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Curmudgeon Corner

Marchbanks said:
I think we should begin by scrapping education completely, lest anyone should feel left out because of their inability or unwillingness to learn.
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Or their social-economic circumstances?

Or the lack of encouragement and inspiration within their home life?

For a generally left-leaning pfm, there are plenty of comments that balance the debate.
 
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 once did very well at a wine merchant whose proprietor had equally bad mental arithmetic and calculator skills. I didn’t notice until I had put my specs on and checked the receipt after piling the stuff into my car. I was about to go back and tell him when I noticed on the bottom of the receipt it said (I’m paraphrasing here) ‘Once you’ve gone through the door that’s it, Jack.’ So with a heavy heart I had to trouser my discount.
 
I actually failed the Cambridge Board 1965 O level Maths. I re-sat and got a lower grade still. Since there was only one grade left before what I presume would be an unclassified result. I decided to quit while I was behind.

But that's not important right now..

I'm wondering whether we should have a 'sticky' thread..along the lines of 'The PFM Anonymised All Purpose Grammar, Spelling and Calculation Correction Thread'. A place where those of us with obsessive tendencies, or merely didactic traits, could post the offending article, without identifying the 'perp', and offer what we consider to be the correct version.

In another place.. a frequent poster uses ! and ? interchangeably. Much to my annoyance. He also frquently states that he thinks spelling and grammar are unimportant and that he never reads any post with more than two lines of text. I waited until he had posted nothing for a while and then posted:

This is an Exclamation Mark !
This is a Question Mark ?
Just saying....
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Three lines.... :)
 
It also occurs to me that generally speaking, it is possible to discern intelligence in posts, and by extensiomn, posters.. irrespective of grammar etc.
PFM does seem to have a diverse, but intelligent membership.
 
"gintonic said:
(Sloppiness) tis true though I don't care bout wat happens on an Internet forum, I spend my working life thinking and writing proper, so I no.longer bother in forum
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Writing proper is second nature, but I'd love to think proper; is there a switch for it? Do you resort to type when on forums or deliberately downgrade from higher echelons of communication? Keep thinking that your pseudonym may have a bearing, maybe. :D
 
I'm always conscious of my contributions on here. I'm mindful there are also contributors for whom English is not their 1st language.

Written English did not come easily to me as a child, due to having mild deafness, and that not being considered by most teachers at that time. Operations resolved the deafness issue, but I was them playing catch-up. The advent of computer use was a godsend, in this regard. Especially spelling correction and, in some cases, grammar correction too.

Thankfully I had very good maths and science teachers, plus a very supportive family.
 
Mike Reed said:
Do you resort to type when on forums or deliberately downgrade from higher echelons of communication?
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no its not about resorting to anything, it is about laziness and not being bothered to go back and correct stuff I write on social media. Most of social media is done on a phone, editing etc is hard on a tiny keyboard.....but it doesn't matter.

At work, I write regulatory documents, academic papers, and a whole host of other stuff. Grammar and correct English matters in that context. I examine PhD theses, and am pedantic in my assessment of these documents.

Mike Reed said:
Keep thinking that your pseudonym may have a bearing, maybe.
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:) actually my username are the names of two long departed cats. We do, however have about 90 bottles of gin in our collection.
 
I find myself increasingly irritated by people and companies that claim to be ‘passionate’ about stuff:

“Here at Shiftits Ltd, we’re passionate about parcel logistics solutions” and so forth. Or job adverts that say “we’re looking for somebody passionate about paper clip supply management for our new Northern headquarters” and, similarly, job applicants who claim to be passionate about the requirements of the role applied for.

No, you ****ing aren’t. Get over yourselves.
 
Nero said:
Reaching out. No I'm not.
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Joe Hutch said:
Something described as a 'workshop' when there's no evidence of anything actually being made or repaired.
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Guilty, alas. :oops: I work in the public sector and this has become the norm, and I’ve succumbed because it’s easier than resisting. We also have ‘stakeholders’, though I shall continue my steadfast refusal to refer to people who use our services as ‘customers’.
 
‘We are sorry for any delays through the roadworks.’ Who is, exactly? Is there a room in the council offices where a group of functionaries sit, heads in hands, moaning ‘oh no, another 3,000 delayed cars on our conscience in the last hour’? Or are they just a group of words painted on a sign with no real meaning at all?
 
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