Elevator etiquette, you nimrods!

[Superdude]

Alright, I have tried to keep my mouth shut regarding this issue for quite a while now. But I have to say this lest I go psychotic and kill someone. When you get on an elevator, there are unwritten rules that have to be followed. Starting at the beginning:

1) If you see that the button to call the elevator has been pressed, do NOT press it again. It doesn't get there any quicker, and most people are intelligent enough to be able to operate the button correctly in your absence.

2) Wait until other people get off of the elevator before you try to shove your wide ass onto it. As a general rule, two atoms cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Also, it's easier.

3) As in rule #1, if someone else has pushed a button that happens to coincide with the one floor to which you are going, the doors will allow you to exit as well. Even if you don't push the button yourself.

4) Elevators have weight limits. You hear that dinging sound, lardass? You hear that? If you are the last person on, and the weight limit indicator starts dinging, get your fat ass off and wait for the next one. Don't stand there and complain because the thing is moving too slow. It's moving slow because the elevator has to try to counteract the laws of physics, and the shadow of your ass is pushing it to the breaking point. If you do this again, I will hotwire the elevator to move with the doors open, and hold your head outside of the safety zone, allowing your forehead to come in contact with every single floor, a la the Three Stooges.

5) If you are waiting to get onto the elevator, and the doors open, and you see several people already on said elevator, do NOT try to cram yourself onto it, as well. It's not a contest. You don't have to beat anyone else to the ground floor. There is no prize for getting there quickest.

6) When other people exit a crowded elevator, STEP AWAY FROM ME!!! Do not continue to stay so close that people think that we are conjoined. We are not. In all likelihood, I really don't even like you.

7) Do not use the elevator to travel one floor, unless you have some kind of injury or disability. This just makes you look lazy and stupid.

8) Know which floor it is that you should be going to. Do not say "it's either on 10 or 11. I'll know it when I see it." I try to be pretty agreeable that it can be darned difficult to remember floor numbers, but that's why people write things down.

9) If the place you are going has a security system in place involving ID badges, and I have access, and you don't have your badge, do not ask me to let you in. I will not do it. If you decide to shoot the place up, I doubt very seriously you would spare my life simply because I let you in.

10) Do not fart on the elevator.

11) Get off the fucking cell phone. You are not that important. The call can wait.

12) Left to my own devices, I will normally let you exit first. However, if you try to insure that you will be the first to exit, I will make it my lot in life to block your exit every chance I get. And, if you do any of the above, the same thing applies.

[Guinastasia]

Originally posted by Superdude
9) If the place you are going has a security system in place involving ID badges, and I have access, and you don't have your badge, do not ask me to let you in. I will not do it. If you decide to shoot the place up, I doubt very seriously you would spare my life simply because I let you in.



The ONLY reason I ask this is that I'm an intern, and the floor I need to get to is locked out until 10 am, and security won't give me a card, which I understand. I like to get up there early so I get the exhibits checked before the museum opens, which means I can't check the alarms.

[PlanMan]

13. If you are in the front, by the doors, and the elevator stops on an intermediate floor (we stop at 8 and you're going to 12), step out and clear the door to let the people who want to exit do so. If you're afraid we'll leave you behind, clear the door and hold it open. Really, we won't leave you (unless you violate some of the rules, especially 10 or 11).

14. If you are the "driver" that is, you're standing by the floor number buttons, and somebody calls out a number ... press it (unless rule #3 applies). Don't make folks reach around, across, and thru the rest of us.

thankyouverymuch

[PlanMan]

just realized this is The Pit please add random profanity and personal attacks to my last post

[Jack Batty]

Superdude, there are some very tasty decafinated coffees on the market. You might want to give them a try.

Most of your rules fall into the common sense area. Things like, get the hell out of the way, and don't fart and stuff like that. In that I understand your ire.
But really, if you push the call button, and then I walk up and press it - is that really grounds for your wrath. I'm not hurting anybody by pressing a lit button. Maybe I'm a little distracted and I reach for the call button, noticing at the last moment that somebody already pressed it. Should I risk serious injury in trying to keep my finger from coming into contact with the button, apologizing the whole while, at the same time telling you what a doofus I am? Or do I just press the friggin' button knowing no harm has come.

Or is it some kind of pride thing - "Hey! I pressed that button! What the hell do you think you're doing pressing the button that I just pressed?!? The elevator's gonna give you credit for pressing the button when that credit should rightfully fall to me! I will not be denied!!!"

