Things people often say you find amusing...

[auntiehill]

^Maybe they want to steal your lighter? *shrug*

Heard, not for the first time, a commercial touting a product that is "totally unique." I can sense my old English teacher rolling over in his grave.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Speaking of commercials: It always amuses me when a pharmaceutical ad comes on and they read off the lists of side effects. 99% of the time, the side effects are 1000x worse than whatever the thing cures! "May include nausea, vomiting, weight gain, bloating, diarrhea, cancer, diabetes, liver problems, spontaneous decapitation..."

I'm like, why the hell would anyone want to TAKE this stupid product then?

 

[Melakon]

^Maybe they want to steal your lighter? *shrug*

Possible. Also, I walk with a cane. They rarely approach me when I'm just carrying the cane. But if I have some bags of groceries in the other hand, that's when they usually approach. I don't give anyone anything when both hands are full, and can usually spot them maneuvering in my direction as if trying to intercept. Though I am more receptive if it's a woman, pretty or not, because of my old 60's sense of chivalry.

The first time someone opened a door for me, I felt really old.

 

[DimesDan]

Speaking of commercials: It always amuses me when a pharmaceutical ad comes on and they read off the lists of side effects. 99% of the time, the side effects are 1000x worse than whatever the thing cures! "May include nausea, vomiting, weight gain, bloating, diarrhea, cancer, diabetes, liver problems, spontaneous decapitation..."

I'm like, why the hell would anyone want to TAKE this stupid product then?

I've bolded the reason, just because they may happen, doesn't mean they will and they sure as hell won't all happen together.

So tell me, if you had Cancer, you needed chemo therapy with all the associated side effects, would you forgo it because of it being a stupid treatment?

 

[scotpens]

Speaking of commercials: It always amuses me when a pharmaceutical ad comes on and they read off the lists of side effects. 99% of the time, the side effects are 1000x worse than whatever the thing cures! "May include nausea, vomiting, weight gain, bloating, diarrhea, cancer, diabetes, liver problems, spontaneous decapitation..."

I'm like, why the hell would anyone want to TAKE this stupid product then?

I've never gotten used to the whole notion of prescription drugs being advertised directly to consumers. The way I see it, my doctor doesn't tell me how to design a book layout and I don't tell him what drugs I think I need.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

The first time someone opened a door for me, I felt really old.

Welcome to the club I felt ancient when in Britain I got addresses for the first time as "Ma'am". Lately I get called "dear", particularly in Wales. Not sure if that is another step towards crumbly old fossile or just a passing linguistic fashion.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Yeah, store employees have been calling me "sir" for a while now. I don't mind when the guys do it, but I don't like it when the girls do it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Speaking of commercials: It always amuses me when a pharmaceutical ad comes on and they read off the lists of side effects. 99% of the time, the side effects are 1000x worse than whatever the thing cures! "May include nausea, vomiting, weight gain, bloating, diarrhea, cancer, diabetes, liver problems, spontaneous decapitation..."

I'm like, why the hell would anyone want to TAKE this stupid product then?

I've never gotten used to the whole notion of prescription drugs being advertised directly to consumers. The way I see it, my doctor doesn't tell me how to design a book layout and I don't tell him what drugs I think I need.

IIRC, it is technically illegal to advertise drugs directly to the consumer. That's why they all say "Talk to your doctor about..." and all that crap.

The kinds of loopholes that Big Pharma can jump through in making those ads, make me puke, really. And they probably would try to sell me a damn drug for THAT.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Heard, not for the first time, a commercial touting a product that is "totally unique." I can sense my old English teacher rolling over in his grave.

My favorite version of this is "very unique," as though there were an option of "slightly unique."

 

[DimesDan]

Speaking of commercials: It always amuses me when a pharmaceutical ad comes on and they read off the lists of side effects. 99% of the time, the side effects are 1000x worse than whatever the thing cures! "May include nausea, vomiting, weight gain, bloating, diarrhea, cancer, diabetes, liver problems, spontaneous decapitation..."

I'm like, why the hell would anyone want to TAKE this stupid product then?

I've never gotten used to the whole notion of prescription drugs being advertised directly to consumers. The way I see it, my doctor doesn't tell me how to design a book layout and I don't tell him what drugs I think I need.

IIRC, it is technically illegal to advertise drugs directly to the consumer. That's why they all say "Talk to your doctor about..." and all that crap.

The kinds of loopholes that Big Pharma can jump through in making those ads, make me puke, really. And they probably would try to sell me a damn drug for THAT.

The bolded part always makes me chuckle, it's either legal or illegal, to say something is technically illegal is just silly.

Anyway, would you not have chemo therapy because of the "stupid" side effects if you needed it or would those said side effects mean you won't have it, even though that side effect is a whole lot worse.

 

[iguana_tonante]

The first time someone opened a door for me, I felt really old.

Welcome to the club I felt ancient when in Britain I got addresses for the first time as "Ma'am". Lately I get called "dear", particularly in Wales. Not sure if that is another step towards crumbly old fossile or just a passing linguistic fashion.

I like calling people "my dear". It's both affectionate and distancing.

