# Phrases that make people in your field or group roll their eyes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2005, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446 "2005-04-15T06:04:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/21 "2005-04-15T17:33:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Post-grad students: ‘So, do you wanna, like, teach or somethin’?’ or ‘What are you going to do with _that_ degree?’ And if you’re an English grad student, the follow-up is either: “Well! I’d better watch my grammar around _you!_” or (conspiratorial whisper): “So, who _really_ wrote Shakespeare, hmm?” ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/22 "2005-04-15T17:37:09Z")
_If you’re a copywriter:_ “You want me to pay you more than $7 per hour? My secretary could write that and I wouldn’t have to pay her extra!” Then why the hell did you ask me for an estimate in the first place? _If you write magazine articles or stories:_ “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to write, too. I just don’t have as much time as you do.” Thanks, jerk. It’s my job. Just like you, I complete the duties of my job. Just 'cause I don’t have a traditional one doesn’t mean I haven’t got one. _Oh, and on writing erotica:_ “You must be obsessed with sex. You’ve got to have a really dirty, perverted mind to write garbage that.” My mind’s no dirtier than yours. I just happen to translate it better onto paper. And I manage to sell it now, too. Oh, by the way, thanks for letting me check my e-mail on your computer, but you might want to delete all that porn from your hard drive before your wife finds it. ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/23 "2005-04-15T17:39:20Z")
Television/Film production. We can always tell the newbies/semi-pros when they use the term “filming” when we’re shooting video. Even if we’re shooting film we usually just say we’re “shooting”. ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/24 "2005-04-15T17:43:27Z")
Oh yeah, another one. When the camera is rotated left to right, it’s called panning. When it’s tilted up and down it’s called aptly called tilting. Newbies just call it all panning. Can get a little confusing on the set sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/25 "2005-04-15T17:58:21Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > “So, you speak Saudi?” 😛 Bah, we all know you’r a mute. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/26 "2005-04-15T18:42:24Z")
> [@jimpatro](#): > > Oh yeah, another one. When the camera is rotated left to right, it’s called panning. When it’s tilted up and down it’s called aptly called tilting. Newbies just call it all panning. Can get a little confusing on the set sometimes. I’m afraid to think how they describe crab/truck or dolly moves. “Pan in, wil ya?” In the life of an information security administrator, at least once a week someone will perk up and ask me “Oh! Can you fix my daughter’s AOL?” \ ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/27 "2005-04-15T18:45:47Z")
> [@pasunejen](#): > > First-year grad at the University of Chicago. You? First-year undergrad at University of Toronto. Good to meet you 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/28 "2005-04-15T19:14:10Z")
Personally – Try to fix this up but don’t spend any more money or time on it. _Okay, I guess I’m done then._ Organizationally – Why don’t they just get a job and their own helath insurance? _I work for an advocacy organization that deals a lot with health care issues. The reason they don’t get a job is because there’s a 26.4% unemployment rate in their county, Wal-Mart is the last viable company in town and they aren’t hiring any more people. The reason they don’t get their own health insurance is because a) it would cost them more than $4K per year and b) they can’t get it at any price because the insurance company won’t provide insurance because they have cancer/heart disease/severe arthritis/kidney disease/lead poisoning/you name it._ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/29 "2005-04-15T19:27:49Z")
“You’re an astronomer? So, like, what’s my sign?” There’s a reason we’re calling ourselves “astrophysicists” now. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/30 "2005-04-15T19:37:18Z")
[QUOTE=CrazyCatLadyAnd my personal favorite: “Oh, he bites us all the time.”[/QUOTE] From a related field: “What, you’re gonna charge us to take a dog from the pound? You oughtta PAY us for saving him!” Err, yeah. We’re charging you to finance our second yacht, sir. This is a great profit-making venture we’re in here, running a shelter, and that seventy bucks you’ll pay to adopt a dog covers almost two thirds of the cost we’ve incurred housing it! C’mon big money! Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/31 "2005-04-15T19:40:50Z")
