What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock, however, is good circumstantial evidence that he always had the fairer sex in mind . . .

I disagree. He's the fella who felt no compunction about writing this:

"Most Women have no Characters at all."

... and (thanks for reminding me, Set) when he wrote about Belinda, it was to note how shallow she was about her hair, costume & cosmetics.

As opposed, Miss Flyer, of course, to the weighty pronouncements of a man with a guaranteed income from the consols, and no prospect of mere labor to cloud his future.

LOL -- Is that where he got his hoard then? Nobody would listen to a man who got his hands dirty in that century unless he talked of capabilities. I have no real quarrel with him -- he's dead and was miserable & conniving most of his life, I think.

What sort of character does that show?


I am trying mightily hard to be peeved about something... the only thing I can think of is dust and it hardly applies to this thread.

What peeves the bejeebus outta me is the appallingly expressed opinions of the lunatic fringe, of the right and the left, which so often appear in these fora. However, this thread is despoiled sufficiently by the presence of the apostle of Pinker, we don't need to introduce politics herein.

I am always peeved by those who would attempt to impose an arbitrary uniformity in our speech . . . it is the great variety of expression which makes speech so entertaining . . .

We were chatting at a gathering last weekend about how shocked some folks were that the Pacific Northwestern speakers are now considered to have an accent. (Who, me?)

One person said, "But we have the purest speech in the country with no accent at all." I beamed at him and chuckled mightily to self.

I enjoy the variety, too, both of accent and usage. It may make communication slightly less clear but the entertainment value is immense. A well-taken confusion is usually no bad thing and can be jolly except, I suppose, in air traffic control.

Even then it can be fun. There is a story, for which i cannot vouch, that a BOAC pilot in a holding pattern at Cologne was the subject of an exasperated question by an air traffic controller, who asked: "Haven't you ever been to Cologne before?" To which he is alleged to have replied: "Oh yes, dear fellow, several times in 1944 and 1945--but we didn't land."

LOL -- ouch!

I've heard 'most all the air traffic controllers (at least in THIS country) have southern accents as do most of the pilots. Even northern-raised pilots try to sound southern when speaking over the radio.

I met a German geezer on holiday, a few years ago now, who had the same story to tell "Coventry, Liverpool, Birmingham, London" Oh, how we laughed.

Its good that one can laugh these many years later, Boss . . . i rather suspect that it would be hard to get a rise out of you, and that you'd be no fun to try to bait . . .

Haha. It is good that we're not bombing each other anymore. Maybe some day (?) we'll joke with the Iraqis?

Man must learn to be less aggressive. He shouldn't beat the horse. He must get in touch with is softer, gentler side. He must realize that he is an emotional being just like the horse, and he must learn to communicate with the horse. After all, he is sharing his life with the horse. He must understand the horse's feelings and respect them. The horse is… hey… wait a minute.

If yer whip arm is gettin' tired, Miss Virago, i could spell ya for a while . . .

Shoot, no. I could do this all day. Hand me my iced tea and that book over there, would you please?

Certainly, Miss Virago . . . can i git you a baloney sammich?

thank you mctag,

i have asked an english boy, he will not tell me, he was all pink i think it is something very rude!!

bisous
sylvie b

ask us anything about English, we promise not to go pink, and you will get many different opinions, sophie ma chère

It's rude and an insult, Sylvie, made softer by being such a stupid thing to say. It came out in 2003 when Bush invaded Iraq and all the war-mongers were irate that France didn't join the coalition. There were many stupid things that were said and almost anything from the Simpson's is likely to be in that category. Another silly thing from that same era which you might have heard was a push by the Conservative Republicans (the rightwing party in the USA) to change the name of French fries (pomme frites) to Freedom Fries.

Calling anyone a monkey is rude. Saying they would surrender without a fight is also very rude and questions their courage, but there is no sexual connotation or anything like that. The cheese-eating part... well, that's just another funny-sounding adjective to describe the French. Silly too, because Americans eat plenty of cheese.

Most Americans admire France and the French people but this horrible quagmire we were dragged into has created animosity for very bad reasons. Forgive us, please.

Voilà tous nos bisous à Sylvie . . .

Sophie or Sylvie? I am confused.