A Modern Interaction

When job and employee don’t quite gel. 

Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.

Comments

[David]

I’m heading out for breakfast at Beloved Sister-In-Law’s. Play nicely. Use coasters.

[John Lewis]

Play nicely?

Nah. Just get insurance from my namesake. It’ll be fine.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I’m heading out for breakfast at Beloved Sister-In-Law’s.

Order from DoorDash when you get there.

[pst314]

Driving for Uber in Chicago.

And yet the people of Chicago keep electing the politicians with the worst policies.
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
--H.L. Mencken

[pst314]

Play nicely. Use coasters.

Anybody want to play Frisbee with these elegant coasters that Oddjob gave me?

[pst314]

I have added a comment in the previous thread regarding the MP who was murdered by a Muslim terrorist: It appears that the Daily Mail's reporting was...inaccurate.

[pst314]

Sociopath does evil things, says we can't judge him.

Oh, we'll judge him alright.

[sonny wayz]

Further to a previous discussion on pronunciation in The Olde Countrie:

https://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-11-at-8.32.11-PM.png?resize=768%2C376&ssl=1

[pst314]

Community spirit: Woman raped on train. None of the riders intervened or called 911.

There is a growing pattern of people pulling out their phones to record a crime but not calling 911 or intervening.

[Zapp]

She probably isn't an employee, but an independent contractor (voiceover: we in ExpeediteUrShiit are proud of our Social Impact in fostering entrepreneurship, integration, and work-life balance among our family of Friendly Partners).

She'd evidently been stewing during the long drive, because Friendly Partners absorb the risk of traffic, bad maps, mechanical failure, weather, street crime, dog bites, and cranky customers. No employee would be treated like that. She'd been rehearsing the Conversation she was going to have, only to be dismissed at the doorbell - that'll be all, leave it at the tradesman's entrance.

And now that she's lost her temper with a customer, she'll be dismissed like a Victorian maid without notice or references. Employees aren't treated like that any more. The video recording and public mockery are a 21st century bonus.

Cheap labour isn't cheap, but people like to have food delivered without moving from their couch and don't like to think through the externalities. The chance of a diversity seminar before (or instead of) your food at least some kind of feedback or pushback or disruption. And disruption is good according to companies like ExpeediteUrShiit who boast about disrupting the traditional economy, especially its old hidebound rules about obligations to employees.

[Buck Fiden]

So, let me understand the video. The driver drove 12.5 miles expending 40 minutes of time to drop off a food order. The customer gave a $8 tip (Equal to $12 per hour). The driver wanted to speak to the customer and demand additional tip. When the customer said that $8 was enough, the driver took the food back. Seems perfectly reasonable to me. I see a lot of uncompensated emotional labor in that video.

A few suggestions to build back customer relations better: As a first step, how about delivery companies start requiring customers to complete a diversity/inclusion/equity training before being certified to order? Understanding the externalities of their order and empathizing with the worker are demanded. Throw in a vax requirement for customers, for safety. Delivery drivers should rate the customer based on courtesy, tipping performance, distance from pick-up, tone of voice, race and gender, etc. This info should be used to set future delivery charges.

Another idea would be to charge customers a subscription fee to tip drivers based on the factors above. This would be over and above tips provided directly by the customer on delivery.

"The Customer is always right" sounds racist and heteronormative. End Oppression by the Customer! No more Customer Privilege.

[David]

Today I was introduced to the concept of the pre-breakfast cakelet.

Just sayin’.

[Darleen]

how about delivery companies start requiring customers to complete a diversity/inclusion/equity training before being certified to order?

Somewhere, somehow, a member of the Biden administration or Nancy Pelosi's office just took notes.

[sonny wayz]

@Buck Fiden:

"I see a lot of uncompensated emotional labor in that video."

'Emotional' being the primary part.

[pst314]

uncompensated emotional labor

Remember the social justice kittens?

[Darleen]

I don't want to tempt fate ... but have we reached Peak Presidential Pervy yet?

[pst314]

No. Peak Presidential Pervy will have been reached when a Democrat uses the Secret Service to kidnap women.

[pst314]

Lil Nas X's Satanic video has something to teach the Church.

Jesuits. [ shakes head ]

[Darleen]

"Who you gonna believe? Me or your lyin' eyes?"

[Geezer]

pronunciation in The Olde Countrie

"borchestershire shot" should be "borcester shot", but even that would be wrong, because it would be pronounced with a short "oo" instead of a long "oo".

[pst314]

"Who you gonna believe? Me or your lyin' eyes?"

In 2019 Walgreens announced that it planned to close about 200 stores nationwide. But 22 just in San Francisco? Rampant crime has got to be an important factor.

Remember when liberals were whining about "food deserts"?

[WTP]

"The Customer is always right"

One thing that John Lewis commercial on the previous thread reminded me of...Bak in the mid 70's I was staying with dear friends of our family in Atlanta, and my best friend from when we all lived in Pittsburgh. The father, a great, funny, wonderful man who ran the automotive department at the "Macy's of Atlanta", Rich's (which was eventually bought by Macy's) was explaining over dinner one night to his oldest daughter, a college student working at Rich's that summer, about Rich's "the customer is always right" policy. The daughter was disturbed by this policy as, per what she related, a woman had claimed that a can of spray paint had "malfunctioned" and as she ran through her house trying to dispose of it, it had ruined everything in her house. Rich's, apparently...going by what they seemed to both acknowledge, replaced everything in her home that was ruined by the spray paint. Because "the customer is always right". Now I was maybe 12, possibly 14 or so at the time but it was quite clear to me, and apparently to the daughter...at that time...as well that such a policy was not sustainable. But apparently the executives etc. right down to the manager of the automotive department as well, believed otherwise. These were not stupid people. They were just stupid people. 40-50 years ago. Perhaps their progeny crossed the pond to work for JL?

[Baceseras]

The concept of the pre-breakfast cakelet

[Baceseras]

Testing testing

uh-oh

[pst314]

The correction booth is over there.

[Baceseras]

[exits correction booth]

Well, that was refreshing.

[twitches uncontrollably]

[pst314]

[twitches uncontrollably]

Let's put that to good use.

...unless David would prefer dubstep?

[pst314]

Speaking of which...

She took another scan of the horizon, as did Spencer. The music might be keeping wildlife away. There was nothing paste the goat pen, except a distant huddle of wild sheep.

Spencer asked, "What the hell is that whomp whomp sound?"

"Probably Skrillex," she said.

"Is that a band or a style?"

"That's the band. The genre is dubstep."

"Oh, that's dubstep," he said. "I'd occasionally heard it, but never known the name."

"Seriously?"

"Really."

"What do you think of it?"

"It sounds like Optimus Prime fucking a dishwasher."

--A Long Time Until Now, by Michael Z. Williamson

...and that exhausts my "knowledge" of dubstep.
Optimus Prime. I love it.

[pst314]

Praying for you in this difficult time.

[pst314]

Breadlines build character! American leftist tries to tell us that empty grocery store shelves are a good thing.

[pst314]

A hawk's reaction to a wooden mallard duck

[ccscientist]

Re: the Walgreen's closing stores in SF story. In chicago I visited a large grocery (Jewel?) just SW of the loop. They had 2 full-time big cops as security. Not cheap. The idea that criminals are victims is so insane.

[NTSOG]

Following on from the gender-heater-male workmen crisis at Baldwin College we now hear that "Spain’s top writer of crime thrillers, a professor and mother who wrote under the pseudonym Carmen Mola, supposedly to maintain her anonymity" and won a $1.5 million literary prize is actually 3 men.

'Last year, a branch of Spain’s Women’s Institute listed Mola’s The Girl, a part of the trilogy, as one of the must-read books and films by women that “help us understand the reality and the experiences of women”.'

