

You're right about song circles Midchuck. The Philadelphia was bad about that. If anyone was a bit slow getting started with their song, one of the guitar hogs would jump in and take their turn. I eventually gave up on them.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Janie
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 09:12 PM

Little fingers with longish nails when you think no one is watching?

Eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 10:38 PM

Mustard, if you're French...

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 11:03 PM

Wasabi if you mistake if for lemon sherbert! (as I once did)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ron Davies
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 11:49 PM

All children who are up in dates and floor you with them flat

All people who in shaking hands shake hands with you like that

And all third persons who on spoiling tete- a -tetes insist




and a bunch more.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 03:06 AM

Though the joys of life are transitory
The humble bogie in all its glory
Never gets a poem, paean or lecture
Praising squidgy biddies with their crispy texture.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 04:49 AM

Smokers

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: banjoman
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 05:39 AM

people who think that they have a right to park their cars/vans on the pavement leaving no room for my mobility scooter.

Tory leaders of councils who have no compunction about turning people out of their homes at Dale Farm.

Police chiefs who support those council leaders and attack innocent people with Tazers

Politicians who lie and steal our hard earned money to create jobs for their friends

June Tabor

Anyone who can play guitar/banjo better than me (and there are lots of them)

Bellowhead - a bunch of posers if ever there was

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: DrugCrazed
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 05:46 AM

"Bellowhead - a bunch of posers if ever there was"

Interesting, mind if I ask why you think that?

Seeing as someone's already given the cheap answer about what gets up your nose, I won't.

What gets up my nose is a long introduction to a song where you're slapped in the face with an ideology you don't agree with*

*Roy Bailey on the other hand manages to make it nice and fun.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 05:58 AM

I do like to watch music documentaries about any particular band or artist but what really gets up my nose is the constant commentary that talks over most of the music. I appreciate that they are telling the story but it is so irritating to just get a snippet here and there.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 06:12 AM

People on telly who can't possibly go more than 5 words without interjecting "you know" or "if you like". Yes, I do know; and I do not like, thank you.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 06:13 AM

Though the joys of life are transitory
The humble bogie in all its glory
Never gets a poem, paean or lecture
Praising squidgy biddies with their crispy texture.

Now I'm old and sear and love to linger
On the joys of rolling on your finger
Be it black, or be it yellow
Some scrunchy, greasy little fellow.

So come all ye bold nasal extractors!
When you weigh up all the factors,
Is there a pleasure that ranks beside,
Playing with a bit of snot that's dried?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 07:19 AM

Most things get up my nose these days (it's probably something to do with my age!). Nevertheless, one thing that I've hated for years is oafs who drive around, on a summer's day, with their in-car sound systems on full blast and their windows wound down - so that everyone for miles is forced to be deafened by their oafish 'tastes' in 'post-music noise'.

I think that it should be legal to toss a tear gas grenade in through the open window and then, when the oaf hurls himself out of his car, coughing and spluttering, to thrash his oafish kneecaps with a baseball bat!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 07:26 AM

You know that" Come all ye Bold Nasal Extractors!" line.

Do you reckon that puts it 'in the tradition'? Perhaps The Watersons would record it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 07:52 AM

People who when asked how they are answer "I'm good"
Ant and Dec
Those who refer to my football team as Notts Forest

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 08:20 AM

Adverts for weight loss that still tend to be aimed at women in-between commercials for fast food outlets like Pizza Hut, KFC etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 08:54 AM

Shimrod, right on!

Drivers who tailgate even when I'm going just over the speed limit I find that hitting my windshield washers will make them pull over or slow down. This past Summer I loaded my washer tank with a mixture of soap and water. Messy.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Leadfingers
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 09:06 AM

People who apparently cant bear the idea that some else may have a divergent opinion to theirs in an open forum

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 09:43 AM

I thought your football team was Notts Forest.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: olddude
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 09:55 AM

People who insist on backing their car into everything.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 11:32 AM

Lids and caps you can't open without pressing down first. My joints are sore and it hurts! Also those mayonnaise caps you have to undo then pierce, then do up again. And, those daft aspirin tops you have to line up the steps before they will open. So handy in the middle of the night! I suppose it's to stop children from opening things, but we never needed such protection when young, we had more sense, and our parents kept dodgy stuff out of our reach.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: jacqui.c
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 12:58 PM

Beatrice got up Kendall's nose and he ripped her face off....

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 04:31 PM

F**k with the Bull, get the horns.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 04:42 PM

Grocery aisle cart blockage... I'll up the ante... those that finally realize they are stunned as me arse, move their cart and say, "Sorry." No you are NOT sorry. If so, you wouldn't have been so &*^%^*$##$^ rude in the FIRST place.

Even worse, the women (yes, 99% women) who walk in front of my 85 year old nearly blind mother at the last minute and block her way when they should damn well have not have done so IF they had any manners. I feel like saying, aside of course as Mum taught me better manners, "I hope some ignorant bitch does that to you in YOUR old age."

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 04:45 PM

News readers on TV will NOT learn or use the standard pronunciations of words of other countries as sed IN those countries.

Today I heard an announcer on BBC America saying something about the "Penta-gun" (that big building where all the generals convene). He pronounced it in a hurried mumble, as if worried about getting to the next word in time.

For reference, it's Pent-a-gon.

I suppose some of OUR broadcasters do equal injustices to English place names....but I wish they'd ALL study a bit.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 04:45 PM

Nasal hair is annoying, to have or look at.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 04:58 PM

Bill... Pentagun... Hahahahahaha... *I* LIKE that guy! Ya gotta love that Brit sense of humour.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 05:08 PM

No Al, it is Nottingham Forest (as I'm sure you know) and it is Notts County who play over the river in the shadow of the big club.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 07:54 PM

Brian Williams our NBC newscaster said that Big Ben was leaning. Actually, it is the building that is leaning.
So many Americans don't know that Big Ben is a BELL!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 08:47 PM

Most know his is a Steeler.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 09:02 PM

most Engish people think Big Ben is a character on the Red Hot Channel

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 10:27 PM

How about clerks that ignore you (even when you are first in line) to answer the phone? I often ask why an unknown voice on the phone is more important than a live customer. That makes them think, which they are not programed to to.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 12:55 AM

Actually, Kendall, the name is popularly used here, I suppose by a sort of antonomasia, for the clock, and its tower; tho most of us know that the name originally referred only to the great bell within.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 04:05 AM

BBC Breakfast presenter Susanna Reid. She would be better suited presenting some late night porn show. She can't keep her hands off herself, constantly tosses her hair back flirtatiously, looking at the camera and attempting to pull seductive faces and when she conducts an interview, she behaves like a 14-year-old schoolgirl on her first date.

At 40 plus, she has too many birthdays for those low cut tops and mini skirts.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 04:34 AM

Umbrellas, for all kinds of reasons.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Gurney
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 04:47 AM

Film credits, where they put the musical director, songwriters, musicians, and vocalists last of all.
Even when the film is a musical, for goodness sake!

I just watched a DVD, and 5 accountants received earlier mention, along with carpenters, plumbers, backscratchers, yesmen, masseurs, yada, yada....

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: David C. Carter
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 05:12 AM

I'm like, Blah blah blah,an she's like...
Yeah!right, innit!
An I'm like,You're well right,ya know!
An she's like,Ain I though!

An me...I'm like...GONE

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 07:00 AM

Oh Bluesman. Why didn't you tell us about it before. I LOVE mature ladies in low cut dresses and mini skirts.

You're always going on bout sodding politics.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 07:12 AM

Face fillers that give some women the appearance of a hamster like they are storing nuts or a bad case of the mumps.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 07:18 AM

" and she goes, and then I go and then she goes.... and I'm gone.
People who say anartica, particully, nucular, prone when they mean supine...
Come to think of it, Most things get up my nose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Becca72
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 09:46 AM

At the moment, coffee....went the wrong way. I HATE when that happens.

and Gnu LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 09:48 AM

Marks & Spencer's shirts made far too short - probably for the oiks who don't tuck them in their trousers.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 11:01 AM

People who have small children and don't know how to take care of them. (I don't mean terrible things like child abuse.)

