Minor things that bother you

[Rothman]

4.  Kwanzaa isn't a real holiday.

What makes a holiday real?  People celebrate Kwanzaa.  That's real enough.

[Scott5114]

At this point more people bitch about "Happy Holidays" than anyone ever did about "Merry Christmas", so I just don't acknowledge it being December at all.

I like that approach!  Maybe switch to saying "Decent December" instead, though.

I just stick with my standard "Good luck", which ranges from making a lot of sense if I'm at work (casino), and potentially extremely concerning if not.

"Okay, your order will be $15.17 and it'll be there in about 30 minutes!"
"Thank you! Good luck!"
*hangs up*
"...Wait, what about this order makes him think we need good luck?"

[texaskdog]

At this point more people bitch about "Happy Holidays" than anyone ever did about "Merry Christmas", so I just don't acknowledge it being December at all.

I like that approach!  Maybe switch to saying "Decent December" instead, though.

Happy Holidays makes sense because I don’t know what you celebrate. Unless you’re wearing a stupid Christmas sweater or a Star of David or something.

"Holidays" as a way of being inclusive doesn't bother me so much if it's actually legitimate.  But it's usually not.

1.  If your company party has a Christmas tree, pictures with Santa Claus, wrapping paper with elves and reindeer and Joy to the World printed on it...  then it's a Christmas party.  Nobody went to any trouble to try and fit in a different religion's holiday, so don't somehow pretend they did by calling it a "holiday party" instead of a "Christmas party".

2.  Do you know when Hanukkah is?  Here's a tip:  if Hanukkah has already ended, then there's no longer any reason not to say "Merry Christmas".  Chances are though, you don't know when Hanukkah is but are still trying to pretend you're sensitive to people's religious faith.  OK, you get half a point for trying.

3.  On December 26, do you ask someone if they had a "good holiday"?  Really?  What holiday are you referring to?  Don't tell me you might be referring to Hanukkah unless you're prepared to answer YES to #2 above.  This year, for example, December 26 is only halfway through Hanukkah.  Last year, it had already been over for two weeks.  Just ask if they had a good Christmas, and then be prepared for them to tell you they don't celebrate Christmas because _________.

4.  Kwanzaa isn't a real holiday.



On the other hand, "holidays" is perfectly good for referring to the whole time between Thanksgiving and the New Year.  It's the time of year when people have family gatherings, participate in cultural and religious traditions, take time off from work, etc.  "Happy holidays" has been used as such for a hundred years, but it somehow got slurped up into political correctness.  I think we'd feel less icky and flaky in using the phrase "Happy holidays" if we weren't so darned afraid to use "Merry Christmas" when that's what we actually mean.

That's what I mean. if its a holiday party bring out some dreidels. 

[noelbotevera]

-People who are very particular on English rules...yes I know the rules, no I don't care. Some of the best authors (like James Joyce) and accents (Southern, New England) routinely break the rules of English. English is also full of extremely stupid rules with too many exceptions and too many terms.

-People who play music way too loudly over their headset...it's called a headset for a reason, not a loudspeaker.

-People who speak too fast...if I'm talking to you, it's kinda important for me to understand what you're saying. This is why I speak slowly on purpose.

[hbelkins]

Which, by the way, is a minor thing that bother's me.

Has anyone mentioned the misuse of apostrophes yet? 

[MikeTheActuary]

"Reach out"  is still overuse business slang from I observe in my interactions with people.  I get asked "reach out"  to a person and/or people at least three times weekly.

Other overused office language:

"Touch base"
"Livin' the dream"
"Open a can of worms"
"Shoot you" a text/email/contact.  Don't shoot me.  I don't want to be shot.

Other incorrect office language:
"in regards to".  If you can't figure out how to say this phrase correctly, just say "about."  It accomplishes the same thing.  If you can't take the heat of complex prepositional phrases, stay out of the kitchen.
Overuse of generic nouns like "item," "element," or "component," without explaining the context.  These words might as well be pronouns.

When questions are followed by the phrase "Asking for a friend".