Perhaps it's only women who don't understand being a woman if these middle-aged blokes can do such a good job in writing about women?

https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/a-woman-won-a-1-5m-literary-prize-it-turned-out-she-was-actually-three-men-20211018-p590ri.html

[David]

Praying for you in this difficult time.

Or, “Person with serious mental health problems would rather go without heating, throughout winter, than be exposed to the presence, however temporarily, of any people not afflicted with the same serious mental health problems.”

Or, “Mentally ill person is mentally ill.”

[Karl]

"borchestershire shot" should be "borcester shot"

Nope.
Following the convention for Worcestershire Sauce (pronounced "Wooster Sauce" as in Bertie) it would be "Borcestershire". Pronounced "Booster" (as in shot).

[John Lewis]

The unhappy Oberlinite reminds me of an early eye-opener back in the mid 1980’s.

The staff at my local library in what was even then referred to as the Socialist Republic of Brent (the MP’s at the time were Paul Boateng and Ken Livingstone - get the picture?) were unhappy about the lack of adequate heating in their workplace. So they organised an outside protest in near-freezing winter temperatures.

After posing for the obligatory photos and interviews with the bbc they quickly decamped to a nearby hostelry. The protest was not repeated.

[Felicity]

Not quite sure where to start with this. Is it nature or nurture? https://twitter.com/lporiginalg/status/1449763833749196801?s=20

[JuliaM]

@Felicity: I’d like to think it’s a very clever parody, but these days… *throws up hands in despair*

[JuliaM]

@NTSOG: at least they didn’t pretend to be another nationality - that would have been even worse, apparently, given the extraordinary hissy fit being thrown by an ex-Marvel employee over the news that twenty years ago a Marvel editor used a Japanese nom de plume…

[Geezer]

Worcestershire and Worcester

According to the folks at Merriam-Webster, Worcestershire has three syllables, and Worcester is pronounced with a short "oo".

[Smudger]

Also, 'shire' is pronounced shir, like sir. Not bloody ShYre.

I was behind an American at a ticket booth in a northern English train station. The bloke in the booth eventually figured out that our Yank cousin wanted to go to Loughborough (pr. Luffbruh).

"Looga-barooga".

[Horace Dunn]

According to the folks at Merriam-Webster, Worcestershire has three syllables, and Worcester is pronounced with a short "oo".

Merriam-Webster is correct in saying that Worcestershire has three syllables. Usually. But for some reason Worcestershire Sauce is always referred to as though it is Worcester Sauce (i.e. the sauce of the city of Worcester rather than the county of Worcestershire) despite the spelling on the label.

Every time you hear someone refer to the sauce with the county name it is of the greatest importance that you correct him. Roughly if necessary.

It is pronounced Wooster Sauce and not Woostershuh Sauce.

[pst314]

Not quite sure where to start with this. Is it nature or nurture?

I disagree with the advice columnist that the son's heart is in the right place. But at least his mother finds the list disturbing.

[Geezer]

Worcester and Booster

Worcester is pronounced with a short "oo".
Booster is pronounced with a long "oo".

[pst314]

From the annals of liberal hypocrisy: Biden swims naked in the presence of female Secret Service agents.

'Biden likes to be revered as everyday Joe,' an unnamed agent told Kessler. 'But the reality is no agents want to go on his detail because Biden makes agents’ lives so tough.'

All the liberal women that I argued with about this back in 2014-2015 claimed that this was not evidence of serious character flaws. Their position was that Secret Service agents should accept anything Biden does no matter how inconsiderate or creepy. It's fascinating how the standards of behavior demanded by #MeToo vary according to the political affiliation of the accused man.

[pst314]

Worcester and Booster

David, I think that now might be a good time to put away the breakables.

[sonny wayz]

Nope. Following the convention for Worcestershire Sauce...

