You ever think maybe you're in the wrong line of work? ;)

"You can't have your cake and eat it too"

Well what the fuck am I going to do with this piece of cake then?

... except the original meaning of "have" in that sentence was "keep"
So it did make sense then

Like, "On pain of death" - where pain originally meant punishment

"No offense, but . . . "

*grins* I suspect my frenemies aren't overly keen on my "with respect..." used in meetings to render an attack civil.

My favorite though is "to be fair to X, ..."

I never thought much about that line, until J pointed out to me that it does sometimes (?) precede a velvet gloved, sideways attack :P


[eta] I have no problem with 'just out of curiosity...' it can fulfil one of two functions: firstly, it communicates that the reason for asking is mere curiosity, as questions aren't always just for that; secondly, it can denote the exact opposite, if said with the right stress.

For me, it usually means I am wavering on the edge of an idea, or thought train and am fishing for further info.

This is the thing about these little sayings, and the reason that one person's annoying phrase is another person's favourite standby: we employ and understand language at a multiplicity of levels. Set alongside that is the rather imperfect machinery that we are running the programme on. We trip over our words and we build in little strategies to make language more comfortable to use, or to fill in the gaps, create comfortable verbal links etc. Like saying "right" or "okay" at the end of a sentence, or filling the gaps with "so", or "umm". Often these stock phrases fulfil a similar function.

That "God doesn't send us anything we can't handle" really pisses me off too. especially as it's always uttered by Zombie moms with too many kids whose god has clearly sent them some nice narcotics to help them handle the other shit he sent.... ;)

for the brits....
"At the end of the day"
"it's a game of two halves"

and the yanks....
"I could care less".....

and I get annoyed by people who confuse

bought and brought
accept and except
pacific and specific

*Cringes* I had a boyfriend when I was in my teens who used to say pacific. Used to wind me up.

"at the end of he day" I do find myself saying lol

A party member, who used to be a fellow councillor, is from Kashmir and he always says either "at end of day" or just "end of day, right". His conversation is littered with that mangled phrase heheh

Friend of mine in high school's entire family used "whenever" in place of "when", which I found mildly annoying most of the time, and rather amusing the rest of the time.

"Remember whenever we went to the movies that one time, and that guy sat behind us and ate popcorn really loud?"

The "valley girl" overusage of the word "like". You know... "He was, like, so totally like GORGEOUS"

Please. Stop.

Does Pie ever get annoyed when people say, "As easy as Pie?"
It's quite hurtful after all...

Well, as long as they have an accurate assessment of exactly how "easy" Pie is, and the thing they're discussing does indeed have that degree of easiness, I'd think that would be OK.

I remember back in the day (just did that to see who I could piss off) I heard people say "Have a nice day" to which some would retort "Don't tell me what kind of day to have."

I find that incredibly rude. They are just saying something nice, at least something not hateful...it's not really different than "goodbye" or "see you."

Many times people just don't know what to say. I have told people things will get better because what they are going through really sucks. And eventually things will get better for most of us. I guess it's better than a kick in the cunt, an "it sucks to be you" or "yeah, you've had bad shit karma coming for a long time, asshat."

I think it's sad when people are judged for just trying to say something nice, even it you don't feel it's appropriate to your situation. Remember, not everyone is uber-intelligent (who'd that piss off) like Dwellars, and if we lose those polite though trite sayings we might as well just all grumble, snort, and walk away when someone tells us something is going wrong for them and we can't possibly understand that situation.

Just my two cents, for whatever it's worth, because it is what it is and at, like, the end of the day there's always a rainbow...:rolleyes:

oh, and @ Razz...I hate it when someone uses "whenever" for "when." It sounds like they're talking about some event that occurs multiple times. That is grammatically incorrect, not a harp on people just trying to be nice.

Bring and take, as in "Will you bring me home?" That question works if you're currently at your home, and are asking if they will get you home from the movies, but when you are both at the movies you would need to take them home.

Hey! :rolleyes:

No, it doesn't annoy me, because I know how hard it is to make a piecrust that is both tender and flaky. And I'm both. Along with a luscious, juicy sweet filling. :cool: