PEBKAC Abbrev., “Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair”] Used by support people, particularly at call centers and help desks. Not used with the public. Denotes pilot error as the cause of the crash... From the famous Jargon File for computer geeks. Here's another one: v like kicking dead whales down the beach: adj. Describes a slow, difficult, and disgusting process.
The Jargon File is full of these pithy phrases. I could quote a dozen more. But beware, it's a long way down that rabbit hole: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/
"Thanks and unthanks go to many, and you know who you are." - from the liner notes of first album by the band Kansas. I really miss the liner notes and other extras that came with vinyl.
"BLUES TRAVELER would like to thank everyone thanked on the last album including the people pre-thanked on the previous album, as well as the album prior to that. We know this to be a cheesy trick but it sure saves space." - From the liner notes to BT's "Four"
This post was one of the last things I saw before going to bed last night. In the middle of the night I woke up to answer the call of nature and found the guitar solo from "Carry On Wayward Son" in my head (the one on my shoulders, not the one I was heading for. Although the song was in my head when my head(s) were in the head, so I guess it works either way.)
My husband played French Horn in the orchestra at a Kansas concert about 20 years ago when they came to Wyoming. It was the first (and only) time I ever saw them in concert. I wasn't a big fan, but it was a good concert.
Real estate agents refer to my neighborhood, populated mostly by young couples starting out and older folks who have been here for years as, 'the newly wed and the nearly dead'.
Recently read a play (King Charles III by Mike Bartlett - highly recommend) that had a turn of phrase I can't get out of my head: "I hope you fail in everything you do." Exclusively because it's in iambic pentameter.
"When I have fears that I may cease to be I have another drink. Or two. Or three." --somebody much more clever than I.
Yeah, I knew that. I was just testing your poetry knowledge... and well done, you came through with flying colours
I like the current practice of naming human activities after non-human references, like gaslighting, prairie dogging, and sealioning.
Haven't heard of "sealioning" before. What does it mean? I think "prairie dogging" refers to people in cubicle farms suddenly standing up and poking their heads out to see what's happening outside. But that may just be an IT reference.
Trolling online by pretending to ask sincere questions, but just keep feigning ignorance and repeating 'polite' follow ups until someone gets fed up. That way, they can cast their opponents as attacking them and being unreasonable.
Yup yup. I could link to a few threads on here that would show this in painstaking details, but I won't.
I for one am sympathetic to the position of the sea lion (laughed out loud at the cartoon). If someone is willing to publicly state their opinion on a matter, they should at least be able to defend it when challenged, especially when it's a spicy subject. But oftentimes the person making the statement does not actually know much about the subject at hand, and very well could be mindlessly repeating the thoughts of others that they'd read uncritically. Anyway, here's the phrase that caught my attention the other day. I was looking up a Wikipedia article that lists the minimum, mandated paid time off from work by country. The article opens with the phrase, "In the majority of nations, including all industrialised nations except the United States.." I thought about that for a moment - there are more than a few ways to end that sentence !
Yup. Even mandatory paid sick time just came around in the last few years, at least in my RI. Mandatory paid vacation? Never happen. Don't ask me why. I'm trying to institute paid vacations for everyone in my company, but the dollar amount for 150 people is, well, a work in progress.