As for the one floor rule, there are alot of buildings (the one in which I work, for example) in which the only stairs available are fire exits. They make you take the elevator one flight whether you want to or not.

[Miss Creant]

Originally posted by PlanMan
just realized this is The Pit please add random profanity and personal attacks to my last post

Not a problem
Ahem....shit, fuck, cocksucking rat bastards, shameless,
obnoxious, shit eating grin, fuckwits, knobgobbling asswipes, duck fucking inbred shit for brains.

please sprinkle liberally where needed

[dodge_this]

The public library where I work is located on the fifth floor of a large shopping mall. I often take the elevator all the way down to the second basement where the staff cafeteria is.

- I really don't understand people (young, fit adults especially) who bother to wait to get into the elevator to travel one floor. This is a shopping mall. There's a working escalator 50 steps away. And stop complaining about how long the elevator is taking to get here. It's probably stopping at all floors because of nimrods like you.

- The call button for one elevator works for all three. You don't have to press all three you idiot.

- If an elevator does not serve the floor you want to go to, know that THERE'S A REASON FOR THIS. Don't bitch about why your floor button won't light up. It's your damn fault you weren't paying attention.

- Decide where you want to go before you get into the elevator. That's why there's a directory in the lift lobby. If you push more than one floor button I will kill you.

- If you realise you've pressed the wrong floor button, have the decency to apologize. (I always do.)It doesn't change the fact that the rest of us have to stop at one extra floor. Just don't act like it's you're God-given right and we won't think you're a complete dipshit.

- When the doors open don't dither and debate with your friend: "Wait, is this it? It sure looks different." There's a directory in the elevator that you could've looked at during the ride. Either get out or I'll release the 'Door Open' button.

- If you're at the elevator lobby and your friends are not, DON'T hold the lift up especially if there are people already in it. Three elevators serve this floor. Wait for the next one. And if you people get in and we find out that you're getting off at the next floor, I and everybody else who had to wait will kill you.

- If someone is holding up an elevator full of people for you, that's the time to stop strolling. Haul your ass in here, goddamit.

- No amount of yelling into your mobile phone will do any good. If the signals don't reach, they don't reach.

- Muzzle your kid, for the love of God. It's a small space not a frigging playground.

[Jackmannii]

15. If you're going up, look for the lighted "up" arrow before stepping into the "down" elevator, looking confused, saying "Oh, this is going up??" and meandering out of the elevator, delaying traffic because you are in a fog.

16. If multiple able-bodied persons on an uncrowded elevator ask me to push their floor buttons for them, I am entitled to a gratuity.

[Mort Furd]

16. If you are going to insult someone, make sure to use the appropriate words:
From the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary
Main Entry: Nim·rod
Pronunciation: 'nim-"räd
Function: noun
Etymology: Hebrew NimrOdh
1 : a descendant of Ham represented in Genesis as a mighty hunter and a king of Shinar.

This is normally used to refer sarcastically to people who hunt once in a blue moon and couldn't hit the side of a barn with a shotgun but believe themselves to be the best hunter to have ever walked the face of the earth.

[Pitmode ON]
Learn the fucking language before you start trying to use it. Look into a dictionary - if you can't afford one then check out the internet. Merriam-Webster is there and it is free.
[Pitmode OFF]

[Cartooniverse]

Originally posted by dodge_this
Where I am they call them lifts....

Hey- if it's called a lift because you take it to go up, then...........uh............what do you call it on the way down? A drop? :D :D :D

Cartooniverse

[Gyrate]

Originally posted by Cartooniverse
Originally posted by dodge_this
Where I am they call them lifts....

Hey- if it's called a lift because you take it to go up, then...........uh............what do you call it on the way down? A drop? :D :D :D

Cartooniverse
And the opposite of "elevator" is what -- "depressor"? Judging by this thread, that's not entirely inappropriate.

Next up: we discuss whether "de-escalate" is a real word...

[Typo Negative]

Originally posted by Mort Furd
16. If you are going to insult someone, make sure to use the appropriate words:
From the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary
Main Entry: Nim·rod
Pronunciation: 'nim-"räd
Function: noun
Etymology: Hebrew NimrOdh
1 : a descendant of Ham represented in Genesis as a mighty hunter and a king of Shinar.

This is normally used to refer sarcastically to people who hunt once in a blue moon and couldn't hit the side of a barn with a shotgun but believe themselves to be the best hunter to have ever walked the face of the earth.

[Pitmode ON]
Learn the fucking language before you start trying to use it. Look into a dictionary - if you can't afford one then check out the internet. Merriam-Webster is there and it is free.
[Pitmode OFF] What the hell are you talking about???? 'Nimrod' is normally used to refer to a garden-variety idiot or putz. Sound familiar?

[Mort Furd]

Originally posted by spooje
[/B]What the hell are you talking about???? 'Nimrod' is normally used to refer to a garden-variety idiot or putz. Sound familiar? [/B][/QUOTE]

Did you read the definition? You are making use of a word that you heard or read, and have never taken the time to look up. I have seen this word used (incorrectly) quite often here on the SDMB, and it irritates the hell out of me everytime. Might actually be worth a full blown Pit rant - or maybe an appeal to Uncle Cecil would be better. I am really sorry, but I can't help it if a bunch of illiterate internet denizens have changed the meaning of the word within their own little world. A nimrod is not just a putz, he is a particular type of putz encountered in the forests during the various hunting seasons. He fancies himself a mighty hunter, even though he only goes hunting every couple of years, has no idea how the animals live or what their habits are, and believes himself to be a perfect shot. He is generally a greater danger to other hunters than he is to the animals. A nimrod is a putz and an idiot, so I see the connection, but he is not a garden variety idiot.
Take your medicine and learn your lesson and use "nimrod" in an appropriate fashion in the future.

[Typo Negative]

Hey, people around the entire county(our country, by the way) are misusing that word. I've heard the word used in films and TV countless times, though, oddly, never in your 'correct' way.

Am I just out of the loop here? Has anyone else heard the word 'nimrod' to mean an inept, self-deluded hunter?

[AtomicDog]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mort Furd
[B]16. If you are going to insult someone, make sure to use the appropriate words:
From the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary
Main Entry: Nim·rod
Pronunciation: 'nim-"räd
Function: noun
Etymology: Hebrew NimrOdh
1 : a descendant of Ham represented in Genesis as a mighty hunter and a king of Shinar.

This is normally used to refer sarcastically to people who hunt once in a blue moon and couldn't hit the side of a barn with a shotgun but believe themselves to be the best hunter to have ever walked the face of the earth.

So THAT'S why Bugs calls Elmer a nimrod!

[Astroboy14]

Can I just point out here that lexicographers are often at least a year or two behind common usage of a word? There's a reason for that... it takes time to write a dictionary, and to publish it!

Nimrod has a meaning in common American slang that is not covered by that definition... maybe it will be covered in the next edition...

[Mort Furd]

Originally posted by AtomicDog
So THAT'S why Bugs calls Elmer a nimrod! [/B]
Right the first time, AtomicDog.
That shows you how long the word has been used that way.


Oh, yes. Spooje, I am an American. I live in Germany now, but I was born and raised in the good old USA. I have heard nimrod used numerous times in the USA to refer to inept hunters. I have seen it in several books and short stories. Off the top of my head, L. Sprague de Camp's "Rivers of Time" stories make frequent use of the term.

Perhaps I have just been out of the loop too long, and the use of the language has simply deteriorated in my absence. Did you never wonder where the word came from? Have you never read the Bible? Do you not ever watch old Bugs Bunny cartoons?
What is the world coming to? The classical basics of education (Bugs Bunny and the Bible) are being neglected to a shameful degree in this day and age.

[Scarlett67]

Originally posted by Mort Furd
Perhaps I have just been out of the loop too long, and the use of the language has simply deteriorated in my absence.

Not deteriorated -- changed. Evolved. Believe it or not, it is possible for a word to have TWO or (gasp) even more meanings, and to pick up new ones as time goes on. Language changes. Get over it.

[friedo]

Originally posted by Mort Furd
Originally posted by AtomicDog
So THAT'S why Bugs calls Elmer a nimrod! [/B]
Right the first time, AtomicDog.
That shows you how long the word has been used that way.


Welp, sorry to piss on your parade there, but if the "incorrect" usage has been around that long, then it's correct. Language is subjective, and far from dogmatic. Language is a process. Language enjoys defining itself, or some quasi-philosophical-lexicographical-grammarian shit like that.

Nimrod!

