Today’s post comes from the Mars Curiosity Rover
OK, I’m a robot and I speak and think in numbers. It’s not in my programming to quibble with you about language. So I must be having a software malfunction because I feel compelled to complain about the words you use.
I made news on Earth because a NASA satellite orbiting Mars snapped a photo that includes me and my zig-zag tracks in the Martian dust. “Curiosity Rover Spotted From Space” is one of the headlines I noticed. This is troubling from a public relations standpoint, since part of my mission is to build enthusiasm for space exploration. But being “seen from space” puts me in bad company. Only excessive, grotesque things like The Great Wall of China and horrible catastrophes like tsunamis and forest fires ever make the news for being seen from space.
Besides, look at this picture. Can you really see me? I know the last time my photo was posted on this blog I was complaining about how huge some parts of me looked. But here, I’m a speck in the middle of the left hand side of the image. Big deal! Whenever I look at this picture, I feel diminished and alone.
But here’s my real problem with the wording. Saying I’ve been seen FROM space suggests that I am currently somewhere that is NOT in space, which is not true! I am in space. Space is my home.
“Ah,” you might say, “you’re on the surface of a planet and therefore technically you are not in space.”
Don’t argue technicalities with a computer. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”, “You can’t handle the technicalities.”
We all agree Mars is in space and I hope we can accept that I am on Mars. To say I am not also in space would be like saying a tick on the neck of a moose is not also in the woods.
The same is true of Earth. The planet and all its inhabitants are forever part of the cosmos. Therefore, when you sit down at the breakfast table each morning and stare at your Cheerios, your breakfast is in space and you observe it from space.
So you see, “seeing something from space” is not that special.
This may seem like a lot of words to waste on a relatively small point, but please humor me. Have you looked at the pictures? I’m extremely alone up here, and I’ve got nothing else to think about!
Your extra-planetary vanguard,
CR
Yes, OK. I admit we’re all in space. Was that so hard?
What commonly used word or phrase irritates you?
Trail Baboon 
an historic moment
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Indeed! As soon at they’re past, they’re all historic.
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I think Tim is annoyed by an, and believes a should be used instead.
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That’s true too!
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Good morning. Lately I have become irritated with the phrase “it is what it is”. My take on this phrase is why should we care or worry about whatever it is that we are thinking about. In other words we should just accept it the way it is. I suppose there are times when it is best to accept things the way they are. Mostly, it seems to me that this phrase is often rude and dismisses topics that might been brought up due someones concerns or interest in that topic. I should thing the right response to the that topic might frequently be something like “no it isn’t”.
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Oops! My comment is what it is, a poorly edited mess.
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“Rude” and “dismissive” seems to be where our colloquial language is veering. Of course, it’s wrapped in ‘political correctness’…who says that anymore?
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Whatever.
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smile
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“Long story short” has entered the vernacular, and it irritates me. Long stories need to be told.
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Long stories? Who has the time for those? I have to stare at my smart phone to see what my Facebook friend is having for lunch!
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It sometimes pays to reflect on a phrase to see what it actually means. “It is what it is” is a statement that at first seems profoundly obvious, as if there were no point looking at something in any other way, but on a deeper level the phrase argues some things cannot be changed, so we should do the only smart thing, which is to not care about it. The phrase, in other words, is a ways of defending passivity, a way of making a virtue of a refusal to care or act.
A similar phrase that irritated me for years although I couldn’t understand my problem with it is “shit happens.” Once again, the phrase seems too obviously true to be argued with. But it is often used to counsel passivity in the face of something that should be corrected. Do older kids bully a little kid on the bus. Well, shit happens. And the logical extension of “shit happens” is that we need not stir ourselves to make the situation better.
“Shit happens” and “it is what it is” are two phrases that try to make a virtue out of passivity, for they hint it is pointless to hope for a better world. They attempt to make a weak and cowardly moral stance look logical.
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I knew a young vegetable farmer who was faced with all kinds of problems and barriers to continuing the family business. One of his favorite sayings was “shit happens”. It definitely was happening to him. He might have been justified in using that phrase. Personally, I think he should have been focusing on finding better ways to get out of that situation. The problems kept piling up and he eventually lost the farm after several bad years where I am sure he went deeply into debt.
