Pet Intellectual Peeves

[dhkendall]

This was called "To be moved to "Pet Intellectual Peeves" at a later date" in its thread. After seeing another "Mayan" reference today, the straw has snapped, and the peeve has moved.

Of course, if the Mayans were right.....naaaahhhh, couldn't be.

Right about what? They're not the ones saying the end of the world on Dec. 21 of this year, they're saying the end of their calendar.

It's not like we run around and predict doom and gloom just because our calendars don't have pages beyond December 31 (for the most part). Why should we when someone else's calendar does?

[dhkendall]

At lunch today overheard someone describing "Game of Thrones" to a co-worker who has never seen it before. All throughout the conversation, he kept using the phrase "middle evil" - I assume it was a pronunciation of the word "medieval", but every time I heard it I wanted to clock him one. He was a supervisor, though, so I didn't. (Granted, he wasn't *my* supervisor, which is why I kept having the thought of harming him bodily every time he used that pronunciation ... )

[davey]

At lunch today overheard someone describing "Game of Thrones" to a co-worker who has never seen it before. All throughout the conversation, he kept using the phrase "middle evil" - I assume it was a pronunciation of the word "medieval", but every time I heard it I wanted to clock him one. He was a supervisor, though, so I didn't. (Granted, he wasn't *my* supervisor, which is why I kept having the thought of harming him bodily every time he used that pronunciation ... )

Maybe he's going through male mental pause??

[Vanya]

At lunch today overheard someone describing "Game of Thrones" to a co-worker who has never seen it before. All throughout the conversation, he kept using the phrase "middle evil" - I assume it was a pronunciation of the word "medieval", but every time I heard it I wanted to clock him one. He was a supervisor, though, so I didn't. (Granted, he wasn't *my* supervisor, which is why I kept having the thought of harming him bodily every time he used that pronunciation ... )

Is he a middle evel manager?

[marpocky]

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 ...

We go to an island off the coast of Maine each year, and because of 911, they have had to assign names to all of the "roads" (usually no more than a long sandy driveway with one, sometimes more, houses along it). Most of the time the road is named after the people living on it.

Because of the need for emergency services to get to the road, or because of the step up in security after the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001?

(Serious question, your post is a little vague, and it could conceivably be either ... )

I love how you post a pet peeve of people misinterpreting a fairly unclear number, in a pretty condescending way ("to anyone with a brain"), and then on the very next page have trouble interpreting an only slightly unclear number.

[Johnblue]

I have to confess that I didn't realize how 70-24 Smith St. was an apartment number.

[dhkendall]

I have to confess that I didn't realize how 70-24 Smith St. was an apartment number.

Well, I did assume that it was the format on both sides of the 49th, and was wrong. Definitely not the first time I've been wrong here, but I appreciate the gentle corrections (even if my initial assumption was a bit more brash) ...

[bpmod]

I have to confess that I didn't realize how 70-24 Smith St. was an apartment number.

Well, I did assume that it was the format on both sides of the 49th, and was wrong. Definitely not the first time I've been wrong here, but I appreciate the gentle corrections (even if my initial assumption was a bit more brash) ...

I've always (well, at least as long as I have been registered as a business on the other side of the border) known that. My U.S. address is 1623-311 (where 1623 is the street number) and my Canadian address is 316-762 (where 762 is the street number). But I was too lazy to chime in earlier.

Brian

[trainman]

My U.S. address is 1623-311 (where 1623 is the street number) and my Canadian address is 316-762 (where 762 is the street number).

Do you really use "1623-311 Blah Blah Street" as your U.S. address, or "1623 Blah Blah Street, Suite 311"? I could see the USPS being totally confused by the former and, I don't know, just stuffing all your mail down the sewer or something.

[bpmod]

My U.S. address is 1623-311 (where 1623 is the street number) and my Canadian address is 316-762 (where 762 is the street number).

Do you really use "1623-311 Blah Blah Street" as your U.S. address, or "1623 Blah Blah Street, Suite 311"? I could see the USPS being totally confused by the former and, I don't know, just stuffing all your mail down the sewer or something.

Actually, I was originally told to use 1623 ..., Suite 311, but the USPS has some sort of policy to truncate at the first comma encountered on the first line, so it was suggested (by both landlord and USPS) that 1623-311 would be better. But that was still confusing to some entities, so now I put the 311 (no '#' or 'suite') on the next line by itself and haven't had any problems since.

Oh, but I've never been on Blah Blah Street in either Canada or the US. That would be reserved for the guy that founded one of our biggest grocery chains.

His name?

Spoiler: show

Bob Loblaw

Brian

[omgwheelhouse]

His name?

Spoiler: show

Bob Loblaw

Brian

Nah, not this guy... Theodore Loblaw. I used Wikipedia to look that up, by the way.

[dhkendall]

(OK, let's try this again, hopefully there are no regionalisms in it that I wrongly assume are universalisms)

Sign seen outside a car dealership (there is a high concentration of car dealerships in my neighbourhood) today:

"NO APPLICATION REFUSED OAC"

Now, that either tells me that a) yes, applications *will* be refused if their credit is not approved (making the sign misleading at best, deceptive at worst), or b) that there are other dealerships in the city saying "Well, your credit checks out, but I'm just going to be a dick and refuse your application anyways" (which references a particular debating technique (the names of them aren't my strong suit) that assumes something of the other side that isn't true).

[econgator]

"NO APPLICATION REFUSED OAC"

No idea what OAC means.

[dhkendall]

"NO APPLICATION REFUSED OAC"

No idea what OAC means.

On Approved Credit. Usually in smaller print on such signs (due to the type of sign this was, though, it's the same size). Standard (or so I thought) for signs advertising big-ticket items, especially cars. (Again, I hope this isn't just a regionalism, but I"m sure I've seen it on American ads too)

[bpmod]

Yes, this is up there with money-back guarantee. Or even worse, "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back".

Brian

[trainman]

"NO APPLICATION REFUSED OAC"

Well, they won't refuse an application from anyone willing to fill one out. Of course, they might tear the application up once the credit check comes back...

Those "buy here, pay here" car dealers engage in enough shady business practices that their signage is the least of the issues.

[Vanya]

I couldn't figure out what "slurred" means until I clicked on the link.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/boston-red-sox-carl-crawford-police-officer-fired-racial-slur-072612

I thought maybe it meant he beat him to a bloody pulp, thus reducing him to slurry.

I had no idea "Monday" was a racial slur. Anyone else hear of this?

Let's make up derogatory meanings for every day of the week. I'll start.

Tuesday: always comes in second. As in "Romney will be such a Tuesday in November" (wait, that could have a double meaning).

[the_phil]

Let's make up derogatory meanings for every day of the week.

That guy is such a Thursday. Always going out and getting hammered.

[Vanya]

Let's make up derogatory meanings for every day of the week.

That guy is such a Thursday. Always going out and getting hammered.

[dhkendall]

She's such a Wednesday! I swear she has a different guy every night!" (Going off the "Wednesday = 'hump day'" saying).

Could also try to make one for Wednesday playing off Wednesday Addams. Or kill two birds with one stone and say that someone is a Wednesday if they're both promiscuous and creepy ...