My latest pet peeve, brought on by my return to pursuits academical*, is the use of "she" as a neutral third-person personal pronoun. English doesn't have a neutral third-person personal pronoun! When I was an undergrad, we must have used "he" or "he or she" or "s/he" or some such nonsense. I assume. I never really paid much attention to it, because it didn't stand out to me until I got to U-M.
Now every time I hear about "the patron taking her time" or "the customer weighing her options" or "the user trimming her beard" the "her" jumps out and screams in my face that I, the author, wish to emphasize that women can be librarians, patrons of libraries, computer users, consumers, or whatever the hell they want to be, you chauvinistic pig! Now what was it this sentence was supposed to be about, anyway?
I don't consider myself a chauvinist pig, textbook. I'm just not insecure enough to think that pronouns are going to make a difference. I don't need pronouns to tell me what I can or can't do.
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* I like the phrase "pursuits academical"; it sounds rather Gilbertandsullivanian.
There are only two things in this world that I hate: people who are intolerant of other people's cell phone providers... and Nextel.
This is what I think when I hear that little chirping noise: NGGAAAAGGHHHRRRRAAARRRGGGGNNNNAARRR.
[thanks to Mr B------ for the crappy title, since I couldn't even come up with a crappy one]
Robin and I decided yesterday, while driving aimlessly around the outskirts of Ann Arbor (we saw a goat on a picnic table!!!! Shut up - it did so deserve four exclamation points), that while not knowing how to spell or use correct grammar was all well and good in your personal life, it should end there.
You may misspell or use bad grammar in your own personal emails or grocery lists. I will even allow for spelling errors and typos in blogs. But once we are at the point where you are making a sign, writing in a newspaper, making an ad, writing up a menu, or any such public display, you really ought to be ashamed of yourself for making grievous mistakes.
Where are all the proofreaders these days? Why does no one know how to write anymore? Why do people pluralize things with apostrophe-Ss? How do they get away with it?
Maybe I should be a proofreader when I grow up, what with my ever-related degrees in French and Human-Computer Interaction.
Stupid people shouldn't breed, they shouldn't breathe, and if had my way, they wouldn't even exist.
In Spanish class today, this fat bearded lump of an excuse for a college student (you know who you are - I only wish you were reading this) with no volume control on his booming voice described Columbus Day as "a day when all the Dagos go out and get drunk". When confronted with this answer, he said something to the effect of "Well, Columbus was Italian, so..." Earlier he had described St. Patrick's Day in pretty much the same way except with those Irish who "drink all day long" but "can't hold their liquor." If you're going to be ignorant enough to use ethnic slurs, I suppose it follows that you will be ignorant enough not to know what Columbus Day celebrates, but please...
I used the period very productively and maturely: drawing pictures of various ways he could die.
Last night as I was driving home from Alex's, I heard Billy Joel's "For the Longest Time" on the radio. Normally, this would not have bothered me - indeed, it would have been a pleasant experience. But last night, it was playing on the local oldies station. Billy Joel? On an oldies station? Am I old enough that the music of my childhood is considered "oldies"? AAAAAAAAAAAAH, sigh lament.
