marpocky wrote:I never noticed that, but one thing I (and many others) noticed, is the way they will always use "phone" as a verb where most people would say "call."
As a verb, I have pretty much always used 'phone' and 'call' interchangeably. It could be a regional thing.
Brian
...but the senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity.
If I had 50 cents for every math question I got right, I'd have $6.30 by now.
marpocky wrote:I never noticed that, but one thing I (and many others) noticed, is the way they will always use "phone" as a verb where most people would say "call."
As a verb, I have pretty much always used 'phone' and 'call' interchangeably. It could be a regional thing.
Brian
I've used "phone", "call", and -- less frequently -- "ring".
People's ending (or attempting to end) debates by stating their opinion, followed by "Period. End of story." Or, making the observation that the debate has gone on too long and proclaiming the discussion ended - but not before squeezing in their own opinion as the last word.
marpocky wrote:I never noticed that, but one thing I (and many others) noticed, is the way they will always use "phone" as a verb where most people would say "call."
As a verb, I have pretty much always used 'phone' and 'call' interchangeably. It could be a regional thing.
Brian
Oh, I agree that they are interchangeable. It's just that they don't interchange them. Every character says "phone," every time.
Magna wrote:People's ending (or attempting to end) debates by stating their opinion, followed by "Period. End of story." Or, making the observation that the debate has gone on too long and proclaiming the discussion ended - but not before squeezing in their own opinion as the last word.
Much more annoying is when they say "feel free to have the last word; I'm done".
For a really entertaining list of these peeves and a fascinating dissertation on dictionaries by david foster wallace read this. http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/D ... tense.html
And yes, don't miss the footnotes.
"EST" does not mean "Eastern Time." It means "Eastern Standard Time." If something -- let's say, a Presidential address -- is taking place at 7:30 P.M. Eastern time on May 1st, it is taking place at 7:30 PDT.
trainman wrote:"EST" does not mean "Eastern Time." It means "Eastern Standard Time." If something -- let's say, a Presidential address -- is taking place at 7:30 P.M. Eastern time on May 1st, it is taking place at 7:30 PDT.
*cough* 7:30 EDT.
Also 6:30 EST.
How to annoy people: Refer to standard time during daylight saving. Refer to daylight saving time during standard.
(Does not work in Arizona.)
trainman wrote:"EST" does not mean "Eastern Time." It means "Eastern Standard Time." If something -- let's say, a Presidential address -- is taking place at 7:30 P.M. Eastern time on May 1st, it is taking place at 7:30 PDT.
*cough* 7:30 EDT.
Also 6:30 EST.
How to annoy people: Refer to standard time during daylight saving. Refer to daylight saving time during standard.
(Does not work in Arizona.)
Nothing works in Arizona (see Arizona state government and Maricopa County sheriff).
trainman wrote:"EST" does not mean "Eastern Time." It means "Eastern Standard Time." If something -- let's say, a Presidential address -- is taking place at 7:30 P.M. Eastern time on May 1st, it is taking place at 7:30 PDT.
*cough* 7:30 EDT.
Whoops -- you see what happens when you've lived in the Pacific time zone for 13 years? You make typos like that. 7:30 EDT, 4:30 PDT. (Which may be the answer to the question "what time does [sporting event] start?")
Unless perhaps it means "taken by the upper arm," using "rere" from "rerebrace," a piece of armor that covers the triceps and a portion of the biceps. Yes, I know, funny only to wordnerds, and even then, meh.
Michelle Bachmann: "I’m proud to join my conservative colleagues in making this video to highlight that there are limited government representatives fighting for real change."
That's what we need, more limits on government representatives.
A new Pet Intellectual peeve that has nothing to do with grammar! Shocking!
At work today, I was sorting through old service orders (since that's what they pay me to do, so that makes sense.) I came across one for (I'll make up an address) 24-70 Smithfield Rd. (This should mean, to anyone with a brain, 70 Smithfield Rd., Apartment 24.) Many of these old service requests have a map in them (surprised how popular Yahoo Maps and Mapquest were as recently as 2008!) so that the service technician could find the place. This one had a map with directions to "24 Smithfield Rd." They're lucky that the apartment number was close enough to the street number that they should be able to get on track once they realize that 24 Smithfield Rd. is not what they want (if there even is a 24 Smithfield Rd.), but this is not the first time I've seen where people come across such an address and think the *first* number is the street address ...
