What are some of your pet peeves?

[AyelaNewLife]

you see

what really irritates me

are the people who

for some reason

can only type three

maybe four

words per line

and of course

don't read anything

and I mean anything

that gets typed

between the start

and the end

of their drivel

[Alyona Su]

2 minutes ago, AyelaNewLife said:

you see

what really irritates me

are the people who

for some reason

can only type three

maybe four

words per line

and of course

don't read anything

and I mean anything

that gets typed

between the start

and the end

of their drivel

You.

 

Go.

 

Girl!

[Rolig Loon]

Hmmmmm... I don't know which is more annoying:

The people who

type three words

at a time

because they want 

to be sure

that the conversation

won't go past

while they are

typing. After all,

most people are

too polite to

interrupt.

Or:

The people who type a huge, long, even exhausting statement in chat -- even one that seems to go on and on for a minute or more while they are laboriously typing one slow word after another -- thus holding up conversation for everyone else who is patiently waiting because, of course, that's what polite people do when they can see that someone is about to present a lengthy and well thought out comment, like this one.

[BelindaN]

Just going back to thermal vests. "A friend" told me that after a few days, the fluff accumulates in your navel. As if by magic. Just saying. 

[Alyona Su]

1 hour ago, Rolig Loon said:

The people who type a huge, long, even exhausting statement in chat -- even one that seems to go on and on for a minute or more while they are laboriously typing one slow word after another -- thus holding up conversation for everyone else who is patiently waiting because, of course, that's what polite people do when they can see that someone is about to present a lengthy and well thought out comment, like this one.

There is this, though there also is the unnecessarily verbose long-winded version that includes redundant and repeat words, phrases, and ideas, as though to ensure they get their precise particular point across along whatever subject lines they can think of and then also include other subject lines, all in the attempt to be as clear and detailed and precise as possible with an eye (or ear) on attention to details without really covering either subject all that clearly and, sometimes, even shifting subject matter to something entirely new, different, and unexpected with the same gusto at redundant wording, phrasing, and repeating of words, often using alternate words that mean the same thing with varying levels of the exact same context and meaning, depending on the full scenario at hand in the overall conversation, to a massive degree that others will completely and entirely forget the original subject matter of the whole encompassing discussion and even become lost in the very statement being presented in full to the point that it comes out as complete gibberish, and do it to the maximum extent the viewer text box can handle and thereby putting it all in open chat so the chat text copy for everyone scrolls instantly three pages up, thus confusing, annoying, and generally perturbing everyone within chat range, and the main treat at the top of the pile is that the entire thing is one one giant, overlong, single sentence topped off with a single, lonely, tiny little period at the end of it all.

But they, at least, get props for using proper punctuation and grammar to placate the grammar-nazis.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Sammy Huntsman]

1 hour ago, Rolig Loon said:

Hmmmmm... I don't know which is more annoying:

The people who

type three words

at a time

because they want 

to be sure

that the conversation

won't go past

while they are

typing. After all,

most people are

too polite to

interrupt.

Or:

The people who type a huge, long, even exhausting statement in chat -- even one that seems to go on and on for a minute or more while they are laboriously typing one slow word after another -- thus holding up conversation for everyone else who is patiently waiting because, of course, that's what polite people do when they can see that someone is about to present a lengthy and well thought out comment, like this one.

I think it really stems from text messaging back in the day. People are so used to it, but holy crap is it ever annoying. Why do you need to make a sentence multiple lines of text? Just type your first sentence, then go onto the next.

[Rolig Loon]

8 minutes ago, Alyona Su said:

But, they, at least, get props for using proper punctuation and grammar to placate the grammar-nazis.

Grammar Nazis have their place, keeping the mother tongue from collapsing into utter chaos.  I admit to being one at heart, although I usually keep it to myself.  I have a silent but visceral reaction to sloppy grammar, much as my mother had to cigars.  I remember her confiding to a friend, "Winston Churchill was a great statesman, but I would have thought more of him if he hadn't smoked cigars."  She would never have said anything to his face.  Not that she had the chance.  🙄

[Alyona Su]

6 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Grammar Nazis have their place, keeping the mother tongue from collapsing into utter chaos.  I admit to being one at heart, although I usually keep it to myself.  I have a silent but visceral reaction to sloppy grammar, much as my mother had to cigars.  I remember her confiding to a friend, "Winston Churchill was a great statesman, but I would have thought more of him if he hadn't smoked cigars."  She would never have said anything to his face.  Not that she had the chance.  🙄

I am the same way, but especially with word-choices. But you've seen me here in that regard LOL Because, properly it would be "Grammar-Perfectionists".  Bahahaha

[LittleMe Jewell]

As for duck tape - they have a contest every year for people to create their Prom attire out of duck tape.  Some folks are really very creative:

https://www.duckbrand.com/stuck-at-prom

 

[Amina Sopwith]

23 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

I remember her confiding to a friend, "Winston Churchill was a great statesman, but I would have thought more of him if he hadn't smoked cigars."  She would never have said anything to his face.  Not that she had the chance.  🙄

Might have been for the best, given his reputation for withering put-downs!

[Amina Sopwith]

And on the grammar Nazi subject, there is of course the legendary occasion when someone is said to have accused Churchill of ending a sentence with a preposition, thus prompting him to reply, "That is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."
 

[Rolig Loon]

That particular grammatic witticism has quite a history. There's a nice overview at https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/11/14/churchill-on-prepositions/ , if you're interested.  Grammarians face a daunting task. The language conspires against them, as that quotation illustrates. It can be difficult to use correct grammar without being arrantly pedantic.  Unless you're blessed with a streak of masochism, the wiser course is to keep your mouth shut.  You're outnumbered, after all.

