Minor irritations

[suzieseaside]

What things annoy you a little, or even a lot?

I'll start with .................

I don't get the point of those video film clips that are divided into 3 with only the central part in focus and the two outer thirds are blurred.

What's the point of it?  Is it supposed to make the action clearer?  It definitely doesn't do it for me, it confuses things IMO and makes it harder to watch.

[suzieseaside]

yuk, archie!

You would think, wouldn't you, that by the 21st century designers of waterproof coats could make a hood that didn't collapse in front of your eyes so you could see your way forwards in the pithing rain without needing a guide dog?

I have a good Gortex raincoat but the hood drives me nuts. The wire in it is useless - no amount of bending makes it stay in the right place.  The only way to get it to behave and stay in place is to pack it out with headgear - first wear a hat, then put a hood of a fleece over that, and finally the waterproof coat and hood.  Do-able in winter but come the summer rains I will be colliding with lamp posts!

[jd.linklater]

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@suzieseasidewrote:

yuk, archie!

You would think, wouldn't you, that by the 21st century designers of waterproof coats could make a hood that didn't collapse in front of your eyes so you could see your way forwards in the pithing rain without needing a guide dog?

I have a good Gortex raincoat but the hood drives me nuts. The wire in it is useless - no amount of bending makes it stay in the right place.  The only way to get it to behave and stay in place is to pack it out with headgear - first wear a hat, then put a hood of a fleece over that, and finally the waterproof coat and hood.  Do-able in winter but come the summer rains I will be colliding with lamp posts!

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I've always wondered why hoods are always way oversized for the coat they're attached to, handy if you're a criminal I guess.

[suzieseaside]

  But not if you can't see your way to do a runner!

They are massive - big enough to get a bike helment underneath - useful for cyclists I suppose, or perhaps designed for people with ridiculously long necks

[al**bear]

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@margaret*ewrote:

TV chefs who taste what they're cooking then put the spoon back in the pan after it being in their mouths, yuk.

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I will be contacting Your Daughter to secretly film You cooking Sunday dinner,

I bet we catch You doing this when in Kitchen all alone

[upthecreekyetagain]

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@mustard-treewrote:

Susie, regarding parking.

Back in the 70s, my then inlaws lived very near a football ground, and supporters would park anywhere they could find.

This chap next door, when his son went out on football day, would sit in a deckchair and read in the space left by his sons car.

Makes a change from traffic cones

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Many people these days rent out their driveway for parking - all done online - use them regularly when travelling to away games.

https://www.justpark.com/rent-out-a-parking-space/?cat=supply_x_p2p_-_driveways_-_st_-_exact&gclid=E...

[**bustysinclaire**]

All goes down the same way. 😝

[suzieseaside]

?  All what goes down the same way?

[margaret*e]

You'll find me washing the spoon after my husband tastes my gravy.

[suzieseaside]

BS

Oh I think I see what post you are answering ...........

Bill and Ben can keep their Flobadob to themselves

[cee-dee]

There's a couple of words I find irritating :- Premise and Sellable.

I see things like "The premise has been burgled" or "An intruder was arrested on the premise".

I increasingly see a building referred to as a "premise" (or premis). The word is Premises. OK, it's a plural word but is still used to describe a single building. (After all, it is comprised of several rooms?).

As to "Sellable", I can see some argument there but when speaking about something offered "For Sale" it's surely more correct to say that it is "Saleable?" For instance "The item is in saleable condition".

I see "sellable" being used in the context of a house or building sale but it's offered "For Sale" not "For Sell"?

[upthecreekyetagain]

Sale is a noun, to sell is a verb.

-able, (able to) is one of a number of common suffixes that can be added to some verbs and nouns to show that an action is possible.

I always thought that saleable related to the condition of an item whilst sellable related to the ability to sell something.

