Way OT: Phrases you Hate 940

Dave Smith

I like this one. It has nothing to do with making sense or not making sense. It has a nice regional twang about it. It doesn't refer to placement as "where are you;" it is more like "what's up?" or "what's happening?" I find it fresh and expressive, not overused.

As far as I'm concerned, writing and speaking intelligibly is a way of showing respect for one's audience. It is a way of saying, I'll do a little extra work on this end so you don't have to work extra hard on your end to figure out what I'm talking about. This one came clear to me when I was auditing a clbutt at the local state college. The professor's email messages were appalling. She obviously knew better; she was paid to edit and correct English papers for a living, but, as I got to know her better, it also became painfully apparent that she wasn't going to do anything that showed basic respect for her students. She even was late to her office hours so students had to wait to see her.

I tend to like expressions until they become overused. Back when I was complaining about that teacher, someone started calling her Professor butthat, and I loved it. Now I hear "butthat" all over the place to refer to anyone that someone doesn't like. It is starting to grate on me.

I tend not to like Internet abbreviations. I'll type "as far as I'm concerned," not AFAIC so the reader doesn't have to pause to figure out what the abbreviation means. Still, I'll read posts that use abbreviations. I'm used to them. I won't struggle through posts that don't use capitals at the beginning of sentences or don't capitalize the first person subject pronoun: I.

"Me and Joe went to the store." "He gave the papers to Joe and I." "Just between you and I, I hate the idea." "Return the items to Joe and myself."

Those are all variations on the same mistake in that they're all about using the wrong first person pronoun, but the first one doesn't bother me that much, and the last 3 drive me crazy. That's because the first example sound more folksy in the mistake while the last 3 are trying to sound more high-falutin'.

The one about not capitalizing is my major pet peeve. This one comes close: Using "it's" where "its" is meant. Hey, if you can't subsbreastute "it is" or "it has," then you mean "its." Its color is blue. This one bothers me so much I've taken to writing "it is" all the time so I don't confuse more poor souls on usenet. Even people whose (get it? WHOSE, not who's) writing is normally pretty good mess up that one.

The one that makes me laugh is using "literally" figuratively. The images are so absurd: She literally died laughing. (Did the joke teller get tried for liquidate?) He literally had a caniption fit. The dog was literally as big as a house. (I'm not cleaning up after that one on a walk.)

More peeves: Not trimming long conversations on usenet so the reader has to scroll through everything she's just read to get to the new part. This is related to not knowing how to paraphase.

As for the apostrophe before the s to make a noun plural, I'm convinced that future text books will look like this:

"Until the turn of the century, the apo'strophe before the 's in all word's had ob'scure and ab'surd meaning's known only to 'scholar's of ancient literature. It i's unimportant to learn the'se rule's at thi's time. We now know that leaving the apo'strophe out i's incorrect and 'should never be omitted. Apo'strophe's may al'so be added in any place the writer de'sires a's a way of indicat'ing to reader's that the writer i's not 'stingy with them. They add a creative bonu's. They e'specially 'should be u'sed to 'separate pre'fix's or 'suf'fix's." Ju'st 'shoot me now.

On a different list, I just saw a phrase that I hate, one I hadn't thought of before: "let's face it." The subject was a contraversial one, and the poster had asked a rhetorical question. "Why do we all hate Thomas Kincaid? Let's face it, it's because ..." and then she gave an answer that wasn't something we all agreed on at all. Grrrr.

Y'all will be glad to know that I made a concerted effort today to say "you're welcome" instead of "no problem."

--Lia