Cato's Grammar Grumble

Started by Cato, February 08, 2009, 05:00:18 PM

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knight66

#700
Re discrimination. I have read the link. I but am aware of such issues in the UK. There can be discrimination that is not intentional.

Example, it was ruled that for a theatre to supply the same number of toilet cubicles for females, as cubicles plus urinals for males was sex discrimination, as women took longer to get through 'the system'.

Thus the frequent queues right out of a female toilet at the interval and the comparative lack of queues for the men's toilets.

There was nothing deliberate about the discrimination, no evidence of deliberate discrimination, but it was proved. It seemed a fair judgement to me.

Mike
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Lethevich

Fuzzy words used to legitimise even more fuzzy businesses - solution:

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Scarpia

#702
Quote from: Cato on June 22, 2009, 09:36:02 AM
Today's grumble comes from an all too true incident at a Verizon store populated by 20-somethings, who did not pay attention in school, but were told they are all winners instead of wieners, and who now labor for minimum wage under the delusion that they are all "high-tech" experts, when in reality all they have to do is put batteries in cell phones.

So...a few days ago my wife bought a recharger for our cell phones at this store.  When she opened the package, it bore the aroma of having been bought and returned: nothing inside seemed packed properly.

The recharger of course failed to charge or recharge anything except for our bank account.

So...today I am charged    :o    with the duty of returning the thing and dealing with the above 20-somethings.  I walk in and am greeted by a "phonily"  :o    merry 20-something male with a 40-pound sack of French fries hanging over his belt:

"Hi!  How ya doin' t'day?"
I : "Not too well, actually.  Where do I return defective merchandise?"
He: "Return what?"
I: (believing I used too many syllables to communicate: also possible is that he is practically deafer than my dead great-grandfather because of too many Norwegian Gruesome Slasher Death Rock Riots): "Stuff that doesn't work."
He: "Oh, uh, let's see.  Tyler over there is free right now."  

Of course: it had to be a Tyler, one of the worst possible names to hang around a manchild's neck!

Tyler is another plump but obsequious 20-something:

Tyler: "Hey!  What can we do for ya?"
I: "I would like to return this defective phone charger.  My wife bought it a few days ago.  It was disconcerting because it obviously had already been returned because it is defective."
Tyler: (long pause - I do talk a little fast) "It was disconnected?"
I: "No, I said receiving this was disconcerting."
Tyler: (looking at the charger in confusion) "Uh, so, uh, do you mean it doesn't work?"
I: "Right, it doesn't work, and somebody here knew it and put it back out for sale.  That's why it was disconcerting!  (spoken slowly).  Your store has wasted our time!"

So Tyler, I assume, learned a new word today!   0:)

Yes, the new charger does work nicely!   $:)

Mystery question: What kind of Disconcerting Music do you hear at a Disconcert?   :o

What disconcerts me is that you do not appreciate how rude you were in this encounter.  Tyler did not show up at an advanced English seminar trying to pass himself off as an intellectual, he was working at a phone store and trying to be helpful despite his limited vocabulary.  Your priority was trying to make him feel stupid for not understanding a word you used.  Despite that, he had the decency to honor your request.  Bravo for Tyler!  Too bad we can't find his twitter account and read his account of the encounter.

DavidRoss

Quote from: Scarpia on July 03, 2009, 12:30:45 PM
What disconcerts me is that you do not appreciate how rude you were in this encounter.  Tyler did not show up at an advanced English seminar trying to pass himself off as an intellectual, he was working at a phone store and trying to be helpful despite his limited vocabulary.  Your priority was trying to make him feel stupid for not understanding a word you used.  Despite that, he had the decency to honor your request.  Bravo for Tyler!  Too bad we can't find his twitter account and read his account of the encounter.
Rather than behaving rudely it sounds to me as if Cato behaved politely and patiently.  I do love the irony, however, of your presuming to give tips on manners to others.  FYI, as "nut-job" your posts were markedly more civil in tone.  Could it be that Scarpia's persona rubs off on you when you post under his name?
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

greg

Quote from: DavidRoss on July 03, 2009, 02:15:58 PM
Rather than behaving rudely it sounds to me as if Cato behaved politely and patiently.  I do love the irony, however, of your presuming to give tips on manners to others.  FYI, as "nut-job" your posts were markedly more civil in tone.  Could it be that Scarpia's persona rubs off on you when you post under his name?

Reminds me of Iago.

Cato

Quote from: DavidRoss on July 03, 2009, 02:15:58 PM
Rather than behaving rudely it sounds to me as if Cato behaved politely and patiently.  I do love the irony, however, of your presuming to give tips on manners to others.  FYI, as "nut-job" your posts were markedly more civil in tone.  Could it be that Scarpia's persona rubs off on you when you post under his name?


