Pointless rant thread

I could also rant about the prevalence of ignorant misquotations. "I see no ships" is one that particularly annoys me.

But maybe that would be extending the scope of this thread too far and might instead deserve one of its own.
 
exchemist said:
Yes conjuring up verbs from nouns is a horrible habit, one of my bêtes noires being "to showcase". Also using transitive verbs as if they are suddently intransitive, e.g. an ad campaign has "launched". Has launched what? It has been launched.
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"We're trying to grow the company" instead of "We expect earnings growth this quarter".
 
Seattle said:
"We're trying to grow the company" instead of "We expect earnings growth this quarter".
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Well one can grow plants, so there is a verb “to grow”. So I think that one is legit, if slightly tiresome corporate-speak. But a showcase is a noun. The relevant verbs would be to show, display or exhibit.
 
exchemist said:
Well one can grow plants, so there is a verb “to grow”. So I think that one is legit, if slightly tiresome corporate-speak. But a showcase is a noun. The relevant verbs would be to show, display or exhibit.
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Does "to showcase" not suggest a showing/displaying/exhibiting specifically to highlight the positives? That makes it sufficiently different from those others to be acceptable, I think. :)
 
Sarkus said:
Does "to showcase" not suggest a showing/displaying/exhibiting specifically to highlight the positives? That makes it sufficiently different from those others to be acceptable, I think. :)
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As in to show off, you mean?
 
exchemist said:
As in to show off, you mean?
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Similar, but still differences, I think. "To show off" suggests a boastful display. It speaks to the involvement of the ego rather than a focus solely on that which is being displayed. There is overlap in usage, of course.
 
parmalee said:
Yeah, but Quentin helped me to conceptualize truth, or "truth", differently and his loquaciousness was key. (This was a time before I got into philosophy proper, and quite a time before A Thousand Plateaus--so I woulda gotten there eventually anyway--but the form was more palatable to an adolescent mind.)

In Absalom, Absalom!, he delivers a 1,288 word, single sentence spiel to his roommate--incomplete, incongruous, and slightly incoherent. It's not entirely unlike some of Charles Manson's more epic tunes, in which he improvises freely for extended periods.
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I was somewhat in jest - Faulkner was an innovator and I sorta admire him, even if young me struggled with TSatF. There was method to the madness, a lens to look into divergent minds like Benji's and Quentin's. And once I figured out all the sudden jumps in time, the repetition was helpful. Sometimes poetic. Caddy smelled like trees in the rain.

Absalom x2: haven't had the pleasure. My pop had an edition of the Guinness Book which listed that famous sentence as the longest in literature. I think it was contested by some who felt that Molly Bloom's soliloquy in Ulysses should count as a sentence, which was quite a bit longer. IIRC, Guinness ruled that just lack of punctuation wasn't sufficient.
 
exchemist said:
Well one can grow plants, so there is a verb “to grow”. So I think that one is legit, if slightly tiresome corporate-speak. But a showcase is a noun. The relevant verbs would be to show, display or exhibit.
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I will admit that the (American?) verbified "showroom" is useful in saving some words. To showroom is to see an item on a cheap online website then go to a "bricks and mortar" merchant and look at/try out the same item on the shelf with no intention of buying it there. (The practice is one which can kill B&M stores which cannot match online vendor prices)

"That widget on MegaloCyberMart? Yeah, I went to Arabella's Widget Boutique and showroomed it."
 
exchemist said:
Well one can grow plants, so there is a verb “to grow”. So I think that one is legit, if slightly tiresome corporate-speak. But a showcase is a noun. The relevant verbs would be to show, display or exhibit.
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Ooh, I'm guilty of that one.

"Let's showcase your skills to the wider team"

I showcase
You showcase
He showcases
She showcases
We showcase
They showcase.

At least the conjugation is easy to remember.

The past tense sounds a bit crap.

"I showcased my skills to the team."

Probably because it is not a verb!
 
Pinball1970 said:
Ooh, I'm guilty of that one.

"Let's showcase your skills to the wider team"

I showcase
You showcase
He showcases
She showcases
We showcase
They showcase.

At least the conjugation is easy to remember.

The past tense sounds a bit crap.

"I showcased my skills to the team."

Probably because it is not a verb!
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Now you are just showboating...
 
Yes, and also "eatery" instead of all the real words we have for types of restaurants. Spread like a virus in the States somewhere back in the seventies.
 
Seattle said:
"We're trying to grow the company" instead of "We expect earnings growth this quarter".
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The former isn't as specific a statement as the latter. Company "growth" can be measured by a number of metrics, and each with a different focus. Growth in market share, growth in value, growth in revenue, growth in subscribers, growth in geographic footprint etc. So they're not synonymous, but do have overlap.
 
TheVat said:
I will admit that the (American?) verbified "showroom" is useful in saving some words. To showroom is to see an item on a cheap online website then go to a "bricks and mortar" merchant and look at/try out the same item on the shelf with no intention of buying it there. (The practice is one which can kill B&M stores which cannot match online vendor prices)

"That widget on MegaloCyberMart? Yeah, I went to Arabella's Widget Boutique and showroomed it."
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I do quite a bit of "webrooming" as well. ;) Researching the product online but then buying from a physical store. Especially good if (a) there's not much price difference between store and on-line (taking into account delivery etc); and (b) there's a store nearby. :)
 
Sarkus said:
I do quite a bit of "webrooming" as well. ;) Researching the product online but then buying from a physical store. Especially good if (a) there's not much price difference between store and on-line (taking into account delivery etc); and (b) there's a store nearby. :)
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Oh yes. Especially common when fixing something and you discover the need for a part. Opened up the interociter and realized the ganglia flange was cracked. Looked online, saw that it was only a dollar more at Ace Hardware, ten minutes away and they have four on the shelf.
 
TheVat said:
Yes, and also "eatery" instead of all the real words we have for types of restaurants. Spread like a virus in the States somewhere back in the seventies.
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I went out for good eats in my area, decided to do the ham sandwich and gifted some to The Vat. He likes gifting so Sarkas can also expect some in the mail. Good eats for all.
 
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