I've just got back from the pub (seven pints of Guinness and three Glenmorangies - so excuse any errors!) and I'm absolutely livid with what I have just been exposed to on the pub's food menu. Alongside the regular dishes we are advised that there are daily specials available. These "specials" are to be found on the CHALKBOARD.
CHALKBOARD? - What in the hell happened to BLACKBOARD? - The manager advised me that this is to avoid offending our darker skinned bretheren!
Who can possibly be offended by a board, which is black, being callad a black board?
quote: Who can possibly be offended by a board, which is black, being callad a black board?
Many years ago, all the blackboards around here were replaced with green boards. White or yellow chalk on a green background is easier on the eyes than the white chalk on a black background. At that point, I believe we began calling them chalkboards as they still came in two colors, but both used chalk as their medium for writing.
I agree though, sometimes you can take the worry of offending someone too far!
Posts: 1412 | Location: Buffalo, NY, United States
I, too, have had this problem but agree that the advent of green boards meant that the earlier expression was now longer accurate and so I do now used the term chalkboard.
Whiteboards, though, are still called white since, so far as I know, they don't come in any other colours.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
In an inspection report, I once wrote "A majority of the work is being accomplished by a minority of the workers" and was told that I would have to rewrite that line so as to not offend members of any minorities. I pointed out that race had absolutely nothing to do with it, as could be easily seen if you simply read the line as I had written it, and that the only people who would confuse my meaning in this way would have to be particulary dim. I was told that we didn't want to offend them either and was forced to rewrite it into something as drab as "Workloads are inproportionate to available personnel levels." BLAAAH!
quote:I was told that we didn't want to offend them either and was forced to rewrite it into something as drab as "Workloads are inproportionate to available personnel levels." BLAAAH!
How about, "20% of the people accomplish 80% of the work."
R.E., that's interesting but then how would you correct the phrase "a majority of the work" without totally rewriting it? I'm not trying to be feisty here, I'd really like to know.
And yes, Shufitz, "inproportionate." Irregardless (again, BLAAAH!) of how ugly the word is, that was how we were instructed to write. I fought long and hard over various aspects of English (the language, not the beer expert; I didn't know R.E. back then) and finally had to resort to carrying grammar texts with me to back me up.
Can you cite a dictionary CJ ? None of mine contain the word inproportionate only the word disproportionate. (Not that I'd doubt you for a minute - after all I do hold a post in your newly formed Government.)
Although it doesn't have the nice ring of contrast between majority and minority, I think I'd have written, "...Most of the work is being done by a minority..."
As an aside I would mention that the phenomenon you cite is well known and was first cited by the Italian economist Wilfredo Pareto at the end of the 19th Century. He found that 80% of Italy's wealth was controlled by 20% of its population.
This principle, usually known as the 80/20 rule, has been found to apply to most situations where variables exist. For example, most people wear 20% of the clothes in their wardrobes for 80% of the time; 80% of a company's profit comes from 20% of its customers, and so on.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
quote:As Richard notes: This principle, usually known as the 80/20 rule, has been found to apply to most situations where variables exist. For example, ...
For example, as CJ notes, 80% of the posts come from 20% of the registrants.
quote:Originally posted by BobHale: Can you cite a dictionary CJ ? None of mine contain the word inproportionate only the word disproportionate.
This is exactly my point. That ridiculous word will be found in no dictionary but, if you should augment your casual reading with 15-year-old inspection reports that I was forced to mis-edit, you'll find it there. Much to my massive consternation (a source of great amusement to co-workers who did not share my respect for the correct and proper use of our language) an enlisted person (me) with a dictionary was often outranked by a colonel who, don't ask me why, insisted on the legitimacy of words like "inproportionate"!
We would also struggle deep into the night over hyphens. Try as I might I could never teach him that two words used as one adjective before a noun take a hyphen while they don't if used as description afterwards. Hence "a well-dressed man" with the hyphen is the same as "a man who is well dressed" without it but the colonel, a nice enough guy otherwise, would curse me when I bled on his writing (slang term meaning to edit using a red pen to point out and correct errors) and swear that I was making these rules up as I went along!
quote:This principle, usually known as the 80/20 rule, has been found to apply to most situations where variables exist. For example, ...
There's a variation on this known as the "90/10 Rule" which states "The first 90% of a job takes the first 90% of the time available to accomplish it. The last 10% of the job takes the second 90% of the time."
