proper English

I was amused by this exchange following a "Pimp My Ride" reference in a post:

coworker #1:

The objection I have to "Pimp my Ride" is largely the name. It's a noun used as a verb, followed by a verb used as a noun. I'm not even very comfortable with the "my" either -- the protagonists of the piece are not "pimping" my "ride", but I as the viewer am observing whilst this act befalls a third party entirely unbeknown to me. A more correct title would be "Television programme wherein individuals have outlandish enhancements made to their vehicles."

coworker #2:

I can only conclude that you would have fewer objections to a show entitled Ride my Pimp.

missing the (inside) joke

I have a new coworker named Mark, who has lived in the Bay Area for nearly ten years but still has a thick Australian accent. That makes two guys named Mark in my group, and to distinguish between them, we call one "intern Mark" (he was an intern a few years ago before joining full-time) and one "Maah-k", which is an exaggerated version of what it sounds like when he says his own name. I don't think he's entirely amused by it, but it's kind of stuck.

Anyway, D met him for the first time last week, when we went to dinner with a bunch of my coworkers (as an aside, Choi's Kitchen, in Santa Clara, is delicious). The conversation went something like this:

D:	Hi, I'm D****.
Mark:	Hi, I'm "Maah-k".
D:	Hi "Maah-k".
Mark:	(a little irritated) Yes, I get it, I have a funny accent!
D:	(confused) Huh?

In his defense, D honestly had no idea why Mark was so touchy about the pronounciation of his name.

Aussie-speak

D and I have been quite amused by all of the Aussie-speak over the past couple of weeks. Some of our favorites:

"head luggage" - When the Qantas rep was telling us that our bags were overweight, she suggested we put more stuff in our "head luggage" since it wouldn't be weighed. So helpful!

"chilly water" - Australians don't drink cold water or iced water, they drink "chilly water".

"gorgeous" - Australians apply this adjective to food quite often, to mean delicious or tasty. I tend to think of it as a visual descriptor, but I guess they don't.

"cheers" and "that's okay" - D and I often say "thanks" and get a "that's okay" in return. Apparently it's the equivalent of our "you're welcome" or "no problem". We also noticed other people don't say "thanks" at all; they say "cheers".

"fuzzy wuzzy angels" - This one came up when our guide was explaining some history to us at Kings Canyon. Apparently during World War II, when ANZAC soldiers were injured and had to be smuggled back through Japanese enemy lines, they would be guided by Papua New Guineans. The soldiers' nickname for these guides was "fuzzy wuzzy angels", because their hair was fuzzy, and they were like guiding angels.

"silly o'clock" - On the day before our early morning Uluru tour, our guide said goodbye to us by saying she would pick us up the next day at "silly o'clock", meaning really really early. I don't know if this is a common term or just her being funny.

"wet bum" - D was very amused every time our snorkelling guides told us not to sit down with "wet bums" on our boat.

"aces" - We'd heard this one before, but it's used much more frequently here.

a question of etymology

I used the phrase "laundry list" in a conversation this morning, which made me wonder where the term came from. Was there really a time when it was so common to send laundry out, that people would write up lists of their clothes? Plus, the making of such a list sounds like a pretty tedious chore, in and of itself.

easily amused

This totally cracked me up just now. From Matt Maiocco's 49ers blog:

"At some point, perhaps on the second day of the draft (April 26), the 49ers will select a running back to complement Frank Gore. (Unless, they take a guy who is going to just walk around all day and tell Frank how great he is. In that case, they'll be getting a running back to compliment Frank.)"

Sports commentary with grammar/vocab jokes! How can you beat that?

new vocab words

I've been following political news a bit more closely this year. I think it's because I'm not so depressed about the state of our government anymore. As a result, I've learned two new words recently.

• cloture - the closing or limitation of debate in a legislative body especially by calling for a vote
  
  This is apparently what happened in the Senate with the stimulus bill; they were able to avoid a filibuster because a few Republican Senators joined with the Democratic majority to force cloture.
  
  
• probity - adherence to the highest principles and ideals
  
  The Economist published an article this morning deriding California as the ungovernable state. In the subtitle, they claimed that "California makes Washington, DC, look like a model of fiscal probity". I kind of figured out what it meant from the context but looked up a formal definition anyway.
  
  I'm not sure whether I agree with the article, but I found this part interesting: "In 2006 the top 1% of earners paid 48% of all income taxes. Since the wealthy derive much of their income from bonuses, capital gains and stock options, the state’s fortunes rise and fall with the markets..."
  
  To me, that just means that the state forgot how progressive our income taxes are, and thus did a poor job of forecasting future revenue. The article seems to imply that California's current budget crisis proves that extremely progressive taxation is bad. I'm not sure that one logically follows from the other.

Anyway, I'm happy to have gained some new vocabulary. Usually I feel like my English skills are only deteriorating over time, since I write code and not prose every day.

English grammar

It drives me nuts when people make common spelling and grammar mistakes in emails and code comments.

My pet peeves:
- affect vs effect
- calendar vs calender
- their vs they're (vs there)
- separate, not seperate
- peak usage, not peek usage

This one is a bit pickier: Yesterday a co-worker blogged internally about "if I were them" vs "if I were they". I was tempted to comment and say that they were both wrong, due to numerical agreement issues, but someone beat me to it. For the record, "if I were they" is more correct than "if I were them", since the verb "to be" links two nouns of the same case (in this case, nominative). It's the same reason you say "this is she" when answering the phone. But, "if I were s/he" is most correct; since "I" is singular, the other pronoun must also be singular.

I do realize that I'm a complete freak.

stop making up words!

I was just reading an article that quoted some presumably important person, who praised an event as "...focused on relevant and impactful training."

Argh!!! Corporate marketing droids everywhere, please note, "impactful" is not a real word. Yes, I know, it's perfectly cromulent, but I still hate it.

mistrusting distrust

A law school friend messaged me today to ask the difference between "mistrust" and "distrust". We'll ignore the irony of a lawyer asking an engineer for vocabulary advice, for today.

My first answer was that they were much the same, except for a slight difference in connotation (which I couldn't describe), but that "distrust" was worse. We both agreed that we used "distrust" more often.

My second answer, obtained using Google, was much more informative. Here it is, courtesy of the Columbia Guide to Standard American English:

Mistrust means “to doubt, to lack confidence in,” as in I mistrust his ability to persuade her. Distrust means much the same but adds suspicion to the mix: He distrusts her because he thinks she’ll cheat him.

It appears that both of us are thoroughly cynical modern women.