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Listing some of Your Hangups...

NirvanaNirvana aka BUBBA   `     `  South Carolina, USA Veteran
edited January 2016 in General Banter

May I list Three of mine, all in the field of general grammar?

1) Correct use of Possessive Pronouns, especially "its" (N.B., no apostrophe [hint!] for missing letter(s)`)
2) "Inclusive" language questions I have
3) Split Infinitives

1) First Objection: Do not use "it's" exclusively. Always Correct your "chellspecker." Remember, IT'S is a contraction either of "It Is" or of "It Has." It's clear to me that its use is not clear to lots of people. Other Possessive pronouns are My, Our, Yours, Your, His, Hers, Their(s) and ones —or maybe one's, cannot figure that one out exactly.
I wish people would show off their mastery of this rather simple grammatical parsing more often:

It's a long time since that subject raised its ugly head.

`

It's been more than a year since my car's had its tires rotated.

It Has been more than a year since my car Has had (His, Her, or Its) tires rotated.

2) I dunno why, but although I do try to use "his or her" most of the time when some sort of scenario is involved, I find it very difficult to stretch quite that far when the subject is some sort of evildoer or culprit. Am I really wrong just to refer to the person as "him?" I try, whenever possible, to avoid the rather clumsy "Her or His" by putting things in the plural, but sometimes that just doesn't work.

3) Frankly, split infinitives don't much bother me (Sometimes there's really no graceful way around them.). However, I plead one blatant Miscreant: Using the word "NOT." That conveys ugliness and severe carelessness to me. I definitely think it breaks the Fourth Precept, in that it makes no attempt at correct speech. =)"To not care," what sort of ugly knot is that?

However. I do think that language should be tied to the pictorial, to story, as closely as possible in order to keep it real; and that the split infinitive is a rather rude interloper. In other words, some sort of art or skill should be aimed for always. By skill, I mean the sense of keeping the letters distributed so as to relate things as they actually unfold. You get more a sense of this when you read translations of things from languages with pictures as their alphabet, such as from the Chinese. (In Latin, the singular form for the individual characters is in the singular— and the plural form refers to a written correspondence. Now that is interesting to me.)

Now, I submit that there is not a subtle difference between "The rabbit tried to completely hide from the hunter" and "The rabbit tried to hide completely from the hunter." Well, there's nothing subtle in my mind, at least. In the latter I can sense more the sense of ongoing time: the rabbit is already hidden, but it continues to try to hide deeper, more completely. The Main point is the Hiding, not the rushing to complete the Deceit! HA!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_infinitive (See especially the Paragraph with Note 19.)

Comments

  • NirvanaNirvana aka BUBBA   `     `   South Carolina, USA Veteran

    One thing that scares me right now, although I would not call it a Hang-Up exactly, is my distaste for all the bandying about of the American flag. It really rather scares me, as I feel that we're sliding into fascism over here.

    In the "metropolis" in which I live, it seems that most businesses are flying them and probably about a third of the homes in the White areas. Even the Fire Engines are sporting them.

    I don't know of any sumptuary laws that have ever been passed anywhere in the world on account of sporting products conveying overzealous "patriotism," but could there be a first "Right Cheer" (right here) in the USA?

    Was it Samuel Johnson who said that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels?

    How about a World flag?

  • yagryagr Veteran

    Turns out there's a limit to how long a post can be. Ran into that feature as I tried to list my hang-ups...

    Incidentally, @lobster posted a picture of the world flag not too long ago.

    NirvanaEarthninja
  • Good to experience a happy image of smiling Muslim women. One of my hang up is how portrayal often guides our associated thinking ...

    meanwile ... I came across some of my 'ye olde hangups' yesterday. It is a diintegrating wiki that I thought had vanished without a cloud ... somehow it had been partly archived ...
    http://web.archive.org/web/20071021074559/http://tmxxine.com/y/wikka.php?wakka=HomePage

  • NirvanaNirvana aka BUBBA   `     `   South Carolina, USA Veteran

    @yagr said:
    @lobster posted a picture of the world flag not too long ago.

    How 'bout something else to hang up, Lobs? Can you find That?

  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    @Nirvana said: One thing that scares me right now, although I would not call it a Hang-Up exactly, is my distaste for all the bandying about of the American flag.

    I find it distasteful too, a British flag would be much more appropriate. ;)

    BunkslobsterNirvana
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    @SpinyNorman said:
    I find it distasteful too, a British flag would be much more appropriate. ;)

    Ah, the Good Ol' Days.....!

    Hang-ups?

    I could list them, but then I'd have to kill you.

  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    Mindless wandering texting phone users irritate me, it's like walking among zombies.

    howNirvana
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    The only thing worse is a customer at the paypoint, messing with their phone and not paying attention.
    It's just so rude!!! :rage:

    BunksNirvana
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    It's extremely rude. There is something very neurotic and anti-social about the use of mobile devices, I think these people are addicts and need treatment under the National 'Elf.

  • howhow Veteran Veteran

    Snakes oblivious to the fact that the prey that they are presently consuming is actually their own tail. As far as the social causes of ignorance are concerned, I do wonder if we are witnessing the beginnings what folks in the future might call the beginnings of the new dark ages.

    silverShoshinWalker
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran
    edited January 2016

    In the past I would have said some of the movies my projector mind use to run...

