Really trivial stuff that bugs you

[PetersCreek]

It was a joke, actually! Sorry.

No worries! I was just pokin' at ya with a semi-sharp stick.

I had a co-worker who did that all the time. He's lived his whole life here in the Pacific Northwest and I don't hear other people doing it so I don't know where it came from. Parents, perhaps.

I just found this: Yale Grammatical Diversity Project English in North America: Needs washed. It includes an "acceptabiity" map that shows small pockets in your general area, Treb. Looking at the sidebar of phenomena, many (!) caught my attention for having been part of my youth living across the Deep South. Take fixin' to for instance. My hometown of Jackson, MS is solidly in the most purple of regions on the acceptability map. I grew out of it, though.

[Jens]

I guess there are times when due to your position, you get bugged by things that appear non-consequential to other people. As a person whose profession involves translation (it's not my job, but my job involves translation, if you want), it bothers me when people say "translation" when they mean "interpretation". Some people probably thing that translating (written stuff) and interpreting (speech) are basically the same, but they are totally different.

[Jim]

Huh. So that rather famous soliloquy would become, "Or not. That is the question."

Not quite the same.

[Noclevername]

"Irregardless".

That.

[grant hutchison]

Huh. So that rather famous soliloquy would become, "Or not. That is the question."

Not quite the same.

Syntactically, the "needs washed" construction is usually interpreted as replacing a gerund ("washing") with a past participle ("washed") rather than an omission of "to be". And it occurs only with a very small number of verbs, such as "need" and "want". It seems that the speakers mentally interpret the gerund as a present participle (as in "he is washing") and replace it with the past participle (as in "he has washed")--in the mental image, it's not that he should be washing his car right now, but that it should have been washed a while ago. So the grammar gets messed up, maybe because people just aren't very tuned in to formations using gerunds these days.

Grant Hutchison

[Trebuchet]

You won't find many who know what a gerund is, either!

[KaiYeves]

You won't find many who know what a gerund is, either!

That was a question on the game show The Chase several years ago, the guy who was supposed to be the trivia master identified the wrong word as the gerund in a sentence and the contestants got it right and got the point instead.

[Trebuchet]

I got a tub of turkey stock out of the freezer and let it thaw. That was yesterday, but today I made soup with it. Except I started it a little early and we had to have dinner at 4:00 PM.
Wait, is this the "bugs me" thread? I was hungry and it was delicious! Who cares what time it is?

Stuff that really bugs me: That was the last tub of turkey stock from the freezer and it's only February.

[Swift]

That was the last tub of turkey stock from the freezer and it's only February.

Good thing I "shorted" turkey stocks.

You know, you are allowed to eat turkey other times of the year than Thanksgiving, and you are allowed to make stock from the bones.

[Noclevername]

Good thing I "shorted" turkey stocks.

You seem pretty invested in that joke. Just bear-ly, it's no magic bull-et.

[Gillianren]

Sure, I can be awake and unable to get back to sleep at six on a Saturday morning.

[Noclevername]

Sure, I can be awake and unable to get back to sleep at six on a Saturday morning.

6:30 AM for me, because I set my weekday alarm on the weekend. Whoops!

[Trebuchet]

It's 6:30 every day for us, because my wife needs to take her meds.

[Gillianren]

Well, Mouse needs his every twelve hours or so, but that's not at a set time.

[Extravoice]

I have a USB thumb drive that suddenly decided that it was write protected. None of the suggestions I found on the Internet helped, so I decided to try contacting the manufacturer prior to taking a hammer to the thing.

I filled out a clumsy online form and was treated to daily emails that my issues would be addressed within 24 hours. After about five of these emails, they stopped. My issue was never addressed.

So yesterday, I started over, asking them to address my earlier issue. Today, the automated emails began again.

I’m sure I’ll have to replace the drive, but at least I know what brand I won’t buy.

[Trebuchet]

I recall seeing thumb drives with a tiny switch for write protection, but don't see any such on the one I just looked at.

Meanwhile, my left hand is sore. It's from holding the phone and reading books on it. Need to switch it up.

[Delvo]

The illogic of football commentary!

Yesterday's game had neither quarterback do anything particularly great or terrible. One offense scored a perfectly average ordinary number of points for the way the opposing defense was acting; the other offense did a rather pitiful job, but you can't honestly blame the quarterback who was constantly scrambling from all the defensive players whom his linemen weren't keeping away from him (and whose receivers dropped or underran several easy catches). And the game's outcome depended more on the difference between the defenses anyway; one showing why they're one of the league's best defenses, and the other committing one penalty after another after another and thus giving away free yards & first-downs (pretty much the opposite of their job).

So, what subject are all the commentators blathering about now? How stupendously amazingly supernaturally fantabulous one of the quarterbacks is for winning the game all by himself, of course.

Worse yet, the losing quarterback, who actually did pretty well given the disastrous circumstances around him, had a post-game conference in which he was looked physically ill and apparently (according to headlines of videos I haven't watched) apologized as if he'd lost the game all by himself. Apparently the way the rest of the whole football world had been blathering about it for weeks/months/years either has sunk in so now he buys the nonsense himself on some level, or has caused him to feel the need to do this kind of verbal self-defense because he knows he'll be blamed whether he goes along with it or not.

[Swift]

My take on quarterbacks - obviously football is a team sport, but like it or not, quarterbacks are generally the focus of attention in the game, and have been for as long as I remember. I couldn't find a quick reference, but I suspect they are also the highest paid position. And a bad quarterback can certainly break a team (I've watched many years of bad Cleveland Brown's quarterbacks as reference). Of course, even if you have a great quarterback, if you don't have a good offensive line or receivers, or if your Offensive Coordinator calls bad plays, or you have a great offense but a lousy defense, you are still going to lose.

