Blue toothbrush

Okay, it's actually purple, but that's not what Max Bygraves sang...

Anyway, here's the proof that you can be too strenuous in brushing your gnashes. The brush don't like it...

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Blue toothbrush

Okay, it's actually purple, but that's not what Max Bygraves sang...

Anyway, here's the proof that you can be too strenuous in brushing your gnashes. The brush don't like it...

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

never read emails typed in capitals

Sometimes you just want to bang your head on the desk.

Let me explain: A few minutes ago I received an email from my gullible lackey, with the title: FW: CHECK YOUR RECEIPTS/THIS IS NOT A JOKE PLEASE READ and in the body of the email after her little homily about checking credit/debit card receipts – not bad advice in itself – was the sad tale of someone who was rather public-spiritedly warning us about a cash-back scam in Sainsbury’s.

Even before I’d got to the tale of woe and horror I was suspicious. If ever I receive something that states that it is “not a joke” and that I should “please read”, I am reasonably certain that it is at least spam. And so it was: a quick trip to snopes.com confirmed my suspicions. Sainsbury are on the receiving end in the UK of an old spam Wal-Mart complaint. The email is there on the Snopes website word-for word.

The main point of interest to me was just how obviously American the use of language is, with just the locations switched and £ signs inserted for $ symbols.

Anyway, with lackey being Nigerian, I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t pick up on the differing usage and idiom. I emailed her back saying it was spam and got the response, “but how do these things get around if they’re false?” That was the ‘bang-head-on-desk’ moment.

Because people – and I’m pointing no fingers here – read and forward the bloody things uncritically, that’s how they get out there. That’s how it ended up in my inbox!

‘Oh. But are you sure it isn’t true..?

never read emails typed in capitals

Sometimes you just want to bang your head on the desk.

Let me explain: A few minutes ago I received an email from my gullible lackey, with the title: FW: CHECK YOUR RECEIPTS/THIS IS NOT A JOKE PLEASE READ and in the body of the email after her little homily about checking credit/debit card receipts – not bad advice in itself – was the sad tale of someone who was rather public-spiritedly warning us about a cash-back scam in Sainsbury’s.

Even before I’d got to the tale of woe and horror I was suspicious. If ever I receive something that states that it is “not a joke” and that I should “please read”, I am reasonably certain that it is at least spam. And so it was: a quick trip to snopes.com confirmed my suspicions. Sainsbury are on the receiving end in the UK of an old spam Wal-Mart complaint. The email is there on the Snopes website word-for word.

The main point of interest to me was just how obviously American the use of language is, with just the locations switched and £ signs inserted for $ symbols.

Anyway, with lackey being Nigerian, I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t pick up on the differing usage and idiom. I emailed her back saying it was spam and got the response, “but how do these things get around if they’re false?” That was the ‘bang-head-on-desk’ moment.

Because people – and I’m pointing no fingers here – read and forward the bloody things uncritically, that’s how they get out there. That’s how it ended up in my inbox!

‘Oh. But are you sure it isn’t true..?

Verbal

I first came upon the word 'moniker' as in 'name' or 'title' when I was a kid reading Fantastic Four comics (it was a word used mainly by The Thing). Over the years it would pop up from time to time, but always in the context of American (usually New York) speech. I don't recall ever seeing it in written UK English, even in quoting American usage. So, if I thought about it at all, I rather assumed it was a uniquely American term.

But in the past week, I have seen it used three times in different contexts, twice by The Times and once - today - by the BBC.

Has it just sprung meme-like into UK consciousness, or has it been there all the time and I just never noticed?

Verbal

I first came upon the word 'moniker' as in 'name' or 'title' when I was a kid reading Fantastic Four comics (it was a word used mainly by The Thing). Over the years it would pop up from time to time, but always in the context of American (usually New York) speech. I don't recall ever seeing it in written UK English, even in quoting American usage. So, if I thought about it at all, I rather assumed it was a uniquely American term.

But in the past week, I have seen it used three times in different contexts, twice by The Times and once - today - by the BBC.

Has it just sprung meme-like into UK consciousness, or has it been there all the time and I just never noticed?