Pennsylvanian isn’t a dialect. It’s Appalachian dialect. Nd you’ll find that syntax throughout the Appalachian region, not just Pennsylvania. For example, it’s also common in southeast Ohio and West Virginia.
“As we all know…”
If we all know it, then STFU. Why should I listen to you?
At least once, every time I look at my news feed:
DO (X). IT’S GENIUS!
I believe your assessment of the situation is spot on!
“Salad” is a very important qualifier in the sentence. However, without further context, its qualifying purpose is ambiguous to us (the reader), but perhaps not to the employee, who may have more knowledge about the eating habits of the boss.
If the boss is known for eating single-course meals, “salad” is simply a more precise substitution for “lunch.” The boss may be a get-to-know-me kinda guy and wants to share with his employee a snippet of his personal life (i.e. you are interrupting my meal; and by the way, I’m a salad-eater). This, of course, could also be a stealth brag. Implication: I’m a person who takes care of himself by eating health-conscious salads for lunch, not some barbarian who gnaws raw flesh from dead animals!..and by the way, you’re interrupting my meal.
If the boss is known for eating multi-course lunches, then he is implying that not only are you interrupting his lunch, you are interrupting it at the very beginning of his multi-course meal. This is far more sympathy-whoring than saying. “I haven’t even had time to have my after-dinner mint yet.” Big deal vs. little deal.
That is, disappointing.
The guys on Red Letter Media drop the infinitive sometimes. They’re from Wisconsin.
Within days after I introduced this topic, I started listening to Heartland by Sarah Smarsh. She grew up in Kansas, and uses this syntax multiple times throughout the book.
Mentioned “reading the tea leaves” earlier.
Someone said it today.
I didn’t kill that person.
“China is afraid of having a democracy on their border.”
BULLSHIT! China already has democracies–plural–on their border. They’re not afraid of South Korea expanding. They’re afraid of the demographic fallout of North Korea collapsing. The northerners are not going to en masse run to the south. They will flee the country if they can and that leaves two options: Russia, which is not realistic, and China, which rounds up North Korean refugees for repatriation. Why China? China already has a native-Korean speaking population. And why does China send the northerners back? Can’t have someone showing that it’s okay to leave a country whose government you don’t like, right? The Chinese government is already a tad touchy about Xinjiang and Tibet. Having millions of non-Han immigrate won’t make the Chinese government (or society, for that matter) act all fuzzy and nice towards the new influx.
I agree the tagline you cite as BS is BS. For most of the reasons you cite.
But if NK collapses, the NK folks have 3 places to flee, not just 2: SK, China, and Russia. My bet is they’ll strongly prefer SK over Doors #2 or #3. Obviously SK will have something to say about this. But SK internal politics will also favor accepting a bunch of their con-ethnic pals up north.
Oh, yeah; they’ll prefer going to South Korea and they’ll likely have that as their ultimate destination. They’re not crossing the North/South border en masse though. South Korea would be an ultimate destinatin, after going through the hell they’ll have to go through in China to get there.
I was just reading an article about some of the Coca-Cola Company’s plans for 2023, and the quote from the president of Coke reminded me of the above, and the many other posts I’ve made about how much I loathe biz-speak. Here is what he said – it’s all biz-speak, but the part I bolded is the best:
“Package innovation takes a bigger role,” when shoppers are worried about spending, CEO James Quincey said Tuesday during an analyst call discussing third-quarter results. “We will be approaching ’23 with a broad innovation agenda, but with some slight weighting to packaging.”
“It’s about extending the price ladder,” Quincey said, “making sure the entry price point … becomes as low down in the price spectrum, the actual out-of-pocket, as possible.”
What the hell does this mean?
Here is a translation of exactly what he meant, in English instead of biz-speak:
“Consumers are trying to spend less, so we’ll be offering versions of our products that will be cheaper because they’ll contain less product.”
Here’s the thing, though. You don’t get to earn $25 million a year (yes, that’s what James Quincey, Coke CEO, actually makes) by saying that consumers are watching their spending so we’re going to be selling Coke in smaller bottles or smaller packages. Any fool can say that. You earn $25 million by talking about package innovation, broad innovation agendas, extending price ladders, entry price points, price spectra, and many other things that mean that your Coke bottles will be smaller, but that sound like you’re really earning your keep. Hell, for $25 mil in salary, that “broad innovaton agenda” might even include a new New Coke that’s even worse than the old New Coke – or, excuse me, that represents a laterally-adjacent strategic flavour adjustment whose acceptance profile deviated from our idealized trajectory.
Buy that man a drink! He’s a double-speak genius.
Yeah. The thing I find so utterly offputting is the absolute contempt it demonstrates for the intended audience. We’re going to call you an idiot to your face by saying stuff obviously adverse to your interests but doing so in a convoluted way every business and finance person will instantly understand, but zero customers will.
Or for internal corporate propaganda, it’s bad news that every manager at/above level 3 will understand as such while all employees of level 4 and below will totally fall for applauding their screwing that was just announced.
Hint: if your message has to be delivered in liar’s code, maybe you should be delivering a different message.
Peace.
(when parting ways)
“Should have went.” I truly despise hearing thatt. It’s even worse where I am now because generally the only people I hear saying it happen to be English teachers.
One that I find astonishing and offensive is “drink the Kool-Aid” used in a positive sense, another way of saying, “get on board” with an idea or an approach.
“This is important to the company, so we really want everyone to drink the Kool-Aid on this.”
This used to describe total acceptance of a wild and probably harmful ideology, but in recent years I’ve heard muckety-mucks use it as above.
Have none of these people actually read about the Jonestown massacre? The 918 dead? The parents who were forced to give cyanide to their children? Or has the passage of 44 years been enough to make it emotionally neutral?
Ya but… the Jonestown nastiness involved Flavor-Aid. Drinking the Kool-Aid results only in good things.
Oh Yeah!
To be fair, the series of Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests generally turned out well for everyone involved.
Certainly for Tom Wolfe, at least.
well, the bus driver not so much
“Every accusation is a confession”
I mean, it’s a useful metaphor for projection, hypocrisy, but it’s really getting tiresome to see posts where that phrase is the sole content.
all the fucking projection is getting tiresome, TYVM