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I hear “shit happens” differently. To me it’s a verbal shrug, akin to “don’t cry over spilt milk.” It’s an acknowledgement, after the fact, that bad things happen, things go wrong; acknowledge it, but don’t spend your time bemoaning it, move on. But I’m a foreigner, what the heck do I know?
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It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it? Among the geriatric set, “Shit happens” can be akin to “hang in there” and “don’t give up hope”.
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That too.
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Or, looking at these phrases from a different perspective, they could mean acceptance of things over which we have no control rather than becoming upset by them?
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A phrase that is not as commonly used as it once was, thankfully, is “Back in the day”. For someone like me with an active and specific interest in history, this has always struck me as a lazy and ignorant lumping of every event from those that occurred last week to the beginning of time. As if it didn’t matter.
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We are, Bill, again right in sync, on the same page, of one mind
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Oops. Guilty as charged. I usually say that when I’m telling my kids what things were like when I was their age. Not that they care, but I feel compelled to tell them.
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My candidate: “I’m just sayin’…”
Anyone who uses this phrase isn’t “just sayin'” -anything.- I think it must a contraction for the phrase, “I’m just passive-aggressively saying that I’m right and you’re wrong in this faux-folksy way to make it seem like we’re peers when I’m really ~so~ much more important and better than you.”
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I could never figure out the meaning of “I’m just saying’ ” . I think your interception of that phrase is a good one, TGITH. As I think about that phrase it does seem to me to be used to passive-agressively disagree.
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I don’t hear it the same way. To me it sounds like a sort of verbal wink. If you’re ordering pizza, extra cheese is always a good way to go. Just sayin’. Wink.
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Yes, I think that phrase is used as a verbal wink in some cases which I think is okay. It is a phrase that is confusing to me no matter how it is used.
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“At the end of the day” – what about the beginning or the middle of the day? They don’t count? Whatever you are talking about only matters between the hours of, perhaps, 7-9pm? Also “leveraged” and “impactful.” Eek. I might not mind “leveraged” so much if it was actually used to refer to using a lever or placing extra force on a physical object, but “leveraging” ideas is just bad business-speak. Same with “impactful.” Even WordPress doesn’t like “impactful,” keeps underlining for me as a misspelled word. Thank you WordPress.
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at the end of the day is one of my pet hates. and the whole 9 yards.
recently the response to a statement when speaking to a twenty soething conmes back…”right?” i hate that too
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IKR.
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i forgot the i know before the right. good catch edith
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“It’s a no-brainer.” I had an exec who used this phrase excessively and as the months went by, it became clear that whatever he was talking about was probably more difficult than anyone expected, but that he would not be part of the actual work. So I guess for him it was a “no-brainer” but for the rest of us, not so much.
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As the Pointy-Haired Boss in Dilbert has said, “Anything I don’t understand must be easy.”
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I have always been sure that Scott Adams worked at my old software company and then moved over to my current company.
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I cringe at the conversion of nouns to verbs, as in “partnering”. Even MPR does this in its promos. I cringe.
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reaching out to you
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Media commentators keep looking for words to express the size, significance, comparative excellence–especially sports commentators. Since they want to say everything is important, significant, or greater than, they murder language, sense, logic, culture. Thus “an historic event,” “of the century,” “epic,” “game-changing,” and my two bile-generators: 1) “epic proportions” makes no real sense. 2) “Enormity,” which is supposed to mean monstrous wickedness, not enormousness. But now the dictionaries say the definition of enormity is enormousness because the first sense, which was a useful word, has been destroyed.
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i have a preference and an opposition on the pronunciation for the word often and the words toward and sword.
often shoulf have the t silent but many educated people pronounce it wrong as if it were off ten.
otward should be tored like past tense of rippin a suit not twored same exact thing with
soared like an eagle vs swored like a potty mouth
im right no two ways about it. what is wrong with you.
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“Collaboration” is the current buzz word here. I’m patiently waiting as this too much pass!
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synergy
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I’m sort of irritated by the phrase “begs the question”. I once thought I knew what it meant, but was told that the most common usage – to raise a question – is not really correct. Then I read that it originally meant to dodge or ignore a question. Then that it has something to do with a circular argument. Since I don’t know what it means, I wish people would stop saying it. I’m confused enough as it is.