[Gyrate]

Originally posted by Mort Furd
16. If you are going to insult someone, make sure to use the appropriate words:
From the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary
Main Entry: Nim·rod
Pronunciation: 'nim-"räd
Function: noun
Etymology: Hebrew NimrOdh
1 : a descendant of Ham represented in Genesis as a mighty hunter and a king of Shinar.

This is normally used to refer sarcastically to people who hunt once in a blue moon and couldn't hit the side of a barn with a shotgun but believe themselves to be the best hunter to have ever walked the face of the earth.
And yet the dictionary definition YOU posted only indicates that it refers to a "mighty hunter". Other online dictionaries concur: "any skillful or enthusiastic hunter".

So where's the definition indicating it should be used to mean "a putz and an idiot"?

Originally posted by Mort Furd
Oh, yes. Spooje, I am an American. I live in Germany now, but I was born and raised in the good old USA. I have heard nimrod used numerous times in the USA to refer to inept hunters. I have seen it in several books and short stories. Off the top of my head, L. Sprague de Camp's "Rivers of Time" stories make frequent use of the term.
I see. So common usage is now an acceptable defense?

Perhaps I have just been out of the loop too long, and the use of the language has simply deteriorated in my absence. Did you never wonder where the word came from? Have you never read the Bible? Do you not ever watch old Bugs Bunny cartoons?
What is the world coming to? The classical basics of education (Bugs Bunny and the Bible) are being neglected to a shameful degree in this day and age.
Yes, I've read the Bible, and I watch Bugs Bunny cartoons. And I'm also apparently more aware of the way in which language develops than you. Language is defined by common usage, and the common usage is eventually incorporated into dictionaries. One can easily find a large number of words which used to mean something entirely different from their current most common meaning; that doesn't mean that the current usage is wrong, but that the language has evolved.

Sure, "nimrod" has a specific definition harkening back to the Bible. It is also frequently used to mean "a putz or idiot" in a non-hunting context (haven't you ever seen Beavis and Butthead?). And, as Astroboy points out, this will eventually be reflected in the dictionary as well.

Originally posted by Scarlett67
Language changes. Get over it.
That's eerie -- I'd finished my post with exactly the same phrase, and saw yours on the preview. Maybe it's a sign...

[Mr. Cynical]

Someone remind me to nominate this thread for "Hijack of the Year"

[Mort Furd]

Originally posted by Scarlett67
Originally posted by Mort Furd
Perhaps I have just been out of the loop too long, and the use of the language has simply deteriorated in my absence.

Not deteriorated -- changed. Evolved. Believe it or not, it is possible for a word to have TWO or (gasp) even more meanings, and to pick up new ones as time goes on. Language changes. Get over it.
Definitely deteriorated. It has lost a specific meaning, and become a general term only loosely associated with its original meaning.
BTW: Isn't the SDMB dedicated to fighting ignorance? I see a great bunch of people who are ignorant of the meaning of a word using it routinely in an in appropriate manner. In the OP, this is especially disconcerting, since the image that came to mind was of an inconsiderate putz in camouflage clothing (useless anyway because animals don't see colors) toting a rifle into an elevator and being rude about it - "Punch for the fourth floor," whilst holding the muzzle of the rifle under the nose the peron next to the floor buttons.
You folks get over it. You have all collectively screwed the pooch, and the poor dog's ass is mighty sore.

[Jadis]

From the American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language (Fourth Edition):

nimrod

SYLLABICATION: nim·rod

NOUN : 1. also Nimrod A hunter. 2. Informal A person regarded as silly, foolish, or stupid.

ETYMOLOGY: After Nimrod Sense 2, probably from the phrase “poor little Nimrod,” used by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny to mock the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd.

[Gyrate]

Originally posted by Jadis
From the American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language (Fourth Edition):

nimrod

SYLLABICATION: nim·rod

NOUN : 1. also Nimrod A hunter. 2. Informal A person regarded as silly, foolish, or stupid.

ETYMOLOGY: After Nimrod Sense 2, probably from the phrase “poor little Nimrod,” used by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny to mock the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd.


QED.

Mort, where did anyone indicate that we didn't know the specific meaning? Just because someone chooses the more informal definition doesn't mean that they are ignorant of other definitions.

[Hamadryad]

Mort Furd:
You have all collectively screwed the pooch, and the poor dog's ass is mighty sore.