Vivid example: a woman came into the fabric store with a 4-year-old girl. Woman got absorbed in a pattern book. Four-year-old wandered about unsupervised, sticking pieces of a burrito (which she didn't want to eat) into bolts of fabric. Later a manager found a LOT of ruined fabric.

Why didn't the woman know what the kid would and would not eat?
Why didn't she know it was unsafe to lose herself in the pattern book?

Recently I watched little boy in an expensive restaurant struggle to eat full-length strands of spaghetti. Now I know where the Greeks got the idea of Hercules battling the Hydra.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: David C. Carter
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 11:38 AM

People who pull in to gas stations,fill up,stick their heads in the car window asking for the bank card,stroll casually to the service station shop leaving the car in front of the gas pump,look around for stuff to buy,glance at various magazines,candy for the kids etc,shuffle to the pay desk forgetting which pump they used,come back out,get in the car,dish out the goodies,fasten seat belt,stall the engine,leaving you sitting there losing the will to live.

That sort of gets up my nose.Just a little!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 01:28 PM

"Nucular" is guaranteed to make me explode, along with abortions like "more better", more quicker" and other ignorant distortions of a language which has a correct word for almost anything you can think of.

I object, when out for a day's leisure, if some thoughtless twerp drowns out my favourite noise, the laughter and shouts of happy children, with his personal choice of what he fondly imagines to be music, played at volume eleven.

I gave up rushing when I retired, developed COPD/emphysema, and knackered a knee with arthritis so, as you might imagine, the one thing designed to provoke my incandescent anger is the bastards (almost 100% men) who walk straight at me expecting me to jump (an impossibility) aside, bang into me, swear and carry on their way, cellphone clamped to one ear and brain (if any) switched off. It happens much more frequently than you might think.

If I were able to move fast enough, they'd find their legs inextricably intertwined with my errant but highly visible walking stick, and their front teeth chewing paving stones.

OOoooh! I feel a lot more better now!:)

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 01:46 PM

Popping into the newsagents to buy a newspaper and being faced with a queue of idiots buying lottery tickets.

Idiot: "Oh, I want a scratch card for Wednesday and three tickets for a week next Thursday. And do I get a discount because it's a month with an 'r' in it? And can you check this ticket that I bought in 2007? I think it was a month with an 'r' in it - it was July ..."

Newsagent: Hhhhm. I don't know ... I think I'm going to have to re-program the till for that. Can you just hang on for 25 minutes?

30 minutes later

Idiot: "And can I have 20 Bensons & Hedges and a box of matches, please? And can I pay my paper bill from last week? Don't forget I didn't get my copy of the 'Radio Times' last Monday.

Newsagent: "Sorry, but I'm going to have to re-program the till again."

Me: "You see this? It's called an axe - and guess what I'm planning to do with it?!!"

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 01:48 PM

Young adults who insist on walking with traffic! I recently stopped, had Jacqui roll the right side window down, and I said, "You will live longer on the other side of the road."

And cyclists who like to ride two and three abreast at 15 miles an hour. They jump when I lay on the Packard's horn, it is about 100 decibels.It is also equipped with a wolf whistle that just about tears eardrums.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 02:06 PM

I absolutely adore Lee Nelson's WELL GOOD Show. He has that inane manner of speech down to a fine art. Having heard him, I now don't grind my teeth when I hear it, I just laugh.
I totally agree about the uncared-for children. You see so many poor little souls trapped in a pushchair, whimpering and being wheeled all round the clothes shops. Their little legs must ache for exercise. Sometimes they're crying loudly, perhaps thirsty or hungry, but 'mum' is trying on the latest fashions and couldn't give a toss. I bet if you said something, you'd get a right earful!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 03:36 PM

Calling Argentine people "Argentinians"

The easyjet queue at Alicante Airport

When ordering an espresso, being asked "single or double"

Voices going up at the end of each sentence

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 06:50 PM

Hello, Eliza. I'm glad somebody shares my interest in children.

Why aren't pushchairs designed so that the baby sees its mother?

Have you ever noticed the troubled expression on the face of a baby who's facing forward in the pushchair and is being thrust through a crowd of strange adults? The child is turned into the prow of a boat, pushing its way through a sea of impassive humanity.

Why, people, why?

Don, I sympathize. My mother, who was 4'11" at her tallest, had the same kind of problem. Would it be possible for you to waggle your walking stick from side to side as you perambulate? It might get their attention.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 08:41 AM

People who say "UH' or some other non word every three or four words. Hillary Clinton does this and it drives me nuts. They sound like they don't know what they are talking about and are searching for words.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 09:38 AM

Stupid people who camp outside St Paul's Cathedral

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 10:04 AM

Some of these must:
weird nasal hair

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 01:02 PM

Bonzo3legs... "Voices going up at the end of each sentence"

Oh yeah! Really upsets me.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 01:02 PM

Pneumatic drills

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 01:03 PM

People that cannot pronounce the letter L in words.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Greg B
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 01:14 PM

People who start every third sentence with "To be honest..." or "To be perfectly honest..."   What, are you lying the rest of the time?

US Presidents (including the current one and his predecessor) who think that always pronouncing the article "a" as "ay" makes them sound authoritative. No, it just makes you sound condescending. Then they take it to the point where they can't us "an" properly, prior to a noun that begins with a vowel. That would lose them an opportunity to say "ay."

Grocery stores that start out with nice, broad, empty aisles that allow two carts to pass easily and which eventually become cluttered with marchandising displays to where barely one can get through. Memo to managers... the aisles are for PEOPLE not PRODUCT!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 02:19 PM

To be perfectly honest, Greg, we had ay meeting at ay top level of the grocery high command system worldwide and we decided:

A. (ay) - That we like putting lots of product and marketing displays IN the aisles, because it annoys you.

and

B. - That we will continue putting the word "ay" in front of every noun possible, because (see A above)....eh? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Gurney
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 04:26 PM

Bonzo, you must really hate Japanese voices, then. We had a Japanese girl staying with us once, and tried to help her with that. It's a sound that they just don't have in their speech.

I do know what you mean, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 04:30 PM

"the aisles are for PEOPLE not PRODUCT!" Yes, but, when people park their cart next to the product and walk ten feet away and see you coming and don't move the cart until you have to stop and try to start to move it... aaaagggghhhhh! And, then they say "Sorry." and smile. When Mum isn't with me, I reply, "Really? Then don't do that." To which I often hear, "Well, exCUse me." You know my reply to that.

My bro used put items in such carts when he could without the offender noticing. Or so he told me.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 04:34 PM

The aroma of sanctimony!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 04:39 PM

The wind often changes, G. >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Oct 11 - 04:45 PM

Aye, sometimes it comes from the mouth, not the arse.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 05:27 AM

English hotels who serve "full English breakfast" and do not have a self service buffet with fruit and cold meats/cheese. Staying in Canterbury tonight - we'll see!!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 05:47 AM

Scandinavian Hotels who serve cold meats, cheese and fruit juice, and do not have a self service buffet, with "full English breakfast"


;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 06:56 AM

Gurney, my cousin married a lovely Japanese girl. But they called their first child Robert, which I thought was a bit of a mistake, as she now calls him 'Lobert'!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 02:27 PM

People who make promises that they have no intention of keeping.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 02:39 PM

People who expect Hotel Food to be as good as That served in a Transport Cafe;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 04:34 PM

People who expect.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 05:32 PM

People who claim to be conservationists but who think that planting trees is the noblest, greenest thing that they can do. This is one of the great myths of the last few decades. For a start, in Britain, trees have been 'happily' planting themselves for millions of years without our help; if you want to create a wood just fence off a suitably sized piece of ground and just leave it for few decades (the process is called 'natural succession'). Planted trees won't grow much faster but will have damaged root systems. My experience is that ill-considered tree planting can cause ecological damage by shading out the ground flora and drying out the ground.