”The car is sellable by me because I own it and it is in saleable condition”

[cee-dee]

I don't think "correct English" comes in to it these days, I hear "sellable" used all the time no matter what.

[sky_shrimp]

When I take the bus and sit at the back (bottom deck), I regularly see people put their feet up on the opposite seat with their dirty soles touching the fabric that others have to sit on. God knows what they may have stepped in. I saw a woman on the bus eating colslaw, crisps and a drink. When she ws finished, she chucked all the packaging on the floor. I also get irritated when people on the bus talk loudly on their phones for over half and hour like their at home. 

[al**bear]

Another few annoying words

Heard this Morning, this time from Carol Kirkwood  (Who trained at MET Office),

but heard others using them

Westerin, Easterin, Northernin

[jd.linklater]

I was reading an interesting article in Saturday's Times, a regular column called The Pedant by Oliver Kamm. He's a writer and studier of English usage and one of the things he stresses is that there are both formal and informal forms of spoken English and that grammatical rules don't need to be followed strictly in the latter. He's quite lenient on the use of split infinitives an example being the famous opening to Star Trek.....'To boldly go where no man has gone before' He's ok with that simply because it is more fluid speech than saying 'To go boldly.........'

He had some interesting things to say about the use of 'innit'

Innit is actually a contraction of 'Isn't it' which in turn is a contraction of the more archaic 'Is it not'. This is known as an interrogative tag and our language is full of them. A few examples are Aren't there? Don't you? Haven't I? Shouldn't we? all quite grammatically correct. Amongst young people, Innit? has now become a more or less universal replacement for any of them, so we hear kids say things like 'We're going to the match innit?' I've gotta get a job innit? Even though to us they sound like very poor grammar, Kamm's point is that language is changing all the time and the use of innit is no more out of place in everyday English speech than the French use of N'est ce pas which serves precisely the same purpose for all interrogative tags.

So should we insist that our kids speak correct formal English or should we be more tolerant and accept that language is constantly evolving?  I'd be interested to hear others' views.

[cee-dee]

A bit of sloven Engish is OK so long as those using it know what the correct form is. Innit, dunnit, isnit, ain't it, wasnit..... all slovenly usage of words?

The spoken words can be sometimes thought of as a form of spoken shorthand?

What's really bad is the use of bad English where those speaking or writing don't realise that what they're using is wrong. I see "were" and "where" used wrongly all the time and if you spend any amount of time reading different newspapers (not just the main "Fleet Street" titles) you'll find lots and lots of really irritating spelling misuses.

[al**bear]

Kids should speak 'proper' English in the Home and around adults,

they can speak how they like, when with friends

My Daughters all have good (as they call them) telephone voices that help with their Jobs

Remember by 'Proper', I mean correct not Posh.

I am shocked when visiting Glasgow now, like London (where it's 2) a horrible all pervasive

'accent' has spread from the East side (that typical Glasgow Ned one, so loved for TV Drunks and Toughies), all over the City, only in the West End do You still hear that Glasgow accent, that is so loved by Call centres. In London most Young People now seem to speak either Estuary English or that horrible fake version of Jamaican slang that seems to being used by ALL races and creeds. 

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Now for My Rant

The SNP are forcing schools up here, to get kids to speak and write in Scots (which seems to be spelling a word anyway You like as long as it's phonetic) - Plenty Old versions of the Scots tongue to use, like Burns etc - But the modern one seems to be anything goes as long as it's NOT English - search for a 'so called News paper called 'The National' they use loads of it - sales are that low I think they mostly give  it away, for Political reasons

Keep Your Politics out of our schools

[Anonymous]

People who leave a little bit of coffee or tea in their cup. Why not drink that last bit?

[jd.linklater]

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@Anonymous wrote:

People who leave a little bit of coffee or tea in their cup. Why not drink that last bit?

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I think that's a throwback to when everyone used loose tea leaves, some habits are hard to break.

[Anonymous]

Instant coffee!!!?????