Plateful of nonsense

Things that irk me enough to type about them: a continuing series.
"Stepping up to the Plate:"

Now I'm Normally with Orwell on so called Americanisms ie. that some of them are good and some of the bad. Most of the one's people go on about most are actual an old English usage or word that's come back to us, we in mean time having moved on.
But there are few that are annoying "stepping up to the plate" is one mainly because we already had "taking the crease". Also I'm always weary of people using American sporting slang because none of us have a clue about American sport in general let alone the minutiae of Baseball.
Can't we start a campaign to generate more European versions , here's some ideas :
"taking the Okie", " Cueing the pink" " flicking the shuttlecock" oh I see I think I see a problem.

I don't want to be Catty but

Can we start talking sense?

I’m afraid I’m back to business/ad speak again, I think one of the reasons this nonsense persists is that in the age of the blackberry etc, no ever has to say these words out loud (at least in mixed company) as if they did surely their mouths would fill with ashes and their teeth would fall out, as such torture of the English language must by a mortal sin.

The phrase that struck me was in the paper this morning at the end of one those interviews with famous people where they shamelessly talk about shopping.

This weeks star was with former yoof tv presenter and brummie Cat Deeley, you know form, one of those pieces where they say “vintage” when they mean “second hand” and where there’s no shame about spending £500 on bag. Nothing new in any of this except at the end, because Cat wouldn’t talk about shopping without some higher purpose there is the usual plug for her latest project. Ms Deeley isn’t selling a book, or tv show nor is she the next Roxie doo dah in Chicago no she’s and I quote “guest editing http://www.visuaurlife.co.uk/, a new website which gives expert direction to online shopping”
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!

Ps. With reference to Ms Deeley “list of stuff she’s bought” I must try to calmly discuss sometime how new age types square their “touchy-feely” beliefs with the sort of hard edge business practice that being a “personal yoga instructor” must involve, “yes, Miss Deeley can I call you Cat, I sensed you were spiritual person from the first time we met, and you have such a lovely home……”

Businesslike Language slight return

The world's tallest education journalist just sent me this, cheers W! It seems even the financial community is getting hacked off with "Going forward!"

office lingo

Businesslike language

When did the phrase “going forward” as in “we will have low income yields going forward” come from, you hear it all the time what was wrong with “in the future” or “from now ”.

Does anyone else work with a Vietnam war vet?
I was in a meeting the other day with one bloke who used the following phrases.
“I’ll take point on this one” (watch out for the pits full of pointed bamboo whilst doing your power point)
“We don’t want to get stuck in a day long firefight on this one” (a bit of a debate with some clients)
“Going down in flaming burnout” (mix up over some meeting dates)
“Running air cover campaign (I think this was sending some leaflets)

He also came out with the classic recently after we had got some extra work at meeting about a press release.
“ I think we came back under shields not carried on top of them on this one”

Lastly it would much nicer in Spain where:
A flipchart pad is a "Bloco de Papel parra Cavalate de conferências"

sunday supplement

Friendly rivalry:
Recently in the press ,on blogs and at work there has been friendly banter between various nationalities over the Rugby. One strange aspect had been the begrudging support of Welsh, Scots and Irish of the English team. One strange thing is the perceived rivalry by the Celtic fringe. Most English fans would support the home countries against other teams as long as England weren't playing, the reverse isn't true. The problem is that that the Celts think they are our big rivals but we are more interested in beating the all blacks or Ozzies and of course our default foe the French. This same phenomenon works elsewhere, the Dutch always want to beat the Germans more than us whatever we may think.

So here' a cut out a keep guide to who we want to beat most:

Rugby Union Football

France Germany
All Blacks France
Australia Argentina
Scotland Holland
Ireland Italy
South Africa Brazil
Samoa Scotland
Tonga USA
Wales Sweden


With a few tweaks these lists in reverse would be who we would support after England. Except the USA obviously, mainly because they don't really do international team sports, oh and Iraq and George Bush, and their teeth....


Bad Practices:

Another mention on the Andrew Marr show in respect to the postal strike of "Spanish Practices". Are we still allowed to use another Peoples names in derogatory ways like this ? Can we go back to saying that being over charged is a "bit of a Jew", or similar what's wrong with "restrictive practices"? It's not as if it's common parlance as this week was the first time I've heard it used.