Undertaking conservation by tree planting bears about as much resemblance to real conservation as a car made out of jelly does to a real car!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Gurney
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 05:59 AM

Problem was, Shimrod, that the earliest inhabitants of Britain immigrated to a forested environment, and then spent the next umpteen generations cutting down the trees to make room for agriculture, as well as introducing alien plants and animals. Britain is a modified environment and can never be anything else, now.
My point is, ground flora is skimpy in a forested area, and trees, all trees, dry out the ground. That's how it works. Native ground flora belongs under native trees, and also on naturally un-forested ground.
William the Bastard tried to remedy the deforestation trend for his own personal enjoyment, but some of the administrators who followed him have undone some of his good work. The New Forest is still one of the nicest places in the UK, though.

My interests are more with water conservation, and I'm sure that you get as frustrated as I do. It is just that I'd much rather see a dam, or a planted forest, than a dairy farm polluting the stream running through it. Also, the average developer has a name for land reserved under the system of natural succession. He'd call it wasteland, and many local authorities would agree with him, and they are the people who sign compulsory purchase orders.

I wouldn't argue with your principles or aims, just your tactics.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 06:39 AM

Me leaving Christmas shopping to the last minute. Every year I rush around in the last week and swear to myself that I will be more prepared next year.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 11:37 AM

Cyclists who seem to think that stop signs (or even red lights!)do not apply to them!

People of ANY type, especially politicians to newscasters, who do not seen to even comprehend that there IS a difference between 'insure' and 'ensure'.

"We are trying to insure that the problem does not happen again" arrrggghhh...

Those who ask craft people at juried craft shows: "Did you make all these yourself?"

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 11:49 AM

People who look right at the sign in the back window of our 1937 Packard and ask, "What make, and what year is it"?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Becca72
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 11:56 AM

A short list: "I been knowing her since...", "would of", "could of" "should of", " since I been 8 years old" "lemme axe you somethin' "

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 01:47 PM

Patsy, I know what you mean. But as this recession bites, it's harder than ever to find the money to buy the presents with! I've been saying I'll wait to buy the presents until my monthly Pension payment goes in, but there's never much left after the bills are paid.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 03:09 PM

Joe and me went downtown.
Her and I went downtown.
Me and...anyone.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 03:43 PM

Bdetween you and I

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 04:48 PM

Being charged £1.75 for an espresso.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 06:41 PM

Gurney,

Please read Oliver Rackham's book 'Woodlands' (Vol. 100 in the Collins 'New Naturalist' series) and then get back to me.

"Also, the average developer has a name for land reserved under the system of natural succession. He'd call it wasteland, and many local authorities would agree with him, and they are the people who sign compulsory purchase orders."

This is to do with the planning system, the rapacity of developers and the general ignorance of, and indifference to, the environment in our culture more than anything else.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 06:46 PM

I'd PM ya about that Shimmy lad but yer a guest.

Yeah! GUESTS that ya can't PM. >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 07:29 PM

Miss using me and I.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Becca72
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 10:11 AM

Being almost 40 and still having my grammar corrected...

While some errors bother me, I don't actually say anything to the people doing it. It's my issue, not theirs.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 10:21 AM

It is rude and foolish to correct anybody's grammar outside of the classroom or in the home, if parents are educating children.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 10:49 AM

My old friend, Andy, and I do it all the time.
If I were walking down the street with my fly open I would want someone to tell me, instead of making a spectacle of myself all day.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,n
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 11:34 AM

people that leave odd ever so slighlty sarcastic or mysterious replies to my posts on this forum and then when asked don't offer an explanation do no such thing , not naaming any names. ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 12:13 PM

People in general. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: BTNG
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 12:23 PM

people telling to read books, that turn out to be as boring as all hell

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: saulgoldie
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 12:24 PM

Sometimes it is necessary for me to correct someone's grammar so I can understand exactly what it is that they mean to convey. Furthermore, the student aides I supervise, almost to a person, appreciate it when I correct them. YMMV, of course.

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: saulgoldie
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 01:04 PM

Ooh, ooh...99

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: saulgoldie
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 01:04 PM

And...100!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 02:12 PM

Well, here's 101. Just carved two pumpkins for Hallowe'en. (Bit early but I'm a big baby and love to see them lit up outside.) But the STINK of the things when you cut them! Ugh!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 02:59 PM

I simply don't understand why intelligent, well educated people want to use bad grammar when they know it is bad. It makes them sound like a half educated bumpkin.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Becca72
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 03:09 PM

As a fairly intelligent person who mixes up I and me from time to time, I don't feel I sound like a bumpkin and would rather not be corrected, thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: saulgoldie
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 04:02 PM

Becca, please feel free to confuse "I" with "me" to your heart's content. I will not correct you. However, if I am confused as to what you mean, I may ask for clarification.

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 04:13 PM

Kendall... "If I was walking down the street with my fly open I would want someone to tell me, instead of making a spectacle of myself all day."

They make a spectacle of you when yer net is open? I'd tell them to piss off!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Becca72
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 04:48 PM

Saul - it's a deal :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 04:57 PM

Pedant alert!!


"Miss using"

misspelling misusing. ☺


end pedant alert.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 05:02 PM

People mix up Me and I, but seem to not have any problem with We and Us.

So here's a rule that might help. If you were to say the same thing in plural and would say We then you use "I' if you would say Us then you would say "Me"

We are going to the Zoo - I am going to the Zoo.
Give it to us - give it to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: The Sandman
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 05:24 PM

bogies and bogeymen

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 05:39 PM

Empire building.

At a recent hospital visit I had to repeat my personal information three times (to different people).

Each of these people had a computer so one would expect an efficient organization would only require you to give the information once.

Either the hospital is grossly inefficient or someone in the administration was empire building (If we ask for the information three times then we can employ three times as many people)

...or it was a way to bump up the charges for the purpose of insurance fraud.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 09:45 PM

It could also be that they have a system in place which triple checks info so that you don't get yer nuts cut instead of yer hair.

Probably not, but, IF it was so, yer nuts would be thankful.... no?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 12:23 AM

No that's not it gnu. The first time they check you in they print out these labels with all you info on them which they use for all your blood tests and things. All the rest is make work so they can charge you extra.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Gurney
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 02:18 AM

Shimrod, it wasn't my intention to initiate any kind of argument, but to point out that there are ways to achieve things that are better in a tactical sense than going straight for the 'ideal.' A 'plantation' arrangement is obviously under management, and the people who planted it will have some proprietary interest in it, even if they were voluntary. Then when it is established, it can be modified.
One case that I was involved in, long ago, was a seeded area which was intended to become a spinney, the first of several. Before it became properly established, it became an impromptu campsite for travellers, who kept returning until the landowner gave up and returned it to agriculture. That was when I lived in England.
Whilst I was looking for a copy of the book you recommended, -not available here- I did find that the forestry authorities in England intend to sell off a proportion of your forests into private ownership, which will make them unavailable for public access even if they don't become plantations. That would make ME spit the dummy!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 02:58 AM

I often watch Judge Joe Brown but sometimes I have to turn it off because of people who say..."Me and her" Always putting ME ahead of her/him. I get to where I don't want to listen to them anymore.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 05:00 AM

kendall, "If I was walking down the street..." Actually, that should be "... were walking down the street..." as it's the subjunctive case. I often smile when people correct the grammar of others, only to demonstrate that they can make errors too!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 11:41 AM

Bert--you remind me of one of the MOST "up the nose" issues.