I do that ironically as a joke, like with "yolo," or "swag," because I think it's dumb

One of the nice things about my now reporting to an office in Montréal is that my boss and others in my department are not native speakers of English (two French Canadians, one German, and me).  We have to simplify our language in order to understand one another.  While it means that I don't get to use my odd colloquialisms when describing my work, we also end up sparing ourselves the corporate jargon because it doesn't always translate correctly.

[MikeTheActuary]

-People who are very particular on English rules...yes I know the rules, no I don't care. Some of the best authors (like James Joyce) and accents (Southern, New England) routinely break the rules of English. English is also full of extremely stupid rules with too many exceptions and too many terms.

I have two standard responses when folks get pedantic on English grammar rules:

1.  English isn't French, German, or Icelandic.  We don't have a specific organization that defends the language and codifies the rules around it.  Our rules of grammar are descriptive, rather than prescriptive, and our language evolves.

2.  (After taking a moment to bring up a thick Lower Alabama twang) "Y'all talk funny too."

[MNHighwayMan]

Some of the best [...] accents (Southern, New England)

I hope this is a joke, because it is definitively false.

[texaskdog]

Anyone over the age of 10 who says "veggies"

[MNHighwayMan]

Anyone over the age of 10 who says "veggies"

Veggies.

[texaskdog]

STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DaBigE]

Anyone over the age of 10 who says "veggies"

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.



- How it takes at least two days to mail a letter to a city 10 minutes away
- How certain documents have to be snail-mailed

[texaskdog]

Anyone over the age of 10 who says "veggies"

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.



- How it takes at least two days to mail a letter to a city 10 minutes away
- How certain documents have to be snail-mailed

Good one

[jakeroot]

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.

I don't personally own dogs, but my grandparent's dogs go "potty". That's the word they were trained. I guess because it's shorter than going to "the bathroom" or something else.

[1995hoo]

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.

I don't personally own dogs, but my grandparent's dogs go "potty". That's the word they were trained. I guess because it's shorter than going to "the bathroom" or something else.

When I was a kid, my parents never used the word "potty" except in reference to a "training potty" they had for when we were super-little kids learning how to go. They never said, for example, "Does anyone need to go potty?" before we left to drive somewhere. They asked if we needed to "go to the bathroom." In general, my parents didn't talk down to us and didn't use very many childish expressions.

To me, "potty" sounds like a word someone from Brooklyn uses to describe an event you have for a momentous occasion, like a significant birthday (i.e., "party"). But then, my relatives all pronounce my aunt's ex-husband's name (Arty) as if it were "Otty," so it's understandable why it sounds that way to me.

Which, by the way, is a minor thing that bother's me.

Has anyone mentioned the misuse of apostrophes yet? 

One thing that irks me is the prevalence of the misuse of the opening single quotation mark when the correct character is an apostrophe. A major reason for this is the use of autocorrect features in word-processing software. The software doesn't know you're truncating something and need an apostrophe, so it inserts a single quotation mark, and people just assume it's correct. (The easiest way to solve the problem is to type another character before the desired apostrophe, then go back and delete it.) The incorrect style looks particularly idiotic in newspaper headlines or on t-shirts. I found this mnemonic explanation on a blog:



In a similar vein, we've had that discussion about the one-space versus two-space holdover from the typewriter era. Another similar issue arises when people misuse an en dash when they need an em dash. This is, again, caused by autocorrect. Some people put spaces around dashes and will type in the form "word space hyphen hyphen space word." (Example: dash -- but) Some style guides call for that form as well, while others call for a "small space" just to set off the dash a little bit. The problem is, MS Word inserts the shorter en dash when you do this. To get the correct em dash, you need to omit the spaces around the two hyphens (example: dash--but) or know the code for typing the correct style dash (on a Windows PC, Alt+0151 on the ten-key).

The worst is the people who try to use a single hyphen in place of a dash. It's hideous.

[Max Rockatansky]

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.

I don't personally own dogs, but my grandparent's dogs go "potty". That's the word they were trained. I guess because it's shorter than going to "the bathroom" or something else.

The shorter the command with a dog the better.  My dogs know simply what "potty"  is and don't need it further expounded upon to get what I'm telling them to do. 

[jakeroot]

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.

