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Joined: Nov 2001
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journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 74 |
...and now for something completely different.
Consider the word now, a perfectly understandable three-letter word, usable in all sorts of timely constuctions and situations. Why, now, are we burdened with a whole list of tortured phrases (and what's wrong with them, anyway?)
at this point in time - This is a redundancy, brought to us courtesy of NASA, which used it to distinguish between a point in time and a point in space. The Nixonites picked it up at that point in time -- it sounds more important than now or then.
at the present time - As with the previous, why not simply say at present or now, if needed at all.
at this juncture of time - Again, this is redundant, as this sense of juncture already suggests a convergence of events or circumstances at a certain point (in time).
in the current time frame - This is ugly computerese, much in use now in lesson planning as well as in the office.
snoot
The Lone Haranguer
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
Welcome, snoot. (If that *truly is your nickname  ) As words and phrases are elongated for an "air of extravagance" (or whatever they wish to smell like), I hold my nose, and ---- in thier general direction!  This, by no means, argues against the validity of the funtionality of specific phrases (except this one). in the current time frame - Athough used most often with the certain stench I alluded to above, it does have a specific use... and I'm still waiting for the opportunity... no, the duty to use it there.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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Hello, Snoot.
You are deservedly snooty. You remind me of tsuwm, by the way. Between the two of you, we'll have two snoots for the price of one! Welcome! If you have any questions, just ask tsuwm! You've got a kindred spirit there.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Or: At this juncture in time is for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Blagh!
If you ever took Typing I in Virginia, you would be familiar with those good men.
How now, brown cow?
How at this point in time, brown cow?
While we labor more, we lose the poetry.
Best regards,
WW
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
A SNOOT can be defined as somebody who knows what dysphemism means and doesn't mind letting you know it.
I submit that we SNOOTs are just about the last remaining kind of truly elitist nerd. There are, granted, plenty of nerd-species in today's America, and some of these are elitist within their own nerdy purview (e.g., the skinny, carbuncular, semi-autistic Computer Nerd moves instantly up on the totem pole of status when your screen freezes and now you need his help, and the bland condescension with which he performs the two occult keystrokes that unfreeze your screen is both elitist and situationally valid). But the SNOOT's purview is interhuman social life itself. You don't, after all (despite withering cultural pressure), have to use a computer, but you can't escape language: Language is everything and everywhere; it's what lets us have anything to do with one another; it's what separates us from the animals; Genesis 11:7-10 and so on. And we SNOOTS know when and how to hyphenate phrasal adjectives and to keep participles from dangling, and we know that we know, and we know how very few other Americans know this stuff or even care, and we judge them accordingly.
In ways that certain of us are uncomfortable about, SNOOTs' attitudes about contemporary usage resemble religious/political conservatives' attitudes about contemporary culture:(4) We combine a missionary zeal and a near-neural faith in our beliefs' importance with a curmudgeonly hell-in-a-handbasket despair at the way English is routinely manhandled and corrupted by supposedly educated people. The Evil is all around us: boners and clunkers and solecistic howlers and bursts of voguish linguistic methane that make any SNOOT's cheek twitch and forehead darken. A fellow SNOOT I know likes to say that listening to most people's English feels like watching somebody use a Stradivarius to pound nails. We(5) are the Few, the Proud, the Appalled at Everyone Else.
From an article with url posted in Loanwords from German
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
You remind me of tsuwm, by the way. At this juncture that has to be the quickest *classification I've ever heard... if not the most laborious.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
"Sprachgefuhl Necessitates Our Ongoing Tendance" or "Syntax Nudniks of Our Time" depending on whether or not you are one.
Of course I would argue that having Sprachgefühl would prevent one from being a SNOOT. But then, perhaps the fact that it necessitates tendance would argue for the SNOOT's lack of Sprachgefühl.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Stream-of-consciousness: snoot...snootful...snootful dodger
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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So then, consuelo, ya mean t'aint no room in that thar Snootville for none of them derivatory dialects? Sheesh! I sure wouldn't want to be on Snooty Duty!
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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And, I cannot stop myself, there's Snoody Duty in its various guises:
--Grand overseer of the barnyard;
--Cookin' in the kitchen, Thanksgiving day;
--First fiddle for "Snoody in the Straw," aka "Turkey in the Straw"
--And why's that turkey in the straw (ha! ha! ha!) with his little snood turnin' blue?: Hidin' from the farmer's wife with her Thanksgiving carving knife...
--And why's that turkey in the hay (hey! hey! hey!) with his snood turnin' bright red?: Rollin' in it with his favorite turkey hen....
Best regards,
WordWattle
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