(My emphasis)

Thank you: yes, my tone continued to be one that he was mishearing, and not really misunderstanding or ignorant.    8)

I NEVER have a "priority" of making people "feel stupid" since that would prove nothing: "disconcerted" I do not consider a word found only in "Advanced English seminars" since it appeared in my 8th-Graders vocabulary lists.  The word is also considered part of a basic ESL vocabulary of 3,000 words. 

"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

John Copeland

QuoteCATO: "disconcerted" I do not consider a word found only in "Advanced English seminars" since it appeared in my 8th-Graders vocabulary lists.  The word is also considered part of a basic ESL vocabulary of 3,000 words.

I empathise completely with Cato.  But the story has two points:

A]  Cato is able to communicate effectively at 'normal' or elevated levels.  The 'Phone' guy can't.
B]  The 'Phone' guy can fix mobile phones.  Cato can't.

Karma Police  $:)

DavidRoss

Quote from: John on July 03, 2009, 06:13:29 PM
B]  The 'Phone' guy can fix mobile phones.  Cato can't.
Correction.  The phone guy is authorized by store management to exchange a defective battery charger for a new one that works.  8)
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

karlhenning

He may also be authorized to restock the battery charger on the shelf whether it is operable or not  ;D

John Copeland

Quote from: DavidRoss on July 03, 2009, 06:40:04 PM
Correction.  The phone guy is authorized by store management to exchange a defective battery charger for a new one that works.  8)

And cato isn't.

Scarpia

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 03, 2009, 06:42:54 PM
He may also be authorized to restock the battery charger on the shelf whether it is operable or not  ;D

I wonder what fraction of parts returned to the store as defective are actually perfectly fine.

karlhenning

Quote from: Scarpia on July 03, 2009, 11:01:33 PM
I wonder what fraction of parts returned to the store as defective are actually perfectly fine.

Not 1/1.

DavidRoss

Quote from: John on July 03, 2009, 06:49:56 PM
My features after listening to Wagner.

I see we have at least one thing in common!  ;D 
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

karlhenning

Who knew? (Apart from Cato must have known, I mean.) Title of this jazz classic is a reference to Latin grammar.

DavidRoss

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on July 04, 2009, 05:09:08 AM
Who knew? (Apart from Cato must have known, I mean.) Title of this jazz classic is a reference to Latin grammar.
As in "magnus ah um."

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat is, for me, the most beautiful, haunting, bittersweet tune ever written. 

http://www.youtube.com/v/MS7obQ7XNt4&feature=related
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Wanderer


Scarpia

Quote from: Cato on July 03, 2009, 05:58:30 PM
(My emphasis)

Thank you: yes, my tone continued to be one that he was mishearing, and not really misunderstanding or ignorant.    8)

I NEVER have a "priority" of making people "feel stupid" since that would prove nothing: "disconcerted" I do not consider a word found only in "Advanced English seminars" since it appeared in my 8th-Graders vocabulary lists.  The word is also considered part of a basic ESL vocabulary of 3,000 words. 

Sorry if I misjudged, it is hard to tell what you tone was in this encounter.  Perhaps I mistakenly attributed the sarcasm of your recounting the encounter to the encounter itself.

I did not mean to imply that "disconcerted" is a particularly obscure word.  Just that it would be more justified to dress down a person who was making a pretense of being learned than a poor sap just trying to get through the day working in customer service.

Cato

Quote from: ' on July 04, 2009, 01:27:30 PM
FWIW, I couldn't tell how much of the tone Cato used was to entertain and engage us and how much he might have used on the store clerk. I don't know him well enough to decide one way or the other.  When I read it though, I thought of a former coworker who would ask for 1.1 pound of sliced cheese as a test for the kid at the deli. Then he would come in the next day and happily complain to us all about how dumb the poor guy was.'

(My emphasis)

Aye, there's the rub, or the roob, as they say in Aberdeen!   0:)
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

John Copeland

Quote from: Cato on July 04, 2009, 02:37:30 PM
(My emphasis)

Aye, there's the rub, or the roob, as they say in Aberdeen!   0:)

Whit?
Folk in Aberdeen say "Edmund Roobra?"  That sounds more like a North East English pronunciation.  I think in Aberdeen (Scotland) if they said "Edmund Rubra" to you, you'd be pulling out your fists thinking they'd said something rude.   :-\

karlhenning

Quote from: Cato on July 04, 2009, 02:37:30 PM
(My emphasis)

Aye, there's the rub, or the roob, as they say in Aberdeen!   0:)

Aye, only there's some won't be entertained.

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