h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think it's a hanging over from older English; in French the only way to state someone's age is to say 'they have X years' (IIRC). Something similar was probably the case in English until someone coined using 'old' in that sense.

On politico-speak:

'Back to Basics' Back to basic WHAT? Basic is not a noun! Be told!

"paradigm shift" Ug I beleive in Dilbert's principle when your organization starts using this one it is doomed.

Also "Quantum Leap/jump/step" - now a quantum is defined as "The smallest amount of a physical quantity that can exist independently, especially a discrete quantity of electromagnetic radiation" so to use this in the way that people do - ie a to indicate a large change is totally wrong.

Also - and discussed elsewhere sometime ago "near miss" - sorry a "near miss" is a hit in my view.

CH

PS and still anything with the word "foootball" in

ps

F19585?thread=166428 for "near miss" discussion.

Not just football, though. Sports of all sorts. What's the great excitement??

" will return in two weeks time; next week we are showing live coverage of "

I wish wish wish the terrestrial channels would give up on sports and let them all go to satellite and cable. Then, at least, the schedules would be stable. I really despise the way that a sporting event can ramble on and on and on and over-write the rest of the day's programming, then when it does end they have another 30 minutes of empty and cliché-ridden 'analysis'.

Even if the event is important enough to merit continued coverage (and there are only a handful a year that I will admit are that important) as soon as it ends, PLUNK back to normal. The 'analysts' couldn't analyse their own navels.

Queex

may be can start sport free channel!

Yes, the BBC seems to be very talented in messing up their programs because of some sportevent. I always (try to) watch the Simpsons, but half of the time there's some event that takes all day and the simpsons are always the first to go.

and star trek goes too!

good topic drift ! and then when there are two shows, say repeats of Superman and a new episode of Buffy, guess which one they cancel, yep the new episode, whilst they happily show the repeated show

CH

I concur with my fellow h2g2 members.To hear the phrase that Star Trek,Farscape (or whatever SF is in the Tuesday 6-7pm slot on BBC2)will return in one or two weeks time(due to some pointless sports activity that finished on the dot of 7 so you can watch some repeats of old programmes instead of a new episode) used to fry my brain.Then I got digital TV and I get to see all the SF shows I want on Sky 1 BEFORE the BBC shows them.

I wish I had scifi channel, but because of "movie" rights not posible outside UK/USA

I'm a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to TV sport - I don't care what gets cancelled so that Channel 4 can show the cricket, but as soon as the snooker cuts in on early evening BBC2 I'm right mardy.

Cricket! That is why the Sunday Sci-Fi was cancelled last Sunday! Unbeliever! Destroy him! You fools, he's getting away!

*suddenly on-topic* 'Soft drugs lead to hard drugs' that one should go in the bin.

*Runs after Bagpuss, has to stop because of lack of oxygen*

Damn you sporty people!

back on topic:

I could do without ever hearing the following again:

"A game of two halfs" - duh

"Its not over until the fat lady sings"

"thinking outside the box/envelope" & "pushing the boundaries"

Yeah, they should leave out sports. Go out and play instead of watching it on a screen.

Loads

think outside the box
reinvent the wheel
did the classic
I turned around
nine times out of ten
goal orientated
team player
win-win
client focussed
touch base
liase (eeeuuuwww!)
24/7
ball park figure
run that by me again
get your head round this
wassup?

and finally....see how it goes

see how what goes exactly?

'Yer doin' me 'ead in'. Often said as a single word. Quite why anybody would think that saying that excuses them for being an ignorant pillock is beyond me.

There is an add on to the web design package DreamWeaver that adds "Corporate mumboJumbo" just tell it haw many characters you want then it will add stuff like -

"through a top-down, proactive approach we can remain customer focused and goal-directed, innovate and be an inside-out organization which facilitates sticky web-readiness transforming turnkey eyeballs to brand 24/365 paradigms with benchmark turnkey channels implementing viral e-services and dot-com action-items while we take that action item off-line and raise a red flag and remember touch base as you think about the red tape outside of the box and seize B2B e-tailers and re-envisioneer innovative partnerships that evolve dot-com initiatives delivering synergistic earballs to incentivize B2B2C deliverables that leverage magnetic solutions to synergize clicks-and-mortar earballs while facilitating one-to-one action-items with revolutionary relationships that deliver viral markets and grow e-business supply-chains that expedite seamless relationships and transform back-end relationships withthrough"

the secret is out

CH

Oi, you doing my head in with all that corporate speak.