stupid expressions

joescrivens said:
I never thought about it that way.

In which case it does make some sense - but still what is the point of keeping cake and not eating it?
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Joe, only eat half the cake! Then ......... You can have your cake and eat it.
 
Current politicians favorite - "Fair and sustainable" Any time someone says that you're about to get screwed.
 
Russ77 said:
One of my old managers was the king of buzz word phrases, although we all held the opinion he didn't know what he was actually saying most of the time.

We were proven right when he said to me "We need to do things differently.... think laterally, think outside the box".

OOOOOKAY!!! Those expressions mean totally different things, which one would you like me to do :LOL:
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I'm not quite following you. Think laterally and think outside the box do mean the same thing.

Were you confusing laterally with literally?
 
DemiLion said:
I'm not quite following you. Think laterally and think outside the box do mean the same thing.

Were you confusing laterally with literally?
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No not at all......

If you think laterally you think in the same plane or way you've been thinking in so you move progressively from one idea to another, perhaps moving in logical steps.

Think outside the box means to explore more creative or random ideas.
 
Russ77 said:
No not at all......

If you think laterally you think in the same plane or way you've been thinking in so you move progressively from one idea to another, perhaps moving in logical steps.

Think outside the box means to explore more creative or random ideas.
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I think that you need to read Edward de Bono!

Lateral thinking is about taking a different approach to an idea, or approaching a task from a different view point; which is coincidentally exactly what thinking outside the box means- taking a less conventional tack.

http://www.edwdebono.com/lateral.htm
 
DemiLion said:
I think that you need to read Edward de Bono!

Lateral thinking is about taking a different approach to an idea, or approaching a task from a different view point; which is coincidentally exactly what thinking outside the box means- taking a less conventional tack.

http://www.edwdebono.com/lateral.htm
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Yes a different approach but a different approach to thinking outside of the box.

IMHO they are two different approaches one logical, one more creative.
 
I personally hate the term "mutual friend".

It's a blatant solicism. You can't have a mutual friend.

'lateral thinking' does make sense. 'Thinking outside the box' doesn't make sense, because it's an idiom, and isn't supposed to have meaning you can derive from the mere definition of the constituent words.
 
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irelanst said:
It doesn't make any sense because the actual saying is "cheap at twice the price"
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Never heard that one before. It's always been "cheap at half the price" as far as I'm concerned.

"Near miss"- Surely a near miss is a hit.:wacky:
 
The use of the expression "the proof is in the pudding" annoys me - it doesn't mean anything! The real expression is "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".
 
irelanst said:
It doesn't make any sense because the actual saying is "cheap at twice the price"
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There's always one! :p I KNOW what the saying is MEANT to be, but the frequently misquoted version is the one that has spent over 40 yrs getting right on my nerves :bat:



Oh and while we are at it, ANY of those 'I LOVE [insert appropriate item here]' sayings/signs where the love has been replace with a loveheart symbol. Those are bad enough, but people are now writing I :heart: You, or whatever, drives me nuts :bonk:
 
I can't believe no one has mentioned......

.... "It's always in the last place you look for it"

in the words of Billy Connolly "If I'd found it, why the **** would I still be looking for it?"
 
"It's always in the last place you look."

Of course it is - who the hell carries on searching once they've found what they're looking for?

Now if they'd said "...last place TO look." on the other hand...

Edit: must type quicker. Damn phone keyboard! :p
 
London Headshots said:
I personally hate the term "mutual friend".

It's a blatant solicism. You can't have a mutual friend.

'lateral thinking' does make sense. 'Thinking outside the box' doesn't make sense, because it's an idiom, and isn't supposed to have meaning you can derive from the mere definition of the constituent words.
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You can have a mutual friend. The phrase has apparently been used long before Charles Dickens first used it and been used by many great writers. It has been an accepted phrase for a long time.

Thinking outside the box does make sense if you know what it means. When you think about something you are using all the information you have stored in your brain. Thinking outside the box refers to using new information which you don't have stored in your brain, you can think of something in a different way. Your brain is in your head. Your head is known by some people as a "brain box" hence 'thinking outside the box'.
 
AndrewA123 said:
I can't believe no one has mentioned......

.... "It's always in the last place you look for it"

in the words of Billy Connolly "If I'd found it, why the **** would I still be looking for it?"
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It's actually " It's always in the last place you'd look for it". Meaning the least obvious place you'd expect to find it.
 
Russ77 said:
Yes a different approach but a different approach to thinking outside of the box.

IMHO they are two different approaches one logical, one more creative.
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I agree that laterally is the same as outside the box.
 
