Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Alison]

Revisited my massage therapist the other day after a gap of several months and was struck by how often she started answers to questions with 'So'.

[teamsaint]

Revisited my massage therapist the other day after a gap of several months and was struck by how often she started answers to questions with 'So'.

Was her service a bit " so- so" then, Alison?

[ahinton]

Revisited my massage therapist the other day after a gap of several months and was struck by how often she started answers to questions with 'So'.

If she'd ended them thus, she'd probably be Irish...

[ahinton]

THE News

because it is some news. Chosen by somebody. Who may be under certain pressures to include some things, and exclude other things.

and those other excluded things might be very important.

like,just as an example,more or less everything that happens in Africa.

But what would you call news bulletins of whatever dimensions instead? Often, the time is given between the definite article and the word "news", as is "the ten o'clock news", but would that suit you or do you still find the use of the definite article inappropriate? At least the programme title News at Ten omits the apparently offending article!

[Alison]

Was her service a bit " so- so" then, Alison?

So, I really like her, age 27, my 40 mile round trip was well worth it.

[Pianorak]

"Clemmie" this morning: Brahms Quartet for piano and strings op 60. "Jaime Laredo on the violin, Emanuel Ax on piano, Isaac Stern on the violin and Yo Yo Ma on cello".

This "on" business is now so common that I should have got used to it by now - but it still sets my teeth on edge.

[Nick Armstrong]

"Clemmie"

[ahinton]

"Clemmie" this morning: Brahms Quartet for piano and strings op 60. "Jaime Laredo on the violin, Emanuel Ax on piano, Isaac Stern on the violin and Yo Yo Ma on cello".

This "on" business is now so common that I should have got used to it by now - but it still sets my teeth on edge.

Yes, all those string players "on" their respective instruments, whose total value must be in at least seven figures; think of the damage done by this! And what was so bad about the piano that an Ax had to be taken to it?!

[ahinton]

"Clemmie"

Well, since clemency is so rarely merited when her outpourings are referred to, it's seems fair enough, perhaps...

[french frank]

"Clemmie"

It's strange how this works in the opposite way from that intended. It's obviously meant to convey friendliness, 'one big family' &c, but it just creates a division, with the old pals act going on behind the microphone and the audience on the other side, ruffled at the assumption that the warmth displayed in the studio is shared by the listeners. [That's my reading of it, anyway]

[ahinton]

It's strange how this works in the opposite way from that intended. It's obviously meant to convey friendliness, 'one big family' &c, but it just creates a division, with the old pals act going on behind the microphone and the audience on the other side, ruffled at the assumption that the warmth displayed in the studio is shared by the listeners. [That's my reading of it, anyway]

Seems about right to me...

[gurnemanz]

Revisited my massage therapist the other day after a gap of several months and was struck by how often she started answers to questions with 'So'.

If she started each utterance with "Look" she would probably be an Aussie.

[MrGongGong]

Yes, all those string players "on" their respective instruments, whose total value must be in at least seven figures; think of the damage done by this! And what was so bad about the piano that an Ax had to be taken to it?!

Did they feed it first?

"Piano Piece for David Tudor #1" : La Monte Young

Bring a bale of hay and a bucket of water onto the stage for the piano to eat and drink. The performer may then feed the piano or leave it to eat by itself. If the former, the piece is over after the piano has been fed. If the latter, it is over after the piano eats or decides not to.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes! My it's very rare that a news programme needs to be more than a quarter-hour long referred to the content that is chosen to be broadcast. Cut out all the waffle, and there would be room for much of the other stuff in an hour's programme.

Instead of which , it's always "Well I'm sorry, So-and-so, I'm afraid we'll have to end there because we've run out of time". Which "we" wouldn't have done, had it not been for all that waffle, the sport results about which nothing can now be done, and the item about the 1980s pop singer who's just had her latest CD released after a gap of 3o years.

[ahinton]

Did they feed it first?

I have no idea, although I doubt it (and yes I did know about that and, when first I encountered it, I wondered momentarily whether different makes of piano might have different kinds and levels of appetite, although the now not so Young Monty omits to inform or even speculate on this); for a definitive and authoritative answer, your best bet would be to put the question to La Clemenza, methinks...