Now, I'm not one to brag about me garden. Lots of bushes, all evergreen, perennials and some nice healthy, slug proof, bedding plants this year. Arcadian paradise !
A couple of months ago I found something very odd. We have a small flowerbed by the side of the house. About 8ft by 15 inches. A bit ( a lot ) neglected 'cos it's out of sight. I decided to weed it and tidy up the bricks that border it. I worked my way about 6ft along, pulling the weeds out, forking the earth over and removing any stones and bits of rubble.
At 6ft I turned up a small brass pendant cupboard handle about 1.25 inches long, hinged with a threaded shaft to go through a door. I kept it safely in the workshop......no real use for it.
Or so I thought. Moving on a couple of months I dug out from the garage a small ,Victorian smoking cabinet we had inherited about 9 years back from MiL. One handle had been missing for as long as I can recall. You'll never guess ( you probably have ), the handles were identical..the one on the cupboard has a small star shaped escutcheon which is missing off the found one but apart from that, they're the same. I'm at a loss to know why it was in the soil just there. The cupboard hasn't been in that area. I will polish it up, remove the escutcheon from the existing one and then we'll have a matching pair.
Perhaps it's never been on the cupboard but is just a popular generic one...we'll never know.
Anyone else had a small mystery like this ?
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escutcheon
Oddly enough I was eulogising this word not so very long ago. Was there eve a better word in architectural ironmongery ? In fact I will try and slip it into a conversation tomorrow
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My favourite has always been Cartouche
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>> My favourite has always been Cartouche
>>
Oh?
I thought it was Bustouche
No?
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Mine is "pastiche", or as Julian Barnes elegantly put it, "Pistache".
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At a large company I worked for many years ago, there was a marketing director who loved the sound of his own voice, and in particular liked to use whatever the latest business speak buzz phrase was. Utter twonk as it turned out and didn't last long.
Anyway, those of us who were invited (forced) to listen to him drivel on about running things up flag poles and blue sky thinking etc used to play word games to alleviate the boredom. Basically a list would be made of obscure words on slips of paper before these interminable meetings, the slips would be shuffled and the participants would all receive three obscure words which they had to work into their verbal contributions to the meeting. Extra points were available to anyone who could get all three of their words into one sentence without being rumbled by Hotair Harry (as we nicknamed our vociferous boss)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Mon 28 Aug 17 at 15:57
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The variation on that game we played was.
those in the game in the audience would pay a fiver into a kitty, and choose a favourite buzz phrase of the time. The winner was the one who got the most right. We hd a big game going once, over 150 quid on offer. Hotair Harry was on, but couldn't understand why there were guffaws, mutterings stifled gasps of excitement, till right at the end when HH finished up "So in summary" and then proceeded to throw in three of the same favourite buzzwords into the last phrases and a bloke in the audience kept up with a huge fist pump shouting YES YES YES!
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Yes indeed, that game was sometimes known as BS bingo. Also great fun.
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Yep. Played it ! And generated it.
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Mmmm, trouble is, much as I don't use much of that stuff, I can't quite say I use none of it.
Every time someone comes out with a list for everyone else to laugh and and mock, I usually find at least one or two cause me to cringe and curl my toes at the memory.
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Its amazing how many of those say " Shut up and do as you are told"
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Number 10 always makes me cringe every time I hear it. 24 is a fairly new one to me, only heard it on the last year or so.
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10 is awful, but I think 22 is worse.
24 is an old one, been about for a long time - certainly 10 years, perhaps more.
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22 is one I've never heard anyone actually say. Perhaps this type of speaking is slow to enter my little world.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Mon 28 Aug 17 at 17:51
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In fairness I think 22 was never actually used, originating in some satirical sketch about Jargon. Its a bit of a myth that one.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 28 Aug 17 at 17:57
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I never particularly heard it, but I put tha down to being so much outside the UK or other English speaking environments.
