BS: Buzz Words

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 09 Nov 14 - 02:55 AM

Your friend wallows in ignorance.

Surely its THTAIRTH

😇

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Nov 14 - 09:59 PM

That wasn't me!

I have a friend that has a sign above his sink that says, THINK! Then he has one over the stairs, it says THTAIRS!

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 08 Nov 14 - 09:54 AM

Hello Bert, thanks for the response. I assumed it was an attempt at French pronouniation, but dropping the h dosen't quite do it. I just wondered why the attempt at french rather than just saying it in English.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 08 Nov 14 - 09:47 AM

Eyetalian.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 08 Nov 14 - 09:26 AM

"Mrrzy, if warmth is a word then why isn't there a word coolth?"

Don't let Bert foolth you :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Jack Campin
Date: 08 Nov 14 - 09:11 AM

if warmth is a word then why isn't there a word coolth?

There is. Google for it.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 08 Nov 14 - 06:14 AM

1.   'erb is NOT the French pronunciation (which sounds more like 'airbe').

2.   If a puzzle wasn't puzzling, would it be a puzzle?

3.   'It reminds me of cop-speak--- "at this point in time the intoxicated individual exited his vehicle."'
I don't know about US cop-speak, but in the UK they would say 'at this point in time the intoxicated individual has exited his vehicle'. I don't know why they do this but it does irritate me.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Bizibod
Date: 08 Nov 14 - 05:29 AM

I've always felt warmpth is warmer than warmth.Much more nest-like :)

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Bert
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 09:53 PM

Mrrzy, if warmth is a word then why isn't there a word coolth?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Bert
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 09:51 PM

HiLo 'erb is just the French pronunciation. It is very common it the Southern States.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Bert
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 09:50 PM

...but I abhor the English "vedge"...

Michealr, The term comes from WWII, when cans (tins) of M & V, (meat and vedge) were an important part of wartime diet.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 08:55 PM

Why O why is the "ouster" the fact that someone got ousted, and not the person who did the ousting? Shouldn't it be an "ousting" if you've been ousted?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 08:12 PM

"I"ran

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 07:52 PM

Ya, you betcha, I've been to MinnesOta

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 07:17 PM

Canada, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw man of less words
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 02:46 PM

like

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 02:42 PM

Liberry

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 02:04 PM

Whatever

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw language militant
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 02:02 PM

Deteriate.
Pryminister.
Febry/Febyouerry.
Dawn tomorrow morning (a particular affliction of the BBC Spotlight weatherman).
6am in the morning.
Various different...
10 items or less.
(from a long time ago...) Sir Frawncis Chishhter
Superstar (esp. when intonated by that unspeakable professional tyke Michael Parkinson).
Any bloke called Ralph who does not insist that it's pronounced "Ralph".
Sekertry.

Christ, I feel better for that.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 01:36 PM

Thanks to Thatcher, "reform" meaning "fuck it up beyond repair and make sure that as many of my pals as possible get their snouts in the trough".

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 01:08 PM

Huge difference between flexibility allowing "verbing" of nouns and a limited vocabulary meaning you have no other option. It's an import, this verbing everything and when you can't verbalise, stick a -wise on the end.

To be fair, I have made good beer money out of bullshit bingo games at public sector conferences and presentations. If it weren't for such terms, especially as mumbled in revered tones by management consultants, many of us would be bored as we couldn't play bullshit bingo any more.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Penny S.
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 12:56 PM

Gifting, gifted (not when used to describe people with gifts). What's wrong with gave, given and give? And why have so many people picked up on it, after whoever used it first?

Mind you, "The government gove the schools a great deal of hassle" might be a satisfactory alternative.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 12:17 PM

Confession Corner here:
Alas, I was guilty of 'verbing' recently when I texted my daughter to say that the grandkids were having fun bouncy-castling.

On reflection, I can now understand why folks want this type of hybriding 'verb'oten. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 03:18 AM

Ah -- I wondered who'd be the first to spot that, Pike...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 03:17 AM

Don't see that verbing nouns is "a problem". On contrary, I have always thought it a very fine feature of our exceptionally flexible language. As have said before, an often-used trope by Will Shax. Others have copied it, so that the French now have the verb weekender (pron 'wee-con-day'), e.g; a double borrowing from us.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 03:15 AM

As I'm here and just been on an adjacent thread.

How the hell do you have a "puzzling puzzle?"

Only asking....

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 02:19 AM

Strategize (strategise.). Wonderful that it was used in a post to moan about other buzz words.

Turning nouns in to verbs (verbing!!!) has always been a problem.

Although since I went on a course, I no longer have problems. They are resolution opportunities apparently.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Nov 14 - 12:40 AM

It is what it is.

I'm just sayin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 08:57 PM

And I ain't too fond of the apostrophe in it's in my last post.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 08:49 PM

Strategic target is a redundancy, no? I mean it's hard to target something without strategy, and it's hard to have a strategy without having a target about which to strategize...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 08:46 PM

Todally. I am not too fond of todally. Like todally not too fond of it.


It might be an interesting turn around to list newer words that we do like.

One that comes to mind is tasked. The verb has been around for near eight centuries, but I've only noticed it's use [They have been tasked with constructing a bridge over the creek.] in the past 25(?) years or so.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 08:32 PM

Repackaged objectives called "strategic" objectives

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 06:55 PM

I heard a new one today in the context of something to do with work being stalled. "The ball was on the slates"
Eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 05:55 PM

Entirely eludes=really F'n eludes.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 05:50 PM

Delighted to have afforded you some innocent amusement, Steve ---

but its nature entirely eludes me!

:-) ritebak 2U...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw amused
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 05:46 PM

'Sea-change' may have adventitiously acquired a certain emotive resonance

I sincerely hope you don't talk bollocks like this either at home or at your local Monday Club meetings. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 05:33 PM

The euphemism I respond a bit adversely to in that context is "helping the police with their enquiries". As a child, when I read that someone was doing that, I used to think: Why, how nice of them. My impression is that that get-out isn't used by the press so much these days.

'Sea-change' may have adventitiously acquired a certain emotive resonance, but it originated from a misunderstanding of what Ariel in The Tempest was actually singing about.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 03:45 PM

Locally, I often hear, the person of interest in the crime investigation is known to police.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Don Firth
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 03:42 PM

Same thing, Jeri. News media use "alledgedly" for the same reason they use "suspect." To avoid potential law suits.

But the same potential for law suits holds for anyone who jumps to the conclusion that a particular person is guilty of a crime, says so, and that person is later found to be innocent.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 03:37 PM

I threw up in my mouth, bad language source discussion:

Bad lingo 

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw circumspect
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 03:35 PM

You do have to be slightly careful about pinning a crime on someone before they have been through the judicial process. Thus "alleged". You wouldn't really be wanting to compromise the prospect of a fair trial, allowing criminals to get off on technicalities.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 03:28 PM

It's "the subject allegedly committed the crime." What gets me is when someone just throws "allegedly" in hither, thither, and yon. "The bank was allegedly robbed"... no, it was effing robbed! The alleged jerk in the alleged ski mask allegedly did it.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Amos
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 02:58 PM

"Sea change" is a fine word with a very different sense to it than mere change.

My pet peever of the day is the use of "great" for anything from birdseed to coffee refills to mediocre performances of "Wagon Wheel" using a fifteen-dollar guitar that has not been tuned and a celluloid flatpick used only as a rhythm instrument. Greatness used to have a meaning in human affairs, but the soul of greatness is gone from our language.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Don Firth
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 02:57 PM

No, I'm afraid YOU are missing the point.

In a criminal case, there can be several "suspects," and no matter how certain you may be, if you go around trumpeting that so-and-so, one of the suspects, did the deed and it turns out later that he or she is innocent, that person can sue your socks off for libel and slander.

This is why the police, even if they caught the perpetrator red-handed, refer to him or her as "the suspect" until a judge and jury hears all the evidence and they render a verdict.

"Innocent until proven guilty."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 02:43 PM

I hate the word proactive.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: meself
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 02:05 PM

You missed the point. If you say the suspect committed the crime, then you are saying that the suspect committed the crime.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Don Firth
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 01:35 PM

Bill just beat me to it. "At this point in time" instead of "Now." I have a close relative who is given to this circumlocution.¬ OY!!

The reason that newscasters and reporters use the word "suspect" when it's pretty certain who the "perpetrator" is, is that should there be a case of mistaken identity or mis-identification and someone else did the foul deed, the "suspect"—mistakenly named by the reporter—could sue the reporter and/or his employer for libel. With "suspect," the reporter is off the hook. But naming him as the perpetrator when it hasn't yet been proven in court is risky.

