For the first time in along time, I heard the phrase “living in the real world” yesterday. It’s always bugged me. What does it even mean? If I’m not in the real world, where am I? Here?
On the other hand, I’ve always liked “make a mile” and “going like a raped ape”.
I like saying “it’s all over dust!” rather than “it’s covered with dust.” Just a weird quirk of mine.
It means you are deluding yourself and living in a fantasy world.
I hate “You’re either with me or against me” and its cousin “You’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.”
I HATE ‘it is what it is’ My sister uses it all the time. GRRARRGGGHH.
I’m rather fond of ‘if your grandmother had wheels she’d be a car’ although I’ve never used it.
Not really a phrase or saying, but I absolutely despise guesstimate.
S^G
You know what’s always bugged me? “If wishes were wings, pigs would fly.” What does that even mean? Are there a lot of people out there wishing that pigs could fly? Or maybe there are a lot of pigs out there with wishes, not necessarily about wings?
“That’s not my problem” is going to make me blow something up someday. It is completely immature and passive aggressive plus extremely hostile and condescending. Even if that is somewhat true, the person should offer guidance about why that is and/or where you can seek further help. My cunt/bitch graduate school advisor would throw that phrase out on a whim. You could be expressing any type of legitimate concern and she would simply reply “That’s not my problem” whether it is getting your car fixed, handling a minor conflict with a coworker, or seeing a family member that traveled 2000 miles to see me 2 hours on a late Sunday afternoon when she decided that she might want something during that time. I would never say that to someone and I would probably lose my professional job if I did. What would happen if you made a customer service call and the person responded “That’s not my problem.” They make $10 an hour. Why would a professional ever say something like that?
Um, no. It means that expecting things to happen merely because you wish for them (or maybe pray for them) is as absurd as expecting pigs to fly.
I KNOW what it means. I’m just saying the sentence is structured weirdly. Leave me and my irrational hatred in peace.
The next time I get a note from my boss saying that “This thing needs fixed and the other thing needs cleaned,” instead of “This thing needs to be fixed and the other thing needs to be cleaned,” I’m gonna snap…
Joe
Sorry, I didn’t mean to thread-shit. But it does seem to me that the weird structure of the sentence is part of the point, as the phrase boils down to “you’re an idiot.”
Getting on topic, I am reliably vexed by persons exhorting other persons to “give 110 percent.” Hearing that phrase causes me to have to sit on my hands lest I strangle the utterer.
People of Color
I despise this phrase with every quantum unit of my existence.
It divides the world into two camps. White People, and People of Color. As such, every time I hear it I assume that the user is a Racist. If they’re white, they must dislike non-whites. If they’re non-white, then they hate white people. I simply cannot figure out how “People of Color” can be viewed as this monolithic group excluding only white people; except in terms of Racism, even if that goes completely unrecognized by the user.
I hate “It’s a no-brainer.” Haaaaaate. NO, DUDE, YOU’RE THE ONE WITH NO BRAIN HUH HUH HUH.
Sorry. If you ever want me to stop liking you, use that phrase and you’re golden.
“That’s a whole nother thing.”
Arrived at by parsing “another” and shoving “whole” in there.
Also, “That’s how I roll.” Totally done to death.
It’s meta-humor now. Only reason anyone keeps using it… I hope.
I always love dropping the proverb “[and] fools seldom differ.” After someone uses the phrase (that irks me to no end) “great minds think alike.”
“Sweating like a hooker in church” always had a special place in my heart.
"At the end of the day" makes me cringe. Sometimes I play a little game with myself while watching news,commentary, interviews, etc. on television. I try to guess how far into the program before the first “at the end of the day” is uttered.
I think you’re missing the point. It’s a less cumbersome way of saying “minority person,” because groups that we consider to be minorities - such as Latinos, for instance, aren’t accurately described as “minorities” in some places. Plus the word “minority” is somewhat pejorative.
We use “students of color” to describe the non-White students we admit into our academic programs.
Working in a collegiate setting, I hear “in the real world” all of the time. It annoys the shit out of me as well. I worked my way through college, often holding two jobs, involved in plenty of activities, and made decent grades. When I graduated it was much of the same, only I exerted a lot less mental energy. I guess if Mom and Dad are bankrolling you through an extended adolescence, it might not be real, but it was real to me!
[QUOTE=Chimera]
People of Color
I despise this phrase with every quantum unit of my existence./QUOTE]
Yeah, I’m with you on this one Chimera. I most often hear it coming from either a middle aged, priviledged, guilt ridden, white woman or an hispanic woman who wants you to know she is a suffering minority but not black.
BTW: I have grey hair, blue eyes, off white skin, pink lips and little brown freckles on my back. I am one colorful dude!
Whoever came up with “incentivized” should be shot.