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Stalk holder. This seems to be a widely accepted phrase. It sounds very odd to me. I always picture a person standing some place holding a tall wooden stack. For me a meeting of stack holders would be a group of people who have carried stacks to a meeting.
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Emily Litella, is that you?
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I’m her twin, Jimmy Litella.
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Oh, please don’t go away, Bill. You’re a hoot.
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That’s hilarious, Bill. My belly is sore (or is that soar?) from laughing.
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Okay, I need more sleep. Stake holder, not stalk or stack holder.
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…then my job here is done.
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never mind
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Ok, guilty as charged of using a lot of those listed above. As a person who has raged against the unchangeable and/or the trivial, “it is what it is” has saved my nerves and blood pressure.
My pet peeve- the use of timely, without what I consider “the rest of the phrase” as in “please complete this task timely”.
I am quite happy to complete something for you “in a timely fashion”, but if you ask me to do it “timely”, no amount of telling me it is “acceptable usage” will unclench my jaw, even thought, “it is what it is”.
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I few days ago I heard someone on public radio – Marketplace, maybe? – say, “He took a selfie of himself,” which bothered me all the more because a radio show is written before it’s spoken, so someone not only wrote that, but presumably edited the writing and let it stay.
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Sad but true, “selfie” is here to stay.
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No doubt “selfie” is here to stay if even I know what the heck it means. But a “selfie of oneself” seems overkill, not to mention redundant. Glad to see that WP doesn’t like selfie.
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id like to start sending selfies of all sorts of other people. i always get a kick out of people who send out selfies using pix of george clooney,cary grant and brad pitt. (side note my 20 year old just heard its brad pitts birthday and brad is turning 50. he couldnt stand it. “oh no he cant !!!be that old”.
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Ha! Good one, Linda. People who use the word “reticent” when they really should be saying “reluctant” will sometimes say “she was reticent to speak.” Oi vey! If she was reticent, she was already reluctant to speak!
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First, let me say that this is an historic moment; the long short story is that I can’t think of anything to add! Back in the day, I would have just let this go, but at the end of the day, I feel that I should say something at least impactful, if not timely. This begs the question as to whether or not I’m in need of collaboration of epic proportions, or just synergy. I’m just sayin’, I won’t be the one to take a selfie of myself. The enormity of this is absolutely game-changing. I’m hoping to partner with you all to figure out how to use “stalk holder” in a sentence. Right?
That said, I would like to re-introduce something I imagine you have all seen before
http://bytebrothers.org/shitlist.htm
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…meant to say “at least impactfully, if not timely.”
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you got in the whole 9 yards
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My usage persnickety husband thinks your post is perfect. He adds that he really dislikes being “tasked” to do something.
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Been bossing him around lately, have you?
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LOL!
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I think I am a Nonsequiturist.
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It’s ‘COUpon’, not ‘QUEpon’!
Grrrrrrr….
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p.s. It is what it is!
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Orientated vs oriented
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I could care less.
If you could care less than you do now, then you care at least a little bit. But it’s used to mean “I do not care at all,” so they should say “I COULDN’T care less.” Or, more simply, “I don’t care.”
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Yes.
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Using “context” place of environment or workplace “He was having problems in his context” is annoying.
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“Awesome” is a cringe-inducing word that has lost all meaning.
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really….. fur shure
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Fer schizzle.
