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Curmudgeon Corner

Bob McC said:
On the other hand do we really want Jermaine Jenas presenting MOTD?
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He is such a pretentious prat. He tries so hard to come across as clever it’s painful, he’s like a male version of Stacey Dooley. Harmless, uninteresting and painful to watch.
 
Mullardman said:
I like to think of myself as a reasonably competent and literate user of the English language. However.. I have long forgotten many of the terms and technicalities employed in English Grammar. So..whilst I believe that I mostly speak, and write, in an instinctively correct manner, and can easily comprehend, a split infinitive.. what is the correct term to describe this sort of thing.. frequently heard from TV presenters:

'Built in the 19th Century, the owners have completely refurbished the property..'
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Sheer bloody ignorance, only you're not allowed to say that because it's elitist and might make someone feel inadequate, the poor wee thing.
 
Father was a bastard before onset of dementia with his fists and tongue, before my mother died he was still at it with words only. Why should I bother anymore?
 
Mullardman said:
.. what is the correct term to describe this sort of thing.. frequently heard from TV presenters:

'Built in the 19th Century, the owners have completely refurbished the property..'
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Sometimes it’s a bit of mischief put in by people working on the programme that producers are too dim to notice before it goes out. I once slipped the names of the Pixies (and Steve Albini - he was ‘engineer’) - into the credits of a daytime TV show I was working on in cahoots with the graphics designer. No one else noticed. Probably no one who watched the show either, if anyone did.
 
Marchbanks said:
Sometimes it’s a bit of mischief put in by people working on the programme that producers are too dim to notice before it goes out. I once slipped the names of the Pixies (and Steve Albini - he was ‘engineer’) - into the credits of a daytime TV show I was working on in cahoots with the graphics designer. No one else noticed. Probably no one who watched the show either, if anyone did.
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Are you responsible for "Rostrum Camera: Ken Morse" in every programme's credits?
 
Marchbanks said:
Sometimes it’s a bit of mischief put in by people working on the programme that producers are too dim to notice before it goes out. I once slipped the names of the Pixies (and Steve Albini - he was ‘engineer’) - into the credits of a daytime TV show I was working on in cahoots with the graphics designer. No one else noticed. Probably no one who watched the show either, if anyone did.
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This reminds me of biscuit tins:
https://live.adampartridge.co.uk/m/...lot/32072?url=/m/view-auctions/catalog/id/133
 
Marchbanks said:
Can’t claim responsibility for that - although I remember a Rory Bremner ‘Inspector Morse’ routine that included the line “Ah, it’s you, Morse! Have you brought your rostrum camera with you?” I always wondered if many people understood the reference.
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They also threw it into the credits at the end of a Channel 9 sketch on The Fast Show.
 
Big Tabs said:
I would agree that grammar, and the need to correct mistakes that people make, is elitist.
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Surely it is very much dependent upon how it is done?

I certainly wouldn't condone a sneering put down but..

Politely correcting someones spelling for e.g., could be seen as being helpful.

If I posted that 2+2=5.. would it be elitist to point out that this is incorrect?
 
Mullardman said:
If I posted that 2+2=5.. would it be elitist to point out that this is incorrect?
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In America at least, absolutely. Here in America everyone’s opinion has exactly the same value. The scientist says the earth is round and twiddledink says it’s flat? Well, that’s a standoff, I guess we’ll never know who’s right.
 
Mullardman said:
Politely correcting someones spelling for e.g., could be seen as being helpful.
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Who is it helpful for?

It is helpful for the person correcting the perceived mistake. They can take the high ground and whether delivered politely or not, they are still saying ‘you are wrong, I am right.’

It still separates and divides rather than being inclusive.

It also dilutes the original statement and takes away some/any of the impact the original poster was trying to convey.
 
I think being picky about grammar and spelling on an internet forum is a bit silly, not to mention Dr Hutch's Law that: 'Any post attempting to correct another's spelling or grammar will contain at least one spelling or grammatical error'. Of course, such errors matter if, for example, you're writing a supporting statement for a job application, and if I asked someone to check through one I'd written, I'd be a bit miffed if they let a few obvious mistakes slip through. But for 'handbags' stuff on pfm? Nah.

My own weak point (OK, one of my weak points) is maths. I don't mind anyone correcting my maths, because a) I'm almost certain to be wrong and b) I have the typical condescending attitude of the arty-farty type towards maths and science (even though, deep down, I know how vitally important they are) and am almost proud of my ignorance in these areas. I certainly wouldn't think someone correcting my maths was being elitist or snobbish.
 
I think we should begin by scrapping education completely, lest anyone should feel left out because of their inability or unwillingness to learn. Art next. My total lack of drawing skill makes me feel a sense of exclusion every time I visit a gallery. If a few of my scrawls were hung up in the RA, that would help a little. And don’t get me started on bloomin’ elitist musicians...
 
Me too. Two attempts at CSE before I 'achieved' grade 1, which was considered the equivalent of a scrape through O-Level.
 
eternumviti said:
Me too. Two attempts at CSE before I 'achieved' grade 1, which was considered the equivalent of a scrape through O-Level.
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I'm always envious of you high achievers. :D


I've been following Big Tabs' criticisms of corrections of text errors here and am ambivalent; partly because my career was educating, and somehow I just can't throw that off, and partly because the often succinct 'corrections' posted here are often quite funny, are rarely posted in an elitist way and usually engender interesting debate.

As Tabs says, not all have had the benefit of a decent academic education, or possibly have decided not to benefit from one. However, there are two things about some posts which I simply don't understand. One is that they show sloppiness in not proof-reading their copy (for syntactic sense). Two, they are not aware of or couldn't care about the fundamental use of paragraphs (and that is NOT grammar), and three, that they seem oblivious of benefitting from others' posts to improve their writing skills.

Poor spellings are neither here nor there; English is a bastard language for this, and some people (like my long-ago girlfriend who became a headmistress) whose brains find it very difficult to remember these idiosyncrasies. In fact, as age increases, I find the need to resort to my dictionary more, though American English used in underlining of apparent errors is confusing.

Must go out; shall return anon.
 
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