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$#!% My Teachers Said (and were they right?)

post #1 of 13
11/11/11 at 10:55am
Thread Starter 
1. My sister's teacher said her pet peeve was when people would say, "If I had a nickel for every time x happened, I'd be rich!" She'd say, "No, you'd have a nickel. A single nickel for every time. Now, if you want to be rich, you'd say a nickel for each time!" I can see what she's saying, but nobody says each. Do a search on each phrase, and "every" wins out handily. Not that bandwagon wins, or Ke$ha is an enormous talent.

2. My journalism prof.'s pet peeve was people saying, "He broke the record for x!" He'd say, "No, he set a new record. You can't break a record." I don't really get this. This is just disagreeing with an accepted phrase.

3. The DJ on the Saturday night show on a local radio station says, "I do not take requests! I take suggestions!" If someone calls in and says, "I'd like to request. . . ." he angrily hangs up and repeats the phrase. What the hell? I guess I'm missing what the difference is here. If someone called up and said, "I demand you play x!" he'd have a point. As it stands?

4. This is my own. I say the '80s ran from 1981 to 1990, since a decade is ten years and the first ten were 1-10, the next ten were 11-20, etc. This is an extension of the old "the millennium begins in 2001" argument, but nobody wants to support me on this one. tongue.gif

Just hoping for some fun discussion, though I know the AHL isn't as frequented any more. Add some of your own questions if you want.
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post #2 of 13
11/11/11 at 11:09am
I have a co-worker who is constantly using the word "literally".

"I literally just got done with that task".

"I was literally just discussing this issue with so and so".

Quite often, my follow-up question to him will be... "Really? Literally?". I am not sure he gets the joke. smile.gif


It seems "literally" replaced "like" as the most annoying word in common vernacular. Literally. smiley_wink.gif
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post #3 of 13
11/11/11 at 11:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg_S_H View Post

2. My journalism prof.'s pet peeve was people saying, "He broke the record for x!" He'd say, "No, he set a new record. You can't break a record." I don't really get this. This is just disagreeing with an accepted phrase.
3. The DJ on the Saturday night show on a local radio station says, "I do not take requests! I take suggestions!" If someone calls in and says, "I'd like to request. . . ." he angrily hangs up and repeats the phrase. What the hell? I guess I'm missing what the difference is here. If someone called up and said, "I demand you play x!" he'd have a point. As it stands?

 

These two make no sense to me.

 

(1)  As far as sporting, sales, etc. "Break a record" is a correct statement.  The old "record" no longer exists as anything.  You didn't "set a new record", this would imply that the old record still matters.. it doesn't.  An "old world record" is now worthless, so it is "broken".  "We set a new record!" implies to me that a new achievement has been made, but it doesn't effectively convey that the old sporting achievement has lost value.. which it has.

 

(2) That's stupid.  He does take requests.  If it was a "suggestion" he could gladly ignore, and take the comment off air.  A "request" in this term is meant to be a program that specifically lets callers chose the programming; so they must 'request' the programming to be played.   The reason why they use the term request is because that is how the show and format has been laid out for years, it's a "by request" show, you can't change the rules after the game has started, he's just being a jerk (and maybe hates his job)

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post #4 of 13
11/11/11 at 12:23pm
If that DJ hung up on me, I think I'd call him back with a suggestion. smiley_wink.gif
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post #5 of 13
11/11/11 at 12:48pm
Thread Starter 
Ha, and he'd be glad for that seven second delay! biggrin.gif

Yes, he is kind of a jerk. The station plays stuff like Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, etc. most of the week, but his show is '50s/'60s rock-and-roll. So, a woman called him up and said, "Can I suggest Pat Boone's April Love?" He said, "Sure, sure! We'll get to that!" He started the record, and the instant Pat's voice came on, you heard a record scratching noise and he said, "Not on my show!" rolleyes.gif Real necessary.

Speaking of ridiculous phrases, there's a nice old guy who has a money program on the same channel. He says all the time, "What's the number one question to ask your broker or financial planner? Drum roll! 'If I didn't have my money with you, would you still care about me?' If the answer is no, run as fast as you can!" WHAT. If you don't have your money with him, how is he supposed to even know who you are? And who's going to say, "I wouldn't give a damn about you!"?
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post #6 of 13
11/11/11 at 12:48pm

My middle school English teacher would have a lot of these phrase corrections. The only one I can remember offhand is when we'd tell him we were done with an assignment.

 

"Bread is done. You are finished."

 

My high school teacher friends have a lot of sh*t my students say/write moments. My favorite is the overused lead, "since the dawn of time." During grading time they keep a running tally of how many times that is used. Unfortunately, much too much.

 

One thing I learned in grammar for journalists, which I have relaxed on, is the use of "since." We were instructed to use it in reference to time only, not as a synonym for "because of."

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post #7 of 13
11/11/11 at 3:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg_S_H View Post

I say the '80s ran from 1981 to 1990, since a decade is ten years and the first ten were 1-10, the next ten were 11-20, etc. This is an extension of the old "the millennium begins in 2001" argument, but nobody wants to support me on this one. tongue.gif
Rightly so. Saying "the 80s does not include 1980" (try it out loud) should convince you to accept that the millennium began at 2000, and everything lines up nicely. If your entire argument is based on the idea that "the first year was year one", consider that:
  • No one alive during that year considered it to be year 1, and had extra fireworks when the year rolled over from -1 to 1. The calendar was backdated several hundred years later.
  • (That backdating was off by maybe four to seven years.)
  • When backdated, the number zero was not in common use.
  • Given that 10 days simply vanished from 1582 when switching from the Julian to Gregorian calendars, so that the year had just 355 days, why not just say the first century had 99 years?

The calendar is a human construct that is occasionally tweaked; if you're going to be a stickler, might as well go all-in.
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post #8 of 13
11/11/11 at 10:24pm

Not exactly on topic, but it seems that so many people now preface an opinion or statement with a question. My boss does this all the time and it drives me crazy. Do I think you did a good job on this project Carl? Yes, I do. Would I have given the presentation exactly the way you did? No, I would have used more power point slides. Am I confident we'll get the account? Yes, I'm almost sure of it......Every time he does this, which is all the time, I'm thinking...Is this guy incredibly annoying? Yes!

 

 

 

 

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post #9 of 13
11/12/11 at 12:59am
Quote:
... but it seems that so many people now preface an opinion or statement with a question.

That drives me crazy too. I think it started with politicians so they could direct the conversation to their purposes, or if you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, to avoid being misquoted. But I think it's become an arrogant speaking pattern; plus really annoying.
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post #10 of 13
11/12/11 at 7:26am

I think you're right about where it originated. At work, we've decided that our boss does this because he likes to hear himself talk, but doesn't like anyone else to speak. If last years office Christmas party is any indication, he does it at home too because he talked to his wife the exact same way at the party. I'm amazed at how many people do it. Every once in a while, I do it back to him just to make him go away. I am amazed at how many people are doing this. It's truly an awful pattern of speaking.

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post #11 of 13
11/12/11 at 8:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg_S_H View Post

1. My sister's teacher said her pet peeve was when people would say, "If I had a nickel for every time x happened, I'd be rich!" She'd say, "No, you'd have a nickel. A single nickel for every time. Now, if you want to be rich, you'd say a nickel for each time!" I can see what she's saying, but nobody says each. Do a search on each phrase, and "every" wins out handily. Not that bandwagon wins, or Ke$ha is an enormous talent.
2. My journalism prof.'s pet peeve was people saying, "He broke the record for x!" He'd say, "No, he set a new record. You can't break a record." I don't really get this. This is just disagreeing with an accepted phrase.
3. The DJ on the Saturday night show on a local radio station says, "I do not take requests! I take suggestions!" If someone calls in and says, "I'd like to request. . . ." he angrily hangs up and repeats the phrase. What the hell? I guess I'm missing what the difference is here. If someone called up and said, "I demand you play x!" he'd have a point. As it stands?
4. This is my own. I say the '80s ran from 1981 to 1990, since a decade is ten years and the first ten were 1-10, the next ten were 11-20, etc. This is an extension of the old "the millennium begins in 2001" argument, but nobody wants to support me on this one. tongue.gif
Just hoping for some fun discussion, though I know the AHL isn't as frequented any more. Add some of your own questions if you want.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Chan View Post

Rightly so. Saying "the 80s does not include 1980" (try it out loud) should convince you to accept that the millennium began at 2000, and everything lines up nicely. If your entire argument is based on the idea that "the first year was year one", consider that:
  • No one alive during that year considered it to be year 1, and had extra fireworks when the year rolled over from -1 to 1. The calendar was backdated several hundred years later.
  • (That backdating was off by maybe four to seven years.)
  • When backdated, the number zero was not in common use.
  • Given that 10 days simply vanished from 1582 when switching from the Julian to Gregorian calendars, so that the year had just 355 days, why not just say the first century had 99 years?
The calendar is a human construct that is occasionally tweaked; if you're going to be a stickler, might as well go all-in.

I don't want to open that whole can of worms, but comparing a term like "the '80s" and for example "the Nth decade" is apples and oranges. We can argue all day what dates fall in the 1st decade, 2nd decade, 1st millenium, 2nd millenium, etc and both sides have valid points. But regardless of which side you fall on, it really has no impact on what you would consider "the '80s". A term like "the '80s" doesn't have to align with any Nth decade. It's simply a term used to refer to a period of years, 1980-1989, in which all years began "nine-teen eighty-X". Whether you believe the 199th decade was 1981-1990 or 1980-1989, a term like "the '80s" is independant of that.
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post #12 of 13
11/26/11 at 9:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl Miller View Post

Not exactly on topic, but it seems that so many people now preface an opinion or statement with a question.

Do people open statements with questions? Yes we do. Do we think it makes us sound erudite? Generally speaking, yes. Might it annoy some people? Perhaps. Will we stop the habit? Probably not.

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post #13 of 13
11/26/11 at 10:33am
I just came from 7-11 (Dr Pepper and a Caramel bar yum.gif) and after the things I heard while standing in line I really don't think saying "each" instead of "every" or "finished" instead of "done" is very high on the list of things we need to improve upon. I won't even mention what the lady in her pajamas and a Santa hat said to the guy wearing an overcoat, shorts (I hope eek.gif ) and flip-flops.
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