You're assuming the dog is male. You chauvanistic BASTARD! What, it couldn't be a bitch? We have to be screwing a MALE dog? And that would mean that you're implying that all of the MEN in here are HOMOSEXUAL bestialists as well! The shame, the horror, the shock...

...the giggling....

[Mort Furd]

Originally posted by Jadis
From the American Heritage Dictionary Of The English Language (Fourth Edition):

nimrod

SYLLABICATION: nim·rod

NOUN : 1. also Nimrod A hunter. 2. Informal A person regarded as silly, foolish, or stupid.

ETYMOLOGY: After Nimrod Sense 2, probably from the phrase “poor little Nimrod,” used by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny to mock the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd.


I surrender.
The word has been misused so long and so often that even the dictionary misses the point. Bugs was referring to Elmer sarcastically as a "Mighty Hunter."

The battle lost, Mort slinks off to his dream world in which people actually know the meaning of the words they use.
::Sigh::

[Mort Furd]

Originally posted by Hamadryad
Mort Furd:
You have all collectively screwed the pooch, and the poor dog's ass is mighty sore.

You're assuming the dog is male. You chauvanistic BASTARD! What, it couldn't be a bitch? We have to be screwing a MALE dog? And that would mean that you're implying that all of the MEN in here are HOMOSEXUAL bestialists as well! The shame, the horror, the shock...

...the giggling....

Do you also answer to "Hamadear?"
RAH joke.

[Hamadryad]

Originally posted by Mort Furd
Do you also answer to "Hamadear?"
RAH joke. [/i]

Not from you.

[Gyrate]

Originally posted by Mort Furd
I surrender.
The word has been misused so long and so often that even the dictionary misses the point. Bugs was referring to Elmer sarcastically as a "Mighty Hunter."

The battle lost, Mort slinks off to his dream world in which people actually know the meaning of the words they use.
::Sigh:: [/B]
I still think you're the one missing the point. Common misuse can become proper use. Just look up "quantum", for one example. And, as I pointed out above, as we seem to know more definitions than you, you can hardly claim that we're ignorant.

Change is often unpleasant, but inevitable.

[Superdude]

Mort...I see what you're saying, but I have a question. Using your same example of Bugs Bunny, when he says, "What a maroon" in regards to Elmer, does he mean that Fudd is really that color? Or is it that he's changing the textbook definition?

[Mort Furd]

Originally posted by Superdude
Mort...I see what you're saying, but I have a question. Using your same example of Bugs Bunny, when he says, "What a maroon" in regards to Elmer, does he mean that Fudd is really that color? Or is it that he's changing the textbook definition?
I don't know what is meant by a "maroon." From context, it would be some kind derogatory term, but lacking knowledge of the background I have never used the word in that sense. Possibly it is a mispronunciation of "moron." I don't know. I do know that nimrod means "mighty hunter" and is used with sarcasm to indicate an inept hunter (who behaves like a putz and an idiot.)

Hamadryad:
I was not asking for permission to call you that. I simply was wondering if you knew the connection to "Time Enough for Love," or if you had encountered the word in another context.
Am I to take from your terse reply that you have taken a disliking to me based on these postings?

[Mort Furd]

You know folks, I just realized how funny this thing is. We've got Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd being quoted against Beavis and Butthead.
I give up. Popular culture has won.
Y'all were all only using a common expresion that I was unaware of. I didn't think that such a (really oddball) expression would come into common usage in a way so far from its original meaning.
Carry on calling people "Nimrod" when you mean putz, and I will try to banish from my mind the images of a gun toting putz in an elevator.

[Cat Whisperer]

Hate to interrupt, but I have something to say regarding *the OP* - just wanted to mention that I am a claustrophobe, and riding an elevator is absolutely pushing the limits of my tolerance for small, enclosed spaces (I'm usually one strange elevator movement away from popping a tranquilizer, because, you see, the elevator might stop and TRAP ME INSIDE SO THAT I CAN'T GET OUT!!!). So, if you see me crowding the front of the elevator and elbowing people aside to get out first, please remember that claustrophobes are people too, and we're not all lucky enough to work in buildings where we can walk up the stairs. (Of course, not all jerks on elevators are claustrophobes - some are, though. :))

Oh, with regard to the hijack - Mort Furd, you did come off pretty heavy-handed and pedantic.

[Mort Furd]

Originally posted by featherlou
Oh, with regard to the hijack - Mort Furd, you did come off pretty heavy-handed and pedantic.
Quite right. Is this or is this not the Pit? Incorrect word usage irks me no end. It grates on my nerves like the "could've" "could of" and "you're" "your" mix ups.
I stand corrected. A nimrod is a putz (among other things.)

[Kayeby]

Originally posted by Superdude
10) Do not fart on the elevator.
Personally, I would have put this as your number 1. There's nothing worse than being on a hot, stuffy elevator, and then suddenly ... oh dear God, the smell! :eek:

[Olentzero]

I love having access to this thing online! Hours of word-searching fun.

The word "Nimrod" has two meanings detailed therein:


1. A tyrannical ruler; a tyrant. Obs.

2. A great hunter; one who is fond of, or given to, hunting.

Interesting, no? Nearby, we have the word "nimpy-pimpy", meaning:

Mincing, affected, trifling, lacking in force or spirit.

So... Mort Furd's obsessions with such nincety-finceties

A trifling matter

as the proper usage of words according to definitions given in dictionaries, his pedantic attempts at browbeating us into limiting our usage of same, and his final re-lurking behind a cloud of bemoaning the loss of English to the forces of evolution, makes him nothing more than a...

oh, tell me you don't see this coming!

nimpy-pimpy Nimrod.

[Gyrate]

If it's any consolation, it's taken me years not to cavil each time I hear someone use "disrespect" as a verb.

And speaking of cavilling, my elevator-related gripe:

Anyone of any age who pushes all the floor buttons and then gets out, leaving some other poor souls to suffer an interminable journey should be forced to work as an elevator operator for a period of not less than five years. Complete with silly uniform.

[AtomicDog]

A few years ago, the X-Men comic had a model of mutant hunting Sentinel robot called Nimrod.

[obfusciatrist]

There is a definition of "maroon" that refers to people:

Main Entry: 1ma·roon
Pronunciation: m&-'rün
Function: noun
Etymology: French maron, marron, modification of American Spanish cimarrón, from cimarrón wild, savage
Date: 1666
1 capitalized : a fugitive black slave of the West Indies and Guiana in the 17th and 18th centuries; also : a descendant of such a slave

But this doesn't really seem appropriate to the way in which Bugs Bunny used the term. According to the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, the use of the term to mean "a stupid person" dates back to the 40s.

I did some searching on this word a couple years ago and found a web site that supported a derivation from the definition above (unfortunately I can't find it again so this is just hearsay). According to that source, the word came into general culture through the Jazz sub-culture in the 30s and 40s where it was a derogatory term used by American blacks in reference to the "stupid" immigrant blacks from the Carribbean. It quickly became a general term for stupidity.

I have no opinion on the likeliness of that etymology, but I figured I would throw it out there. (The Pit is the place for this kind of thing, right?)

[teela brown]

Regarding the OP, I can't believe no one has mentioned this one:

If you're boarding an elevator which already contains passengers, DON'T keep the door from closing so that you can continue your excruciatingly prolonged conversation with your buddies who aren't joining you. Sample conversation:

"Are you coming down now?"
"No, me 'n' Jackie are waiting for Tiffany."
"Wanna meet me at Chili's tonight?"
"What time are you gonna be there?"
"Well, I gotta go to the store 'n' get my pictures before they close."
"Well, just show up anyway. We'll still be there."
"Why dontcha call Steph and tell tell her to meet us?"
"Uh-uh, Steph doesn't like Chili's."
"Hey, I know, let's go to the Cheesecake Factory then!"
"Nuh-uh, they're too expensive!"

etc., etc. Meanwhile, the combined blood pressure of everyone else on the elevator is high enough to give a whole continent cardiac arrest. Get on the elevator or be shoved down the shaft, nitwit!

[bashere]

I want to thank Mort Fund for the definition of Nimrod. That Bugs Bunny joke makes a lot more sense now. Don't worry too much about the people screaming at you - there is more than one thread devoted to the "real" definition of words, and this is hardly the most heated of them.


On the OP - while we're on the subject, what possess building architects to disallow entry into stairways from the bottom of the stairs? In this building and the last one I worked in, I could go down the stairs to the outside world, but could not reenter the stairwell for outside, even with my key card. Fucking annoying to have to go back inside and take an elevator up one floor.