I work in outreach programs with kids sometimes, and they often addess me as "Teacher" or similar titles, but since the purpose is to present science in a friengly manner, I always tell them to use my first name... "or call me Doctor. Just the Doctor."

 

[Jim Gamma]

The first time someone opened a door for me, I felt really old.

Welcome to the club I felt ancient when in Britain I got addresses for the first time as "Ma'am". Lately I get called "dear", particularly in Wales. Not sure if that is another step towards crumbly old fossile or just a passing linguistic fashion.

"Dear" or "Dearie" can imply either age or youth, depending on the age of the person using the term. Not helpful, I know! I got called "Boyo" by a Welsh colleague at age 26 though so I don't think age really has anything to do with it.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

The bolded part always makes me chuckle, it's either legal or illegal, to say something is technically illegal is just silly.

I beg to differ:
very often laws are phrased in a way that suggests several interpretations. I suspect the lawyers do that deliberately to boost the number of potential lawsuits (and thus their income). It comes very close to a perpetuum mobile.

Or something can be legal by the letter of the law and yet be frowned upon, customarily. For example: if your countries laws don't state explicitly that marrying your sister is forbidden, it's technically legal if you marry her. Yet it'd be genetically and socially frowned upon.


What really makes me furious is if people use the wrong comparative in combinations of adjectives:
It's not high-priceder but higher priced, damned! (ok, that's propably not so much an issue in English but in German it's a rapidly spreading plague of biblical dimensions)

 

[scotpens]

What really makes me furious is if people use the wrong comparative in combinations of adjectives:
It's not high-priceder but higher priced, damned! (ok, that's propably not so much an issue in English but in German it's a rapidly spreading plague of biblical dimensions)

I've never heard "high-priceder" in English. However, I often see "worst" (superlative) where the correct word is "worse" (comparative), and vice versa.

Of course, some ungrammatical comparatives are used intentionally for humor ("badder," "funner," etc.).

 

[mari]

What really makes me furious is if people use the wrong comparative in combinations of adjectives:
It's not high-priceder but higher priced, damned! (ok, that's propably not so much an issue in English but in German it's a rapidly spreading plague of biblical dimensions)

I've never heard "high-priceder" in English. However, I often see "worst" (superlative) where the correct word is "worse" (comparative), and vice versa.

Of course, some ungrammatical comparatives are used intentionally for humor ("badder," "funner," etc.).

Sometimes I wonder if that's because of hearing problems. I worked with a woman who always described the grossly fat as "obesed".

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I've never gotten used to the whole notion of prescription drugs being advertised directly to consumers. The way I see it, my doctor doesn't tell me how to design a book layout and I don't tell him what drugs I think I need.

IIRC, it is technically illegal to advertise drugs directly to the consumer. That's why they all say "Talk to your doctor about..." and all that crap.

The kinds of loopholes that Big Pharma can jump through in making those ads, make me puke, really. And they probably would try to sell me a damn drug for THAT.

The bolded part always makes me chuckle, it's either legal or illegal, to say something is technically illegal is just silly.

Anyway, would you not have chemo therapy because of the "stupid" side effects if you needed it or would those said side effects mean you won't have it, even though that side effect is a whole lot worse.

I don't see many ads for chemo drugs on the telly. I see a lot of ads for psychiatric medication, though.

 

[scotpens]

I've never heard "high-priceder" in English. However, I often see "worst" (superlative) where the correct word is "worse" (comparative), and vice versa.

Sometimes I wonder if that's because of hearing problems. I worked with a woman who always described the grossly fat as "obesed".

That makes me think of people who write "bias" (noun) when they mean "biased" (adjective/participle). Or "renown" when they mean "renowned."

I don't think that's because they have hearing problems. It's because they're semi-illiterate.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack this into another Grammar Nazi thread.

 

[auntiehill]

^Grammar-Nazi away! I don't mind.

Something I have seen a lot of lately is the dreaded dangling participle. Friends have their kids send me their papers for a quick edit or tutorial and I swear to God, the last three I've looked at have all had that problem. Sometimes, it's rather funny. I think it's caused by these teens thinking that longer, more complex sentences are better than simple, direct ones. The problem is that their long sentences become completely unclear.

"Rotting and decaying, I dragged my feet as I fetched the apples from the basement."

You're a zombie?! Who knew?

eta: I have another paper to work on tonight for a friend. It never ends.

 

[scotpens]

Something I have seen a lot of lately is the dreaded dangling participle. <snip>

"Rotting and decaying, I dragged my feet as I fetched the apples from the basement."

You're a zombie?! Who knew?

My favorite dangling participle is "If swallowed, do not induce vomiting."

The implied subject of an imperative sentence is you. I would damn well try to induce vomiting -- in whatever had swallowed me!

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^

That makes me think of people who write "bias" (noun) when they mean "biased" (adjective/participle). Or "renown" when they mean "renowned."

I don't think that's because they have hearing problems. It's because they're semi-illiterate.

It's a general problem with leaving the -ed off the end of words. That's because it's often hard to hear in speech and these people never see it in print because they are, as you say, semi-literate.