A caution I recall from my days in broadcast news.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 12:47 PM

"at this point in time"
It reminds me of cop-speak--- "at this point in time the intoxicated individual exited his vehicle."
What's wrong with NOW?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 11:10 AM

"I threw up in my mouth a little bit"

eeeew. What is it they say? "Don't tell, show". (And then, go away.)

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw cringeing
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 10:58 AM

That's the best of the lot, punkfolkrocker, so well done you! Aw, bless!

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 10:28 AM

"Well done you"...

some people are just so supercilious and patronizing they need to be ...[insert violent retribution of choice]...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 10:19 AM

You can't be serious. Upskilling? It should have been drowned at birth.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Acorn4
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 10:08 AM

"upskilling" "big up"

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 04:19 AM

Jeri, I fully agree that seeing a box in the first place is an issue, but to be fair to the original phrase, the idea of four lines going through a five point grid does make a fair point.

It's just that as a thought exercise, it got lost in the fog, just like draining alligator swamps...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 03:25 AM

Presumably, being "sick to my back teeth" was buzz once?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 09:43 PM

The "outside the box" phrase has always driven me a little nuts for a few reasons. Buzzwords often seem like they're intended to allow people to feel oh-so original, when they're not. Once the phrase becomes part of the collective meme-opolis, it's NOT ORIGINAL.

Another thing is the whole metaphor is screwed up. The problem is not people thinking inside the box, it's that both the "inside" and "outside" thinkers believe there's a box.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,mauvepink
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 08:24 PM

Nice one!

I am sick to my back teeth of people trying to "touch base" with me

...at the end of the day or even in the end analysis.

mp

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 07:53 PM

"Where is Oxbridge?!"

As far as I know it's near Camford, Mr Lion :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 07:38 PM

This ain't really apropos, but I couldn't resist it. Also heard at the 2012 Olympics, during the women's weightlifting (and it's true, honest): "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning, during her warm up, and it was amazing!"

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 07:02 PM

Diving commentator at the 2012 Olympics, talking about Tom Daley: "So far, the other divers are out-degree-of-difficultying him...if there is such a term..."

A couple of minutes later the same commentator, eulogising about a dive by a Chinese bloke, comes up with "Oh, it's nine-and-a-half all the way now, baby!"

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 06:42 PM

one I do quite like the sound of is "sharted"...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 06:37 PM

I guess you now get the op, meself.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: meself
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 06:31 PM

Of course, one is perfectly free to dislike any usage; no rhyme or reason required.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 06:15 PM

bran transplant?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 06:11 PM

What is the moron Goofball on about now? PLEASE give him a much needed brain transplant (or, even, brain).

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 05:48 PM

Best one I have heard. Read it in the paper today with regard a a tax on sweet drinks. "The tax may " incentivise" people to drink fewer sweet drinks." I don't think this can be bettered.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 04:46 PM

Where is Oxbridge?!

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 04:45 PM

"That type of reasoning" ... ?

Take the time and think it out. I am sure you will get it.

Hint:
Most "buzz words", and language varients, noted through the op, comes from one subculture, or another.

;)

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: meself
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 03:47 PM

"That type of reasoning" ... ?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 03:38 PM

Richard Bridge: "I hate "going forward".
I hate "take ownership"

Sorta like, being 'progressive' but not wanting any of the responsibility for it....
Blame the 'other guy'.

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 02:12 PM

Probably the best manager we ever had.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 02:05 PM

"If you will." Bloody yanks...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 01:53 PM

I hate "going forward".
I hate "take ownership"

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 01:51 PM

"No intrinsic reason why they shouldn't continue to use it."

That type of reasoning has quite a broad application...ummm?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 01:19 PM

I am relieved that old Ron Atkinson's "If you like" seems to have gone out of fashion. I never did.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 12:52 PM

"His nickname is Sunset" - alternative nickname.. "bellend of the day"...???

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 12:46 PM

The end of days/the end times. Gag.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 12:28 PM

From above ... <"At the end of the day" annoys me as well. No idea as to why.>

A bloke in the office says that all the time.
His nickname is Sunset. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: frogprince
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 10:48 AM

Constitutional

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 10:41 AM

This Thread Is Closed.......😜

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: meself
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 10:20 AM

Any adult who uses "axed" undoubtedly grew up in a sub-culture in which "axed" was/is the usual form. No intrinsic reason why they shouldn't continue to use it.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 09:48 AM

I never "axed" him to come over.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 09:46 AM

YouTube has lots of that: Hey, guys, . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 09:40 AM

Yes, Al, that one. I knew a female PE teacher who used that expression all the time to her all-girl classes!