[Amina Sopwith]

17 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

That particular grammatic witticism has quite a history. There's a nice overview at https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/11/14/churchill-on-prepositions/ , if you're interested.  Grammarians face a daunting task. The language conspires against them, as that quotation illustrates. It can be difficult to use correct grammar without being arrantly pedantic.  Unless you're blessed with a streak of masochism, the wiser course is to keep your mouth shut.  You're outnumbered, after all.

Years of writing, proofreading and editing have, oddly, cured me of my grammar-Nazism, to an extent. When I was younger, I always felt extremely smug when I spotted an error in a book or newspaper, but I now have enough experience to realise that we're only human, and when you deal with vast quantities of text over time, you really can't catch every single last thing, every single last time. Not on your own, anyway, and especially not if you've just become totally copy-blind from reading it so many times. It's humbling. I see repetition and typos in my own old posts all the time.

If I know what someone means, I'm not going to berate them if they didn't stick perfectly to The Rules. Sometimes they have dyslexia, sometimes they didn't have the benefit of decent teachers, sometimes it's just not something at which they're good (!). There are times when perfect grammar matters, and times when it doesn't. Language changes all the time anyway. There's a growing school of thought that believes it's acceptable to begin a sentence with "and" or "but" these days.

It does hurt me when I hear Gloria Gaynor accusing her ex of thinking she would lay down and die, though.

 

[Janet Voxel]

5 hours ago, AyelaNewLife said:

you see

what really irritates me

are the people who

for some reason

can only type three

maybe four

words per line

and of course

don't read anything

and I mean anything

that gets typed

between the start

and the end

of their drivel

I usually say something when someone types like that.

I'll also say something if someone asks a question and then starts typing immediately after they asked a question...with another question.

[roseelvira]

12 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

It does hurt me when I hear Gloria Gaynor accusing her ex of thinking she would lay down and die, though.

Now that song will be stuck in my head all day . Big hugs  lolololol

[Amina Sopwith]

55 minutes ago, roseelvira said:

Now that song will be stuck in my head all day . Big hugs  lolololol

To be fair, she does also sing "not I", instead of "not me"...

[SamMoon777]

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.sorry

[Scylla Rhiadra]

17 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Years of writing, proofreading and editing have, oddly, cured me of my grammar-Nazism, to an extent. When I was younger, I always felt extremely smug when I spotted an error in a book or newspaper, but I now have enough experience to realise that we're only human, and when you deal with vast quantities of text over time, you really can't catch every single last thing, every single last time. Not on your own, anyway, and especially not if you've just become totally copy-blind from reading it so many times. It's humbling. I see repetition and typos in my own old posts all the time.

If I know what someone means, I'm not going to berate them if they didn't stick perfectly to The Rules. Sometimes they have dyslexia, sometimes they didn't have the benefit of decent teachers, sometimes it's just not something at which they're good (!). There are times when perfect grammar matters, and times when it doesn't. Language changes all the time anyway. There's a growing school of thought that believes it's acceptable to begin a sentence with "and" or "but" these days.

It does hurt me when I hear Gloria Gaynor accusing her ex of thinking she would lay down and die, though.

 

Yes, this, except for the Gloria Gaynor thing (because, Gloria Gaynor).

I'm sure I've posted that great Youtube rant on Grammar Nazis by Stephen Fry, so I won't do so again, but he expresses my feelings on the subject very good well.

What I think too many people forget, or maybe fail to understand, is that language is always contextual. We don't speak the way we write, generally (and thank god), and the way that we speak is determined to a very great extent by our audience and the context. Similarly, different kinds of writing -- grammar and rhetoric -- are required for different genres. If I'm texting someone on my phone, my grammatical correctness is not going to be the same as if I'm producing a more formal and public form of writing. Blog posts are different from formal essays -- and by that, I don't simply mean that there are fewer "rules" to be followed on a blog, but that blog writing is actually supposed to be less formal, and more chatty than many other forms of public writing. A forum post, similarly, asks of us a different use of tone and grammar (because grammar is one of the ways we produce tone).

I'll get very shirty about a badly written news story, online or in print, but I probably won't even notice the same grammatical infelicities in other contexts.

Writing, like everything else, is not one-size-fits-all.

[Beth Macbain]

17 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

It does hurt me when I hear Gloria Gaynor accusing her ex of thinking she would lay down and die, though.

In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain

I have a completely irrational hatred of America (the band, though I'm not fond of the country right now, either) because of this single lyric. 

[Ivy Mysterious]

4 hours ago, SamMoon777 said:

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.sorry

This took me WAY too long to read! I legit had to start over 5 times before I got it😂

[Sammy Huntsman]

7 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain

That is a really good song, I love Horse with no Name. But I am a weird one. Lol

[Scylla Rhiadra]

19 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Might have been for the best, given his reputation for withering put-downs!

Rolig's Mother: Winston, you stink of cigar smoke!

Winston Churchill: And you, my dear, are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall no longer smell of cigars, and you will still be disgustingly ugly.

[Amina Sopwith]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Rolig's Mother: Winston, you stink of cigar smoke!

Winston Churchill: And you, my dear, are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall no longer smell of cigars, and you will still be disgustingly ugly.

What!

If I were your wife, I would poison your tea!

[SamMoon777]

1 hour ago, IvyLarae said:

This took me WAY too long to read! I legit had to start over 5 times before I got it😂

😁😁I was extremely tired arter I wrote it.😹

[Maitimo]

3 hours ago, halebore Aeon said:

That is a really good song, I love Horse with no Name. But I am a weird one. Lol

You're not alone. I love that song too.