I don't personally own dogs, but my grandparent's dogs go "potty". That's the word they were trained. I guess because it's shorter than going to "the bathroom" or something else.

The shorter the command with a dog the better.  My dogs know simply what "potty"  is and don't need it further expounded upon to get what I'm telling them to do.

Makes perfect sense to me. Plus, so many dogs are like kids to people, so using childish terms seems reasonable.

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.

I don't personally own dogs, but my grandparent's dogs go "potty". That's the word they were trained. I guess because it's shorter than going to "the bathroom" or something else.

When I was a kid, my parents never used the word "potty" except in reference to a "training potty" they had for when we were super-little kids learning how to go. They never said, for example, "Does anyone need to go potty?" before we left to drive somewhere. They asked if we needed to "go to the bathroom." In general, my parents didn't talk down to us and didn't use very many childish expressions.

To me, "potty" sounds like a word someone from Brooklyn uses to describe an event you have for a momentous occasion, like a significant birthday (i.e., "party"). But then, my relatives all pronounce my aunt's ex-husband's name (Arty) as if it were "Otty," so it's understandable why it sounds that way to me.

If I had more family from New England, I would likely agree with that sentiment.

I was never trained to use the "potty" myself. It was always just the dogs. "Bathroom", "restroom", or "washroom" were most common. Sometimes "toilet".

[SSOWorld]

Anyone over the age of 10 who says "veggies"

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.



- How it takes at least two days to mail a letter to a city 10 minutes away
- How certain documents have to be snail-mailed

Mail-in Rebates!!!

[DaBigE]

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.

I don't personally own dogs, but my grandparent's dogs go "potty". That's the word they were trained. I guess because it's shorter than going to "the bathroom" or something else.

"Pee" is even shorter.

[jakeroot]

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.

I don't personally own dogs, but my grandparent's dogs go "potty". That's the word they were trained. I guess because it's shorter than going to "the bathroom" or something else.

"Pee" is even shorter.

What if they gotta shit? Even if they can't speak English, I try to be fair and treat both maneuvers equally.

[DaBigE]

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.

I don't personally own dogs, but my grandparent's dogs go "potty". That's the word they were trained. I guess because it's shorter than going to "the bathroom" or something else.

"Pee" is even shorter.

What if they gotta shit? Even if they can't speak English, I try to be fair and treat both maneuvers equally.

Your dog's going to know the difference?

[tchafe1978]

Anyone over the age of 10 who says "veggies"

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.



- How it takes at least two days to mail a letter to a city 10 minutes away
- How certain documents have to be snail-mailed

Mail-in Rebates!!!

Worse are the mail-in rebates that only give you in-store credit, and not cash back. A certain Wisconsin based home improvement store chain is well known for this.

[DaBigE]

Anyone over the age of 10 who says "veggies"

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.



- How it takes at least two days to mail a letter to a city 10 minutes away
- How certain documents have to be snail-mailed

Mail-in Rebates!!!

Worse are the mail-in rebates that only give you in-store credit, and not cash back. A certain Wisconsin based home improvement store chain is well known for this.

The customer in me completely agrees, but it's a brilliant business move. Generate foot traffic from those who weren't too lazy to get their "money" back.

[hbelkins]

Anyone over the age of 10 who says "veggies"

Learned last week that there really is such a word as "vegetal." All along I thought it was a purposeful misspelling of "vegetable" (like "cheezburger") in the infamous Smudge the cat post that became half of the "woman shouting at a white cat" meme.

Nope, it's a real word. It's a synonym for "vegetable" when that word is used as an adjective.

[jakeroot]

Anyone with kids over the age of 10 who uses the word "potty" (by itself and outside of telling a joke). However, for whatever reason the term "potty-mouth" doesn't bother me.

I don't personally own dogs, but my grandparent's dogs go "potty". That's the word they were trained. I guess because it's shorter than going to "the bathroom" or something else.

"Pee" is even shorter.

What if they gotta shit? Even if they can't speak English, I try to be fair and treat both maneuvers equally.

Your dog's going to know the difference?

Well, no. I mean, I could teach them Mandarin if I wanted. Just trying to be consistent; if not for myself, for those around me or those watching them.