We all have our stories of exorbitant costs for everything from drugs to insurance premiums to ambulance rides..
I was once charged something like $45 for 'triage' when I went to the emergency room with a cut thumb. The 'triage' consisted of my holding up my thumb with a bloody bandage and saying "I cut my thumb". I called to complain, and they said they'd 'take that charge off'. Most people don't even try...and those with insurance almost never worry about it. I could NOT remove the $90 or so charge for the 'instrument kit' which has needles, scissors, clamps...etc...made in Pakistan..which is **thrown away** afterwards, whether stuff in it is used or not. In my case, they used one needle to put 3 stitches in my thumb. No one could...or would ...tell me who actually profited from that $90. (Seems autoclaves are outmoded)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 12:39 PM

What yewshally gets up my nose is my finger, eh?

- Shane

p.s. I snorted beer once when I laughed at the wrong flippin' time.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Vinnie Bobarino
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 03:03 PM

A rubber hose!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 03:23 PM

I don't mind having my mistakes pointed out, but most people take it personally, like it was an attack or something.
Eliza, better read that post again.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 09:58 PM

Eliza, I made a few too many grammar corrections in my youth and lost a couple of friends. There is a line one shouldn't cross with those corrections. As an English professor friend pointed out in his "History and Development of the English Language" class, "grammar is just manners. As long as you can communicate and be understood, that is what is important."

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 11:05 AM

While I agree that the most important thing is that we be able to communicate, there are other considerations. Grammar was created to standardize our speech to minimize misinterpretations.

I don't know why it bugs me to hear, "Me and her" or "That was ok with Joe and I ", it just does. Sometimes it's ignorance, sometimes it's laziness.
Anyway, I see these abuses of the language as more "Dumbing down of America".
Over and out.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 12:22 PM

It irritates you because it's not what you would do, and because it offends your sense of what's "right". Nothing unusual about that...similar things irritate me too, and for the same reasons. However, I've discovered there's not much to be gained by pointing out such things to most people, because they are doing exactly what sounds right to them and they aren't about to remake their own way of being to suit you or anyone else. So all you end up with if you try to correct them is 2 irritated people.

Better to just accept them the way they are and not worry about their grammatical idiosyncracies.

A spectacular example of that: An Asian woman I knew well once asked me to tell her if I heard her using any English words incorrectly. I later noticed that she was having trouble with a couple, such as "festival" which she would pronounce "fastival". When I pointed it out, however, she got irritated and offended at my correcting her! ;-) So I realized that although she might have thought she wanted me to point out her errors in English...when it came down to actually doing it, she did NOT want anyone pointing out her errors in English or anything else. It probably takes a lot of people right back to when they were kids getting picked on by their bossy parents or something...anyway, they certainly don't react well to correction. They think they are being put down (and in some cases, that may be so).

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 01:12 PM

I didn't put anyone down. I used the "I" word and stated my wonder at why people choose to use the wrong words. My opinion is my opinion and if someone has a problem with it, you know what they say in Poland??? Tough titski.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 03:49 PM

Little Hawk, I know what you mean. My dear husband is still learning English, and hasn't made too much progress. He asks me to correct him if he makes a mistake, but if I take him at his word, he tuts! Also, he begs me to give him the occasional lesson in grammar etc. But it always ends in acrimony, as being a man's wife isn't compatible with being his 'teacher'!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 04:22 PM

rofl

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 07:31 PM

Another thing I don't understand, people who resist learning.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 07:40 PM

You understand it... it just gets up yer nose when thay are stunned as me arse. Maybe?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 01:20 PM

kendall, I've always loved learning, and it gets up my nose too when people seem to have no interest in finding out things. To me, extra knowledge is always useful and sometimes essential.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bettynh
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 02:17 PM

Well, my given name is Elizabeth, which can have a dozen or so nicknames. Salesmen and petty bureaucrats frequently start off by calling me "Liz" - not my name at all. The implied intimacy just gets me angry. I just hang up on the salespeople, but more than city secretary has heard my opinion of that particular shortcut.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 02:42 PM

I hate being called "Kenny". My best friends and relatives don't have that privilege. I also resent being called Ken by anyone other than close friends and relatives. Kendall is a very good name, from Scotland I'm told.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Bruce Baillie
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 03:53 PM

...That bloody Pigeon song for one! 'In the east end of Derby there lived a man etc' I don't know why but I just have an unreasoning hatred of it?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Bruce Baillie
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 03:58 PM

...Oh and something else, that bloody First Bus advert with the psychotically cheerful singing bus driver, have YOU ever seen a bus driver who isn't a miserable bastard? I haven't! Granted I don't blame them some of the idiots they have to drive round but that advert is so untrue.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 05:18 PM

Quite right, bettynh. I hate that too, and always interrupt to insist they address me as Mrs ..... It's a fashion nowadays, but it rankles with me. A cold caller even starts off by asking how I am today etc. as if they're a close friend. Maddening!
kendall, it's totally inappropriate to shorten your name like that. Where did these people learn their manners?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 06:55 PM

They call and ask for Mrs. My Name and I always correct them - it's Ms. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries for them to get it. Then I tell them to take me off the list and hang up.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 06:58 PM

People that insist in providing endless details to answer a simple question.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 07:59 PM

Ed!!!! NO SHIT! Ask me a question... allow me to answer. It's that simple. You ask. I answer. You ask and then say one MORE FUCKIN WORD and I am pissed off beyond all recognition. Why do people not understand the rules of conversation?

That is probably the one thing that pisses... gets up my nose more than anything else. I find it extremely rude. Seriously, I get beyond upset. I just wanna not talk anymore.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 08:28 PM

Sorry Gnu, No offense to you personally,but:

Sometimes an answer is just a yes or no, not a bunch of bullshit that the person is not asking for in asking a simple question, and does not want to hear. Some folks don't listen, respond to, or respect, the person asking a simple question. They are playing some other game.

If one asks "do you have salt? It does not mean the person asking the question wants to hear the full history of salt mining.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 08:41 PM

Sorry Ed. I may have gone far beyond your nose... but, that is exactly the same deal to my mind. A question is a question. An answer is an answer. Even worse is when your question is met by, "What do you....?" Drives me insane.

BTW, my response to your post was perfectly logical... no offense to you.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 09:35 PM

The classic case is a person asks the time and the responder tells him how to build a watch.

Old Maine saying: Brevity is the soul of wit.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 09:46 PM

The Bluebird of Happiness.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 11:40 PM

===Old Maine saying: Brevity is the soul of wit.===

In that case, Kendall, old Will must have visited Maine before he wrote Hamlet!

Hold ~ enough!

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 08:28 AM

So we appreciate Will and quote him. It was true then and it's still true.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 09:24 AM

Vegetarian cafes that won't include any items of normal food on their menu - Green Note for starters!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 11:59 AM

In my shop, I have the radio pre-set to the local NPR station. During the day there are several interesting talk shows with varied topics. Usually, after some discussion, they take calls from listeners.

My poor nose is sore from listening to fully 75% of callers feeling they MUST begin with "Thank you for taking my call." This is a fairly recent phenomenon, as they did NOT usually do this 10-15 years ago. The station is **NOT** doing them a personal favor... they are taking calls in basic order, except for having someone filter out seemingly irrelevant, repeat, crazy and obviously prejudiced callers!

Then, 50% of male callers cannot begin ANY conversation without a mumbled "How are you?" or "howyadoin'?". ONCE I heard a host say "I am doing fine, just like I was when the last two callers asked." I want to yell at the radio, "Just ask or say what you called to say!"

This seems to be related to the 'cold call' where "How are you today?" is merely a pretense of 'caring' and a preamble to wanting to sell something or, in the radio case, wanting you to agree with their position on some issue.

I have a pretty strong aversion to any 'canned' or automated beginnings to questions or conversation.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 12:27 PM

Fish markets that advertise "fresh fish" for sale, and when ask more questions, the "fresh" means "previously frozen".

