Platitudes

[Lateralthinking1]

Good stuff. All horrid.

The modern version of "See you later" is "Laters".

[Lateralthinking1]

.....the one thing of many I hate in everyday communication is "baaaayaaaa". It is difficult to convey this one in writing - I am not sure of the correct spelling - but it is definitely pronounced as one syllable though slightly curved. You have to twist the temporomandibular joint on your right side downwards.

It is the shortened version of "Goodbye" that used to sound like "Bye". However, it now sounds like a depressed sheep.

Mainly used on the phone when the person has heard something slightly unwelcome but predictable from a familar caller. It is "I guess we will have to speak about it this evening but I don't want to and certainly not now. Don't ring me with this trivia."

I say "hello there" when someone greets me. I wish I wouldn't. I loathe it but I can't help it. Will it be formally addressed as a part of the Government's change agenda?

You will just have to wait for the findings. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. As it were. We need a good story. I think we also need to have an honest debate. UK plc. Brand England. I really do have to rush now for a meeting. Let's chat laters.

[Mahlerei]

Neutrinos say "See ya sooner"!

Russ

Very good

And what about 'no-brainer' and 'my bad'. And that strange habit of speaking and making every sentence sound like a question.

[greenilex]

"Sunlit uplands" which has now, I see, morphed into "calm, bright waters beyond"...

[Nick Armstrong]

"Sunlit uplands" which has now, I see, morphed into "calm, bright waters beyond"...

And while we're in that mode:

Blue-sky thinking

A green-field site / project....

[greenilex]

I suppose brown-field is always preferable tho' sounding much less tempting.

[Mandryka]

And that strange habit of speaking and making every sentence sound like a question.

I believe that's called AQI (or 'Australian Questioning Intonation'). One day - very soon - only the elderly will not use it.

[Stillhomewardbound]

To which one has to add the anecdote of Robert Morley, I believe, at a book signing in Melbourne or Sydney, when he asked a bespectacled Edna Everage clone to whom he should dedicate the book. She replied .... "Emma Chissett".

'Of course, my dear ... but if I may ask ... how are you spelling 'Chissett'?

"Nooaahh", she replied 'Ar sed 'ow much issert?!"

[Ventilhorn]

To which one has to add the anecdote of Robert Morley, I believe, at a book signing in Melbourne or Sydney, when he asked a bespectacled Edna Everage clone to whom he should dedicate the book. She replied .... "Emma Chissett".

'Of course, my dear ... but if I may ask ... how are you spelling 'Chissett'?

"Nooaahh", she replied 'Ar sed 'ow much issert?!"

We seem to be drifting away from the subject of Platitudes

A Platitude is defined as : "...a trite, dull, or obvious remark or statement" (Collins English Dictionary)

Still "Worse things happen at sea" and "Many hands make light work"; so "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth"

Perhaps we should start another thread entitled Anecdotal Apocrypha", such as 90% of those supposed Beecham stories?

"You never know until you try"!

VH

[kernelbogey]

I've been thinking we're talking here about clichés as well as platitudes, so I looked up what my computer's (US biased) dictionary has to say:

Platitude
a remark or statement, esp. one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful : she began uttering liberal platitudes; the quality of being dull, ordinary, or trite : educators willing to violate the bounds of platitude.


Cliché
a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought : the old cliché “one man's meat is another man's poison.”; a very predictable or unoriginal thing or person : each building is a mishmash of tired clichés.

[Ventilhorn]

I believe that's called AQI (or 'Australian Questioning Intonation'). One day - very soon - only the elderly will not use it.

Also known as "The Australian Interrogative."

Surprising perhaps that New Zealanders don't talk that way, but of course, many of them still retain parts of their inherited Scottish accents.

Hoots, mon!

VH

[mercia]

a bird in the hand spoils the broth

[LeMartinPecheur]

a bird in the hand spoils the broth

You're pulling the wool over my garden path!

[Ventilhorn]

You're pulling the wool over my garden path!

"There's many a truth spoken in jest"

[Nick Armstrong]

"And now, Ravel's orchestral showpiece Alborada del Gracioso" (Rob Cowan, 5.10.11, 09:08)

(Mind you, interesting version - didn't hear who due to the noise of but GREAT bassoons and cor anglais, the aural equivalent of the aroma of very ripe cheese, French I think...)