A French princess is supposed to have said "let them eat cake" in reaction to news the poor weren't getting enough bread. The bread she ate contained butter and eggs, Brioche, as opposed to ordinary plain bread, ironically reflecting the princess's obliviousness to realities of the people. Sp having some cake then is a symbolic class step up to just being able to afford bread. ...eating it, you must be rich!

I like where these things come from, like 'Give them the whole nine yards' which is the length of an early machine guns belt of bullets in a full ammo box.
 
The trend in the media in recent years to call relatives etc "loved ones". Makes my stomach turn.
 
Some years ago at work when we would have presentations given to us by senior management, we would run a little bingo game. Sheets were printed out in bingo card format with the boxes filled in with the favourite and trending management phrases, and we would put a £1 in the kitty. Winner would announce his win by the loudest cough that he could muster [these were big attendances - 50 or more usually]. There was of course usually some minor disruption - groans, sighs etc - and the management would wonder what they had said to cause it.
 
touch base.

please.... don't come anywhere near my base and don't even think about touching it.
 
nilagin said:
You can have a mutual friend. The phrase has apparently been used long before Charles Dickens first used it and been used by many great writers. It has been an accepted phrase for a long time.

Thinking outside the box does make sense if you know what it means. When you think about something you are using all the information you have stored in your brain. Thinking outside the box refers to using new information which you don't have stored in your brain, you can think of something in a different way. Your brain is in your head. Your head is known by some people as a "brain box" hence 'thinking outside the box'.
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You can't have a mutual friend, you can only have a common friend. Being an accepted phrase doesn't mean it's right. I still use the term, and don't care about anyone who does, but every time I hear it or use it, I am reminded that it's both tautologous and solecistic.

It was actually the Dickens book to which I was referring, too.

Henry Fowler explains it better than I ever could:

"mutual friend is a solecism. Mutual implies an action or relation between two or more persons or things, A doing or standing to B as B does or stands to A. Let A and B be the persons indicated by our, C the friend. No such reciprocal relation is here implied between A and B (who for all we know may be enemies), but only a separate, though similar relation between each of them and C. There is no such thing as a mutual friend in the singular; but the phrase mutual friends may without nonsense be used to describe either A and C, B and C, or, if A and B happen to be also friends, A and B and C. Our mutual friend is nonsense; mutual friends, though not nonsense, is bad English, because it is tautological. It takes two to make a friendship, as to make a quarrel; and therefore all friends are mutual friends, and friends alone means as much as mutual friends. Mutual wellwishers on the other hand is good English as well as good sense, because it is possible for me to be a man's wellwisher though he hates me. Mutual love, understanding, insurance, benefits, dislike, mutual benefactors, backbiters, abettors, may all be correct, though they are also sometimes used incorrectly, like our mutual friend, where the right word would be common. "


Also, thinking outside the box only makes sense to you because you have been educated as to its meaning, and also educated to understand English's use of idioms. People in other languages who do not use idioms or colloquial metaphors can not make sense of them. Ironically, and perhaps justly, in order to understand 'thinking outside the box', you need to think outside the box.
 
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MisterE said:
Some years ago at work when we would have presentations given to us by senior management, we would run a little bingo game.
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'Buzzword Bingo', I loved doing it :)
Blue Sky Thinking
No Sacred Cows
etc.
I'm currently being annoyed by my pet hate, anthropomorphisms, or as Terry Pratchett describes them, misanthropomorphisms. Flog It!.......where does your vase live? Erm, it's inanimate, it doesn't live at all.
 
London Headshots said:
You can't have a mutual friend, you can only have a common friend. Being an accepted phrase doesn't mean it's right. I still use the term, and don't care about anyone who does, but every time I hear it or use it, I am reminded that it's both tautologous and solecistic.

It was actually the Dickens book to which I was referring, too.

Henry Fowler explains it better than I ever could:

"mutual friend is a solecism. Mutual implies an action or relation between two or more persons or things,* A doing or standing to B as B does or stands to A. Let A and B be the persons indicated by our, C the friend. No such reciprocal relation is here implied between A and B (who for all we know may be enemies), but only a separate, though similar relation between each of them and C. There is no such thing as a mutual friend in the singular; but the phrase mutual friends may without nonsense be used to describe either A and C, B and C, or, if A and B happen to be also friends, A and B and C. Our mutual friend is nonsense; mutual friends, though not nonsense, is bad English, because it is tautological. It takes two to make a friendship, as to make a quarrel; and therefore all friends are mutual friends, and friends alone means as much as mutual friends. Mutual wellwishers on the other hand is good English as well as good sense, because it is possible for me to be a man's wellwisher though he hates me. Mutual love, understanding, insurance, benefits, dislike, mutual benefactors, backbiters, abettors, may all be correct, though they are also sometimes used incorrectly, like our mutual friend, where the right word would be common. "
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You had me to here * the rest went straight over my head and makes less sense than people having mutual friends.:wacky:
 
