Monday, November 10, 2008

Goomph!

Having a sneezy wheezy day and am sitting up to my waist in work that needs a-doing. Fortunately, the work is absorbent and I can blow my nose on it.

THAT BS NEWS QUIZ OF THE DAY

On Friday, I asked...

"According to Oxford University, number one on their top ten list of irritating phrases is what?"


55% said "Before I begin"
- Nope. That tops my list, though, because when someone says it they are oblivious to the fact that they already began.

23% said "It's not rocket science"
- There are lots of things "it" is not. It is also not correct.

7% said "I'd buy that for a dollar"
- That's only irritating in the near future in Old Detroit.

15% got it right with "At the end of the day"

According to the Telegraph, a top 10 of irritating expressions has been compiled by researchers at Oxford University.

Heading the list was the expression 'at the end of the day', which was followed in second place by the phrase 'fairly unique'.

The tautological statement "I personally" made third place – an expression that BBC Radio 4 presenter John Humphreys has described as "the linguistic equivalent of having chips with rice."

Also making the top 10 is the grammatically incorrect "shouldn't of", instead of "shouldn't have".

The phrases appear in a book called Damp Squid, named after the mistake of confusing a squid with a squib, a type of firework.

Irregardless...

It annoys the squid more than anything.