Comments on: And Curse Sir Walter Raleigh, He Was Such a Stupid Git

By: Normando

Normando — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:52:55 +0000

[46] Absolutely. I am thrifty, not cheap! “Spendy” I will never be.

By: Chyll Will

Chyll Will — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:54:04 +0000

[45] But “thrifty” is okay. Damned cheap rental car services… >;)

By: Normando

Normando — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:05:19 +0000

[36] [39] “Spendy.” There is nothing OK about that.

By: RIYank

RIYank — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:47:33 +0000

Every verb is active.

Hmm, are you sure?

“During the game, Josh was actively sleeping in the clubhouse.”
“Carl languishes actively on the DL.”
“Joe is actively comatose in the dugout.”
“Mourning actively becomes Electra.”

Maybe it works better in Japanese.

By: Boatzilla

Boatzilla — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:33:38 +0000

Sorry to chime in late. Been busy. The worst phrase to garner regular usage in the English language in the past 20 year is “actively….” as an adverb.

Every verb is active. The Yanks are actively seeking a DH. The Yanks are seeking a DH. Exactly the same meaning. “I’m actively looking for a job” Does that mean you are looking for a job? Yes.

It’s awful, bloated, ugly English. Please don’t use it.

One more. “For good or bad.” “For better or worse.” All these constructions are a push. No need to cover your bases when you cover them all. It doesn’t add any meaning to the message.

Thanks for letting me rant.

By: RIYank

RIYank — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:11:41 +0000

[41] I must cry Fowler!

By: monkeypants

monkeypants — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:04:06 +0000

[35] Perhaps, but the phrase is originally much older and is (was) used in a legal sense. It meant that an exception to a general rule or law proved the existence of the general rule or law. For example, a sign that says “No parking here on Sundays” implies necessarily that there exists a general rule that “Parking is allowed here at all times except Sundays.”

In this sense, it nothing to do with a contradicting example somehow “proving” the validity of a general rule (e.g.: Jeter striking out in a clutch situation somehow proving that he always comes through in clutch situations), or even that such contradictory evidence “tests” a general claim.

By: Mr OK Jazz Tokyo

Mr OK Jazz Tokyo — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:06:12 +0000

Maybe this is already finished but for awhile I kept hearing sports commentators say “Oh, by the way..” for some reason I found it excruciating. Lesson: stop listening to sports shows and just stick with the Banter.

By: Mr OK Jazz Tokyo

Mr OK Jazz Tokyo — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 01:56:42 +0000

[19] Can I call you old-fashioned?

Like Larry David said in CYE “Having said that..” is very annoying, just completely contradicts what you said first.

Also cannot stand the current trend of baseball analysts using “value” too much. As in “there’s good value there..” makes me think of the stock market.

[36] Just reading “spendy” made me shiver. Yuck!

By: Evil Empire

Evil Empire — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 01:08:25 +0000

Hawk already hit this but I hate it when people use “literally” to describe something that’s not literal. E.g. “It was literally raining cats and dogs.”

I also hate it when people say they’re going to “peruse” something when they actually mean “skim.”

By: Ara Just Fair

Ara Just Fair — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:57:56 +0000

Phenomenal. My neighbors use that one to describe every thing in their world. The fact that the husband sounds like Super Dave Osborne makes it especially grating. And another thing, the last 2 weeks in class I have been not allowing my students to answer questions when they begin with “Um….” It was driving me nuts. I have seen immediate positive results.

By: rbs

rbs — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:32:45 +0000

[33] Has “spendy” reached the big city yet, as an adjective meaning expensive.

By: ColoYank

ColoYank — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:10:48 +0000

24: A common misconception about the “exception that proves the rule”: the word ‘proves’ here, as used originally by Shakespeare, means “tests.” It’s the exception that “tests” the rule. It’s not as conclusive as commonly thought. Nowadays, it’s used poorly, too often, and frequently nonsensically.

By: Chyll Will

Chyll Will — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:08:18 +0000

[31] "If you're blue and you don't know where to go to why don't you go where fashion sits..."

By: Normando

Normando — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:00:25 +0000

“Spend.” As in, “the average spend per customer is _____.”

“Ticket” once bothered me nearly as much, as in, “the average ticket per customer is _____,” but since “ticket” has been nearly eclipsed by “spend,” I find myself almost nostalgic for “ticket.”

By: thelarmis

thelarmis — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:48:32 +0000

[31] oh, ok. me, too! i’ve been around since alex was still at all-baseball. i vaguely remember! guess we just haven’t seen you around much and rbj one of us daily posters. : )

By: rbs

rbs — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:39:48 +0000

[28] Double negative just means extra negative, right? Or at least that’s what a Russian told me.

[29] Sorry for the confusion. I’ve been following Banter since the Olden Days, back when Cliff was still doing the Big Red Blog. I just don’t comment very often.

By: thelarmis

thelarmis — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:37:30 +0000

[28] “double-plus un-good” is all kindsa ruling!

(might have been rbj that brought that to the banter…)

By: thelarmis

thelarmis — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:36:08 +0000

[25] yeah, the “i could care” less bothers me.

i hate the: “…as good as anybody (in the game…)”. that’s just awful.

btw, the rbs tag is super similar to our regular commenter rbj. see [2]. very confusing!

By: Chyll Will

Chyll Will — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:34:25 +0000

I’m surprised nobody said nuthin’ about double negatives >;)