Oh, dear. I seem to have stirred up a bit of controversy here (snickers to self). But speaking of controversy, which syllable should be accented?

[WTP]

a-LOOO-min-um

So...if I put wooster sauce or "I believe what you Americans commonly refer to as 'brown sauce'"...as was once 'splained to me by a kindly innkeeper in Bath....on a hot dog, does THAT make it a sandwich? I say definitely.

In other news...saw a first (for me) in our hotel lobby this morning. A young lady doing the walk-of-shame in her emerald green bridesmaid dress. I don't know what that says about the direction we're going through. Have we hit bottom and thus on the way up or am I being too stupidly optimistic again?

[asiaseen]

The village in Derbyshire where I was born, New Houghton, is properly pronounced "Huffton". Locally it is known as "Uffen".

Similarly the nearby town of Bolsover is known as "Bozer"

On what I believe is our charming host's side of the county, Tideswell is "Tiddzer"

[sonny wayz]

which syllable should be accented?

By which I mean CONtroversy or conTROversy, of course.

[edges towards door]

[David]

a-LOOO-min-um

[ From the cellar, epithets, a loud banging. ]

[Karl]

According to the folks at Merriam-Webster

When I wish to write English like a dyslexic foreign savage, sirrah, I shall consult Mr Webster.

[sonny wayz]

@WTP:

"So...if I put wooster sauce or "I believe what you Americans commonly refer to as 'brown sauce'"

Geez, I thought 'brown sauce' was a generic HP, or A1 for the colonials.

[WTP]

Geez, I thought 'brown sauce' was a generic HP, or A1 for the colonials.

Heh. He was so sincere and quite confident that I would thus understand what he meant that he convinced me that I must of course have known. This was back in '02. I still doubt most Americans, unless fans of British TV specifically, of which there are of course many but not most Americans, today understand "wooster". Though we do make a pastime of mangling 'Worchestershire'.

BTW, aren't HP some kind of demands you have to pay forever?

[Karl]

BTW, aren't HP some kind of demands you have to pay forever?

It stands for "Houses of Parliament". So yes.

[Geezer]

When I wish to write English like a dyslexic foreign savage

It's not about how English is written; it's about how it's pronounced.
Do you pronounce "Worcester" and "Booster" with the same vowel sounds?

[pst314]

When I wish to write English like a dyslexic foreign savage, sirrah, I shall consult Mr Webster.

Que sera, sirrah.

[semi retired conservative]

Sirrah, Duchess of Pork....

oh, never mind.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...our Yank cousin wanted to go to Loughborough (pr. Luffbruh).

However, for some strange reason you lot over there think a Jaguar is a Jag-u-ar.

[Let's go, Brandon]

The capital city of South Dakota is Pierre. Pronounced "peer".

[Karl]

Do you pronounce "Worcester" and "Booster" with the same vowel sounds?

No indeed. Though that is how I pronounce the fictional county of Borcestershire's favourite sauce.

[David]

Next will be lessons on how a lady should sit while sipping tea.

[pst314]

The capital city of South Dakota is Pierre. Pronounced "peer".

In Chicago, "Goethe Street" is pronounced "Go-thee" and "Mozart Street" is pronounced "Moe's art".

[Karl]

how a lady should sit while sipping tea.

No - horses sweat!
Oh sorry, wrong meme.

[Geezer]

Apparently, "the fictional county of Borcestershire" deserves a fictional pronunciation.

[Karl]

deserves a fictional pronunciation

I'm sure its esteemed fictional neighbours Cholmondeleyonwike and Featherstonehaughsedge would agree.

[pst314]

Cholmondeley and Featherstonehaugh can be found in Wiktionary but not here. Are the people at Cambridge University Press ashamed of their heritage? :-)

[Sam Duncan]

“Do you pronounce "Worcester" and "Booster" with the same vowel sounds?“

Well, I do. But then, I'm North-British. And it occurs to me that Wodehouse (heh) must had good reason to come up with the name “Wooster”. I mean, even if they're not absolutely identical for you, they're close enough for a gag, surely?

