Things That Annoy You

[Sardondi]

Summers spent with my grandparents. My grandfather was always handing me money, most of which I spent at Robinson's Rexall drugstore on men's magazines like Argosy, True, Stag, Man's Life and Mechanix Illustrated. Some examples here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/subtropicbob/sets/72157622346775400/

"I Battled A Giant Otter!" Good times.

Well, you gotta know Frank Zappa had the same fascination. You know the cover for the The Mothers of Invention farewell album, "Weasels Ripped My Flesh"? (I'm sure Eddie Coyle does.)


Here are several "men's magazine" covers from that era from that journal of academic research, CRACKED magazine: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-most-hilariously-badass-magazine-covers-ever/

How this is all in the "Annoy" thread I don't know. But dear Lord, we've gone from the nobility of the book, to reading encyclopedias, to men's mags...and now I can't help but think about the comics I loved as a kid in the 60's. And to me, there was nothing more magnificent than that man who won WWII with his squad; the man whose Tommy gun's endless "Budda budda budda!" put fear in the hearts of Nazis, and images in the heads of future pop artists to germinate; that's right - the one and only...Sgt. Rock!

[Eddie Coyle]

      I have 35+ Frank Zappa cds. The ONLY album of his I ever purchased was Weasels for 1.99(record was scratched) because I wanted that cover adorning my wall.

      We're talking me being 15-ish. 98% of my wall was swimsuit models of the era, heavy metal bands of the era...and that. Usually the standard response was "ugh, why's that up there"

       Shit, if they hated the cover, you can only imagine the response to the music housed within. The avant garde of 1970 not exactly reaching the blue collar hammerheads I was condemned to hang with.

[Sardondi]

      I have 35+ Frank Zappa cds. The ONLY album of his I ever purchased was Weasels for 1.99(record was scratched) because I wanted that cover adorning my wall.

      We're talking me being 15-ish. 98% of my wall was swimsuit models of the era, heavy metal bands of the era...and that. Usually the standard response was "ugh, why's that up there"

       Shit, if they hated the cover, you can only imagine the response to the music housed within. The avant garde of 1970 not exactly reaching the blue collar hammerheads I was condemned to hang with.

*sniff* I knew you wouldn't let me down! Frank Zappa is someone I can truly say I appreciate more today that I did 40 years ago. Then I thought he was a poser with a shtick...without having listened to a thing he ever wrote or played of course. Okay, besides "Don't Eat Yellow Snow" hardee har har. And I at least knew the guys from the Turtles were Flo and Eddie, although I just did not get it. Today I see the breadth of his musical knowledge, and his courage in exploring and fusing so many different styles. I still don't listen to him; but I certainly don't think he was a fraud.   

[Eddie Coyle]

*sniff* I knew you wouldn't let me down! Frank Zappa is someone I can truly say I appreciate more today that I did 40 years ago. Then I thought he was a poser with a shtick...without having listened to a thing he ever wrote or played of course. Okay, besides "Don't Eat Yellow Snow" hardee har har. And I at least knew the guys from the Turtles were Flo and Eddie, although I just did not get it. Today I see the breadth of his musical knowledge, and his courage in exploring and fusing so many different styles. I still don't listen to him; but I certainly don't think he was a fraud.

         Zappa was very sincere in his eccentricity, not a David Byrne-type who merely gravitates towards anything that sneers at Middle America and celebrates every culture but his own. I love the "muso" side of Zappa, say on "Shut Up N' Play Yer Guitar". My biggest quibble of his work is that he had a remarkably puerile sense of humor. Employed gifted musicians in each era, which kept his music interesting long beyond many of his contemporaries expiration date.

        I still listen to him a quite a bit, but usually his live stuff. It's not like he was The Eagles going out there and recreating the albums note for note. Or even the Allmans, much as I loved Duane, even in his era, they had basically the same setlist night after night. I have about ten official and bootleg releases(ssssh!) of the Allmans from the calendar year 1971, and I think there's a grand total of 13 different songs in those shows.

[MV/Liberace!]

Every time I see the silhouette of a bike in front of our office I open the office door and the expensive bike comes crashing down to the ground. Oops. My bad. Wankers.

good.  i'm glad this is what you do.

[PB the Deplorable]

... And to me, there was nothing more magnificent than that man who won WWII with his squad; the man whose Tommy gun's endless "Budda budda budda!" put fear in the hearts of Nazis, and images in the heads of future pop artists to germinate; that's right - the one and only...Sgt. Rock!

Sgt Rock?   Hmmm... any relation to... never mind

[Sardondi]

Zappa was very sincere in his eccentricity, not a David Byrne-type who merely gravitates towards anything that sneers at Middle America and celebrates every culture but his own...

I...I get so choked up when I see a younger person who has had the truth of curmudgeony fill his soul.

...My biggest quibble of his work is that he had a remarkably puerile sense of humor....

