Category Archives: Culture

Culture

PC, And I Don’t Mean Personal Computer

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Gender neutral speak.  One way or another that’s what the English language is becoming.  The higher education institution, (formerly known as) Prince…ton, has just issued guidelines on “inclusive language”.  You can read the guidelines here:  Inclusive Memo

I find it ironic that the memo has been issued by the “HuMAN Resources Department”.  Shouldn’t that be renamed the “Non-gender-specific-mass-of-semi-sentient-protoplasm Resources Department”?  Of course if we want to be inclusive we should not refer to it as a “Department”.  That would mean a division of the university.  Not very inclusive.  “Non-gender-specific-mass-of-semi-sentient-protoplasm Resources Generalized-location-on-the-university-campus”.  There, that’s better.

Okay, maybe I’m lazy but it’s tiring (boring to me) that we have this push to neuter everything in life.  You can see in my posts that I do not always use “inclusive gender neutral speak”.  Where a pronoun is appropriate I will use the masculine form.  If a reader feels that I’m excluding women, that’s their problem not mine.  And just how far are we going to go with this?

With the fear of “man”, instead of saying “men and women” should we now say “men and woes”?  Hmmm, I’ll just let that one hang there…

I find it ridiculous that “the chairman” has been neutered in many business circles to just “the chair”.  Sheesh, I always thought the chair was where you rested your arse.  I didn’t know that an inanimate cloth covered wooden object had an opinion.  Of course a chair does have the closest connection to the orifice that many PC people speak out of.

If we want to be inclusive, what else should we get rid of.  Why do we celebrate Sally Ride’s (first American woman into space) achievements?  Let’s only put John Glenn in the history books.  Why do we have men’s and women’s athletic records?  Should we rewrite the United States Constitution?  “All men are created equal…”

Stop the madness!

“One small step for person.  One giant leap for people”.

Culture, General Information

Young Person, Seizing the Day

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In my earlier post “Young People, Seize the Day!”, I wrote in part that now young folks can collaborate via the Internet.  I mentioned this to a friend of mine and he brought up what I consider to be an excellent example of a young person taking advantage of this global knowledge.

My friend’s 20-something daughter bought a condo last year and the dishwasher stopped working the other day. The dishwasher displayed an error code on the front panel. She was going to call and pay someone to come and repair it, but decided to search online to see what the error code was indicating.  She found that the code meant that the drain valve was not closing.  She also found an online video that showed the most common cause of the valve malfunction was caked up soap around the drain valve.  The video showed how to remove some parts to get to the drain and how to clean it.

Now this young gal had never repaired anything in her life.  She didn’t even have any tools. So what did she do next?  She emailed her dad and asked him what kind of pliers she should get.  He went online and found a set at the local big box hardware store and sent her the link to the pliers set.  She then went to the hardware store and bought the tools.

This young lady took apart her dishwasher, by herself, with only the knowledge gained from the online video and her new pliers.  Sure enough the valve was caked with soap.  After she cleaned out the valve and reassembled the dishwasher, voilà, fixed!

I find this very impressive.  Very impressive indeed.  The knowledge via the Internet empowered this young lady to take charge of things in her own life.  I imagine that she also gained the sense of accomplishment after fixing the mechanical beast.

To some, this may seem like a small victory but it probably will forever change this young lady’s view of her abilities going forward in life.

One small step…

Culture, General Information

You’re welcome

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Today’s topic is a bit lighter than many of the previous posts.

One trend that I have noticed is the odd follow on expression when someone says, “Thank you”.  In almost every interview in the media today when the host says “Thank you for coming on the air” or a similar expression, the guest will almost always respond with, “Thank you”.

When did this trend in speech start?  My mother, father, and school teachers taught that the proper response to “Thank you” is “You’re welcome”.    Responding with “You’re welcome” indicates that the “thank-ee” was pleased to have provided something to the “thank-er”.  “You’re welcome” also implies that there is nothing owed in return.

The response of “Thank you” is ambiguous as to its meaning.  There is no indication if the “thank-ee” was glad to have given what was provided.  It is also ambiguous whether or not there are strings attached to what was given.

I have to admit I find the current response odd as well as nonsensical,  but at least it’s not as annoying as “upspeak” and “vocal fry” which have become fashionable speech patterns, especially among young females in The United States.  I may cover those stupid and annoying speech patterns in a future post.

I was pleasantly surprised last week when I placed an order at the drive-up speaker of a fast food restaurant.  The young man named Gustavo who took my order, cheerfully responded  when I said, “Thank you” with, “You are very welcome”.