“I'm sure its esteemed fictional neighbours Cholmondeleyonwike and Featherstonehaughsedge would agree.”

Real place. Non-locals have been driven to drink trying to spell it. And its neighbour, Bearsden, isn't what you'd think either. (Or rather, it's exactly what you should think, but nobody ever does. Maybe they should put an apostrophe in.)

[aelfheld]

FWIW, in New Orleans Terpsichore (a street name) is pronounced turp-si-core and Melpomene (another street name) is pronounced mell-poe-mean. And let's not get started on Tchoupitoulas.

[pst314]

I didn't even know that New Zealand had an official wizard.

[WTP]

In Atlanta, the street is called Ponce de Lee-on. I think they still pronounce the guy’s name correctly in school. Helps differentiate too. Otherwise of course there could be confusion. Or so I was once told, with a wink and a nod. IYKWIM. Hope this helps.

[Geezer]

But then, I'm North-British.

We also have regional differences in pronunciation here in the USofA.
Words like "broom" and "roof" spring to mind.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

And now for something completely different, for a low, low 1.65 million Imperial Dollars you too can have a two story closet in an old power station.

Parking not included.

[Dr. Chaotica]

However, for some strange reason you lot over there think a Jaguar is a Jag-u-ar.

Americans aren't much better. I always thought it was pronounced jag-war, but I have encountered people who say jag-wire with a straight face.

[ccscientist]

English is a mashup of a latin base (including latin itself during the long period after rome fell) and a germanic base. These two base languages have different structure and rules. Add in old english towns and places with Viking or Celtish or who know what roots and it is amazing we can communicate at all. On top of that, English is known for stealing words from all over the world, particularly directly from France.

[Sam Duncan]

“On top of that, English is known for stealing words from all over the world, particularly directly from France.”

Well, they shouldn't leave them lying around.

[Fred the Fourth]

Got lost in Texas looking for the town of Komarz.
Turns out it's spelled Commerce.

[WTP]

But most of these pronunciation issues are a function of lazy, marblemouthing somewhat influenced by the local ethnicities. Even in ethnically homogeneous communities, one side of a county can over time and with sufficient isolation (think inland, illiteracy pre-1800’s) develop through its own unique slurring of words, a slightly different accent. We’re it not for the printing press, broadening literacy, then radio, etc.it’s a wonder we can understand anything outside our own little boroughs…ahem.

[asiaseen]

On top of that, English is known for stealing words

It's not stealing if it's fewer than 950 words at a time.

English Words Matter

[Baceseras]

Saulte-Ste.-Marie is pronounced "Soo"

The "Lim" in Lima, Ohio is pronounced like the lime in limeade.

You should hear a "cow" in Moscow, Idaho, but not in Russian Moscow

It's co-operate, not coo-operate

EXquisite, not exQUISite

And get the hell off my lawn

[pst314]

On top of that, English is known for stealing words from all over the world

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary."
--James Nicoll, at rec.arts.sf-lovers

[pst314]

Americans aren't much better. I always thought it was pronounced jag-war...

Jag-war is close to the original Portuguese pronunciation. So there, you limeys. [ adopts visage of insufferable smugness ]

[Scot]

I suspect many words were donated by France, starting about, oh, 1066.

[Geezer]

EXquisite, not exQUISite

According to the folks at Merriam-Webster (heh), it's both.

[LW]

H Beam Piper in Fuzzy Sapiens: “And you know what English is? The result of the efforts of Norman men-at-arms to make dates with Saxon barmaids in the Ninth Century Pre-Atomic, and no more legitimate than any of the other results."

[pst314]

I suspect many words were donated by France, starting about, oh, 1066.

Definitely a case of Not Enough Saxon Violence.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Jag-war is close to the original Portuguese pronunciation.

