Annoying Conversation

Today, I happened across a story about a recent Marist Poll of the most annoying phrases in conversation.  Although the phrase "whatever" was cited as most annoying, there were some other interesting trends in the poll data.  For instance, the wealthier and more educated participants despised the phrase "you know" more than those with lower incomes or without a college degree.  The gender of the participant, though, seemed to play little role in what words or phrases he or she found annoying.  Regional differences, however, were significant.  In the Northeast and South, for instance, "you know" was a much closer second place to "whatever" for top verbal annoyance (nearly equal in the Northeast).  In the Midwest and South, however, "whatever" was deemed more aggravating by better than a 2:1 ratio.  "Anyway," "it is what it is," and "at the end of the day" were the remaining choices presented as part of the poll, but they were all distant trailers.

My navigation eventually carried me to a www.wired.com blog citing a list compiled by Oxford researchers and published in a book, Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, by Jeremy Butterfield, of the Top 10 Most Irritating Expressions in the English Language:

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It’s a nightmare
8 - Shouldn’t of
9 - 24/7
10 - It’s not rocket science

If I were to come up with my own list of annoying phrases, I doubt that any of these get top billing.  But then again, I'm just a simple hillbilly -- Blind Bambi.

Saturn: The Latest GM Division to Bite the Dust

While General Motors appears to be trying to re-tool and re-build the company and its image upon what it considers its "core" brands, I think it is more than a little scary that Saturn is now the latest component of GM to disappear.  While I am sure there were probably many loyal Oldsmobile customers who might disagree with me, at the time of its dismantling its cars probably offered little to no appeal over Cadillac, Buick, and even more fully-loaded Chevrolet products.  Therefore, its demise was easy to project.  Pontiac, with its arguably unique "sporty" focus, was a little less obvious.  Upon reflection, however, Pontiac also failed to distinguish itself with an attractive niche in the hearts of enough automotive consumers.  Saturn, however, was to be a "different kind of car company".  Certainly GM could, and to some extent, may have already transferred some of the innovative ideas behind the launch of Saturn into their remaining product lines.  To a large extent, however, this demise of Saturn indicates the end of an experiment in building cars to order, establishing no-haggle policies for its dealers, focusing on customer service, and treating labor and management as partners instead of adversaries.  For the sake of our nation, I hope that GM can soon return their remaining product lines to levels of profitability and quality that permit our shrinking role in the automotive industry to stabilize.

Million Dollar Shot -- One of These Days ...

I'm a sucker for stories about lottery winners, extraordinary game show payouts, and contest winners.  I play the lottery every once in awhile and enter all types of sweepstakes.  While I fully realize that the odds are against me ever seeing a large payday from these activities, hope reigns eternal when I read about improbable rewards.  In Utah, this week, a 35 year old man, who entered a charity tournament at the last minute, won $1 million for his hole-in-one.  As I play golf a lot less than I'd like to, I'm a hacker who has never been anywhere near a hole-in-one, let alone one that might net such a payday.  In just reading a story such as this, however, I can imagine it happening to me.  Just as I read the sad stories and try to empathize with the victims or their families, I read the happy ones and try to imagine myself in that position.

That's a Lot of Dog Years

I am a dog lover and have two of my own.  Today then, the news item about the death of the oldest dog in the world caught my attention.  Chanel, a female wire-haired dachshund that was 21 years old (that's 147 in dog years) died of natural causes in New York.  Now my question is how do they know she was the oldest.  Not to take anything away from Chanel (21 years is a very long life for a dog), but I would not expect canine ages (especially for all of the mutts of the world) to be meticulously documented in any type of globally searchable database.  Apparently they might not really know, as now the owner of a dog named Max from New Iberia, La., is claiming that he marked his 26th birthday on Aug. 9.  Is that 182 in dog years?  If large breeds, on average, live shorter lives than smaller breeds, is the concept of a universal "dog year" equivalent really the same for all types of dogs?  And finally, even at age 21, I have never understood the saying that a person or animal died of natural causes".  Sure, it is natural that every living being eventually dies.  But something (e.g., heart failure, etc.) always triggers the event.  That event, and not "natural causes" is what caused the death.  What do I know though?  I'm just a Blind Bambi.