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 09:20 AM

okay guys....?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Firecat
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 09:12 AM

One I'm guilty of using, and always get cross with myself for, is "D'you know what I mean?"

I keep using it as a filler, potentially to elicit some form of attendance indicator. It's fine if the person you're talking to is looking confused, because then they've got the chance to say "No", mind you.

"At the end of the day" annoys me as well. No idea as to why.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 09:08 AM

The vicious ads for drinking yourself to death or gambling your family into penury always contain the irritating small-print injunction to "drink/gamble responsibly".

Not doing either at all -- that's 'responsible'.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 08:34 AM

Damned paid-for ads from government that tell us to eat healthy. Eat healthy whats I ask, but to no avail.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 08:10 AM

It means everything to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 07:56 AM

This one ranks in the top five:

The bread/stew/potatoes were to die for, to DIE for!

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: G-Force
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 05:53 AM

I had never understood binary -- and tried looking it up again on Wikipedia the other day & found my head spinning in two seconds.

There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 05:52 AM

Annoying use of words:
-Hung, when hanged is meant.(you know, the plastic surgeon who hung himself)
-Went for gone
-Using few when less is appropriate, and vice versa

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 03:26 AM

"I dare you."
"No"
"Ok. I double doggy dare you."
"That's not fair, I have to do it now."

I mention this because double doggy dare seems to be making a comeback. I last came across it in circa 1983 as a mate had to be photographed from the street by two of us on Bridge Place in Worksop, showing his arse in Burtons window.

Using buzz words over a pint can have consequences. Boots gave us the negatives but not the prints.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: DMcG
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 02:16 AM

Wyndham is perhaps my favourite SF writer of all, and perhaps the one with most dreadful film adaptions. Just because Triffids has monstrous plants that does not mean it is about monstrous plants. Chocky may not be his greatest but it is a great illustration of how to write SF with no gunfights, BEM, or other standard set pieces

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 11:35 PM

Some worthy precedents, tho --

"Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle"
Richard II II iii

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Joe_F
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 09:19 PM

abuse, agenda, blockbuster, brand, collection, contradiction, deconstruct, define, denial, disorder, dysfunctional, excellence, existential, feature, feel, foundation, genocide, highlight, icon, identity, impact, incredible, international, issue, legacy, legendary, meaningful, multicultural, narcissism, personality, potential, product, quality, reinvent, relatively, resolve, showcase, signature, total, wellness, who.

Those words all have legitimate uses, but you should have no trouble telling the buzzy ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 07:09 PM

"But she failed to medal at the 2012 Games"

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 07:00 PM

Nouns as transitive verbs:

"My staff has surfaced some interesting facts."

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 06:29 PM

"A raft of measures".

And "blah de blah de blah de blah, going forward..."

"Hard-working families who are doing the right thing..."

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 04:59 PM

Indeed Mrrzy -- esp The Midwich Cuckoos, a really creepy bit of spec dystopia. The film version, Village of the Damned, just got it subtly wrong by trying to make what are subtle hints in the book over-explicit, and lost all the atmosphere.

And Chocky, tho not a particularly impressive one, has one brilliant feature. I had never understood binary -- and tried looking it up again on Wikipedia the other day & found my head spinning in two seconds. But then I go back to Chocky, where in about 5 lines & using Y & N [for yes & no] instead of 1 & 0, the concepts of binary are explained with hyaline clarity by one character to another -- and even to innumerate boobies of readers like me!

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 03:47 PM

Wazzup?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 03:26 PM

I used to enjoy the John Cleese answer to just about anything on Month Python, without saying anything-"not as such"

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 03:03 PM

Priorize = get abbot kicked?

I love John Wyndham, as an aside.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 02:38 PM

mrs punkfolkrocker has recently started exclaiming "But hey" as an expression of wearied resignation....

Her job brings her in daily contact with young people
so she tends to absorb teen kiddiespeak....


