So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[ChiTownScion]

Does anybody remember if your college professors of years ago used expletive words in class? I'm guessing that it was much less common before the late '60s, early '70s counterculture generation came of age, to become part of the established culture, also many baby boomers in general, but especially the generation after that.

Cursing doesn't bother me per se. I don't care for uncreative maladicta: the standard four letter Anglo Saxon expletives employed carelessly. It's more the laziness than the obscenity that offends me. Cursing can be an art form, if done properly. Very few today master the art, at least while employing the English language or its American idioms. Study Yiddish curses: they're extremely creative and amusing.

In answer to your question, I suppose the only occasion that I recall cursing by a professor was when we were discussing the Constitutional limits of free speech and FCC regulation: pretty much a necessity.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you're going to swear, make it mean something. Otherwise you're just a babbling child.

I had a high school teacher once come across with the F-word in class, directed at a group of boys in the back who wouldn't shut up, which is the first time I heard any adult actually use the word. Until then I thought it was just a cheap playground obscenity. And I wasn't raised by tea-sipping ladies or hankie-waving gentlemen -- we heard real swearing in my family, and done well. That word was never any part of it.

 

[Nobert]

I hate it when you order steak at a restaurant, and the waiter asks you to cut into it to see if it's done the way you want it. A friend of mine says it happened to him once too often, and he cut into the steak and said "this is perfect, make mine just like it" and pushed it back to the waiter.

They probably just had one too many persnickety twits send their order back because their medium rare steak wasn't rare enough, or medium enough, or something. A few problem cases making life more difficult for everyone, again.

 

[ChiTownScion]

If you're going to swear, make it mean something. Otherwise you're just a babbling child.

I had a high school teacher once come across with the F-word in class, directed at a group of boys in the back who wouldn't shut up, which is the first time I heard any adult actually use the word. Until then I thought it was just a cheap playground obscenity. And I wasn't raised by tea-sipping ladies or hankie-waving gentlemen -- we heard real swearing in my family, and done well. That word was never any part of it.

Therein lies the problem with dropping the F- bomb as a reflex. It loses its edge- if it ever had one. I find that those who employ it at all tend to overuse it, and those who don't overuse it don't employ it at all.

I suppose the worst overuse of I heard was from other boy choristers when I was a kid: it wasn't used by kids at my grade school, and even when I worked in factories or on construction sites, there was at least some attempt at using it sparingly.

 

[Stearmen]

Therein lies the problem with dropping the F- bomb as a reflex. It loses its edge- if it ever had one. I find that those who employ it at all tend to overuse it, and those who don't overuse it don't employ it at all.

I suppose the worst overuse of I heard was from other boy choristers when I was a kid: it wasn't used by kids at my grade school, and even when I worked in factories or on construction sites, there was at least some attempt at using it sparingly.

When I took a Psychology coarse in Collage, the professor, a WWII Marine, talked about High Affect words. If you over use them , they no longer have an affect. I have seen this a lot over the years, when Joe drops the F Bomb, no one looks, because he is using it every other word. When I drop it, every one turns to see why! They know, I am either really, really mad, or I am injured.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

From the Expert:

"When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can’t run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An army without profanity couldn’t fight its way out of a p***-soaked paper bag. … As for the types of comments I make, sometimes I just, By God, get carried away with my own eloquence."

George S. Patton

 

[Edward]

They probably just had one too many persnickety twits send their order back because their medium rare steak wasn't rare enough, or medium enough, or something. A few problem cases making life more difficult for everyone, again.

I'd be very happy with that. The problem from which some corners of the London restaurant trade have suffered in recent years has been absolute refusal to cook beef any way other than rare or medium rare, both of which equate to practically raw. There are several restaurants to which I will never return (and in all truth had they not been work functions I'd have left and gone elsewhere) because when I asked for my beef well done I got a snotty reply along the lines of "oh, no. The chef won't do that, it ruins the flavour." If they asked me to check that the steak was cooked to my satisfaction, I'd regard it as good service.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I'd be very happy with that. The problem from which some corners of the London restaurant trade have suffered in recent years has been absolute refusal to cook beef any way other than rare or medium rare, both of which equate to practically raw. There are several restaurants to which I will never return (and in all truth had they not been work functions I'd have left and gone elsewhere) because when I asked for my beef well done I got a snotty reply along the lines of "oh, no. The chef won't do that, it ruins the flavour." If they asked me to check that the steak was cooked to my satisfaction, I'd regard it as good service.

I don't want a steak cooked by anyone who isn't skilled enough to tell doneness without having to cut into it.

 

[Edward]

I don't want a steak cooked by anyone who isn't skilled enough to tell doneness without having to cut into it.

Prok or chicken, I'd agree. When it coems to steak, though, it's so highly subjective, I wouldn't expect even the most highly skilled chef to know exactly what an unknown customer off the street considered 'well done' or 'medium' or whatever. It varies from place to place... jinkine,s in my experience in France, if you don't order it well done, you'rel ucky if it's dead when they put it on your plate. Parts of Ireland, well done means cremated. YMMV.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Prok or chicken, I'd agree. When it coems to steak, though, it's so highly subjective, I wouldn't expect even the most highly skilled chef to know exactly what an unknown customer off the street considered 'well done' or 'medium' or whatever. It varies from place to place... jinkine,s in my experience in France, if you don't order it well done, you'rel ucky if it's dead when they put it on your plate. Parts of Ireland, well done means cremated. YMMV.

In the US, degrees of doneness are pretty well established. Especially at the types of restaurants at which you'd want to order a steak. I'll have to watch out for my dinner still mooing when I'm in France.