I'd never thought of it, but you're right: it was like being stuck in the back seat on a vacation trip with an 8th grader who thought fart jokes the height of sophisticated humor.

Sgt Rock?   Hmmm... any relation to... never mind

Eh?

[Eddie Coyle]

I...I get so choked up when I see a younger person who has had the truth of curmudgeony fill his soul.

I'm tempted to say it's natural, but nobody in my family comes close to my levels...so I'll say I'm a "victim of the modern age!" and credit the surfeit amount of phonies in society at large who made me the curmudgeon I am today...and have been for awhile.

        *First accused of it in March, 1991 at age 15 by a guidance counselor. When I didn't take it as insult, things got rather...tense.

[Juan]

My favorite Mothers cover is A Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch.

Here's Zappa playing a bicycle on The Steve Allen Show.  I wish Allen had shut up and played piano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MewcnFl_6Y

[stevesh]

Which reminds me of how much it annoys me that there is a large enough number of exceptionally stupid rich people that the Roy Lichtenstein 'art' below sold at auction for 43.2 million dollars.

[Sardondi]

Which reminds me of how much it annoys me that there is a large enough number of exceptionally stupid rich people that the Roy Lichtenstein 'art' below sold at auction for 43.2 million dollars.

One of these is a panel from a comic book for which the artist was paid about $1.75, and the other is a painting of that panel, uh, "borrowed" by Roy Lichtenstein, which someone paid about 20-million times the amount the original artist was paid. Your job: tell which is the art, and which the schlock.

[WildCard]

So in summary you don't like people that start their sentences with the word "so". So fucking what.

Point taken.

1. "in that or this manner or fashion; thus"
-Dictionary

2. "Used by someone in a conversation if they don't care"
-UrbanDictiorary

Can you tell I've put a lot of thought into this?
No smack for you. Come back one year.

Here's what I mean:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9644000/9644002.stm

[jazmunda]

Point taken.

1. "in that or this manner or fashion; thus"
-Dictionary

2. "Used by someone in a conversation if they don't care"
-UrbanDictiorary

Can you tell I've put a lot of thought into this?
No smack for you. Come back one year.

Here's what I mean:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9644000/9644002.stm

Languages evolve. It might not be "proper" or the "Queen's English" but it is now widely used. So get used to it.

[ItsOver]

Languages evolve. It might not be "proper" or the "Queen's English" but it is now widely used. So get used to it.

Fer shure... like.... get real...    Gum smack, gum smack......

[PB the Deplorable]

I bought a laptop awhile back and was a little annoyed that it didn't come with much of a manual.

I just got a new Tablet and the 10 page manual is much more extensive that that of the laptop.  And very little of it makes much sense - the best way to describe it is that it reads the way Noorie talks - everything is mostly in English, it's pretty dull and not very informative, it jumps around awkwardly, and much of the sentence structure and word usage is unlike anything I've seen before.  I now recognize the wisdom of the laptop folks in omitting a manual describing much more than how to plug it in and turn it on. 

For the Tablet, on the very first page under 'Disclaimer' it says "4. We cannot control any dispute from users' misunderstanding or incorrect operation against the manual".  Before getting to the rest of it, I innocently wondered why they would need to have that item in there.

And now Fort Rock heading to China as a English teacher.

But it's all ok because I found a YouTube video on how to operate this thing, except that it's in Dutch or something

[stevesh]

In case you're on the fence about whether or not law enforcement is completely out of control in this country:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/08/12/130812fa_fact_stillman?currentPage=all

[RealCool Daddio]

It annoys me when people say "I'll bet even money on...", followed by some ridiculous BS that they are trying to make sound legitimate - and they then weasel out when you offer to take them up on it.

Sound familiar, PB?

[WildCard]

So, as far as not using

"proper" or the "Queen's English"

I'm the worst offender - a grammar Nazi's nightmare, sometimes intentionally. I love slang, idioms, dialects and accents.

Fer shure... like.... get real...    Gum smack, gum smack......

with some exceptions. 

I hate it because people who use it think it, "make's them sound a little bit more important and intellectual".

[ItsOver]

...And now Fort Rock heading to China as a English teacher....

... And Art is coming back and all is well with the World.    Well, except for the irrelevant Dave Noorie.

[West of the Rockies]

Point taken.

1. "in that or this manner or fashion; thus"
-Dictionary

2. "Used by someone in a conversation if they don't care"
-UrbanDictiorary

Can you tell I've put a lot of thought into this?
No smack for you. Come back one year.

Here's what I mean:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9644000/9644002.stm

Damnit... just damnit....  I honestly thought about writing an essay on this topic of people who begin their sentences with "so".  It's something I've noticed repeatedly on Science Friday in particular (an NPR offering for those who are unaware).  Over and over, I hear scientists on that program begin sentences with "so".  My theory is that they do this because they are used to people not understanding their explanations.  "So" is a a sort of verbal breadcrumb to lead the topic in a certain direction.  "So" also has with it the element of cause/effect explanation -- quite important in scientific conversation.