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 12:31 PM

OK, Kendall: but just to put a mild question, isn't it a bit insular to call a Shax quote which has become proverbial, or maybe a proverb that Shax quoted over 400 years ago, an "old Maine saying"?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 12:39 PM

Cold call salesmen and sales ladies.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 01:15 PM

It is old and we use it in Maine. Have done for many years. I did not mean to imply that it originated in Maine. Any student of the Bard knows it came from him, but who can prove that he was the first to put it that way?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 01:54 PM

Nit pickers.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Gurney
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 01:19 AM

Bill D, there a habit that has floated to these islands recently, the habit of shop-people who've served you ending "Have a nice day!"

I'll have any kind of day I want to!

Not that I'm grumpy, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 05:56 AM

Mudcat crashing just after I have typed a witty post.

Not being able to remember my witty post after Mudcat is back.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 09:58 AM

**Bill D smugly saved HIS witty post yesterday in a little file, and re-posted it today** ☺

Whoops... smugness may get up gnu's gnose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 08:48 PM

People who work in stores or banks are told to say, "Have a nice day." They don't always want to say it, and it shows.
More often than not I reply, "That started when I met you." It really brightens their day.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 09:14 PM

Now THAT is smooth. Good stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 08:24 AM

I don't say that to everyone, just the women. The plain ones really appreciate it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 12:06 PM

I believe that people watch Fox Noise because they thrive on negative energy. Does this thread indicate this? I used a negative title on purpose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 12:14 PM

People who say mean things about Winona Ryder just to bug me...

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 04:57 PM

Your welcome, LH. Have a nice day.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 06:24 PM

Quite a few years back, as a young lad, I was fishing groundfish longline off Nova Scotia with a salty Icelandic fisherman.

I was hung over. He offered me "snuff" he instructed to be sniffed up deep and later blown out on a hankie. He wagered it would cure my hangover. Begods, it worked and my mind was clear, well at least for the day. Next day I had the woest headache ever, and a sinus infection to boot. That really got up my nose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 08:30 PM

"What would you like for breakfast, my dear",
Said Mum, idly picking her nose,
"I think that I'll have a boiled egg" replied Dad,
"You can't get your fingers in those".

Anon

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 08:49 PM

I hate grocery stores that use flagstones, cobbles, or corrugated carpeting as flooring for the area between where you pick up your shopping cart and the main sales floor. They do it so that you can't tell whether your shopping cart has handling issues until you've already walked so far that you're not willing to turn around and exchange the cart for another one. And even if you did exchange it, you wouldn't know if its replacement was any better until you went through the whole routine again.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 09:34 PM

BWL... those are the same bastards that don't pay the extra for a static electricity chain which would work very well on those flooring types so that I don't get a SNAP every 20 feet. Cheap bastards!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 11:34 PM

People who ask for advice and then don't take it. My wife does this to me all the time.

She can't make a decision without first asking me what I would do. So I tell her, and then she does something different. It never fails.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Nov 11 - 04:04 AM

People who can't let you finish a sentence without interrupting.

I have a certain relative (not my wife) who did that to me repeatedly last summer when we had some important family matters to discuss.

It's not like she doesn't pay attention at all. She pays careful attention to the first half of your sentence, and from that, she figures out what the second half was going to be, and then she can't wait to reply to what she thinks you were going to say.

Even when you point out she totally had the wrong end of the stick, she still doesn't take the hint and apologize.

It drives me nuts.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Nov 11 - 12:50 PM

People who don't follow instructions.

Another relative was staying at our house for a few weeks, and she wanted to use our TV. Our Cable/TV/VCR/DVD setup is kind of complicated, and some of the equipment is out of date—it doesn't have enough places to plug things in—so when you want to switch from watching live TV to watching a DVD, you've got to unplug a cable from the back and plug it in in a different place. So I attached a piece of masking tape to the cable and wrote: "MOVE THIS." Then I stuck 2 more pieces of masking tape on the equipment, each with an arrow pointing to a socket. On one of them I wrote: "PLUG IN HERE TO WATCH A DVD." On the other I wrote: "PLUG IN HERE TO WATCH LIVE TV." I also wrote her a note telling her where to look for the labels.

That should be clear enough, right?

So did she follow instructions? No-o-o-o.

She noticed an unrelated cable hanging loose from the wall—it led to the roof antenna, which we no longer use, since we now use cable—and she called me at work to ask if she was supposed to plug that in somewhere.

What bugs me is the fact that she actually did read and understand the instructions—she just didn't trust them. She figured they had to be wrong somehow, since they didn't mention the antenna cable. After I explained that she should just leave that cable alone, everything was fine.

What's the use of being careful to make sure you're right, if people don't believe you anyhow?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 12:49 PM

This morning had yet ANOTHER call from an insurance company (unsolicited and unwanted) Hello, ... (my Christian name) and how are you today?" "Who's calling, please?" "My name's Chris. How're you doing, ...?" (Christian name again) "State your business please." "It's nothing to worry about...(name again), I'm just checking on how you are today, and wondering if you have Life Insurance?" "This is an Ex-Directory number, you are not to call me again, and if you do, I'll alert the Police. I do NOT want insurance. This is harrassment!" "Well, ...(name again) have a very nice day." I felt absolutely murderous, this is the fourth time this person has called! My old, late friend used to shout "Piss off!" down the phone, she didn't bother with manners, and they never called her again!. Perhaps I should do the same?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 12:56 PM

They are the worst of the bunch.

When we first moved here the phone company gave us the phone number of a deadbeat who moved away. Call after call asking for this clown nearly drove me to distraction. I told them time after time there was no so and so here. Either they didn't hear or didn't care they kept calling until the last time when, out of sheer desperation I shouted, "Call Hell, he went crazy and I shot him."

No more calls.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 01:40 PM

Those calls that pretend like they're doing you a favor - I'd love to be able to deliver a small shock through the line, short out their phone. :)

BWL, I agree. No way to assess the wheel status on the cart in that cobbled area. I have begun testing carts in the lot, because usually if they made it all the way out someone could stand to push it. I bring it into the store with me, don't wait till I get there.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 03:06 PM

SRS... me too. I park as far away from the door as possible so there are more cart corrals between me and the door.

Eliza... best not to yell... they have your number.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 04:14 PM

You're right, gnu. I don't want to provoke any retaliation. As they're paying for the calls, I suppose I can just quietly hang up each time until they get bored!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 04:36 PM

How to deal with junk phone calls:

Phone calls from solicitors usually give themselves away by the fact that there is a delay of around 3 seconds after you say "hello" and before the person on the other end replies. That's because the dialing is done automatically by a computer, and they even use the computer to detect that there is a real person on your end (as opposed to an answering machine or fax), before they match your call up with the next available agent. This takes some time. They might even be calling from India, which adds more to the delay.

So if I hear 3 seconds of silence after I say "hello" I immediately hang up. No use wasting any time or energy on these things.

Once in a while, it's a real person from the get-go; there is no automatic dialer and so no delay. So then as soon as I realize the call is a solicitation from someone I don't want to talk to, I say "No, thanks" and hang up.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 04:58 PM

There was a thread about telemarketing... good advice there.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 12:52 PM

Another thing that pisses me off: people who refuse to apologize when they should, or who only offer mealy-mouthed, equivocal, obviously insincere apologies.

"I'm sorry if you were offended..." Translation: "I'm not sure you were really offended. I think you might be faking it."

"I want to apologize to anyone who was hurt by my actions...." Translation: "...but I'm not sure such a person really exists. I certainly couldn't name one."

"I'm sorry that you were offended by my remarks...." Translation: "...but I'm not sorry I made them. I'm only sorry you heard them."

"My remarks were taken out of context...." Translation: "...and the proper context was: a room full of people who totally agree with me."