"Jeopardy! is two parts luck and one part luck" - Me
"The way to win on Jeopardy is to be a rabidly curious, information-omnivorous person your entire life." - Ken Jennings
dhkendall wrote:A new Pet Intellectual peeve that has nothing to do with grammar! Shocking!
At work today, I was sorting through old service orders (since that's what they pay me to do, so that makes sense.) I came across one for (I'll make up an address) 24-70 Smithfield Rd. (This should mean, to anyone with a brain, 70 Smithfield Rd., Apartment 24.) Many of these old service requests have a map in them (surprised how popular Yahoo Maps and Mapquest were as recently as 2008!) so that the service technician could find the place. This one had a map with directions to "24 Smithfield Rd." They're lucky that the apartment number was close enough to the street number that they should be able to get on track once they realize that 24 Smithfield Rd. is not what they want (if there even is a 24 Smithfield Rd.), but this is not the first time I've seen where people come across such an address and think the *first* number is the street address ...
I wouldn't have a clue how to interpret that. I would simply put 70 Smithfield Rd, Apt 24.
You want difficult? I used to have a job that involved finding addresses in Malta. The only thing is that, in many cases, they don't number the houses, they name them. So I'd be wandering up and down the street (fortunately they tend to be small streets) looking for "Cottage by the Sea" or "St. Mary's" on Birzebugga St. or somesuch. One can only imagine what their emergency responders do.
econgator wrote:I wouldn't have a clue how to interpret that. I would simply put 70 Smithfield Rd, Apt 24.
Strange, that's how I've always seen apartment numbers written (and I've lived in 2 in my life as well) - maybe it's the Canadian way to write them, but I could swear I've seen it south of the border as well.
(Google Answers and Canada Post seems to agree with my new assumption that the way I've always done it (and even used for US addresses when I send mail south of the border) is the Canadian way, and econgator's way is the American way.)
alietr wrote:You want difficult? I used to have a job that involved finding addresses in Malta. The only thing is that, in many cases, they don't number the houses, they name them. So I'd be wandering up and down the street (fortunately they tend to be small streets) looking for "Cottage by the Sea" or "St. Mary's" on Birzebugga St. or somesuch. One can only imagine what their emergency responders do.
At least you don't live in Japan, I hear (though have only "heard", haven't verified for myself) that the buildings are numbered on the street in the order they received their building permits, making addresses impossible (for a Westerner, anyways) to find.
"Jeopardy! is two parts luck and one part luck" - Me
"The way to win on Jeopardy is to be a rabidly curious, information-omnivorous person your entire life." - Ken Jennings
dhkendall wrote:At least you don't live in Japan, I hear (though have only "heard", haven't verified for myself) that the buildings are numbered on the street in the order they received their building permits. . .
The numbers may be based on building permit order -- I never heard that, but it's as good an explanation as any -- but what was clear was that they weren't "street" numbers in any sense of the word. It was more two-dimensional: cities were broken up into wards which were broken up into neighborhoods, and within each neighborhood the individual buildings were numbered in no discernably consistent order. References to streets in addresses were rare. In fact, a lot of streets are simply unnamed.
dhkendall wrote:. . . making addresses impossible (for a Westerner, anyways) to find.
Actually, native Japanese have no advantage over Westerners when entering unfamiliar territory. Everyone has to have a map. When I was there in the '90s, I never saw an invitation to a gathering or an advertisement for a particular place of business that didn't have a little map drawn in at the bottom. I'm certain that the need for maps, more than anything else, is what drove the Japanese people's rapid near-universal adoption of smartphones ahead of everyone else in the world.
dhkendall wrote:. . . making addresses impossible (for a Westerner, anyways) to find.
Actually, native Japanese have no advantage over Westerners when entering unfamiliar territory. Everyone has to have a map. When I was there in the '90s, I never saw an invitation to a gathering or an advertisement for a particular place of business that didn't have a little map drawn in at the bottom. I'm certain that the need for maps, more than anything else, is what drove the Japanese people's rapid near-universal adoption of smartphones ahead of everyone else in the world.
Rex
That's it, as a maphead (as Ken Jennings would say - whereas I prefer the term "cartophile") I'm moving to Japan!
"Jeopardy! is two parts luck and one part luck" - Me
"The way to win on Jeopardy is to be a rabidly curious, information-omnivorous person your entire life." - Ken Jennings