Two rants for the price of one
Is it that people are busy or lazy that makes them write something like this on mailing lists and discussion fora:
I don’t know what [a word] means
or
I don’t know how to spell [another word]
Is my time less valuable than yours? Do you expect the rest of us to explain/spell it for you? For goodness’ sake, use a bloody search engine!
p.s. Follow it with LOL and I’ll never reply to anything you write, ever again.
If Sainsbury’s are going to display the price per kilo on their vegetables (that’s when you can find the price displayed at all), why do they choose to make it as difficult as possible to calculate the price difference between, say, bagged and loose carrots?
I needed to buy a quite a few vegetables on Saturday (I’ll be making a few gallons of pot roast this week for freezing) and wanted to compare prices. I stood in front of the carrot display, for once they were well stocked with some healthy carrots that looked as if they’d last longer than 24 hours so I peered down at the tiny price tags.
Bagged carrots: 67p per kilo
Loose carrots: 23p per lb
I know, it doesn’t take long to do some quick mental arithmetic but why on earth should we have to? Are they deliberately camouflaging the prices so that we (busy shoppers, hoping to get the hell out of their noisy, badly lit, freezing cold hell-holes) get into the habit of picking what they want us to choose?
And breathe. This ratty mood will pass, linkalicousness to return soon.
March 13th, 2006 21:48
I don’t know what irony means LOL
;-)
March 13th, 2006 21:54
Isn’t it illegal these days to price veg per pound? I mean, what’s the EU for, if not driving out these daft ancient weighing systems. :-)
On another note, I remember doing a whole philosophy course at university about how words get their meaning:
March 13th, 2006 22:51
Or the thick Yank who goes:
“Pyjamas, pyjamas, I don’t even know what pyjamas are” or “why spell it honour…just to show your snobbish…why not spell it properly…you snob”
March 14th, 2006 10:05
lol. I recently yeilded to certain abbreviations. I find it impossible to hold out when I’m MSNing colleagues almost all day long (the joys of remote working).
Re the carrots: Why even consider bagged ones anyway? They’ll *always* be more expensive and you can’t buy carrots without smelling them, can you? Carrots smell great. Yeah, I know. I’m missing the point, aren’t I?
March 14th, 2006 10:11
Talking of “thick Yanks”, it amuses me when some Brits comment on the American use of “Fall” for Autumn as if the colonials had for some reason ’simplified’ the name of the season when, in fact, the Americans have stuck with one of the original names for the season while we simply stuck with the other [Wiki].
March 14th, 2006 11:11
ROFL*
Jann, I know what you mean about MSN. I tend to do a bit of txtspk when talking to teenage nieces and nephew and I can see how easy it is to carry that on when emailing and so on. But it always reminds me of those adverts for “shorthand” (not Gregg or Pitmans, can’t remember the system) you used to see:
Re the carrots – oh yes I agree about the smell. And the leek section is practically orgasmic. But they often have special offers on the bagged vegetables so I keep an eye on the prices.
* if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
March 14th, 2006 11:13
Forgot to say, Richard, I thought it was illegal too but I can’t find any supporting evidence on the interweb (but maybe I *ahem* wasn’t googling the right vocabulary).
Em, thank you for that Wiki link, interesting eh?
While I’m on here: the only thick yanks this blogger has a problem with are in the Whitehouse and at Faux News. They should be thanking their lucky stars that there are plenty of decent Americans out there blogging, metafiltering and so on, otherwise I think the tide of hatred toward all thinks American would be moving far swifter than it is right now.
March 14th, 2006 14:04
Try being a technical author in a software department. We are the ‘word’ ones so get asked spellings all the time.
It’s taken me a few years but they’ve stopped asking me so I presume they are looking things up on their own now. Either that or they are sick and fedup of having my dictionary thrown at them…
March 15th, 2006 18:58
dictionary.com should be indelibly printed on everyone’s forehead. It really is soooooo easy to find out how to spell things these days! Typos, fine, everyone’s prone to human error, but spelling mistakes are just products of laziness. So there!