Minor things that bother you

[1995hoo]

I'll admit I grew up with "sherbert". Sherbet is probably a bastardization of sorbet anyway.

Reminds me of the time the Jeopardy judges ruled Austin Rogers incorrect for saying "sherbert." He complained, "I'm from New York. That's how we say it." The judges were correct, though, because the rules state that any addition that changes the pronunciation will render your response incorrect.

[kphoger]

So it's kind of a linguistic loop. Both come from the same Arabic root and meant the same thing. But sherbet went only a little bit west and sorbet/sorbetto went a lot farther west and then rejoined later in England as two different words.

Right.  My point was just that sherbet isn't a bastardization of sorbet—other than as an alternate spelling within English.

[1995hoo]

calvary

Calvary?

I had a high school teacher who mixed up "cavalry" and "Calvary." My father was serving in the U.S. Army's First Cavalry when I was born and was amused to learn that he apparently served in the "First Cal" instead of, as he and his colleagues had always called it, the "First Cav."

[kphoger]

Reminds me of the time the Jeopardy judges ruled Austin Rogers incorrect for saying "sherbert." He complained, "I'm from New York. That's how we say it." The judges were correct, though, because the rules state that any addition that changes the pronunciation will render your response incorrect.

Interestingly, the spelling 'sherbert' goes back 350 years.

By the way, the same Arabic word is where we get our word syrup.

[JayhawkCO]

I'll admit I grew up with "sherbert". Sherbet is probably a bastardization of sorbet anyway.

Reminds me of the time the Jeopardy judges ruled Austin Rogers incorrect for saying "sherbert." He complained, "I'm from New York. That's how we say it." The judges were correct, though, because the rules state that any addition that changes the pronunciation will render your response incorrect.

I kind of take issue with this. Where do you draw the line where something is a "changed pronunciation"? Some people pronounce 'saw' as sɑ (IPA) and some pronounce it was sɔ (IPA). Those sound pretty similar to me, but if you answered a question about a particular horror movie series, which is the right pronunciation?

In Mandarin, northern accents are well known for making the vowels rhotic (aka adding 'r'). Are they mispronouncing their words?

If you have a speech impediment of some kind, can you not be on Jeopardy?

[wxfree]

I think (I no longer have the videotape (nor do I have a VCR)) that in the movie "Toys," Robin Williams's character said he was fascinated by the entomology of words.  I don't know if it was scripted (the character was quite childish) or if he just mispronounced it (or if I misheard it).  I remember being bothered by it.

[kphoger]

I kind of take issue with this. Where do you draw the line where something is a "changed pronunciation"? Some people pronounce 'saw' as sɑ (IPA) and some pronounce it was sɔ (IPA). Those sound pretty similar to me, but if you answered a question about a particular horror movie series, which is the right pronunciation?

In Mandarin, northern accents are well known for making the vowels rhotic (aka adding 'r'). Are they mispronouncing their words?

If you have a speech impediment of some kind, can you not be on Jeopardy?

And it's not like Sure-Burt is something else.

[kphoger]

There's a Calvin and Hobbes for everything...

[1995hoo]

I'll admit I grew up with "sherbert". Sherbet is probably a bastardization of sorbet anyway.

Reminds me of the time the Jeopardy judges ruled Austin Rogers incorrect for saying "sherbert." He complained, "I'm from New York. That's how we say it." The judges were correct, though, because the rules state that any addition that changes the pronunciation will render your response incorrect.

I kind of take issue with this. Where do you draw the line where something is a "changed pronunciation"? Some people pronounce 'saw' as sɑ (IPA) and some pronounce it was sɔ (IPA). Those sound pretty similar to me, but if you answered a question about a particular horror movie series, which is the right pronunciation?

In Mandarin, northern accents are well known for making the vowels rhotic (aka adding 'r'). Are they mispronouncing their words?

If you have a speech impediment of some kind, can you not be on Jeopardy?

There is a different forum member who is probably far more qualified than either of us to opine on such issues, though he hasn't posted since August 5, 2010.

[Scott5114]

In terms of things that are annoying me this morning, MS Word's grammar and punctuation checker that inserts the double blue line is getting on my nerves with its false positives. I'm revising a document and on the page that's on my screen now, I have a two-sentence quotation from a judicial opinion. The quotation ends with a period followed by a closing double quotation mark ("), which is the normal way to close a quotation. Word, for some reason, thinks it's an error: "One punctuation mark is all that's needed." It wants me to delete the closing quotation mark, which of course would leave the opening quotation mark unpaired. All the more reason why you have to use your own judgment and not just trust the software.

I am pretty sure that's based on an A.I. model. So I would advise simply turning it off.

Not that A.I. has made it much worse, honestly. I remember always finding obvious false positives when it came to Word grammar checking, even back in the 90s. I get the feeling that English grammar is simply too complex for software to actually handle.

[1995hoo]

In terms of things that are annoying me this morning, MS Word's grammar and punctuation checker that inserts the double blue line is getting on my nerves with its false positives. I'm revising a document and on the page that's on my screen now, I have a two-sentence quotation from a judicial opinion. The quotation ends with a period followed by a closing double quotation mark ("), which is the normal way to close a quotation. Word, for some reason, thinks it's an error: "One punctuation mark is all that's needed." It wants me to delete the closing quotation mark, which of course would leave the opening quotation mark unpaired. All the more reason why you have to use your own judgment and not just trust the software.

I am pretty sure that's based on an A.I. model. So I would advise simply turning it off.

Not that A.I. has made it much worse, honestly. I remember always finding obvious false positives when it came to Word grammar checking, even back in the 90s. I get the feeling that English grammar is simply too complex for software to actually handle.

I agreed with the boldfaced, although I was reluctant to use those two letters because my impression is that most people use the term "AI" these days to mean "generative AI," which this is not.

We have another AI-based application that will scan your document and suggest ways to improve your writing. It's surprisingly effective, but it is also not immune to errors. The one that stands out to me is that it sometimes gets confused by paired commas when the text between the paired commas contains the word "and." For example, "The company asserts that prices for two inputs, oil and silicon, increased during the relevant period." The software will flag that the rest of the document uses the serial comma and will tell me to insert one there ("two inputs, oil, and silicon"), apparently not recognizing that it's not a series. I suppose the solution would be to use a pair of em dashes instead, but in the actual sentence in the document I have on my screen em dashes would be a distraction.

[Scott5114]

I agreed with the boldfaced, although I was reluctant to use those two letters because my impression is that most people use the term "AI" these days to mean "generative AI," which this is not.

I think it actually is generative AI. What it is probably doing is sending the text to LLM and asking it "What are the grammatical errors in this text?" It might also not be using an LLM per se, but doing a similar-enough statistical-model comparison that calling it A.I. isn't exactly wrong.

[vdeane]

I'll admit I grew up with "sherbert". Sherbet is probably a bastardization of sorbet anyway.

Reminds me of the time the Jeopardy judges ruled Austin Rogers incorrect for saying "sherbert." He complained, "I'm from New York. That's how we say it." The judges were correct, though, because the rules state that any addition that changes the pronunciation will render your response incorrect.

I have never heard it pronounced "sher bet", only "sher bert" (like the kid in the Simpsons).  I didn't even realize it was spelled "sherbet" until today.  Granted, it's not like I've even heard of the other dessert mentioned.

[1995hoo]

It's definitely a common mispronunciation.

[The_Ginger]

The fact that when I microwave frozen vegetables, I get several burnt ones while several others are so cold that they're borderline frozen.  And then they cool down very fast - fast enough that the length of time between when they're cool enough to not burn my mouth and when they're cold enough to be a chore to finish is less than the time it takes to eat them.

Try experimenting with your microwave's power level. Look at the instructions to see if they call out a certain wattage and then compare that to the wattage of your microwave (which is normally printed inside the door somewhere). That information can help you discover if you're over- or under-nuking it. You can also try something like half power for twice as long; cooking at lower heat for longer normally makes everything come out better regardless of the cook method.

That certainly does help, although it does make the process of cooking them more annoying, so I guess it led to a new minor thing that bothers me:

Instead of just pressing "1" followed by "+30 seconds", now I have to press "time cook", "3", "0", "0", followed by pressing "power level" six times, finishing with "start" - so 11 total button presses instead of two.  Why I can't just press "5" after "power level" like the ancient microwave my parents had when I was a toddler is beyond me.  Given that this microwave won't allow express cooking to be used for any time more than three minutes (the microwave in my previous apartment allowed it for any even minute increment up to 9:00), I swear they're trying to make the experience of using it as annoying as possible.

I'm annoyed when a microwave makes you press the "Time Cook" button to enter a specific time. Our current and previous microwave allow you to enter a custom time my just selecting the numbers and clicking "Start". There's also a 1 minute button as well.

[TheCatalyst31]

I'll admit I grew up with "sherbert". Sherbet is probably a bastardization of sorbet anyway.

Reminds me of the time the Jeopardy judges ruled Austin Rogers incorrect for saying "sherbert." He complained, "I'm from New York. That's how we say it." The judges were correct, though, because the rules state that any addition that changes the pronunciation will render your response incorrect.

