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>>>but whichever the case, it certainly is NOT (as a former colleague of mine would say) a "mute point!"
-ron obvious
This comment, in another thread by Monsieur tsuwm, brings up a conundrum I face regularly.
That is precisely the type of thing that my boss will say - completely convinced that he’s got it right; and I see in the faces of the people sitting in front of us that they know he’s saying it wrong.
So waddya do? How have y’all handled this type of situation?
(Um, and I do enjoy getting my pay on a regular basis, so any suggestions involving pointing and snickering will definitely be at the bottom of the to-do list. HA!)
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in my case, it was a manager that was saying "mute point" in meetings. he also used it in an email one time, and I took the opportunity to (privately) reply pointing out his.. blunder.
he rather curtly acknowledged this; it had no effect.
-joe (my feelings were affected tho) friday
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John Bremner in his book Words on Words calls these mistakes "sonic writing"
a form if you will of a a mondegreen..
people "hear' Hares breath--and don't know (or don't recognize) breadth and so mistakes creep in.
left uncorrected, they presume they are right.
you can take it for granite, but i know a guy who bubbled over with bon ami, he and were (of course) polls apart he was a nice guy, he furnished his house peacemeal, and could fix anything with string and ceiling wax but he lacked the esprit decor.
got married, had a kid, but that kid kept him up all night balling there were things that could have been done to resolve it, but he prefered suffering to youth in asia.
(keep your brick bats, i only do this once in a while)
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formerly known as etaoin...
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got married, had a kid, but that kid kept him up all night balling
I am shocked, shocked. How old was this kid? Yeah, like artichoke.
So waddya do? How have y’all handled this type of situation?
Wait long enough and it'll become correct.
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formerly known as etaoin...
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Well Bel, you know that words serve as noisy indicators of social status and so must be used gingerly when talking to your social betters.
Take note of Faldage's lapse into a backwoods drawl when he tries to correct his betters; and tsuwm's use of a pseudonym of a pseudonym when he, as Joe Friday or Ron Obvious, corrects members of this board. This defense mechanism is sorta like wearing blackface in vaudeville theaters, it sometimes keeps people from throwing fruit.
But not always. But here is how you can cure your boss of his continuing misuse of the term "moot". You tell him...
"Hey Boss, I just got back after visiting Mr. Big Client and with careful detail I pointed out how perfectly we have been handling his account. Well, it seems that he had a list too which showed that our stuff had malfunctioned repeatedly and our repair service sucked and because of our divergent records any further discussion would be moot. All was lost.
Then suddenly I remembered what you told me, bossman, so I smiled sweetly and flattered his male ego and soon had him signed him up for three more years."
Then, Bel, I'll bet your boss will go look up the word "moot".
Last edited by themilum; 04/07/07 05:43 PM.
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