BS: Things that get up your nose

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: Bonzo3legs
Date: 29 Oct 11 - 12:39 PM

Cold call salesmen and sales ladies.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 28 Oct 11 - 09:46 PM

The Bluebird of Happiness.

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: 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: 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 - 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: The Sandman
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 04:22 PM

rofl

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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: GUEST,Vinnie Bobarino
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 03:03 PM

A rubber hose!

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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 05:02 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: 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: Becca72
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 04:48 PM

Saul - it's a deal :-)

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: saulgoldie
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 01:04 PM

And...100!

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

Ooh, ooh...99