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I agree that all of the words or phrases listed above are overused. I’m also realizing that as much time as I spend alone, and as little as I watch TV or listen to radio, I’m blessedly oblivious to what assaults are being launched on the English language at the moment. The following is a humorous “translation” of a lot of the phrases offered above as well of some not mentioned earlier. I imagine that anyone still in the workforce can nod in recognition to most of these:
“Jennifer Paxson, ARM, AU, AAI, CRIS
Director of Marketing at USI Insurance Services
I actually like these phrases, because it gives me insight into the person saying them. They are useful as long as you know what they are being used in place of, so I offer my helpful translation guide:
1.Going forward (From now on, because up until now, I haven’t really had the discipline to lay down the guidelines on how it should have been done before)
2.Drill-down (give me the details of the core issues, because I haven’t been paying attention)
3.End of play (when I go to collect our fee, please tell me all the work you’ve done so I can get the client to keep liking me)
4.Touch base (I’m calling you because I realized that there may be an issue, and I am now concerned that I may not have been paying enough attention)
5.It’s on my radar (I’ll get to it when it’s about to blow up, but not now)
6.No brainer (I think you’re an idiot and this is a simple task that you should be able to solve on your own)
7.Best of breed (Someone I can hitch my star to)
8.Low hanging fruit (How I pay the mortgage beyond my draw)
9.Reach out (fancy talk for having my assistant call your assistant to set up a phone call where we will “touch base”)
10.Dive deeper (figure out what issues are at hand caused by our out long-term inattention)
11.Think outside the box (Solve this problem in a way that didn’t work last year but for some reason I think will workk this year)
12.Positive momentum (Do your job faster, I’m getting impatient)
13.On my plate (Have we even bothered to hire anyone else in this department in the last 2 years?)
14.At the end of the day (After all your efforts have been exhausted, what difference will it make?)
15.Run the numbers (is it cheaper to get you fired instead of solving this problem?)
16.Touch points (a McNugget style list of things I need to pay attention to now that we are at risk of losing this account)
17.Keep your eye on the ball (stop bothering me with details and just solve the problem)
18.Back to the drawing board (well, we screwed that one up pretty good)
19.Get the ball rolling (are you done? how about now? now? now? now? now?)
20.Bang for your buck (have you seen our pretty new brochures? they really make us look important)
21.Close the deal (I cannot sell value, only price. Why arene’t we the cheapest?)
22.When the rubber hits the road (If we’re not the cheapest, I don’t know how to talk with my clienbt)
23.Shift paradigm (Obfuscate our price by burying them in a demo of our new website)
24.Move the needle (somehow get noticed when I am competing for the same business with the same people who offer the same prodcut at the same price)
25.Game-changing (quit and join the circus)
26.Move the goal post (I have changed my meeting date with the client again. It’s now yesterday. Is the presentation ready yet?)
27.Value added (Have you seen my new Lexus?)
28.Win-win (I win, I don’t care if you win)
29.Across the piece (Frankly, I don’t know what this means, so I’m guessing that the person who says it is counting on that)
30.All hands on deck (I failed to plan properly, so everyone drop what you’re doing and buy into my crisis, please)”
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I confess I have always like “low-hanging fruit”. It allows one to succinctly express a situation that is otherwise rather ungainly to describe.
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Me, too. I have a 61-year old beautiful, blond girlfriend whom men swarm every time we go out. I’ve referred to her as “low-hanging fruit” because she’s everything I’m not: blond, gorgeous, blue-eyed – and here’s the most important feature – QUIET.
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When you hear me say “going forward” , I can tell you with absolute certainty what I mean is “I think this is a terrific idea and plan to implement it immediately, but if you think I am going to go through all those old files we should probably just shred anyway and bring them into conformity, you are out of your tiny little mind”.
“Going forward” just takes less time and space.
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Excellent!
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Gifting. Gifted, etc
When did nouns become verbs?
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Right-sizing (firing people)
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I always grit my teeth a little when the TV weatherpeople talk about “normal” when what they really mean is “average”. If it’s one of the warm months and we have a cool spell, they’ll say things like “We had a high of 55 degrees yesterday – that’s 25 degrees below normal!” or worse, “That’s 25 degrees below where we should be,” suggesting that any deviation from the average is a weird, confounding, abnormal event. I would like them to just compare it to the average, with the tacit acknowledgment that going above or below the average is perfectly normal.
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🙂
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I’ll admit that three particular words I’ve used repeatedly in countless opinion posts have begun to irritate me: relentless, whatsoever, and unprecedented. Perhaps other posters don’t notice this, but I sure do. It’s almost bordering on compulsive, truth be told.
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My pet peeve word/phrase is “grow the ____.” Grow the economy, grow jobs, grow the business. etc. SInce when could inamimate concepts be planted, watered, weeded, fertilized, and ultimately harvested?? Sheesh. Whenever I hear a politician use the word grow like that, my BS meter flares off the chart. If he/she is willing to use that lie, then most of the rest of what he/she is telling me is probably male bovine excrement as well.
Chris in Owatonna
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