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Trite expressions that annoy you
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kermo



Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

JongnoGuru wrote:
kermo wrote:
Quote from Frederick Gilbert, the president and vice-chancellor of a small Canadian university in today's BBC:

Quote:
"It was literally a tongue-in-cheek way of getting attention,"


Whaaaa?


No, they weren't running a kissing booth-- it was a poster campaign.

What was on the posters? Maybe it was something involving tongues in cheeks. You don't know for sure, do you?


Nope! Here's the poster:
http://www.yaleshmale.com/

Quite cheeky. No tongue though.
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Thunndarr



Joined: 30 Sep 2003

PostPosted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 4:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Leslie Cheswyck wrote:

Can't remember the movie, but a scene in it went like this:

"Is that a threat?"

"Yes, it is."




"Is that a threat?"

"When I'm threatening you, you'll know it."

"Was that a threat?"

And now, back on topic:

Sweating like a pig. (Pigs, afaik, don't sweat.)

Eats like a bird. (Birds are, literally, pigs.)

AFAIK. (FWIW, internet acronyms are just plain annoying. This is, IMO, of course.)

In my opinion (While superficially polite, this phrase is unnecessarily redundant.)

Mea culpa (If you only know two words of Latin, please, for the love of God, let it not be these two. This pseudo-intellectual way of admitting fault leaves me feeling dirty after hearing it used. Kind of like watching Ben Stiller's character in Dodgeball trying to be romantic and charming, in reality, it is neither. )
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Qinella



Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib

PostPosted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 8:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thunndarr wrote:
Sweating like a pig. (Pigs, afaik, don't sweat.)


If you grew up in the South, you may have heard this variation: sweating like a n***** trying to read, or, sweating like a n***** at a Klan rally. Lots of skin tone obsession down in those parts.
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tomato



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Most of you are probably not old enough to remember when the word "pathetic" came to be overused.
That was in the early Sixties.

Someone mentioned "have a nice day."
That expression came into vogue in the Seventies, when I was in South America.
You could image the reverse culture shock it created for me when I got back.
Like many of our bad habits, the Koreans are copying this one:
"좋은 하루 되세요."

I'm surprised nobody nominated "awesome"-- or "totally awesome," if you would rather add an adverb.
If I remember correctly, that word had its heyday in the Eighties.

Qinella, what's a backward colon?
Is it something which looks like this?

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Woland



Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

flotsam wrote:
Woland wrote:
persnicketies on th board


Oh, you wood never sink to that level.


Abuse of the quote function will get you sent into exile, laddie.
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numazawa



Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: The Concrete Barnyard

PostPosted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 10:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

tomato wrote:


Qinella, what's a backward colon?
Is it something which looks like this?




Nah, that's way too stylized. Here you go:

http://images.fotosearch.com/bigcomps/LIF/LIF145/PED06022.jpg
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tomato



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Clicheed use of best-selling book titles bothers me.

When Roots came out, the expression "to find one's roots" was heard almost every day.

When Everything you always wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask came out, the bulletin boards on every campus and shopping mall sported posters reading "Everything you always wanted to know about macrame/origami/karate/square dancing/folk guitar but were afraid to ask."


Last edited by tomato on Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:02 am; edited 1 time in total
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tomato



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

PostPosted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just finished reading How to learn a foreign language by Graham E. Fuller.
Let me share a few quotes from page 57:

Quote:
You can always grab a little stack of cards (with a rubber band around them) and take them with you somewhere if you think you may have to while away some time on the bus, or in a dentist's waiting room, or wherever.


page 59:

Quote:
And by all means put additional information on the card about words that you need to remember, such as special forms or irregularities or whatever.


page 72:

Quote:
The point was that the actual verb--without the pronouns "I", "you", or "he" or whatever--could be used by itself.


and page 89:

Quote:
Turn to the section of the paper that interests you the most--sports, fashion, business, or whatever.


Too bad the publisher didn't ask Delirium's Brother to proofread the manuscript.


Last edited by tomato on Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:00 am; edited 1 time in total
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Julius



Joined: 27 Jul 2006

PostPosted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 5:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I loath "One trick pony".
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Qinella



Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib

PostPosted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 5:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

tomato wrote:
Qinella, what's a backward colon?
Is it something which looks like this?



Don't be a doofus, Tomato.

Sorry, I just wanted to say doofus.
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khyber



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction

PostPosted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

no fucking worries...
I HATE that word...so very much

and...with VAN on

I COULD care less
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tomato



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I can't stand "more than" as a synonym for "very."
If a person's attendance at a public function is of some sort of personal benefit to the hosting party, I could see why that person is "more than welcome."
That must be where the expression comes from.
But that's no excuse to use the expression where it doesn't make any sense.

My mother didn't like the expression "in-depth."
She couldn't understand why people say "in-depth" to mean "deep" if they don't say "in-width" to mean "wide" or "in-height" to mean "high."

At one time, almost every imaginable type of merchandise was available with an inscription of "Praying Hands" by Albrecht Durer.
That was another of my mother's pet peeves.



When my mother was leafing through a catalogue, she saw a Praying Hands golf cart.
She jokingly suggested buying the item as a gift for a golf enthusiast friend of ours.
It might help up his golf score.
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Jeonnam Jinx



Joined: 06 Oct 2005
Location: Jeonnam

PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Listening to the number of times "like" is used in a conversation on a city bus in urban centers drives me crazy! (Just add the accent from the girl who says "Jessica" a hundred times in the MadTV skits and you get the idea)

A: He was like, "No way," and I was like, "Yeah."
B: Like, really?
A: Really. And I was like, "Shut up."
B: Yeah, like, sure.
A: And he was like, she was like, coming on to me.
B: That's like, so, like, groooossss!
A: Like, for sure. I was like, "Get away!"
B: He was like, "Are you kidding me?"
A: I was like, "No, I'm not." Like, man up! Like, my bad or something?
B: You like, did, like, the right thing. Like, for sure.
A: Like, I know.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
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LateBloomer



Joined: 06 May 2006

PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 8:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not a trite expression--but in the same spirit.....I hate the rampant use of "utilize" when "use" would do. Nothing says "use" like "use". I like the distinction made in some dictionaries. Utilize means "to find a practical or effective use for something" or to use something in a different or unconventional way..... I am utilizing tin foil to decorate my apartment.

Agree with the comment about "one trick pony". Have used it about twice in my life.....although I did use it in a recent post. It just seemed to fit.
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JongnoGuru



Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep

PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 8:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LateBloomer wrote:
Agree with the comment about "one trick pony". Have used it about twice in my life.....although I did use it in a recent post. It just seemed to fit.

How about "dog & pony show"?

I don't read Job-related Forum often, but whenever I do I seem to encounter that expression at least once per thread. The climate in those threads is typically hot, sweaty and ill-tempered, so the people in there probably mean it in a negative sense, and they don't stop to consider that the rest of us might find a dog & pony show quite entertaining.

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