Brazilian Portuguese as opposed to Portuguese Portuguese, as long as we are getting collectively pedantic...

[Richard Cranium]

I'll just state that the way Marylebone station is pronounced was an unpleasant surprise to my wife and I when we visited England in ~2004.

[Sue Sims]

And I note that so far, no one has mentioned Gaelic spelling...

[pst314]

And I note that so far, no one has mentioned Gaelic spelling...

And we're going to keep it that way. And don't even think of mentioning Welsh. I still get flashbacks from the last time.

[anon a mouse]

Got lost in Texas"

La Grange is about an hour ten that a way. Place is closed, tho...

[Captain Nemo]

I was behind an American at a ticket booth in a northern English train station. The bloke in the booth eventually figured out that our Yank cousin wanted to go to Loughborough (pr. Luffbruh).

I was once stopped on Oxford High Street by a very polite middle-aged American tourist and his wife, who wanted to know where to catch a bus to a place he called "High Why-Kombi". He'd asked several people and had no response, so I asked him to clarify and he pulled out a leaflet for Hughendon (Yew-hen-den) Manor, the former country house of Benjamin Disraeli, now a National Trust property. I had to tell him that the reason everyone was baffled and unable to help was because High Wycombe, his destination, is pronounced "High Wick-em". But once I knew what he and his wife wanted I was able to point them to the correct bus stop. I still occasionally wonder whether they enjoyed their visit.

[Lady Cutekitten of Lolcat]

There’s also a Versailles, Ohio. Pronounced locally as Vurr-sails.

[pst314]

I was once stopped on Oxford High Street by a very polite middle-aged American tourist and his wife, who wanted to know where to catch a bus to a place he called "High Why-Kombi".

I do still wonder why so few American travel guides give pronunciation guides.

[pst314]

Marseilles, Illinois: pronounced "mar sails", may God forgive us.

But then, God's forgiveness was more desperately needed in Brooklyn, New York, where "bird" was pronounced "boyd", purple was pronounced "poiple", and so on: "Thoity poiple doity boids a-poiched on a coib, eating doity woims. Boy were dey pah-toibed." But that was back in the 1940's. Considering the current crime rate and cultural decay, it appears that God did not forgive.

[pst314]

So, does this warning from the government mean it is illegal in the UK for a member of the public to say that a suspect is obviously guilty?
"...the Attorney General wishes to draw attention to the risks in publishing material, including on-line, that asserts or assumes, expressly or implicitly, the guilt of any of those arrested..."

[Alex]

pst314: they tell about a headline in the paper, when baseball player Waite Hoyt was injured, "Hoyt Hurt," which Brooklynites read as "Hurt Hoyt."

Also speaking of strange New York ways of pronouncing things, a major street in lower Manhattan is pronounced HOW-ston.

[WTP]

My name is Yon Yonsin, I come from Visconsin, I verk in da lumbahyards der.

Pahk the cah in tha gahrahj, go to the bah and get some beeyah. Bahtendah says he doesn't have any beeyah so go to the supahmahket and get a six pahk....If I did that right.

This did it right...

https://youtu.be/WBvkmWDjsYc

and this...but can't find the best one...

https://youtu.be/FGKsJh1nYcw

[pst314]

Chicago Language Tape: "In 1972 Yuri Rasovsky's Chicago Language Tape aired on 98.7WFMT in Chicago." I don't think it could be aired today.

[NTSOG]

We hear today in local news that a 'famous' English woman featuring on a BBC show about [racial] diversity, Alex Scott, is descended from a slave owner in Jamaica in the 1820s. Apparently he owned 20 slaves. The trouble for Mistress Alex is that her long dead grand father was a black man himself. Who'd have thought it? What penance will she endure at the tolerant hands of the Woke brigade?

https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2021/10/bbc-diversity-darling-discovers-her-family-owned-slaves.html