Please Don't Say That
I’m sure we’ve spoken about pet peeves before, but there’s a specific thing that came up last night. There are a lot of phrases that people use that I can’t stand.
My buddy Eric (he lives in the rectory too) is a bettin’ man and he hates the saying “tails never fails” for whatever reason.
Then later on, someone used the line “urination station” to describe a bathroom, which I think is absolutely stupid. Argh!
The Scrabbled is a little slow and I’ve got a whole day of grad school class, so I ask, what phrases do you really despise?
Comments
As a heterosexual, I don’t really like when people use “gay” to describe things other than, well, homosexuals. Like “Work is gay!” “Homework’s gay!” That’s just really rubbed me the wrong way. I also don’t mean anything homosexual by “rub”.
Also, this next one is typical of shoppers that they interview on the news during the Christmas holidays. “Kohl’s had a 40% off sweater sale, so I picked up a few for my husband, and my three children. YOU CAN’T BEAT THAT!” I can’t stand when they say “You can’t beat that!”, and yes, they can beat that, when it’s marked down to 41% off or more!
You bring up a good point. There are categories involved here. There are the phrases that are just uncreative and there are those that are illogical.
I hate it when people say “meds” instead of “medications.” I don’t know why, it just really bothers me.
the worst for me is when people use the word “literally” in the completely opposite way of intention.
like, a girl would say, “he literally ripped my heart out.”
you know what? he really didn’t.
i hate “it is what it is” and i have managed to work with at least one person at each job who is fond of saying it. it’s so dismissive and rude.
i have also recently developed an annoyance for the word “ridiculous” because it seems to be the only adjective that a few people at work use to describe things. i probably hear it about 150 times a day.
and i second xtina on the use of the word “literally”.
On Action News about a month ago, they were previewing the Eagles vs. Giants playoff game. Walter Perez, the anchor, said this gem:
“This brings new meaning to the term ‘must-win situation’”.
Uh, no, that’s EXACTLY what a must-win situation is!!
mandy said:i hate “it is what it is”
you can thank kurt vonnegut for that one.
Jason said:I hate it when people say “meds” instead of “medications.” I don’t know why, it just really bothers me.
That’s just it! There isn’t much of an explanation for why I hate it.
sammy hates when i say “meds” instead of “medium” on rock band. this doesn’t really follow suit to the topic, but i just thought i’d say it.
and jonathan, i’ve never even heard of urination station or tails never fails.
christina said:mandy said:i hate “it is what it is”
you can thank kurt vonnegut for that one.
Really? Aren’t you thinking of “So it goes?”
And a-fucking-men, Reggie, about negative usage of the word “gay.” I’ve quit left 4 dead servers mid game cause someone called something gay and it pissed me off too much.
But at the same time, ironically calling something gay is hilarious.
Yeah, I hate when people use “gay” or “retarded” due to a combination of the fact that I find them offensive, and they make the person sound like an 8 year old on the playground. But that’s a separate category I think (although Reggie touched on this). I also hate when people say “literally”, even though I too often find myself falling back on that one and want to punch myself in the face for using it.
I say “retarded” “literally” too much and I annoy myself greatly.
John said:christina said:mandy said:i hate “it is what it is”
you can thank kurt vonnegut for that one.
Really? Aren’t you thinking of “So it goes?”
yes! i stand corrected!
I don’t think “retarded” is that bad when you mean to use its literal definition. So tell people that’s what you mean… not “mongoloid.”
I hate the shortening of any word as of late. “Sitch.” “Def.” All that dumb pseudo-Sex in the City, shopgirl talk. I fucking hate it. Christina uses it, as in her illustration above, and I want to take a hammer to her skull every time.
This conversation is gay, by the way.
Sammy said:Christina uses it, as in her illustration above, and I want to take a hammer to her skull every time.
hey man, i never once said “sitch.” and i only type “def.” and i do not like sex in the city.
sammy has many reasons to want to take a hammer to my head.
christina said:John said:christina said:mandy said:i hate “it is what it is”
you can thank kurt vonnegut for that one.
Really? Aren’t you thinking of “So it goes?”
yes! i stand corrected!
good. i was certainly hoping that Vonnegut wasn’t so lame.
I agree with the shortening of words. Except “tat” for “tattoo,” that’s okay.
thursday was my company’s annual meeting. i marked down THIRTY-ONE spoken instances of the word “webinar” and i think eight written instances.
fuck you, webinar.
I’m totally using mongoloid from now on.
Webinar, ugh. Actually most of these are pretty horrible.
I have a whole list of these somewhere in my office, it’s mostly made up of things that politicians say that mean absolutely nothing.
“Reaching out” comes to mind. I’ll have to find it. I also CANT STAND the practice of affixing “gate” to any kind of scandal. Wikipedia even has a page dedicated to it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_with_%22-gate%22_suffix
I hate it when I try to be polite and ask someone ’What’s up?’ or ‘How are you?’ they say, ‘You tell me.’ And this other guy always says ‘Surviving the storm’.
I could do without ‘It could be worse’. Yeah, no shit, doesn’t help.
i’m still not quite sure why the lovechild of Lars Ulrich & Michael Keaton is staring us down on this post.
maggie said:thursday was my company’s annual meeting. i marked down THIRTY-ONE spoken instances of the word “webinar” and i think eight written instances.
fuck you, webinar.
The best thing to do at any work meeting is to play phrase bingo. any meeting will usually consistof thw word brainstorm, the phrase ’let’s bounce some ideas off each other and any number of specific company phrases.
At my last job in Manchester we used to draw lots on the number of times our HR manger would say “the Whitbread Way” during meetings – it averaged aboout 5 every 30 minutes.
Not sure if this is on topic or not.
I WAS SO GOING TO DO THAT BUT I DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO MAKE A CARD!!!!
Can anyone confirm the use of “synergy” in meetings?
Paris said:Can anyone confirm the use of “synergy” in meetings?
I hear it from time to time when i have meetings at the corporate offices and giggle each time i do.
mandy said:i’m still not quite sure why the lovechild of Lars Ulrich & Michael Keaton is staring us down on this post.
WOW.
Also, I’ve definitely heard “synergy” and “synergizing” in meetings. It’s the web. It’s all about synergy.
John said:mandy said:i’m still not quite sure why the lovechild of Lars Ulrich & Michael Keaton is staring us down on this post.
WOW.
why wow? am i missing something here, or are you just agreeing with me?
Wow you’re very right.
i’m sitting here at work and over the police radio, i just heard someone say that an elderly man wandered off the premises of the home he was staying at. the woman said he is suffering from “old timer’s disease.”
i’m sorry but how fucking stupid and ignorant do you have to be to think that “old timer’s” and not “alzheimer’s” is the name of the disease.
when people say that shit, i want to fucking punch them in the head. i will correct them every single time.
Oh I have so many of these. When I’m trying something on in a dressing room, my mom will yell in, “Heidi? How ya makin’ out in there?” And I inevitably yell back, “I’m in here alone, ma. Not makin’ out with anyone. Please stop saying that.” Also, in my office meetings, I like to write down phrases that could preempt the phrase, “That’s what she said.” It’s the only thing that keeps my attention in all-day meetings.
i would answer back with, “he’s not very good at this. he keeps shoving his tongue down my throat.”
a solution to all your boring meetings: do anagrams of everyone’s name in the meeting. it’s challenging and a total time killer. one meeting, i came up with “in a political crash” for christina paciolla. it ruled.