    Especially the old re-runs :)

    BunksNirvana
  • Tee Hee.
    Are most mobile phone addicts addicted to junk mail? Twitterings? Farcebook trendings? Friend and cyber-fiend updates? ... a little compassion for the cyber intoxicated ... ;)

    ... in the next few years personal HUD and augmented reality will start to roll out. So a new generation of cyber zombies ... will start to get ... interesting ... B)

    Anyways ... back to hanging up the phone and other annoyances ...

    I get annoyed by irrelevancies ... hey ... come to think of it, annoyance is irrelevant ... [ lobster fails again :3 ]

    Shoshin
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    @lobster said:... in the next few years personal HUD and augmented reality will start to roll out. So a new generation of cyber zombies ... will start to get ... interesting ... B)

    Then I shall form a new Luddite movement. Our operatives will grab mobile devices from the zombie addicted and throw them in a bucket of water, thus liberating the oppressed from their cyber shackles. Red pill or blue pill?

    lobster
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    @SpinyNorman said:

    @lobster said:... in the next few years personal HUD and augmented reality will start to roll out. So a new generation of cyber zombies ... will start to get ... interesting ... B)

    Then I shall form a new Luddite movement. Our operatives will grab mobile devices from the zombie addicted and throw them in a bucket of water, thus liberating the oppressed from their cyber shackles. Red pill or blue pill?

    Ah if only mobile phones were made of ice cream.... then @SpinyNorman wouldn't be complaining so much....

    Oh well this might be the next best thing

  • yagryagr Veteran

    Speaking of mobile phones, I went into the Verizon store yesterday and requested a rotary cell phone.

    Sadly, they do not carry them.

  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    What's a "rotary cell phone"? Do you dry your washing on it? ;)

    yagr
  • yagryagr Veteran

    You don't recall rotary phones??

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    Yeah, @SpinyNorman.... remember these...? dialing 9 9 9 took an hour. You would get the Police round quicker by yelling for them out of the window!

    yagr
  • ^^^ LOL

    If we must have graffiti, at least a better class of grafitti would be welcome.
    Ref: rotary mobile phones. They are available on Amazon. I have an iphone case that looks like a calculator from the back. Everyone asks 'does it work'? It does not but I am sure one is available ...

    ... and now back to hang ups ...

    JohnMac
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    @federica said:
    Yeah, @SpinyNorman.... remember these...? dialing 9 9 9 took an hour. You would get the Police round quicker by yelling for them out of the window!

    I used to like the sound they made. I also miss the pre-digital days when you could turn knobs and stuff. ;)

    federica
  • yagryagr Veteran

    I think someone could make quite a good sum of money by creating an app for cell phones that gave a rotary screen and you could use the touch screen to actually dial. Nostalgia and all...

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    I've downloaded one. It's called "slick Rotary" So cool!!! AND FREE!!!!

    yagrBunksNirvana
  • WalkerWalker Veteran Veteran
    edited January 2016

    Not only did we have rotary phones, we lived in a rural area, so we were on a party line, which we shared with our neighbours. You could actually listen in on their conversations if you were so inclined. One of our neighbours was an elderly Ukrainian lady that would tie up the line for hours and hours...

    And there is one aspect of the old phones that some of us surely miss when we get a rude phone call...

    th.jpeg 16.7K
    ShoshinBunks
  • ShoshinShoshin No one in particular Nowhere Special Veteran

    @Walker said:
    Not only did we have rotary phones, we lived in a rural area, so we were on a party line, which we shared with our neighbours. You could actually listen in on their conversations if you were so inclined. One of our neighbours was an elderly Ukrainian lady that would tie up the line for hours and hours...

    You're lucky @Walker I remember back in the day when we only had tin cans attached to a long piece of string :)

    Walker
  • WalkerWalker Veteran Veteran

    Tin cans? Sheer Luxury!

    Shoshinsilver
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran
    edited January 2016

    @SpinyNorman said:

    @federica said:
    Yeah, @SpinyNorman.... remember these...? dialing 9 9 9 took an hour. You would get the Police round quicker by yelling for them out of the window!

    I used to like the sound they made. I also miss the pre-digital days when you could turn knobs and stuff. ;)

    knobs.....hee hee

    ShoshinWalker
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    @Shoshin said:> You're lucky @Walker I remember back in the day when we only had tin cans attached to a long piece of string :)

    I guess progress moves slowly in the colonies. ;)

    ShoshinWalkerBunks
  • silversilver In the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded. USA, Left coast. Veteran

    You know what drives me up a wall?
    Someone with a ring tone that sounds like an old-fashioned phone - any of 'em!
    I want to choke them! j/k
    My message notice sound is of ice falling into a glass - LOVE it!
    It took me about 3 days to get over looking up..wondering what the hey! :p

    WalkerShoshin
  • Invincible_summerInvincible_summer Heavy Metal Dhamma We(s)t coast, Canada Veteran
    • People who stand in the way with big, full backpacks on the public bus, knocking into others
    • Bus drivers who act like they're driving their own personal vehicle, hitting the brakes wildly and forgetting there are dozens of people standing without seatbelts...
    • People who complain about how "everyone in a union is lazy," while being in a union and benefiting from the union collective agreement and not understanding the history and social impact of labour
    • Using an apostrophe to pluralize: e.g. There were two dog's, but the most egregious to me is when referring to decades, such as "the 70's." Or even worse, people who do this inconsistently (e.g. "The two dog's were fighting over bones." AAGHHH
    Nirvana
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