"I didn't mean.... What I really meant was...." Translation: "Let me take this opportunity to say something different but equally offensive." For example: "I didn't mean your haircut was ridiculous. All I meant was, it's too bad you didn't go to a licensed barbershop."

It occurs to me I have probably undermined my own position by making my examples too funny. In real life, they are seldom that funny.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 07:03 PM

"No, you are not sorry. If you really cared at all you would have taken care not to be rude in the first place. If you were rude by mistake then you are an idiot or infirm. I'd suggest you opt for infirm if you can pull it off."

Depending on the circumstances, I sometimes add... "...idiot."

Rude people REALLY get up my nose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 07:09 PM

"Nothing is bad, or good; thinking makes them so." (W. Shakespeare)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 07:18 PM

Kendall... here's what I thought when I jammed the bitch's grocery cart into some canned goods today... fuck you ignorant bitch... you walked in front of my 85 year old almost blind mother and ignored her and blocked her way when you didn't have to do that? BillyBob woulda done the same.

Sorry to keep talking about the very same thing but it happens EVERY time I take her out for her walk. People are SOOO rude. I just hope that when they get old, some younger rude twit treats them as rudely.

Gosh! Where have all the manners gone?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Clontarf83
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 07:28 PM

My CPAP machine (in a good way of course--saved my life not to mention my marriage--no more snoring)

In a bad way: Timeshare Sales people--especially the Mexican variety

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 08:07 PM

Another way to deal with junk calls is to pretend that you are interested and keep them talking and don't buy anything. You get taken off their call list immediately.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 09:54 PM

People who complain about heavy traffic, crowded stores, long lines, etc. as if they think they have a right to be there and no one else does.

They don't seem to realize that, just by being there, they are helping to create problem just as much as anyone else is.

The old adage "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" couldn't apply to any situation more clearly than it applies to crowdedness.

If crowdedness is a problem for you, you need to figure out when the off-peak hours are, and arrange to do your shopping/traveling/commuting at those times. That's how you become part of the solution. If you don't do this, it's your own fault you are inconvenienced by crowds.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 03:28 PM

Noisy restaurants. I can't even think of a time when my husband and I went to a nice restaurant and it was peaceful and pleasant to be there.

Remember how, in black and white movies, there'd be a scene in a restaurant? A man and a woman, a luxurious white tablecloth, a piano playing sophisticated music in the backgroudn, and the occasional clink of cutlery against china?

Now it's like dining in an anvil factory. Management plays loud, ugly music and the customers talk loudly to be heard over it.

I was at a restaurant in the Plaza recently where the waitress had to get about three inches from me to hear me.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 03:49 PM

"Nothing is bad, or good; thinking makes them so." (W. Shakespeare)"

Hmm...methinks Bill was reading the Bible.

Romans 14:14

English Standard Version (ESV)
14:I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean."

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 03:51 PM

and in line with that, what gets up my nose is folks who WANT there to be absolute standards... and who assume that their definitions are the only ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 07:40 PM

People who talk on cell phones while driving. We saw one just today, ran a red light while gabbing. Glad no one was in the cross walk.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 09:27 PM

kendall... people who drive and talk on cell phones... when it is AGAINST the law here for months now. Saw a guy mess up today... nearly hit a bus. A BUS! How can you not see a bus? Apparently by being on a cell phone while driving? Unreal. Stunned as me arse.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 10:49 PM

How about clerks that ignore you (even when you are first in line) to answer the phone?

Don't blame the clerk. He/she probably doesn't like it any more than you do. Blame the manager—the clerk's boss—who decided that the same person who waits on customers at the counter should also answer the phone, when there are other employees who could do it—including the boss himself, who'd rather have the clerk screen his calls for him, because he doesn't like being interrupted while he plays solitaire.

I often ask why an unknown voice on the phone is more important than a live customer. That makes them think, which they are not programed to [do].

No, Kendall. You're not making him think. He thinks plenty already. You're making him bite his tongue. Otherwise he'd tell you to fuck off, since you obviously have no idea how hard his job is. He knows perfectly well that waiting on customers makes more sense than answering the phone, but if he ignores the phone, or if he is rude to the caller, or if he puts the caller on hold for too long, that person will next call the clerk's boss and complain about him. And the boss, who hates more than anything to get calls like this, will take it out on the clerk.

Have you guessed that I've actually had a job like that?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 01:54 AM

Not my problem. I went to buy a stove and the salesman walked away to answer the phone. He talked for a while and I started to walk out. He came running and asked where I was going. I said "Somewhere to buy a stove." I did and he lost a major sale.

I don't give squat for their company policy. If I'm talking to you and some stranger buts in with his own agenda that is rude. So is ignoring me to talk to some "Johnnie come lately".
I'm not a sheep and I will not be treated like one.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 04:49 AM

BillD ~ no, he had it right ~~

Hamlet:
Denmark's a prison.
Rosencrantz:
Then is the world one.
Hamlet:
A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and
dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.
Rosencrantz:
We think not so, my lord.
Hamlet:
Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or
bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.

Hamlet II ii

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 07:14 AM

Or did you mean that Will [not Bill!] derived his formulation from The Bible? Don't know the previous translations entirely; but the AV, which you quote from, was published later than Hamlet.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 10:41 AM

Well... the basic text is/was older than Hamlet, and I was merely noting the similarity of the concepts (as we ex-philosophers are wont to do), which led me to wonder IF ol' Bill adapted it.

Scholars will no doubt differ, as scholars are wont to do. ☺

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 10:48 AM

Indeed, Bill. I don't think Will would have claimed it as other than an appropriate commonplace.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 12:11 PM

Faddish statements that don't make sense:

"I could care less"

"One of the only ..." What?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 01:35 PM

I really find it hard to fathom why people who make grammatical errors are considered to be in the same league with dangerous drivers, tyrannical bosses, whining complainers, lying politicians, telemarketers and the like.

Grammatical errors don't harm you or inconvenience you in any way. What's the big deal?

I guess one of the things that get up my nose is—people who complain about other people's grammatical errors.

Oh, I know, this could get recursive, and could go on forever: "I hate people who complain about people who complain about grammatical errors." – "I hate people who complain about people who complain about people who complain about grammatical errors." Etc.

Let's not. I promise to get a life sometime soon.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 02:12 PM

Software applications that don't put a file back in its originating folder, and you have to search the whole bloody hard drive to find the updated version.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 02:20 PM

Ah, Bert! That triggers one of MY complaints. Pages that use/require javascript to display images, play videos...etc... but who make NO effort to note this fact!

They seem to assume that most people will make no attempt to control intrusive popups or ads, so they make you look at the ads in order to see the content. I can handle that, if only they TELL me, so I can turn it on temporarily IF I CHOOSE!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Don Firth
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 05:15 PM

So I'm cruising down the sidewalk in my local shopping district in my battery operated wheelchair. It'll do a good 6 mph, but when on well-traveled sidewalks, I keep it at a regular walking pace and stay to the right.

Two things in particular get up my nose:

1. That old bugaboo, people with cell phones. I usually can't go more that half a block without having to yell at someone who's walking toward me, jabbering away, and gazing off into space. If I don't, they'll wind up in my lap! I look forward to that occasional time when they get so engrossed in their conversation that they walk, forehead first, into one of the metal light standards lining the street. It makes such a pretty "bong!!" sound.

2. Kids on skateboards—or people on bicycles who are not supposed to be using the sidewalks—who think the curb-cuts (short ramps on every corner put there expressly for people in wheelchairs) are exclusively for their convenience. More than once I've been zipping down a curb-cut to get across the intersection while the light is green when some mouth-breathing cretin on a skateboard with his pants at half-mast swears at me for getting in his way as he (illegally!) surfs the sidewalk.