 

[jamespowers]

In the US, degrees of doneness are pretty well established. Especially at the types of restaurants at which you'd want to order a steak. I'll have to watch out for my dinner still mooing when I'm in France.

France sounds like it is better now than when I was there last.

 

[Burma Schave]

If it ain't still bleeding, it ain't worth eating.

 

[WesternHatWearer]

I work part time in retail establishment, as you may guess, there are a few things that really annoy me.
I have no problem assisting customers, none, I would much rather help them than leave them on their own.
My reason for wanting to help customers is not because I am worried about theft, it is because by helping I can put the items they do not want back where they go and I can do it so it looks appealing.

The pants did not just randomly appear or find their way to the footware department.
Those $1400 Luccheses boots are not the type you pry off with the other boot, unless you have already purchased them.
Thank you for unfolding all those shirts, ties, and pants.
No, the sign on the door was not optional. We do not want you spilling your drink, dropping your food, or rubbing your greasy fingers on the carpet and we definitely do not want you to ruin what we are attempting to sell.
I am sorry that it offends you but you cannot bring your animal into the store. We have no problem with service animals and are more than happy to assist such customers. Your unleashed spastic bladder dog does not meet such requirements.
And just so we are on the same page, the customer is not always right. If the manufacturer says they are not making it anymore then the manufacturer is not making it anymore. Especially if you just watched and listened to me talk to the manufacturer's representative.

Thank you for letting me vent.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You sound like you work up here. I'd like to have a nickel for every tourist I've intercepted at the theatre door trying to bring in contraband food. "No ma'am, you can't bring in a complete take-out fish dinner and eat it during the show."

The ultimate was the guy who bought a ticket, went in to watch a concernt, and then used his cell phone to order a pizza for delivery during the performance. He was quite unhappy when I turned the delivery guy away.

 

[WesternHatWearer]

I am happy to hear I am not the only one who feels as such.
I would not have thought to order a pizza for delivery during a show, sounds like an instant classic.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I work part time in retail establishment, as you may guess, there are a few things that really annoy me.
I have no problem assisting customers, none, I would much rather help them than leave them on their own.
My reason for wanting to help customers is not because I am worried about theft, it is because by helping I can put the items they do not want back where they go and I can do it so it looks appealing.

The pants did not just randomly appear or find their way to the footware department.
Those $1400 Luccheses boots are not the type you pry off with the other boot, unless you have already purchased them.
Thank you for unfolding all those shirts, ties, and pants.
No, the sign on the door was not optional. We do not want you spilling your drink, dropping your food, or rubbing your greasy fingers on the carpet and we definitely do not want you to ruin what we are attempting to sell.
I am sorry that it offends you but you cannot bring your animal into the store. We have no problem with service animals and are more than happy to assist such customers. Your unleashed spastic bladder dog does not meet such requirements.
And just so we are on the same page, the customer is not always right. If the manufacturer says they are not making it anymore then the manufacturer is not making it anymore. Especially if you just watched and listened to me talk to the manufacturer's representative.

Thank you for letting me vent.

People in the Express Line with more than ten items and the stores that don't enforce their own policy.

 

[Fading Fast]

You sound like you work up here. I'd like to have a nickel for every tourist I've intercepted at the theatre door trying to bring in contraband food. "No ma'am, you can't bring in a complete take-out fish dinner and eat it during the show."

The ultimate was the guy who bought a ticket, went in to watch a concernt, and then used his cell phone to order a pizza for delivery during the performance. He was quite unhappy when I turned the delivery guy away.

Wrong, rude, arrogant and clueless - yes, absolutely, but you almost have to have .01% respect (no more) for the arrant disregard of right and wrong since it is on, in light of the world's problems, a small issue.

Who would ever think that is something you could do? And even the logistics, where do you put the pizza box - on your lap? And if you put it on the seat next to you, it would be on an angle at best and the cheese and sauce would slide.

My God, eat first or spring for the concession price of the theatre food - must everything be turned into a battle or a selfish act with no regard for others and basic rules.

 

[Michaelson]

I guess my 'pet peeve' is when I pull up a news service like NBC and click on an article to read, only to have a video pop up at the top of the article to SHOW me what the article says! If I wanted to watch a news film story, I'd have clicked on 'video', but I didn't....yet I'm STILL forced to watch a commercial and the video report unless I can disable it before it starts.

I can read, guys!

Regards! Michaelson

 

[LizzieMaine]

I won't patronize any online news site that pushes video like that, and I've got a long list of such sites that are on my personal blacklist because of it. My computer won't run most videos, and trying to load the pages only hangs the browser.

 

[Fading Fast]

I guess my 'pet peeve' is when I pull up a news service like NBC and click on an article to read, only to have a video pop up at the top of the article to SHOW me what the article says! If I wanted to watch a news film story, I'd have clicked on 'video', but I didn't....yet I'm STILL forced to watch a commercial and the video report unless I can disable it before it starts.

I can read, guys!

Regards! Michaelson

Worse, and ESPN is very guilty of this, is when you go to a story and the video at the top automatically turns on and you hit the pause button but it doesn't work until the forth or fifth click. Or, and I don't have a specific site in mind, but when you go to a site and the advertisement comes up even though you didn't click on it or, a close relative, your cursor goes over an advertising link and you end up on that site (so that it counts as "a click").

While I applaud Lizzie's standards, I work from home, am in an information business and can't be that restrictive (wish I could) - so I have to put up with all the games and BS these website do to claim you wanted to look at something.