I have never heard it pronounced "sher bet", only "sher bert" (like the kid in the Simpsons).  I didn't even realize it was spelled "sherbet" until today.  Granted, it's not like I've even heard of the other dessert mentioned.

I'm not from New York, but I've also never heard it pronounced any way but "sherbert". And I liked sherbet as a kid, so I knew the spelling and was never quite sure where the extra R came from when you said it out loud. (I've also had plenty of sorbet, but that's pronounced "sor-bay", so it didn't exactly clarify things.)

[Max Rockatansky]

I'll admit I grew up with "sherbert". Sherbet is probably a bastardization of sorbet anyway.

Reminds me of the time the Jeopardy judges ruled Austin Rogers incorrect for saying "sherbert." He complained, "I'm from New York. That's how we say it." The judges were correct, though, because the rules state that any addition that changes the pronunciation will render your response incorrect.

I have never heard it pronounced "sher bet", only "sher bort" (like the kid in the Simpsons).  I didn't even realize it was spelled "sherbet" until today.  Granted, it's not like I've even heard of the other dessert mentioned.

FIFY

[kphoger]

I'm annoyed when a microwave makes you press the "Time Cook" button to enter a specific time. Our current and previous microwave allow you to enter a custom time my just selecting the numbers and clicking "Start". There's also a 1 minute button as well.

I'm not annoyed either way.  I just wish all microwaves were the same way.  When I go to use the microwave at a friend's house, I can never remember if I need to hunt for that button first or just start punching numbers.

If I want to pop something in for 50 seconds, but there's a TIME COOK button that I just haven't noticed yet, then, as soon as I hit the 5, there's a good chance it'll start going for 5 minutes right away.

But if I assume there's a TIME COOK button but there isn't one, then there's a good chance I'll spend half a minute staring at all the buttons for no good reason.

And maybe there is one, but it's called something ambiguous like TIME, but I assume that's for setting the clock...

[Rothman]

I'm annoyed when a microwave makes you press the "Time Cook" button to enter a specific time. Our current and previous microwave allow you to enter a custom time my just selecting the numbers and clicking "Start". There's also a 1 minute button as well.

I'm not annoyed either way.  I just wish all microwaves were the same way. 

Commie.

[kphoger]

I'm not annoyed, either way.  I just wish, all microwaves were the same way. 

Commas.

Fixed.

[1995hoo]

I'm annoyed when a microwave makes you press the "Time Cook" button to enter a specific time. Our current and previous microwave allow you to enter a custom time my just selecting the numbers and clicking "Start". There's also a 1 minute button as well.

I'm not annoyed either way.  I just wish all microwaves were the same way. 

Commie.

He'd hate ours. Ours doesn't have buttons to type in the time (other than the "Add 30 sec" button). Instead, you turn a dial. And before someone calls it an antique, I'll note that it's new within the past five years or so. The previous one simply died and we got a new GE that has both microwave and convection modes.

[kphoger]

He'd hate ours. Ours doesn't have buttons to type in the time (other than the "Add 30 sec" button). Instead, you turn a dial.

That's like our toaster oven.  Do you have to turn it past 20 just to cook something for 3 minutes, though?

*sigh*  That's another thing that bothers me...

[1995hoo]

He'd hate ours. Ours doesn't have buttons to type in the time (other than the "Add 30 sec" button). Instead, you turn a dial.

That's like our toaster oven. Do you have to turn it past 20 just to cook something for 3 minutes, though?

*sigh*  That's another thing that bothers me...

No. If I hit "Cook Time" or "Convection Bake," I turn the dial and it increases in 15-second increments.

My mother had a countertop kitchen timer of the sort you describe. Don't know whether she still has it, but it wouldn't surprise me. I use the timer on the microwave even when I'm not using the microwave, but my mom isn't the sort to do that type of thing simply because she's in her 80s and it's not how she did things for most of her life.

[kphoger]

I use the timer on the microwave even when I'm not using the microwave, but my mom isn't the sort to do that type of thing simply because she's in her 80s and it's not how she did things for most of her life.

I use the microwave's timer when cooking in the conventional oven, even though our stove/oven has a timer of its own.  This baffles my wife.

When cooking on the stovetop, I use ... nothing.  I just test it every so often to see if it's done.

[GaryV]

We don't like the timer on our (newish) stove. You push the timer button, then you have to push "+" to increment the minutes to the time you want. If you're a little fast, it jumps up in 10 minute increments - that usually happens just after you get near to the time you want, and then you have to increment down. And if you don't remember to push the timer button again, it doesn't start the timer.