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What modern invention/innovation do you wish had *never* been developed?

TheGreyPiper

New in Town
Messages
12
Location
Massachusetts
I've no problem with the older style cell-phone, but these Smart phones are a plague! Even my wife has a hard time pulling her nose out of hers. I had one for a bit then went back to an older style Nokia slider, in significant part because I liked the games on it better! That was before the Smartphones as pervasive as they are now. So cell phones -- fine. Smart phones -- scrag 'em!

Ironically, what with the the long Thanksgiving weekend and it being Monday morning and all, I left my phone home this morning.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,763
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
It is surprising that any weathermen would attribute a storm to a Nor'Easter anywhere except along the Atlantic coast (which is part of the definition of the type of storm). A Nor'Easter can produce effects comparable to and sometimes worse than a hurricane but they are an unorganized storm system and seldom penetrate very far inland.

No real New Englander ever said "Nor'easter." The correct native pronunciation is "No'theasta". I never heard "Nor'easter" in my life until the Weather Channel came along, and nobody but an outastatah would use the term today.
 

nice hat dude!

One Too Many
Messages
1,168
Location
Lumby,B.C. Canada
No real New Englander ever said "Nor'easter." The correct native pronunciation is "No'theasta". I never heard "Nor'easter" in my life until the Weather Channel came along, and nobody but an outastatah would use the term today.
In reality isn't it really just a play on words,same as the "Sou Western"fishing hats.Guess we could start ranting about people not pronouncing words correctly......hmm
 

nice hat dude!

One Too Many
Messages
1,168
Location
Lumby,B.C. Canada
To me it's yet another patronizing attempt by Middle Class People From Away trying to colonize and cheapen my native culture. I could *really* do without that.
If my history is correct the 1st recorded usage of the term was in 1836 and was from the historical writings of the points on the compass and came complete with pronunciations.Yes it's definitely over used in modern times
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,763
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Ah, Wikipedia, the fount of all legitmate knowledge -- another thing I wish had never been invented.

Let's just say I know my native language better than they do -- and I never heard the word pronounced "nor'easter" until the mid-eighties, and then only so by transplants. They can try to legitimize it all they want with cherry-picked eye-dialect quotes, but the fact remains that no speaker of the actual dialect ever said the word that way: the native New England dialect *always* elides the "r" in North. It's a distinguishing characteristic of the dialect, in fact -- a word spelled "Nor'easter" would be pronounced "naweasta," not "nore-easter."

We actually have to train ourselves to pronounce post-vocalic /r/ -- it's not a natural pronunciation for us, and many of us never quite master it.
 
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nice hat dude!

One Too Many
Messages
1,168
Location
Lumby,B.C. Canada
Ah, Wikipedia, the fount of all legitmate knowledge. Let's just say I know my native language better than they do -- and I never heard the word pronounced "nor'easter" until the mid-eighties, and then only so by transplants. They can try to legitimize it all they want with cherry-picked eye-dialect quotes, but the fact remains that no speaker of the actual dialect ever said the word that way: the native New England dialect *always* elides the "r" in North. It's a distinguishing characteristic of the dialect, in fact -- a word spelled "Nor'easter" would be pronounced "naweasta."

Well it's probably not the fount of all legitimate knowledge but it's better than nothing,so does this mean if they pronounced it with a New England accent you'd be ok with it?Just kidding(haha)I did say it was over used we'll put that one to bed now.
 
Messages
13,467
Location
Orange County, CA
In reality isn't it really just a play on words,same as the "Sou Western"fishing hats.Guess we could start ranting about people not pronouncing words correctly......hmm

I've always been fascinated by unusual (often regional) pronunciations and spellings of common names or words. Examples:

Cairo, IL -- "kay-row" instead of "kye-row"
Houston Street, New York, NY -- "house-ton" instead of "Hews-ton"
Orion Lake, MI -- "ore-ree-un" instead of "O'Ryan"
 

nice hat dude!

One Too Many
Messages
1,168
Location
Lumby,B.C. Canada
I've always been fascinated by unusual (often regional) pronunciations and spellings of common names or words. Examples:

Cairo, IL -- "kay-row" instead of "kye-row"
Houston Street, New York, NY -- "house-ton" instead of "Hews-ton"
Orion Lake, MI -- "ore-ree-un" instead of "O'Ryan"
The only one that comes to mind right away and I'm not sure why VC is naweasta for Nor Easter,just kidding Miss Lizzie,actually Cu-wa for Cuba
 

rocketeer

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,605
Location
England
In reality isn't it really just a play on words,same as the "Sou Western"fishing hats.Guess we could start ranting about people not pronouncing words correctly......hmm
Such as Cafe Racer, pronounced correctly it should be Cafff racer rather than cafe as in Hooray.

What should never have been invented? The personal stereo and its spawn, the personal MP3 player.
I wish I was Greg Morris from Mission Impossible. He always had a box with a button on it, when pressed a red light would come on and someone listening to some device would grab their headphones and rip them off their heads as their ears were pierced by some high pitched tones.
 

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