My dad and his now ex-wife had a once every two weeks house cleaner. This little 5 foot nothing woman. They’d get back home and find she’d rearranged all the furniture. They found it amusing so never said anything, though my father never could figure out how she moved the oak master bedroom set around by herself.
At a place I used to work, we had a cleaner that was moving stuff all around. We learned pretty quickly that it was an attempt to hide the fact that they were stealing things.
On TV, when one character doesn’t respect another character, they’ll keep addressing him/her by the wrong name. E.g. “Nice to see you Gary.” “It’s Gregory.” And often they keep changing the name by which they refer to him, e.g. next time: “See you tomorrow George.” “It’s Gregory.”
Does this happen in real life, actually choosing a name to call someone that’s wrong? I could see saying “I forgot your name again” or “whatever your name is” or avoiding using a name. But I don’t witness people using a name that’s wrong.
Oh yeah. Decades ago, when I worked security down in Long Beach harbor, the Harbor patrol guy took me for a ride in one of those little open sides choppers. You couldnt hear each other at all.
My grandfather did this to his son-in-law, my dad. So Dad did the same thing to him. Which is why I was twelve before I learned that my grandfather’s name wasn’t “George”.
Yes. My sister has a Finnish name, as do I, though I use the American pronunciation of mine (my parents lost the battle to use the Finnish pronunciation when I was a baby).
People have told us numerous times “oh, your name’s too hard to pronounce; I’ll just call you X”. " And I’ll just call you Fred" is the response you’ll get. 8 times out of 10 they tell you their name isn’t Fred - the other two get it. The other 8? They get told “And mine isn’t X”.
My name, as it happens, is phonetic. Marita. Fuck you if you’re too lazy to try to get it right.
Wow, this sure is a long thread and I sure haven’t read all of it so sorry if this has been mentioned:
WIECITOMBANHIRL? (the thread question)
People’s cell phones never ringing when they’re across the room instead being set only for vibrate which we as the audience hear (and see) but the phone owner doesn’t.
Wait, people are getting a name wrong when it’s pronounced exactly like it’s spelled??? Muh-REE-ta?
Up in the frozen North we have a lot of Kristens and Kirstens, and it’s hard to remember which is which. But a couple of the Kirstens have lived “down south” where NO ONE bothered to even try to pronounce KEER-sten. One gave up and had to answer to “Christie” (pronounced very perkily) the entire two years she worked in Texas.
Yep. I get Martha, Marta, Maria, Marietta, Margarita, Marika, Mary (“Marita’s too hard to remember; you don’t mind, do you?”) and just about anything else sort of but not quite Marita. Then they get offended when I won’t accept it.
I was at Best Buy here in Tucson and the cashier looked at my name and said “I have a cousin named Marita! I’ve never met another Marita.”
Me"Yes, there are a few of us around!"
Him “Do you know what she hates about her name?”
Me"That no one ever gets it right the first time?"
I’ve been to Finland several times, most memorably on the Summer Solstice. Got as far north as the reindeer farm on the Arctic Circle. It’s a beautiful country!
Many years ago, when I was a teenage Target cashier, another teenage cashier would address me as “Psst.” I kept telling her what my name was, but she would always go back to calling me “Psst”, until I started ignoring her. IDR if she did that to other people.
