Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[jean]

Poor Rumsfeld! On that occasion, if on no other, what he said was perfectly clear and eminently sensible.

[ahinton]

I might have drawn your attention to the word dedicated, as well!

But you didn't and had no need to!

The contentious wording is this:
"I'd thought that it was a thread about phrases and words that set members' teeth on edge rather than one dedicated to the provision of posts that would elude the comprehension of some members, even including that of FF herself."

If I were to write 'This is a thread dedicated to the provision of posts that will elude the comprehension of some members...' would you really not think I was suggesting that the thread had some conscious intention to confuse

Not necessarily; it could as easily be that certain posters might knowingly have scant care for whether or not their posts might have such an effect on some members but, as I've already stated, that's not really the point, which was, again, to draw a distinction between this kind of thing and the thread topic itself.

As to the sort of thread it is, I mean it's a thread that reflects, metalinguistically, on how we use language, and offers opportunities for metalinguistic word-play in a way that other threads don't.

Well, at least to the point of purportedly being about certain linguistic use might irritate some people.

Thus, as it may be, Tippsy (or was it teamsaint?) announces his dislike of the phrase honorary degrees, which he thinks are awarded regardless of any merit. So when you post something he thinks devoid of merit, he rewards you with one of these (metalinguistically) worthless degrees. And the expected response is that you should feel offended by the accolade rather than honoured.

If that was so (and I'm not saying that it was), it's failed on both counts since I feel neither offended nor honoured by the degree that Mr Tippster cannot actuallly confer upon me in any casse, since all can and did do was suggest that, were he in a position to confer one such, he would do so, although my acceptance or otherwise thereof has yet come into it).

I don't think that he clarified that he tought that what I'd posted lacked merit, either, but that's neither here nor there.

As has been pointed out, however, honorary degress are not handed out irrespective of the recipient's merit and, let's face it, it's hardly uncommon for honorary music degrees, for example, to be conferred upon people who already have non-honorary music degrees.

[teamsaint]

It was me that posted " Honorary degrees" as being a " teeth on edge" phrase.

It was Scotty tipps who started awarding them.

and , to reiterate (FWIW), they annoy me because they seem to me to be a slap in the face to people who have earned their degree.

Steve Redgrave, as a random example, has at least 4 of these" honours", on top of the gold medals , fame and money that his rowing talents have earned him.

[P. G. Tipps]

Thus, as it may be, Tippsy (or was it teamsaint?) announces his dislike of the phrase honorary degrees, which he thinks are awarded regardless of any merit..

Wasn't me, Ms!

However, I would never, ever dream of publicising the name of the member who was the first to indicate his/her dislike of 'Honorary Degrees' and whom you have already mentioned ...

[P. G. Tipps]

It was me that posted " Honorary degrees" as being a " teeth on edge" phrase.

It was Scotty tipps who started awarding them.

and , to reiterate (FWIW), they annoy me because they seem to me to be a slap in the face to people who have earned their degree.

Steve Redgrave, as a random example, has at least 4 of these" honours", on top of the gold medals , fame and money that his rowing talents have earned him.

[teamsaint]

and that, as you should know Tippsy, is a single malt in a presentation box.

[french frank]

It was me that posted " Honorary degrees" as being a " teeth on edge" phrase.

It was Scotty tipps who started awarding them.

Yes, you're right I think I was in the middle of constructing a post (#2326) when you mentioned it the second time and I missed the repetition of your very clear setting of teeth-on-edge at the term

Looking at various press articles, I can see that such degrees are now given to 'celebrities' with more regularity than I had realised ('Kanye West is the latest celebrity to be given an honorary doctorate by a publicity-seeking college').

I think at most universities in the UK (US may be different, and therefore the UK may have changed now), the degree of PhD was distinct as it wasn't awarded as an honorary degree but for presenting a thesis. Honorary degrees could be D.Sc, D.Litt, LLD, DMus …

[jean]

Exeter gave J K Rowling an honorary degree. She'd studied Classics there.

I think they just wanted to draw attention to the fact that they still had a Classics department.

[ardcarp]

that they [Exeter] still had a Classics department.

But they got rid of their MUSIC DEPT

[Pabmusic]

Poor Rumsfeld! On that occasion, if on no other, what he said was perfectly clear and eminently sensible.

How true!

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones."

He's distinguishing three different logical ideas - that in the set of all knowable things there are (1) those we already know about, and are aware of knowing; (2) those we know (or strongly expect) to exist somewhere, somehow, although we haven't yet come across them; and (3) those that must exist, even though we have no idea what they might be or that they exist at all - or, indeed, that we might not be presently capable of conceiving anyway.

In (1) might be "the universe is 13.72 billion years old by our present calculations"; in (2) Darwin's 1862 prediction that a hawk moth must exist on Madagascar that has a 12" (or so) proboscis, because an orchid exists with a nectary that long (Xanthopan morgani praedicta - Darwin's hawk moth, discovered in 1903); and in (3) the cause of strep throat, compared with what Galen might have understood.

[ahinton]

Exeter gave J K Rowling an honorary degree. She'd studied Classics there.

I think they just wanted to draw attention to the fact that they still had a Classics department.

!!! But at least she was - I mean is - an Exeter alumnus and a distinguished writer rather than a mere "celeb" of the kind that have been awarded such degrees as what really must be a publicity-seeking exercise, as FF says.

[ahinton]

But they got rid of their MUSIC DEPT

I know! Disgraceful! I hope that it will return some day.

[jean]

!!! But at least she was - I mean is - an Exeter alumnus...

Well, an alumna at any rate.

But they got rid of their MUSIC DEPT

Indeed - I didn't mean to suggest that the honour to Rowling made up for that, or even that the honorary degree was necessarily a good thing.

(They closed the Chemistry dept. too, and gave me an excellent excuse for refusing to give them any money, ever.)

.

[P. G. Tipps]

The Coca-Cola London Eye ...

[ahinton]

Well, an alumna at any rate.

Of course! Silly me! Thanks for that.