At least she seems to have stopped saying "whatever"...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 02:26 PM

prioritise- UK  
prioritize - US
WTF is with priorize?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 02:15 PM

I recall from my days of mildish fandom that people who were really into Science Fiction disliked the term Sci Fi, and generally would use SF as the preferred abbreviation: esp the actual writers & practitioners (of whom I knew many as I happened to share a Hampstead flat in youth with one, John Brunner, who was a great partygiver so that visiting great US writers like Tom Disch & Phil Heinlein & Phil Dick, & British ones like John Wyndham, Brian Aldiss, John Christopher, Arthur C Clarke, et al, often came by, or were at the regular Thursday SF meet at the Globe in Covent Garden. John Brunner went on to win Hugo Awards & such.}

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 01:51 PM

Or spellings! Syfy? Really?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 01:12 PM

Dislike the abbreviating the names of tv shows to make it sound as if everybody loves them.
My biggest loathing is for "Strictly"
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Jeri
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 10:21 AM

Oh, that is SO random!

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 09:14 AM

without doubt the biggest stream of shit flowing into the English language comes from Simon Cowell and his mates.....

he's nailed it!

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 09:04 AM

It's good to see we're moving forward.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: G-Force
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 08:30 AM

Gridlock. It has a very specific meaning, not just any old traffic jam.

The BBC recently referred to the M4 motorway as being gridlocked. How on earth can a straight-line motorway be gridlocked?

Enjoy (that's another one).

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 06:57 AM

... particularly as the one who could reasonably been called "assistant referee", who takes charge of the substitute board, the behaviour of the bench &c, had to be called "fourth official" when they introduced him not that long ago, coz "assistant ref" had been bagged by then.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 06:53 AM

Absolutely agree re 'sea change'. All Will's Ariel meant in The Tempest, as quoted above, was a change to something connected with the sea: hence bones becoming coral, eyes becoming pearls. Might have gone on to hair becoming seaweed or some such. The misunderstanding of the phrase to mean any great change is very irritating indeed.

Regret we must blame FIFA for 'assistant referee', which they made their official designation a few years ago. I too preferred 'linesman', but you can't fight City Hall!

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 06:32 AM

Many years ago, BBC style guide dictated that full time scores were called scores and latest scores could be referred to when relaying a batch of them, as score line.

On a related subject, they are called linesmen, not bloody assistant referees...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 06:27 AM

ARIEL

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell

Shakespeare, The Tempest

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Andy
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 05:45 AM

Two that get up my nose are 'sea-change' and 'scoreline'. Whats wrong with CHANGE and SCORE??

Andy

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 05:43 AM

Did you chow any good meal's?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw, ex-grammar cop
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 04:11 AM

I must say that I did manage to chillax on a couple of staycations this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Musket
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 02:55 AM

✌️dude

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: meself
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 01:32 AM

More coffee? - Sure. - Awesome!

________________

How about when journalists tell us that the "suspect" committed the crime - as in, "The suspect shot two men." Um - if you are telling us that he shot two men, why are you also telling us that he is a mere 'suspect'? Isn't he 'the perpetrator', 'the shooter', or 'the criminal'?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 12:42 AM

Use of the term "that's awesome", when it is clearly not intended as such.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 12:28 AM

Oh, yeah, and another pet peeve is the media failing to distinguish between Injury and Wound.

You aren't *wounded* by a fall down the stairs unless someone pushed you and even then, it's the push that ended up wounding you, not the stairs. The stairs are what injured you.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 12:21 AM

Holibags? What you pack, or the amount of fun you have?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 08:03 PM

Stopped in to see what's trending.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw, grammar cop
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:46 PM

I should like to emphasise that I stand shoulder to shoulder with those in this hotbed of a forum who, like me, eschew axes to grind which serve merely to play into the hands of those people who would ride roughshod over others in order to get them to toe the line. That practice, along with the needless and excessive use of metaphor in written English, will never be my Achilles' heel. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:42 PM

The ones that do me in are ...
"no probs"
"holibags"
"absolutely"

Also (in UK) adding 'ie' to the end of sportsmens'surnames to make them sound cute. e.g. Jonesie, Bestie, Greavsie, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: bobad
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:36 PM

At the end of the day....WTF?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:35 PM

Or, boxing outside of the think?

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:33 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:21 PM

That's thinking outside the box.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw, grammar cop
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:19 PM

I hate the misuse of apostrophe's. And who the hell needs rhetorical questions!

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: michaelr
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:05 PM

Truthiness! (coined by Stephen Colbert)

"veggies" I can stomach, but I abhor the English "vedge".

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 05:32 PM

"Like is another we like shopping": what's that mean in English? For the other thing, I think you meant "cray-cray" (crazy).

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: olddude
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 05:05 PM

Like is another like we shopping. A new one today is Grey Grey

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: olddude
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 05:04 PM

British cheeky still don't get it

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 04:52 PM

. . . and I really despise people who purchase things instead of buying them . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 04:49 PM

HiLo, Americans don't say 'Mom', they only write 'Mom'. What they say is 'Maahm', as in 'haahckey maahm'.

