# Things you misinterpret on purpose **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 15, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588 "2021-07-15T23:25:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/1 "2021-07-15T23:25:15Z")
I’ve been hearing this ad on NPR lately… sorry, I mean “underwriters credit” or whatever they call them. It’s for some software they claim will “help everyone in the enterprise work with and understand data”. And while I understand what they actually mean, I like to imagine they’re actually saying they will help everyone in the Starship Enterprise work with and understand Data, the android. That’s what they get for using the buzzword “enterprise” in place of “business” or “company”, I say. Do you ever do that? Are there any phrases you choose to interpret in a different way from the intended meaning, just because you find it funny? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/2 "2021-07-16T02:12:48Z")
I assume you didn’t misinterpret the correct forum for this on purpose 😉 (this was mistakenly posted to ATMB). Moved to IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/3 "2021-07-16T02:38:34Z")
D’oh! I actually meant to put it in MPSIMS, but this is fine. I was wondering why I couldn’t find this thread. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/4 "2021-07-16T03:52:49Z")
Moved to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/5 "2021-07-16T06:34:13Z")
A podcast I listen to ends with the host listing all their social media handles. The last one is “for all you Tweeters out there,” which I always translate to “all you Tweakers.” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/6 "2021-07-16T07:09:11Z")
To me “af” has always abbreviated “auto-focus”, so I prefer to continue that. So I read comments–for example–about things that are racist auto-focus. ---
**Author:** ![Esturionette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9d8465/32.png) [@Esturionette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esturionette)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/7 "2021-07-16T09:21:13Z")
I get annoyed when customers ask for a receipt - because they will always get one, whether they want one or not, and the only reason they don’t have one in front of them is that the printer is still processing it. For this reason, as soon as the card machine goes “beep”, I say: I’ll make you a receipt. I know it’s weird, and i could say “I’ll print a receipt”, or “The receipt is printing”, but i like to imagine waving a magic wand and turning them into a piece of paper on the floor. ---
**Author:** ![Esturionette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9d8465/32.png) [@Esturionette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esturionette)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/8 "2021-07-16T09:24:15Z")
**Darren\_Garrison’s** comment made me think of something else. My mind automatically reads CBT as cock-and-ball torture. It makes reading about cognitive behavioural therapy much more entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/9 "2021-07-16T10:53:18Z")
This happened whet the House Un-American Activities Committee had to red-facedly change its name to House Committee on U-American Activities. Also recently, the Texas Legislature passed a law prohibiting “anything resembling marriage”. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/10 "2021-07-16T15:42:08Z")
I’m a fan of Pat Benetar. Whenever I’m cooking I like to sing _Life is too short, so why waste precious thyme?_ > [@Esturionette](#): > > My mind automatically reads CBT as cock-and-ball torture. It makes reading about cognitive behavioural therapy much more entertaining. Meanwhile I’m married to a behavioral psychologist, so I’m like, “I had no idea all these people had a fetish for evidence-based interventions!” ---
**Author:** ![TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thegunismightierthanthepen/32/2981_2.png) [@TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGunIsMightierThanThePen)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/11 "2021-07-16T16:57:27Z")
Whenever people talk about POS systems in stores, I always read it as “piece of shit” systems (which they sometimes are!) When people reply “QFT” in a thread, I always think “quit fuckin’ talking!” ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/12 "2021-07-16T17:04:21Z")
It’s always fun to move the hyphen when someone mentions a big-ass thing. If someone talks about a big-ass truck, I think of it as a big ass-truck. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/13 "2021-07-16T17:11:24Z")
NPR also used to run a sponsorship announcement from a visiting eldercare service that performed “light housework,” which I always opted to interpret as “lighthouse work.” ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/14 "2021-07-16T17:47:33Z")
Obligatory XKCD link > **[Hyphen](https://xkcd.com/37/)** > > I do this constantly ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/15 "2021-07-16T22:09:27Z")
There is an animated TV show called “Pokemon Diamond & Pearl”. The newspaper channel guide lists it as “Pokemon DP”. That creates some interesting mental imagery. Whenever I hear the song “Life is a Highway”, my brain twists the lyrics to > Your Hershey Highway, > I want to ride it all night long. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/16 "2021-07-17T00:12:15Z")
> [@TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](#): > > When people reply “QFT” in a thread, I always think “quit fuckin’ talking!” It reads better as “Quit Fucking Trolling” but never admit you’re thinking that anywhere but the pit. 🙂 (mods please do not read that as me accusing anyone in this thread) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/17 "2021-07-17T00:45:38Z")
I also think of POS as “piece/pile of shit” rather than “point of sale”, but probably because my wife worked in retail for a number of years and was always complaining about how the POS systems were POSes. (It seems like they would bring in a new system about every four or five years, and the new system was always consistently worse than what it replaced.) ---
**Author:** ![blabbermeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9a140/32.png) [@blabbermeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blabbermeister)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/18 "2021-07-18T16:04:04Z")
I pretend to panic when I see the word “disrupt” used in a business context. OMG, this new company’s product is disrupting the \_\_\_\_\_\_ industry - quick, someone call the police! ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/19 "2021-07-18T18:57:17Z")
Shohei Ohtani is a baseball phenomenon who is both a 100 mph pitcher and leads the league in home runs. He is the modern version of Babe Ruth. Anyway, he originally hails from Japan, where he played for the Nippon Ham Fighters. Except they don’t “fight ham” - rather, the team are the Fighters, and Nippon Ham is the club name (and derives from a food company). ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588/20 "2021-07-19T00:30:21Z")
When you get to the end of a road construction zone, and there’s the sign “END ROAD WORK”… I always like to think of it as a protest sign. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-misinterpret-on-purpose/946588.md?page=2)