Thursday, February 18, 2010

Bad phrases

There are a number of phrases that, at least to me, say "I know I'm being annoying, but..." Here's the short list:
Actually...
Just FYI...
Just letting you know.
I'm not trying to be rude but...
Just sayin'.

"Actually" bugs me because it's the natural crutch of the socially stunted know it all, which I resemble way too much myself. It's hard not to imagine the little derisive dork chuckle before hearing, "Actually, the atomic weight of oxygen is 14." (That's a plant to see which of my buddies can resist correcting me.)
The top three give us a peek at the inner child screaming "I know more than you do! Ha, ha!" with a slightly more mature gloss on it. "Just" isn't an inherently bad word, but here it distances the speaker from their own message. It's a little confession that they don't want to be associated with the message, and they expect to get some flack for delivering it- either the listener won't care at all, or they won't like what they're hearing.

Sure, I love having more information about how things actually are, and I don't want folks to be rude, but these are so over used in irritating contexts that they themselves are tainted. They raise my hackles all on their own. If someone were simply to say, "Just FYI, not trying to be rude or anything, but you're actually the most handsome man on the planet. Just to let you know." I'd probably punch them.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Zoe on the white board


I had some stuff to fix at work, and Zoe and I were in the neighborhood because we'd just finished up a belly dancing class, so we wandered into the office. Here's what she drew on the white board: