Do some of you hear this phrase a lot: "I can't get my arms around it," when talking about understanding the whole project, or whatever it is that is discussed. It just is so hackneyed that it drives me nuts! Is it used that often in other places?

The other day I even heard, "my brain just can't get its arms around it." Good grief! To make matters worse for me, I always envision these long arms encircling whatever it is that's being addressed!

I've never heard it, Kalleh, but I can see why you find it annoying!

What's the betting I now hear it said within a week of posting this?

I never say THAT . . .but I have been known to say "I just can't get my brain around it."

Is that ok?

It's not that "getting you arms around it" is okay or not okay...it's just that around here I hear it so much that I could scream! I think in every meeting somebody uses the phrase.

Cliches, like profanities, tend to my mind to be the refuge of those whose vocabulary is sufficiently poor that they are unable to find better ways of expressing themselves.

I tire of the word "stakeholders".

Me too, CW! There are so many many words like that used in business. Another is "embrace." How many times have I heard that we are "embracing" some stupid initiative. And, to be honest, I am getting a little sick of "initiative" as well! [Needless to say, it hasn't been a good day!]

New uses of words seem to happen so quickly. Why is every previously unseen television program no longer 'new' but 'fresh'. I can hardly stand hearing that!

Oh, yes, I agree about "fresh," amnow. The other is "refreshing;" when someone is honest about something, the comment is often, "how refreshing!" According to the the online quick definition from Onelook, "refresh," means "pleasantly novel and different." So, is honesty new and different? Let's hope not!

Kalleh, I have to say that honesty does end up being refreshing. So many people (reporters and politicians especially) tend to spin the truth (lie for they own advantage) and bend things enough that it is no longer honest. I get so tired of it I usually don't read the paper.

I suppose you are right about politicians and the like. Yet, when a collegue comes out with some honest remark at a meeting, I don't consider it "refreshing," though I have heard others consider that type of honesty 'refreshing.' I expect honesty.

quote:

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
I _expect_ honesty.

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Yes, and that touchingly naive faith in human nature is one of the things we all love so much about you.

How nice of you to say that, Bob! Thank you.

Our boss was telling the board of directors that one of our new directors was "getting his arms around his staff." That made me realize why I hate that phrase. I am just too literal! I envisioned our new director standing there, with long arms, encircling his entire staff!

BTW, another hackneyed term in our workplace: parking lot issues.

In fact the use of the word "issues" to mean "concerns" whenever and wherever it occurs. I'd put right up there with Jerry's objection to basically.

I agree, Bob. Yet, if we were to delete all those words from the vernacular of our workplace, I doubt that we'd have much to say! Come to think if it, that might be a good thing. Along those lines we had a speaker talking about worldwide standards, and I must say...she needed to have presentation standards! Good grief. She droned on and on and on, in a monotone voice, with over 50 complex powerpoints, reading each of them. It took everyone a day to recover from that presentation!

Why do people tend to link numbers of powerpoint slides with quality of a presentation? It is so much the opposite!

Powerpoint.

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Why do people tend to link numbers of powerpoint slides with quality of a presentation? It is so much the opposite!

A recent survey reported by the Professional Speakers Association suggested that a speakers credibility was in inverse ratio to the number of PowerPoint slides used.

The very best and most highly paid professional speakers rarely use visual aids at all.

Loved it jheem.

One of my lecturers (the same one with the pervasive/persuasive confusion) taught the whole damned module by reading out power point slides. The module handouts were printouts of the slides.

Still I passed, that's actually the only thing that matters.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

I may have told you this before.
Last year before the start of term we all had to attend college presentations (all day, deadly dull affairs) in which our procedures for enrolment were spelled out in excruciatingly tedious detail. One speaker used a power point presentation with all the latest technology to show the procedure on a screen that would have been more suitable for the latest Star Wars movie.

Such a pity then that the whole packed auditorium was treated to a last slide that read in twenty foot high letters


ANY QUESTION'S

Saddest of all is that we were the only department that noticed or cared.

We all agree about that particular presentation methodology...though I see that we don't agree on whether it is "power point," "PowerPoint," or "powerpoint."

jheem, that is so great that I am going to send it to those of us who sat through that absolutely deadly presentation.

Isn't it ironic, Bob, that those presentations were given at a college to those who will be presenting in the future?

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We all agree about that particular presentation methodology...though I see that we don't agree on whether it is "power point," "PowerPoint," or "powerpoint."

PowerPoint is a Microsoft trade name and is spelt as I have shown it. The generic term would be something like "Projected Computer Graphics".

PowerPoint is a Microsoft trade name and is spelt as I have shown it.

It is not part of my job description to bolster Microsoft's various trademarks against genericization. The generic term for a PowerPoint presentation is a powerpoint presentation. Just like I take aspirins for headaches, use a kleenx tissue, and make xeroxes at the copyshop.

I too have no special reason to like Microsoft. However it is part of my pedantic nature to use trade names of branded products and generic names for generics.

Thus I (always) speak of vacuum cleaners, not Hoovers; ballpoint pens, not Biros and vacuum flasks, not Thermoses.

Photocopies to me are photocopies, not Xeroxes; Kleenexes are tissues and painkillers - well, if acetacylicic acid was what I wanted then I might ask for aspirin but I'd normally ask for paracetemol (not Panadol, the brand name).

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Isn't it ironic, Bob, that those presentations were given at a college to those who will be presenting in the future?

Without doubt, the WORST "teachers" I have ever met were "teaching" graduate students "how to teach," and doing a miserable job of it.

"Teacher education" in the U.S.A. is a shameful racket.

Jerry says, ""Teacher education" in the U.S.A. is a shameful racket."
Apparently in the UK as well. This is from Ted Pauker, A Grouchy Good Night to the Academic Year, where he comments on the academic year -- or, as the Brits call it, the 'Session'.

Good night to the Session -- what Art meant,
Or Science, no longer seemed plain,
But our new Education Department
Confuses confusion again.
'Those teach who can't do' runs the dictum,
But for some even that's out of reach:
They can't even teach -- so they've picked 'em
To teach other people to teach.
Then alas for the next generation,
For the pots fairly crackle with thorn.
Where psychology meets education
A terrible bullshit is born.

Funny, Hic, I had just recently posted this poem in another thread where we were discussing this subject. It is one of my favorites (as a teacher of teachers!) Jerry, we aren't all bad!

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Thus I (always) speak of vacuum cleaners, not Hoovers; ballpoint pens, not Biros and vacuum flasks, not Thermoses.

We, in the U.S., might say "thermos," and certainly wouldn't say "vacuum flasks," but we would not say "Hoovers" or "Biros."

I ask for Ibuprofen or acetamynophen (sp?). I agree, we would not say Hoovers even with the plant right here.

CW, do you say "acetylsalicylic acid," instead of "aspirin?"

Instead of "Tums" I always say "Pain-relieving analgesic sodium acetylsalicilate." Doesn't everyone?

..... on second thought, maybe that was Alka-Seltzer, instead of Tums.

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We, in the U.S., might say "thermos," and certainly wouldn't say "vacuum flasks," but we would not say "Hoovers" or "Biros."

What would you call them? I'd heard that Bic was a common US expression for a ballpoint pen, which, if true, is strange seeing as though Marcel Bich was French whereas Laslo Biro was a Hungarian living in America (well, Argentina).

Hoover, too, was American although not the inventor of the vacuum cleaner (that was Booth, an Englishman). Hoover was the husband of the cousin of James Spangler, the inventor of the portable vacuum cleaner, and he gave his name to the American Hoover company.

Hmm . . . let's see:

Pen = pen . . . sometimes we'll say "ballpoint" or "jelly" (for the new gel pens) or marker -for any writing utensile that has a felt tip.

Aspirin = aspirin . . . although I don't take them much and thus(ly) don't use the term. If I have a headache and I don't have a supply of ibuprofen of my own, I ask around for "some sort of analgesic or pain killer." But I am, admittedly, the weird one in most of my circles of friends.

I call a Tums a tums . . . and a spade a spade for that matter.

Honestly, RE, if you all are going to invent everything, you should adopt British names for them, at the very least!

A Bic by any other name will still run out of ink someday.