But quarterbacks are still getting the big bucks and the attention, and part of that is they get a disproportionate amount of the glory for winning, and a disproportionate amount of the blame for loses.

I also agree that in the game last night, that Patrick Mahomes didn't have a chance with the Chiefs beat-up offensive line. He spent more time running for his life than throwing the football.

[grant hutchison]

Unsolicited advice on clearing snow.
Being a Scottish male of a certain age, who has looked after a significant number of snow-shovelling-induced cardiac events over the years, I prefer to clear my paths frequently after a couple of inches have accumulated, rather than hoicking around kilograms of the stuff. So today I've been out a couple times between snow dumps.
And each time I've been out, a passerby has remarked, "Oh-ho, you're optimistic. It's just going to snow again in a minute." [Points wisely to the western sky.]
No, actually, I'm a pessimist, and I think a shed-load of snow is going to fall in the next few days, and I don't want to kill myself clearing it all in one go on Thursday.

Grant Hutchison

[Trebuchet]

I've reached a point where I just look out and say "Oh, snow! Isn't that pretty! Good thing it'll melt soon!"

Completely unrelated, I haven't been using much cash in the age of Covid. But last week I had a minor purchase and was going to use some, only to discover just $2.00 in my wallet. So today I stopped at the ATM and withdrew $300, so I wouldn't have to do it again for a while. When it spit out the bills I thought "Wait, that's not enough!" It had given me fifties instead of twenties. I hate those. They're too dang much at one time; sometimes the stores don't even want to change them.

I also just realized I've had that attitude toward fifties for at least 40 years. There's been inflation. Dang, I'm getting old.

[ozduck]

About 2/3rds through our ride this morning I got yet another flat tyre and had to push the bike a little over 4 km home. It appears to have been caused by my second valve failure in the ,annoying, Presta valve equipped tubes. So another new tube is required.

[ozduck]

About 2/3rds through our ride this morning I got yet another flat tyre and had to push the bike a little over 4 km home. It appears to have been caused by my second valve failure in the ,annoying, Presta valve equipped tubes. So another new tube is required.

And when I went to fit the new tube I found one broken spoke and two other dicey ones Sigh.

[21st Century Schizoid Man]

About 2/3rds through our ride this morning I got yet another flat tyre and had to push the bike a little over 4 km home. It appears to have been caused by my second valve failure in the ,annoying, Presta valve equipped tubes. So another new tube is required.

I was getting blown out tubes on a regular basis, then the last shop I went to for replacement found hidden damage to the tyre, and replaced it as well. We haven't had a flat since, and I now use this shop a lot more.

Probably not what is afflicting you though.

There are not too many places around here where I would have to push 4km to reach the nearest repair shop.

[ozduck]

I was getting blown out tubes on a regular basis, then the last shop I went to for replacement found hidden damage to the tyre, and replaced it as well. We haven't had a flat since, and I now use this shop a lot more.

Probably not what is afflicting you though.

There are not too many places around here where I would have to push 4km to reach the nearest repair shop.

Only 3 flat tyres in year is good for me. Usually it is from some sharp piece of metal on the road. I now use thorn resistant tubes - I am not riding fast so the extra weight is not a problem.

My nearest bike shop, which is my normal one, is about 1 km from my house. The next nearest one is about 4 km in the opposite direction.

[Gillianren]

I've reached a point where I just look out and say "Oh, snow! Isn't that pretty! Good thing it'll melt soon!"

We don't own a snow shovel yet; I should tell Graham to pick one up at work. But our house is at the top of a hill, so I'm not sure we'll go anywhere if it snows anyway.

[21st Century Schizoid Man]

Only 3 flat tyres in year is good for me.

I was getting up to that many every two weeks for a bit Once the shop diagnosed that the tyre was damaged (I had looked, but didn't see the damaged), and replaced both tube and tyre, the problem went away.

On one occasion, it sounded like a rifle shot when the tube blew out. I wouldn't be surprised if people called the police to report gun fire.

[Torsten]

The snowplow just plowed in my driveway. Normally I'd go clear the wall of snow that the plow left because I really don't like the packed-in ridge at the end of the driveway that results when you drive through it. I don't feel like shoveling though because it's -27C out there, I'm not needing to drive for another few days, and I certainly don't need to keep it clear for visitors these days.

[Torsten]

Only 3 flat tyres in year is good for me.

I went about 10 years without flats on any of my bicycles. But last summer I had three (one a little over 15 km from home, but I got a lift after walking about 3 km) as well as a broken spoke when I was trail riding.

[PetersCreek]

Brings back memories of my riding days, way back when: about 300-350 miles per week with an 80-to-100-mile ride on the weekend. My tires were only 700mm x 19mm, so flats weren't uncommon and I carried a patch kit, tire tool, and spare tube in a seat bag, along with a hand pump clipped to the frame. The most 'fun' roadside repairs were when I hit something hard at speed. It would pinch the tube against the rim causing a 'snakebite' flat...two holes to fix and they made oblong patches just for them. For the longer rides, I also carried a folded spare tire. Pushing a bike for miles while wearing cycling cleats is no fun at all.

[Swift]

The snowplow just plowed in my driveway. Normally I'd go clear the wall of snow that the plow left because I really don't like the packed-in ridge at the end of the driveway that results when you drive through it. I don't feel like shoveling though because it's -27C out there, I'm not needing to drive for another few days, and I certainly don't need to keep it clear for visitors these days.

Yes, but its a dry cold.

OK, I guess that only works for heat. -27C is freaking cold. It makes me completely enjoy the -13C we had the other night.