Now someone else has taken my idea -- curse you, BBC the platypus!

[WildCard]

Damnit... just damnit....  I honestly thought about writing an essay on this topic of people who begin their sentences with "so".  It's something I've noticed repeatedly on Science Friday in particular (an NPR offering for those who are unaware).  Over and over, I hear scientists on that program begin sentences with "so".  My theory is that they do this because they are used to people not understanding their explanations.  "So" is a a sort of verbal breadcrumb to lead the topic in a certain direction.  "So" also has with it the element of cause/effect explanation -- quite important in scientific conversation.

Now someone else has taken my idea -- curse you, BBC the platypus!

Haha, West. I was inspired by your post on another thread about this. Apparently, It's been around  a lot longer than I realize. Probably started in Britain - those snobby limey bastards!

[Flaxen Hegemony]

Damnit... just damnit....  I honestly thought about writing an essay on this topic of people who begin their sentences with "so".  It's something I've noticed repeatedly on Science Friday in particular (an NPR offering for those who are unaware).  Over and over, I hear scientists on that program begin sentences with "so".  My theory is that they do this because they are used to people not understanding their explanations.  "So" is a a sort of verbal breadcrumb to lead the topic in a certain direction.  "So" also has with it the element of cause/effect explanation -- quite important in scientific conversation.

Now someone else has taken my idea -- curse you, BBC the platypus!

I think you're spot on with this.  Starting a sentence with "so..." seems to be saying "a lot of irrelevant stuff is already established, and therefore..."  Terrible English, but I do it all the time.

Reminds me of a testy exchange at the end of a lecture I attended.  One of our faculty had worked with NASA for two semesters, and returned to describe what he worked on and the results.  At the end, someone asks: "So could one summarize your last hour of talking by saying you wasted 8 months of your time?".  After a barely audible "oooh" went through the audience, the speaker rather calmly said "Well, you know, past behavior taken into account, I think YOU could say that, but others may think differently."  Well played.

[Yorkshire pud]

"So" irritates me; but not as much as a question inflection after every sentence irrespective of whether or not it's a question. Compounded by the use of "like" as punctuation; "I was like driving down the like road? And then I like got out of the like car and like got out my like wallet and like paid fr the like groceries I'd like bought at like the shop?"

Bang head on wall smiley

[ItsOver]

"So" irritates me; but not as much as a question inflection after every sentence irrespective of whether or not it's a question. Compounded by the use of "like" as punctuation; "I was like driving down the like road? And then I like got out of the like car and like got out my like wallet and like paid fr the like groceries I'd like bought at like the shop?"

Bang head on wall smiley

You might have an issue with certain areas of California. 

[West of the Rockies]

"So" irritates me; but not as much as a question inflection after every sentence irrespective of whether or not it's a question. Compounded by the use of "like" as punctuation; "I was like driving down the like road? And then I like got out of the like car and like got out my like wallet and like paid fr the like groceries I'd like bought at like the shop?"

Bang head on wall smiley

Regarding statements that sound like questions, Fresh Air's Terri Gross does that all the time!  (But I do like her interviews.)

I've noticed that JBW uses "like" all the time -- he sounds like a 55-year-old guy who longs to be 17.  It's, like, really annoying.

[ItsOver]

I've noticed that JBW uses "like" all the time -- he sounds like a 55-year-old guy who longs to be 17.  It's, like, really annoying.

Exactly.

[Yorkshire pud]

You might have an issue with certain areas of California. 

I don't need to travel to CA to get wound up with it! I've worked with people who do it..and if there's one thing that will bring out the "I'm going to be an arsey sarcastic fuck" in me it's someone in a call centre on the phone, where I ask if they're asking me or telling me what it is they're calling me about..confusion ensues of course. Oh and another thing! The use of random when they mean strange or peculiar. Espeacially 'hip' radio presenters: (Two irritants in one blast).."So, everyone. Call in and tell us the most random thing that happened to you as you milked a pigeon".

[scottydawg]

Well for me it is the people that interject, "You know?" repeatedly in their conversations!
"Ya Know, Ya Know, Ya Know?" No I don't know! I'm Dying to Know! Please LET ME KNOW!

[PB the Deplorable]

Well for me it is the people that interject, "You know?" repeatedly in their conversations!
"Ya Know, Ya Know, Ya Know?" No I don't know! I'm Dying to Know! Please LET ME KNOW!

That's what I'm talkin' about

[NowhereInTime]

Languages evolve. It might not be "proper" or the "Queen's English" but it is now widely used. So get used to it.

Usually a fan jaz, but I gotta go against you on this one.  I watched a primary debate for the US Senate last  year where both candidates repeatedly answered the questions starting with "So..".  It was amateurish (one of those people now serve the great state of CT) and sloppy.  It speaks to someone lacking the focus to command the language efficiently and it is a poor habit.  While we will never speak the "Queen's English" it is, nevertheless, our Common language and should be used efficiently.