Not necessarily a phrase or saying, but I get more and more annoyed by the kids at school wanting to borrow a pencil...as in "Sir, can I lend a pencil?" to which I reply, "Of course you can, to whom would you like to lend it?". The usual response, once they realise they must use the word "Borrow" is the phrase..."Ok, Sir, can you borrow me a pencil?", to whcih I would usually reply, "Of course, who shall I borrow it from?".

Definitely winds them up! ;)

Coming a close second is the phrase "I should of done..." instead of "I should have done...". Grrrr!
 
London Headshots said:
I am reminded that it's both tautologous and solecistic.
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That was going to be my next pet hate. When people use terms and end up being both tautologous and solecistic. When it is one or the other it's fine but both at the same time really riles me.
 
Yv said:
...Oh and while we are at it, ANY of those 'I LOVE [insert appropriate item here]' sayings/signs where the love has been replace with a loveheart symbol. Those are bad enough, but people are now writing I :heart: You, or whatever, drives me nuts :bonk:
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I'll probably get an infraction point for this now! :razz: :rules:

:canon:


Here's a few that have always made me chuckle...

"You'll be laughing on the other side of your face".

"You'll take someone's eye out with that ladder".

"If the wind changes, your face will stay like that".
 
Spiritflier said:
I'll probably get an infraction point for this now! :razz: :rules:

:canon:


Here's a few that have always made me chuckle...

"You'll be laughing on the other side of your face".

"You'll take someone's eye out with that ladder".

"If the wind changes, your face will stay like that".
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Only because it SHOULD read :nikon: :LOL:


Oh and to add to your list of chucklesome ones, my friends Dad always used this one when the kids fell over and grazed a knee or something equally minor - Don't worry, it'll be a pigs trotter in the morning :eek:
 
"Give it up"

That really bugs me when presenters and the like ask you to give it up for someone…
 
joescrivens said:
When I lived in Glasgow they used to say they were going to "Get their messages" meaning food shopping - what's that all about.

they would also say "See you at the back of 2" - depending on who said it it could mean

"2.05pm"
"1.55pm"
or "2.55pm"
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Both of those make perfect sense to me :LOL:

Did you ever go for a fish supper? Asking for that down south always draws a blank stare...
 
Not so much annoying as stupid, but I once commented to my 6 year old daughter who was messing around "don't come running to me when you get yourself lost" :D
 
wibbly said:
Not so much annoying as stupid, but I once commented to my 6 year old daughter who was messing around "don't come running to me when you get yourself lost" :D
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"Don't come running to me when you've broken your leg..." is better! :)
 
Not so much a stupid expression but "For Sure" seems to be used by a lot of motor racing drivers when being interviewed on TV. I've often wondered if they have their own private little game and score points for everytime they manage to get it in an interview.
 
Yv said:
'Cheap at half the price' - aarrgghhhhhhh...... I think its meant to be ironic but ever since childhood have only ever heard used to indicate something is genuinely cheap and ergo, makes no bloody sense at all! :bang:
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that's down to hobbits mutilating the english language :LOL: .. it's supposed to be 'cheap at twice the price'
 
joescrivens said:
Some expressions are stupid.

Which ones annoy you?

The one that annoys me is "Have your cake and eat it"

This doesn't make any sense - what is the point of having cake if you can't eat it?
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You have to get the quote right, it has changed a lot over the years.

Once upon a time there was an Inuit (Eskimo) who was very cold so he lit a fire in the bottom of his canoe to warm up, unfortunately the canoe caught fire and sank.
His friends all told him " You can't have your kayak and heat it too" :exit:
 
Russ77 said:
It's a bit like "blue sky thinking" :LOL:

I think what it means is don't think in a conventional manor with a "box" being a conventional shape.

But I agree, it's still a rediculous saying...... how about some more....

Get your ducks in a row

Draw a line in the sand

Take it offline

Win-Win

Bottom Line

Touch Base
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Test - As in "we really need to test this with so and so"

Putting it on the radar

mind map

key stakeholders

park this (unless it a car - I'm thinking of "yes thats a good idea but we need to park it while we firmly test other options that maybe on the radar" )
 
Oh yeah and "cloud" as in i cloud, cloud based storage etc - you're storing stuff on a web server , it's not a ****ing cloud
 
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