Small triumphs:    I'm cruising down the aisle of a large, supermarket-sized drug store at a normal walking speed when some guy behind me apparently felt I wasn't going fast enough for him. I didn't know he was there until he tried to shove by me. Unintentionally, one of the drive-wheels went over his foot. I don't know how much the chair weighs, but it's solidly build and it's powered by two marine batteries. He wound up hopping on one foot, holding the other, and going "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" Sorry about that. But if I'd been walking, he would have at least said, "Excuse me" before he tried to shove by me.

While driving my car, I learned this little tactic and it works every time. I'm on the freeway moving along fast in the left lane. My off-ramp is coming up, so I move into the middle lane well ahead of time, then prepare to move into the right lane to take the off-ramp. I glance over my right shoulder and there's some gink hanging right off my right rear quarter panel. I turn on my turn signal and he stays right there. I speed up, he speeds up. I slow down, he slows down. So—I really punch it and spurt ahead of him, and HE punches it. I suddenly slow down, he shoots by me, I whip over behind him into the right lane, and take the exit I want.

Are guys like this incredibly competitive, mean-spirited, just plain stupid, or all of the above?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 05:46 PM

People who make incomplete

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 06:01 PM

or finish them for you.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 06:15 PM

People who tell me to click here without telling me why.

I'm supposed to just trust you then, that this experience will be worthwhile? You vastly overestimate the value of your recommendation.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 06:28 PM

""I guess one of the things that get up my nose is—people who complain about other people's grammatical errors.""

If you really feel that correct grammar is of no importance Jim, I can only hope that you never have a solicitor who is of the same opinion carry out the conveyancing on your house purchase.

You might find that it isn't your house, that its value is reduced, or that you are unable at a later date to sell it on.

And that is just one way of the many in which bad grammar can wreck the even tenor of your life.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 06:34 PM

Drivers who, on turning left, will slow down in the fast lane and completely ignore the clearly marked turning lane.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 08:15 PM

Don.. "Are guys like this incredibly competitive, mean-spirited, just plain stupid, or all of the above?"

Yes... and... isn't it odd? WHY do these idiots do these things? I just slow down and start moving over and nudge them out of the way. Either the idiot allows me in or the next one will. If not, apparently they don't understand the law. Their loss if THEY hit ME. And, they won't... >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 08:40 PM

Don T: I didn't say grammar was of no importance. I said I don't consider grammatical errors to be in the same league with dangerous driving, etc.

I find it hard to imagine a situation in which a legal case would hinge on a simple grammatical error. Do you know of such a case?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 08:48 PM

Jim, you are right, they don't belong in the same category.
Bad grammar bugs me because laziness bugs me. As I said before, it's part of the dumbing down of America.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 07 Nov 11 - 01:01 PM

""I find it hard to imagine a situation in which a legal case would hinge on a simple grammatical error. Do you know of such a case?""

Not so much court cases, but I do know of some contracts invalidated by misplaced punctuation and grammatical error.

An uncle of mine who was in the property business had to refuse the services of one partner in the law firm he used, for that very reason, and came very close to severing his contact with the firm as a whole.

Had anyone invoked the terms of those in a legal action, I'm not sure what the outcome might be.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 07 Nov 11 - 02:44 PM

If grammar is important for everyone, why is it not more important for doctors to write clearly when writing prescriptions or other important medical directions?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 07 Nov 11 - 03:28 PM

On accounta MDs are not trained to print... which I find very odd.

As an engineering student I had to print all of my work in a specific text style. The only time I used writing was for my signature, AFTER I had printed it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 07 Nov 11 - 03:32 PM

Many wars have been started because of misunderstanding.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 07 Nov 11 - 03:47 PM

Many wars have been started because people "take advantage of" a misunderstanding.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: saulgoldie
Date: 07 Nov 11 - 03:51 PM

I can't cite chapter and verse. But I think I remember reading about a case of inheritance about which there was an issue over a comma either being there or not. It was something like "...to be divided among A, B, and C" vs "...A, B and C" Perhaps it was just a puzzler. But in this case, the comma made a significant difference as to how it was divided. (Oh, I wish I could remember the specifics! CRSS, you know.)

Usually a mere comma does not make that much difference. But, as said before, in some legal cases, it can. And in more mundane circumstances, it can still cause confusion in the reader requiring follow-up clarification.

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: saulgoldie
Date: 07 Nov 11 - 03:54 PM

Yeah, here it is:

Serial Commas

Experts don't agree about this, but when in doubt, it is safer to use the serial comma. ("red, white, and blue" instead of "red, white and blue"). One of the reasons that it's safer to use this comma is to ensure clarity, especially in technical or legal writing. There was a court case where there was disagreement as to how the money should be divided among 3 people because of the lack of the serial comma. (The will said that "Bob, Betty and Jane" were to split the money. Because of the missing serial comma, there was confusion as to whether Bob got 50% and Betty & Jane split the other 50%, or whether each person got 1/3.) So to be safe, always use it.


And another one:

The case of the million-dollar comma

The position of a comma in a 14-page contract is at the heart of a dispute that could cost cable TV company Rogers Communications one million Canadian dollars. 26 Oct 2006
Topics

    * General contract and boilerplate
    * Litigation & International Arbitration
    * Corporate

A five-year contract with Aliant Telecom gave Rogers access to thousands of poles that carried its cables to homes across Canada. Aliant didn't own the poles; it only acted as an agent for a power company. When the power company decided to take control of the poles itself and raise the rates, Aliant gave 12-months' notice to Rogers that its deal would be terminated one year before the expiry of the five-year term.

Early termination would force Rogers to start paying the power company at the higher rates, costing Rogers an extra CAN$1 million over that final year. But Rogers could avoid this expense if Aliant had no right to terminate early.

Aliant's right turned on a single clause:

"[…This Agreement] shall be effective from the date it is made and shall continue in force for a period of five (5) years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five (5) year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party."

Aliant interpreted this as a right to terminate at any time upon one year's notice to Rogers. But Rogers read it as a right to terminate only at the end of the current or a renewed five-year term.

The dispute came before Canada's Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission.

Aliant argued that, based on grammatical rules of punctuation, since the comma closed the clause "and thereafter for successive five (5) year terms", the subsequent qualifier "unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party" qualified all of the preceding section.

Aliant added that, had the intention been to limit the right to terminate to the end of the five-year term, there would have been no comma placed before the word "unless" and clear wording would have been included specifying by what date the notice was required.

Not so, argued Rogers. If Aliant could terminate at any time upon one year's notice, the express agreement by the parties to a five-year term was effectively meaningless. Why bother with the words "…for a period of five (5) years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five (5) year terms," it asked?

The Commission sided with Aliant, describing the clause as "clear and unambiguous." Had the intention been to limit the right to terminate at the end of the current and any renewal term, clear wording would have been included specifying by what date the notice was required, it said.

That ruling was issued in July. This month, Globe and Mail reported that Rogers is appealing. In doing so, Rogers will rely on Canada's second official language. The Toronto daily said that Rogers spent two months finding a French version of the same contract. The punctuation is different in the French version and Rogers says it supports its interpretation of the English version. According to The New York Times, Rogers has also commissioned a 69-page affidavit from an authority on contract language.

Aliant is said to be preparing its response.
Interpretation in the UK

In the UK, as in many other jurisdictions, when faced with a contractual ambiguity, courts examine evidence of the parties' intentions. They consider the contract as a whole, not just the specific clause and adopt the ordinary meaning of words.

In 1998, Lord Hoffman ruled in the House of Lords: "The meaning of words is a matter of dictionaries and grammars; the meaning of the documents is what the parties using those words against the relevant background would reasonable have been understood to mean. The background may not merely enable the reasonable man to choose between the possible meanings of the words which are ambiguous but even (as occasionally happens in ordinary life) to conclude that the parties must, for whatever reason, have used the wrong words or syntax."


Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 07 Nov 11 - 04:25 PM

Another reason for the use of the serial comma is to distinguish composite usages: as in

"The company will perform plays by Webster, Middleton, Massinger, Ford, Beaumont and Fletcher, Jonson, and Marlowe."

or

"Representatives were present from Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Tyne and Wear, and Yorkshire."

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 09:47 AM

Middle class people who insist that they are working class!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 11:14 AM

Fifty year (plus) aged people who insist that they are middle aged!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 11:16 AM

...Middle class people who insist that they are working class!...

If they work they are working class.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 11:40 AM

Absolute claptrap, Bert ~ HM the Queen works as hard as anyone in the country; so do the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, all MPs and many members of the House of Lords, the Director General of the BBC, the Lord Chief Justice (cont p 94)

but...

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bert
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 01:13 PM

Then they are still workers and should join the bloody union;-)

Free beer for all the workers.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 01:45 PM

Saul... "The dispute came before Canada's Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission."

It should have gone before a court of law.

As for the clause itself, it is clear that the intent was that the five year term would be renewed if no one year notice was given.

And, that's why I can't see pictures in emails sent to me by my SiL. Now, THAT would be something for the CRTC to look into.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 01:46 PM

Middle age is anyone 10 years older than I.
Also, it depends on how long you expect to live. Considering that all of my relatives lived to be very old, I'm middle age at 77. They had to shoot my grandmother to start a graveyard.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Don Firth
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 02:37 PM

My body keeps issuing eviction notices, but being a contrary SOB, I ain't goin' until I'm damned good and ready!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 02:47 PM

"They had to shoot my grandmother to start a graveyard."

HAHAHAHAHAA!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Greg B
Date: 08 Nov 11 - 06:31 PM

"In a bad way: Timeshare Sales people--especially the Mexican variety."

Ambiguous sentences.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 10:51 AM

Account numbers and confirmation numbers so long and complicated they could express the number of quarks in the universe.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 03:44 AM

Vegetarian burgers, mince or sausages etc. Why would a vegetarian want to eat something that resembles meat?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 05:42 AM

The stench of beer in a concert hall.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:32 PM

Commercials (adverts) that show people playing instruments when it is obvious they don't even know how to hold one.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Midchuck
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 04:13 PM

Fifty year (plus) aged people who insist that they are middle aged!

My daughter, a family physician, told me that the actual medical definition of "middle age" is 35 to 65. I don't know who decides, but that's what she said.

I kidded her that we were both middle aged at the same time for a little less than a year.

P.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Becca72
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 04:26 PM

Are people living to be 130 nowadays?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 08:14 PM

If they are, they don't know it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 12:08 AM

That '130' query was based on a misapprehension ~~ middle-age needn't mean exactly ½-way-thru.

There are not 3, but 4 stages: childhood, youth, middle-age, old age; and no compulsion to regard them all as of equal length: think of the telescope/acceleration effect as time passes: as I never tire of saying, the 13 years of my schooldays, 5-18, went on something like 50 times as long as the 48 years of my first marriage.

On that basis, I think it reasonable to think of childhood up to 14, youth 14-40; middle age 41-'5-years-older-than-I-am-now' until that gets a bit too much even to delude oneself with...

(And one must allow for different circumstances, occupations, &c: a 40-y-o Prime Minister would be a young one; a 28-year-old pop-singer is an oldie.)

I shall be 80 exactly 6 months + 1 day from today.

I suppose that then I shall be old ~ just about - maybe...

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 03:22 AM

No matter how much I like to kid myself that I am young the creaking bones and Arthritis tells me differently.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 04:35 AM

Another thing that get's up my nose is people who walk behind me, almost treading on my heels, while shouting loudly into their mobile phones!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 05:08 AM

Not necessarily "young", Patsy ~~ but, come now, those are recognised symptoms of early(-ish) middle-age --

-- like mine...

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 06:56 AM

I'm in pretty good shape for the shape I'm in.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 01:09 PM

Chinese Tire, er, Crappy Tire, er, Canadian Tire just did. I COULD be holding $5000 and an instant prize with my "decoder". It's a thin plastic card with a code and a portion of it is a see-thru reddish window that one puts over the coded message on the webpage for the contest. Apparently, people who are NOT colour-blind can read the secret fucking message.

I wonder what it says... You really didn't think you were gonna win didja? We just wanted your name, email address, address and such so we can add you to our database and send you countless....

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bettynh
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 03:11 PM

I'm not showy as a patriot, but I was a Girl Scout. It bothers me to see the flag flying in the dark and/or rain. My neighbor has had his up for months now. I'm sure he'd be shocked to hear that I find his treatment of the flag as disrespectful as the behavior of the hippies when they burned flags. At least the hippies knew and meant what they were doing.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 03:28 PM

Oh, Please

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 03:31 PM

Burp

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 03:50 PM

Yo Ed... pass it over here eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Ed T
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 04:12 PM

When your mate gets up your nose, try this one:

Dealing with your mate

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: gnu
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 02:50 PM

God. Pissed me off to NO END yesterday/today.

In a nutshell... Mum's gonna be 85 tomorrow... wet macular degeneration for several years so she is blind in the right eye... yesterday, the eye doc's assistant make a big deal about high pressure in her left eye and said the doc would double check it... then, the eye doc recommended cataract surgery be done within a year... Mum is scared to death of docs and all medical... she was upset (but steady).

The long story...

When the eye doc was done, she had not checked the pressure so I mentioned it. She had to put an extra set of drops in but she didn't use the freezing drops first nor did Mum get to sit in a drak room for the usualy 15 minutes and I could tell Mum was having discomfort. Usually, by the time the exam is complete, she can see okay to leave on her own and the discomfort is minimal. She was visibly shaken and upset and didn't want to go for her afternoon walkies at the shops.

I delivered some ham for her supper and her left eye was still messed up. I phoned her after supper and it was still messed up... she couldn't read the words in the info box on the TV in the living room. The main picture was blurry. She could see the one in the kitchen fairly well but it doesn't have an info box with writing. I checked my TV and it was fine so I figured it wasn't the signal. That upset her as well.

I talked to her on the phone this morning and her eye was still bad. She had been awake most of the night, had a headache and sounded weak and driained. I made an excuse to go see her and when I saw the TV... GOD fucked up the TV in the living room while we were at the eye doc!!! Even *I* could not read the writing from 2 1/2 feet away with my glasses on!!! I tried all of the picture adjustments. Still could not get a clear picture.

Fuck I was mad! Still am. Yes, at God. And I am gonna kick him in the nuts if I can get by Pete at the main gates. Not any time soon, I hope. Hmmmm... that's up to God, innit? Make that two kicks in the nuts.

God gets up my nose when he screws over a little old lady who has been nothing less that a saint all her life.

Yeah, I know. A long whiney story and a waste of your time but shit like that ain't supposed to happen to good people.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 03:12 PM

has this one been posted yet?

eeewwwww

Things nor people get up my nose. They get on my last nerve... stomp all over it bouncing up and down shrieking... "Are you annoyed yet? are you annoyed yet? How about now?"

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 04:05 PM

oh, yuck, Virginia, that is just all kinds of nasty.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Sgt. Colin Firth of the 24th Foot
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 06:15 PM

The Horns of the Buffalo.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 07:51 PM

A friend is mad at me, I can't make the lights work on my Packard, and I just broke a nail.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Nov 11 - 10:33 PM

It's freezing rain out there. My budgie just swore at me. And I don't know the way to San Jose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 07:28 AM

Put your budgie out in the freezing rain with a map to San Jose.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 08:31 AM

Fancy getting a cockroach up your nose, he must have one large orifice that's all I can say. Lucky it wasn't pregnant! It could have been like something out of The Twilight Zone!

Subject: RE: BS: Things that get up your nose
From: kendall
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 01:11 PM

"I have good news and bad news. First, the earwig has emerged from your brain, but it was a female and it laid its eggs while it was in there."