[Enderw24]

I honestly don't know which I find to be more disconcerting, the fact that Mort Furd doesn't accept that there can be an alternate definition of a word, or that he's using Bugs Bunny cartoons as the standard for proper English.

Oh sure, he's got the Bible too. Because that's the first place that I look to determine what the Lord Our God, Ruler of the Universe, King of Kings and Savior of Man has decided what the correct usage of nimrod would be. Never mind that the Bible's been translated from Greek to Roman to Latin to Hebrew to the African Clicking Language and through France before taking a weekend trip up to England to be translated in a language we can read. Of course nimrod must mean mighty hunter for that's what the Good Book says.

In case you were wondering, Mort Furd, the word putz has several definitions, idiot being only one of them. A person who putters is another. A penis is a third. The act of shooting semen out of a penis would be a fourth. Mighty hunter indeed.

My suggestion? Don't putz around on the elevators.

[partly_warmer]

Originally posted by Mort Furd
Originally posted by featherlou
Oh, with regard to the hijack - Mort Furd, you did come off pretty heavy-handed and pedantic.
Quite right. Is this or is this not the Pit? Incorrect word usage irks me no end. It grates on my nerves like the "could've" "could of" and "you're" "your" mix ups.
I stand corrected. A nimrod is a putz (among other things.)

There is, of course, nothing absolute about the Webster's. In particular, as they say in the introduction, a dictionary has many goals. They list comprehensiveness third out of three for them.

There is, as you probably have noticed, no rule against making up words, and even making up usage. Otherwise Shakespeare's vocabulary would be the same as ours today. What particularly irks me is some equivalent of a high school marm telling me that my use of the language is wrong--when clearly the person I'm addressing has understood me.

The failure of "your" and "you're" mixups ups is that they: a) slow the reader down, b) suggest the author isn't careful with their English, c) teach kids and small animals bad habits.

[Eve]

I am thoroughly enjoying the Bugs Bunny vs. OED quarrel, but wanted to add something to the OP:

• Do not have loud, aggravating conversations with your friends on the elevator. The worst came on a very crowded office-building elevator, where two "cheap little shopgirls" (to quote Connie Bennett in "Madame X") got on, still deciding where they should eat lunch. Shopgirl No. 1 brayed (in a voice like a kazoo blown through steel wool), "I don't wanna get pizza. CHEESE MAKES ME FART."

You have never seen so many people try to shrink their way into the walls of an elevator so fast . . .

[The Ultimate Scapegoat]

If I repeat any points made before I apolgize. I decided against scolling through all that drivel.

By the way, this being the Pit, allow me to make myself at home . .

YOU BASTARDS!!!! YOU IDIOTS!!!!!! YOUR ALL WRONG AND I'M RIGHT!!!!!! WHY DON'T YOU ARGUE THE ISSUES, YOU JACKASSES!!!!!!! IF YOU CAN'T TAKE IT, GET OUT!!!!!!! WHY WON'T YOU RESPOND TO MY JUVENILE POST??? DON'T HAVE AN ANSWER DO YOU???? HAVE YOUR HEAD UP YOUR BUTT, HUH???? BECAUSE YOU I AM RIGHT AND YOU ARE WRONG!!!!!!!!YOU WON'T RESPOND BECAUSE YOUR SCARED OF ME AREN'T YOU!!!!!!!!NEENER NEENER NEENER!!!!!!!#%#@%#!%#!^%#%&!!!!!!!!!




Ah, much better! :)

My favorite is when you are using a hotel elevator, you go down to the lobby, the doors open, and there is some A-hole with a clothes cart, blocking the doorway, trying to get on.

Or when some family has a bunch of brats, and they all run on the elevator, almost trampling you to death.

People: WHEN AN ELEVATOR DOOR OPENS, THE PEOPLE GETTING OFF OF IT HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY!!! How the F do you expect there to be room for you to get the hell on if the elevator is STILL FULL!!!!!!!????????????????

Here's some other pet peeves:

-You close the door ready to go up, when someone who was standing 100 yards away makes the 100 yard dash and sticks their arm in. Or they have a million suitcases and of course, they are only going up one floor, and of course, it takes them 2 minutes to deboard.

-Your standing waiting for the elevator, but what is holding things up is people taking forever to get on, or holding the door open so they can have a conversation.

SO TAKE THAT, YOU LOSERS!!!!!!!!!!!!! :p