My current hate is 'inspirational' - 'inspiring' is so much better.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 04:49 PM

People who misuse the term liberal, as a buzz word for just about everything they dislike.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Ed T
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 04:12 PM

Pond, for the Atlantic Ocean.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 03:44 PM

One-word sentences? Eliminate.

Also not to be confused with wolf sentences, such as, this is the best salad I ever put in my whole mouth.

I love the 2-fingers thing!

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 12:36 PM

Ok.. non verbal communication,... but the great British "V" sign is now almost completely extinct
due to the perniciously invading middle finger...

Yank greys killing off our red squirrels is bad enough,
but please spare us our indiginous traditional 2 finger salute...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw, grammar cop
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 12:27 PM

I have to say that, at the end of the day, I personally always go the extra mile in order to avoid cliches like the plague. And no sentences without verbs! And hyperbole to me is by far the worst thing in the world by a million miles. I believe that one hundred and ten percent.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 12:05 PM

There was a commercial for a car where the only line was Dude! spoken with mounting alarm before the railroad tracks and with admiration after when nobody's coffee had spilled... very effective bit caricaturish use of that dooood thing which, I agree, doesn't belong in adult conversation.

Back to words that make me want to take a buzz saw to the speaker:
Worthiness - what's wrong with Worth?
Healthiness - how about Health?
And other make-up-a-long-word-becuase-I-don't-know-the-short-ones.

Wellness. Health was already there. And well is a declension of good, anyway, and goodness is also already there.

And so on. The exception is "warminess" which is what's left in the blankets you didn't want to get out of. Warmth is a whole n'other thing.

Also phrases from the department of redundancy department or those that are oxymoronic. A TV reviewer on one of those introduce-the-old-movie channels once described performances of the cast as "uniformly outstanding" and I had to turn off the TV and try to picture individuals standing out from the crowd while still being exactly the same as the crowd. It wrinkled my brain, as they say.

On the other hand I like the *subtle* oxymorons like "once again" (if it's again it's at least twice) and "meteoric rise" (don't meteors fall?).

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 11:49 AM

A win-win situation: translated to plain English that means one side has a crappy negotiator.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 11:29 AM

'Dude'... and the even worse, drawn out whiny 'Doooooooood'

If you are American, ok.. fair enough.. carry on DOOOOOOding as much as you must..

But if you are British, Scandinavian, Eastern European, any European at all...

Please stop now.. immediately...

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 11:23 AM

A lot of people just call it "grass".

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 11:17 AM

One Americanism that I don't get at all is "erb" instead of Herb. Is there a reason for this . The other american word I don't get is Mom...instead of Mum.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 11:05 AM

I appreciate most Americanisms, and most American spellings, but "normalcy" gets right up my nose, it does. And I was just saying to the missus a few minutes ago how regrettable it is that our railway stations have now all become "train stations". And I've said it before and I'll say it again: use the word "albeit" and you're marked out immediately as a total prat. And it's "before", never "prior to".

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 10:56 AM

"Empowered" ?

"Due diligence" - This a whole new way for a person to pat hirmself or someone else on the back for just freaking doing their job. 'I did my due diligence and researched the...' instead of just 'I researched the...'"

BTW, it's not "yum, yum", it's "om, nom, nom". I don't have that much of a problem with it, since this past weekend, during which I went on a cat video bender and watched one with a "talking" cat. It was eating, and clearly enunciating "om, nom, nom". I DO think that if a person is going to say it, they should only do it with a mouth full of food.

Subject: RE: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 10:23 AM

Signage instead of signs..utterly stupid. Percip instead of rain...really!

Subject: BS: Buzz Words
From: GUEST,#
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 10:16 AM

There are some words that are aggravating, that I have come to dislike in normal conversation. For me, number one is veggies. WTF is wrong with vegetables other than it's hard to say and seem cute saying it at the same time? In fact, it's entirely possible that folks have forgot the word vegetables ever existed. "No, we're not serving those vegetable thingies, we're having veggies instead."

Reading a recipe online and there it is, veggies, soon followed by the insipid yet ubiquitous yum, yums, yummie or some such asinine variant indicating that the food is good, as though the author of the recipe frequently puts cooking tips for shit-tasting swill on his or her page just to beguile the unwary. Yum.