JLOGIC Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 overuse of semicolons Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BunnyGo Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 overuse of semicolons When used correctly, for example by Joseph Conrad, semicolons are awesome; they add a certain flavor to sentences. The semicolon gives the ability to convey thoughts in a free-flow without using run-on sentences; the semicolons connect them so that the grammar is correct, but the thoughts are not cut short. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elianna Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Being treated like the students I teach (FYI I do not treat them the way I am treated). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordontd Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 overuse of semicolonsUnder-use of punctuation & failure to use capitals. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BunnyGo Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I hate when people talk about modifying percentages by a percent in an ambiguous way. An example from today's headlines "Gov. Christie proposes 10% cut to NJ income tax." Is that saying we'll save 10% more of our income, or we'll pay 10% less than what we're paying now? This also comes up a lot in political polls. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshoe Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Depends what kind of tipping. Cow tipping? :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinidad Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 People who stop at the top of escalators or at doorways or otherwise show no situational awareness.People who block traffic in the supermarket by leaving their shopping carts in the middle of aisles or even intersections. Why don't they park to the side of the aisles? Rik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwnn Posted January 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Dutch people who switch to English immediately (and permanently) as soon as I mess up one plural of one noun. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberyeti Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Eurotards who unabashedly criticize American football as somehow being inferior to their form of football, citing players wearing padding as some sort of indication that the athletes aren't as tough or somehow don't qualify as athletes.As a 300lb ex nose tackle in lowish level Euro American football (who has played it with and without pads) I can testify that the NFL players are great explosive athletes, BUT the same degree of aerobic fitness combined with the athleticism is not required of the linemen as is required in say Rugby Union. Some of the linemen require oxygen after returning an interception 50 yards, the equivalent rugby player might have to run around for several minutes without a break, hence is a very different sort of athlete. I actually preferred playing without pads/helmets. People were sensible about where they put their heads (unlike the invincible feeling you get from a helmet), and you got a lot less sprains and the like as the padding can give longer levers to twist things. My pet hate, people in front of me who recline their seats on aircraft without looking or warning. If I have the fold down table in the down position when they do it, this will a) cut me in half as it will be resting against my stomach b) probably deposit my drink all over me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Being treated like the students I teach (FYI I do not treat them the way I am treated). You might enjoy this true story. I was a new faculty member at the University of Maryland and I needed some work done by the office. Things were not moving very fast. Someone came in and addressed me as Dr. Berg, at which the secretary said "Oh my God, I have been treating you like a graduate student". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billw55 Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I hate when people talk about modifying percentages by a percent in an ambiguous way. An example from today's headlines "Gov. Christie proposes 10% cut to NJ income tax." Is that saying we'll save 10% more of our income, or we'll pay 10% less than what we're paying now? This also comes up a lot in political polls.I wonder about that sometimes. I see two possible explanations: 1. They do that on purpose so they can later claim or deny that they said whatever is convenient at the moment. Or so they can make polls results mean whatever they want.2. Many politicians don't understand consumer arithmetic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vampyr Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 People who block traffic in the supermarket by leaving their shopping carts in the middle of aisles or even intersections. Why don't they park to the side of the aisles? Rik In London there is a solution to that. Space is usually at a premium, so shopping carts cannot reasonably be left all over. Unless the supermarket is very large or has a car park, you have to put £1 coin into a slot to get the trolley, and return it to a specified place to get the coin back. It seems like a tiny amount of money to worry about, but for some reason pretty much everyone (including me) cares about getting their £1 back. My pet hate, people in front of me who recline their seats on aircraft without looking or warning. I think it is obnoxious to recline the seats, period. There is just not enough room. I recline my seat only a little and only when the person behind me seems to be asleep. And not at all when the flight is only, say, 2 or 3 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyman Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 You all must fly different airlines than I. IMO, reclining the seats is totally standard, and it takes up essentially no useful room. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffy Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I hate french people who talk to me in french because since I am spannish I must have learnt it on school. I also find a lot of people over the net (mostly teenagers I guess) who contact to you in french while playing some web game assuming you should understand it. I always reply in english that I am sorry, but I have no knowledge about German. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshoe Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Dutch people who switch to English immediately (and permanently) as soon as I mess up one plural of one noun. Keep practicing your Dutch. If they want to speak English, let them. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshoe Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 When I finished my last tour in the Navy, during which I spent three years on exchange with the Royal Navy, I returned to the US on a British Airways flight. Before the plane took off, the passenger in front of me (who turned out to be another American) put his seat all the way back, crushing my knees. When I asked him politely to put the seat back up, he turned to me and said indignantly "I have a right!" I replied quite calmly "I have a right too. And a left, and you're going to get them both if you don't put the seat up!" Which he did, and I had no trouble with him the rest of the flight. B-) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwnn Posted January 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 starting the film at the climax and then '48 hours ago...' soooo original Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trinidad Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Dutch people who switch to English immediately (and permanently) as soon as I mess up one plural of one noun.Dutch people who think that they know how to speak English but use terms like "World convention" when they mean "Leaping Michaels" (or "undertaker" when they mean "entrepreneur", i.e. someone who undertakes some activity) leaving those who actually do speak English completely confused. Rik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y66 Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 Truck drivers who don't secure the stuff in their trucks, like the guy traveling in front of me a few days ago on a freeway with a ladder that fell off and bounced toward me. I decided not to swerve because I was traveling too fast. Fortunately the ladder bounced out of my path. The guy coming up behind me in the next lane was not so fortunate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elianna Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 You might enjoy this true story. I was a new faculty member at the University of Maryland and I needed some work done by the office. Things were not moving very fast. Someone came in and addressed me as Dr. Berg, at which the secretary said "Oh my God, I have been treating you like a graduate student". Yep, that story sounds exactly like some of the things I was complaining about... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillybean Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 When I finished my last tour in the Navy, during which I spent three years on exchange with the Royal Navy, I returned to the US on a British Airways flight. Before the plane took off, the passenger in front of me (who turned out to be another American) put his seat all the way back, crushing my knees. When I asked him politely to put the seat back up, he turned to me and said indignantly "I have a right!" I replied quite calmly "I have a right too. And a left, and you're going to get them both if you don't put the seat up!" Which he did, and I had no trouble with him the rest of the flight. B-)Which reminds me of another pet peeve, Bullies. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 I googled "airline seat recline" and found dozens of blogs and other web sites discussing reclining wars. So this appears to be a very common peave. I admit that I never really thought about it much, as it doesn't seem like seats recline very far. But I'm a short person (5'6""), so I rarely have legroom problems that taller people do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 I hate when people talk about modifying percentages by a percent in an ambiguous way. An example from today's headlines "Gov. Christie proposes 10% cut to NJ income tax." Is that saying we'll save 10% more of our income, or we'll pay 10% less than what we're paying now? This also comes up a lot in political polls.What gets me is when they talk about a percentage change to something that's already a percentage. E.g. if the tax rate is currently 5%, and they say they're increasing taxes by 1%, does that mean they're going up to 6% or 5.05%? But I've never experienced the confusion you describe. It seems obvious to me that they mean the reduction to apply to the tax rate. If they meant that you'd keep more of your income, they'd say "10% increase in take-home pay." To make things more confusing, we have a law in Massachusetts called "Proposition 2 1/2". It states that towns can raise property taxes by at most 2.5% each year. But it doesn't apply to the tax rate itself, it applies to the total property tax the town can levy. If home values decline, the town can raise the tax rate to make up for this, and then another 2.5% on top of that. If you happen to be lucky enough that your home's value didn't decline as much as the average, YOUR tax bill will go up more than 2.5%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BunnyGo Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 What gets me is when they talk about a percentage change to something that's already a percentage. E.g. if the tax rate is currently 5%, and they say they're increasing taxes by 1%, does that mean they're going up to 6% or 5.05%? But I've never experienced the confusion you describe. It seems obvious to me that they mean the reduction to apply to the tax rate. If they meant that you'd keep more of your income, they'd say "10% increase in take-home pay." To make things more confusing, we have a law in Massachusetts called "Proposition 2 1/2". It states that towns can raise property taxes by at most 2.5% each year. But it doesn't apply to the tax rate itself, it applies to the total property tax the town can levy. If home values decline, the town can raise the tax rate to make up for this, and then another 2.5% on top of that. If you happen to be lucky enough that your home's value didn't decline as much as the average, YOUR tax bill will go up more than 2.5%. We're discussing the same problem, just not so clearly...but I don't think they'd say "10% increase in take-home pay" any more than they'd say "1% less take-home pay" in the example you gave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigel_k Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 I don't mind which way people do it, but I care if they choose the method based on whether they want the change to appear small or large. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.