Bean counter checking in… - "Well the Kelley Blue Book price is … " (KBB is NOT a valid resource for determining the value of a car–read the disclaimer that comes with their quote sometime) - “My car is worth more than the average price–they only made 3,000 of them!” (if the car’s unavailability is a factor in its price, don’cha think it would also affect the value of the other 2,999 in pretty much the same way?) ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/32 "2005-04-15T19:42:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > “You’re an astronomer? So, like, what’s my sign?” > > There’s a reason we’re calling ourselves “astrophysicists” now. I had a friend who’s an astronomer (sorry, astrophysicist), who got tired of people assuming that he spent most of his time looking through an optical telescope. He also quit telling people his specialty (supernovae) because of the nonsense that it always seemed to engender. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/33 "2005-04-15T19:43:23Z")
Web/print/multimedia design: “$5000? I can do a site myself in Frontpage!” “My neighbor’s kid can do it for $10 a page, AND he’ll animate my logo.” “How much to design a website? I don’t know how big it’ll be or what will be on it yet, though.” “Why doesn’t more stuff move on the site?” “I want everyone who visits to see the flash intro every time. Of course no skip button!” “Can’t you write all the copy for the site/ad/doc yourself?” “Wow, you’re a great designer! We’d like you to work with our designer; he doesn’t know how to do websites but design is design, right? So he’ll do the design and you make it into a website.” “While you’re at it, can you design our company’s logo? That won’t cost extra, right?” “Can you do the site in Flash?” \*(Ok, maybe it’s just me that rolls my eyes at this…) \* ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/34 "2005-04-15T20:05:53Z")
> [@Gaudere](#): > > “Can you do the site in Flash?” \*(Ok, maybe it’s just me that rolls my eyes at this…) \* If it makes you feel any better, I loathe overly-animated Flash sites. They drive me nuts. Just because your designer _knows_ how to make everything move on your site doesn’t mean they should. And if they must, then at least offer an escape button so they can move onto the actual site rather then be stuck watching crap bounce all over the screen. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/35 "2005-04-15T20:11:27Z")
“Oh, that’s alright, dear. I’ll just wait for the doctor.” (after asking what problem the patient is here for.) “I don’t really know what medications I’m taking. It’s for my heart and my diabetes, though. Does that help?” “Can’t you just give me a pill for it?” Also, analogies of cars to human bodies. For some reason, there’s an assumption that everyone should heal at the same rate in the same way. GAH! Cars. Are. Not. People. I cannot tell you exactly how fast you will heal or how well. That part’s up to you. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/36 "2005-04-15T20:17:50Z")
> [@pasunejen](#): > > The next time I tell someone I’m in Linguistics and they ask me how many languages I know, I will scream. Um, why? All the linguistics folks I knew at school had multiple languages. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/37 "2005-04-15T20:23:47Z")
People who do legitimate health-related massage are now called Massage Therapists. A “masseuse” is someone like Candi’s Heavenly Hands Massage. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/38 "2005-04-15T20:31:38Z")
“We can’t spend $3,000 on a pony! But our neighbor has a foal we can have for $300. I’m going to buy it so my 8 year-old, inexperienced child and it can grow up together! No, I have no experience training young horses… why do you ask?” Not enough :rolleyes: in the universe for this plan. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/39 "2005-04-15T20:33:18Z")
I forgot to add, there’s even a slogan that describes the results of this idea: green + green = black & blue. (green being a term for an inexperienced horse or rider) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446/40 "2005-04-15T22:24:08Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > Um, why? All the linguistics folks I knew at school had multiple languages. People ask this because they believe that studying linguistics _is_ learning multiple languages, rather than studying their structure. Most of the people in my linguistics program spoke English and maybe French. Just because you study Malagasy doesn’t mean you necessarily speak it. (And yes, this question was always additionally embarrassing for me because I actually do speak five languages, so I couldn’t say “one” and forestall further comment. I usually stammered out, “Well, linguistics isn’t just learning languages - it’s the study of language itself,” or some similar platitude.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-that-make-people-in-your-field-or-group-roll-their-eyes/299446.md?page=3)