However, I did once hear a KPMG Partner say it, in a meeting in Bogota. Though he was a complete knob.
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...oh, I've used it (with a bit of a gleam in my eye). ;-)
Where did "low-hanging fruit" go to?
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None for me these days. Although I laugh at my employer's buffoonery especially the CEO who is full of this sort of crap, and is either using it ironically - somehow I very much doubt that.
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I would have said that much of this is in common conversational usage e.g. re-inventing the wheel, moving the goalposts, level playing-field; I don't groan when I hear these.
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>> I would have said that much of this is in common conversational usage e.g. re-inventing
>> the wheel, moving the goalposts, level playing-field; I don't groan when I hear these.
Whats wrong with "using existing stuff", "stuff has changed" "all stuff is equal"
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There's not much wrong with any of them in fact, when used by someone sincere, knowledgeable who is genuinely trying to get a message across. Certainly they are not intolerable.
It is when they are trotted out for effect by the insubstantial, which is so often the case, that they become annoying.
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2 and 5 are same meaning. There's an idea afoot, whether well founded or not, that brainstorm is offensive to people with mental health conditions.
'Same Hymn Sheet' has been used in my place of work recently - supervisors had significantly different understandings of process we call 'assessment'.
Re-invent the wheel is pejorative - trying redesign a task for which we already have a workable process. Used it in somebody's performance review c 1991.
Several others are pretty much plain English.
Only ever hear run it up the flagpole (and see who salutes) used ironically.
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>>that brainstorm is offensive to people with mental health conditions.
FFS, what is the world coming to. This sort of pointless s***e is what devalues the things we should be worrying about.
WTF came up with this one?
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>> WTF came up with this one?
Unless memory is playing up I can recall exactly where/when I first heard it.
September 2001, just after 9-11 and I think the day airspace over central London was re-opened*. We were required to attend a training suite on Millbank for a post McPherson report seminar to inoculate the Department and it's delivery agencies against institutional racism.
The trainers asked us to do a 'brainstorm' exercise but used a term like mind shower. They'd been taken to task on a previous session by a staff member who identified as bipolar and found brainstorm offensive. Now how do you respond to that?
*As a one time spotter slow/low planes passing floor>ceiling picture windows are a significant distraction........
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>> a staff member who identified as bipolar and found brainstorm offensive. Now how do you respond to that?
Being bipolar does not exempt you from getting a life, nor give you the right to claim spurious offence. So a bit of serious "getting over yourself" is required.
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>> Being bipolar does not exempt you from getting a life, nor give you the right
>> to claim spurious offence. So a bit of serious "getting over yourself" is required.
Do you have experience of dealing with bi-polar people?
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Yes, I do. Very much so. I would guess more than you, though I have no way of knowing that for sure.
Not really relevant though, is it?
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Its not been taken seriously as a valid position, its still almost universally called "Brain Storming"
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"Whats wrong with "using existing stuff", "stuff has changed" "all stuff is equal""
When you are speaking to people using such graphic language, Zed, do you find that their eyes glaze over or, occasionally, they nod off?
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>> "Whats wrong with "using existing stuff", "stuff has changed" "all stuff is equal""
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>> When you are speaking to people using such graphic language, Zed, do you find that
>> their eyes glaze over or, occasionally, they nod off?
Not those who are awake after saying "reinventing the wheel moves goalposts on a level playing field"
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>>
>> realbusiness.co.uk/hr-and-management/2014/04/08/50-office-jargon-phrases-we-hate/
>>
....what I want to know is who leaked the entire contents of the Government's Brexit negotiation strategy..........
;-)
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I'm glad you found a handle for your cabinet Ted- going forward, so to speak.
Last edited by: R.P. on Mon 28 Aug 17 at 23:08
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I can sense an elephant in the room. Not on that list :))
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I bought my friend an elephant for his room.
He said: "Thanks".
I said: "Don't mention it".
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Garden find - R.P.
