Entertainment For Lively Minds
Irritating Jargon
Much as I love The Word, there is a very irritating phrase that has crept into the magazine in the last couple of issues: "go-to". I'm not sure if it's marketing speak, one of those strange American turn a verb into an adjective things or what, but it's an annoying and completely pointless phrase.
Example from the current issue:
"In the 80s, Godley and Creme were the go-to men for pop videos"
What is wrong with:
"In the 80s, Godley and Creme were the men to go to for pop videos"
If it's there to emphasise just how important/ubiquitous G&C were, then what's wrong with good old fashioned bold or italics?
"In the 80s, Godley and Creme were the men to go to for pop videos"
I'm looking forward to the day when "go-to" is "gone-from" the magazine!
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"go-to"
Quite a common term nowadays, not just in The Word. It doesn't bother me in the slightest. One thing that does is the over-use of the verb 'eyes' in sports headlines.
"Ferguson eyes good result against Spurs"
"Torres eyes summer transfer"
"Dalglish eyes young Frenchman"
On another note: the 100th issue of the Word seems to have provided quite a lot of complaint threads. For the record, I thoroughly enjoyed it, as ever. [/obn]
Didnt know
Dalglish was that way inclined - shall we inform the NOTW?
Were G &C
the go-to men from the get-go? Or is that going too far?
Not at the time
but it could be a 'go' for them going forward, get me?
Not just in The Word,
but everywhere, I read and hear "Back in the day" and "What's not to like" and get the urge to retreat even more from this world of fashion, fads, trends, and parrot-like English. It's kind of like, you know, OMG!...irritating.
"Dalglish eyes young Frenchman"
Well, I never!
Careful
Has the whiff of "super injunction" territory
Man Utd
I'm sure that comment alone will be enough for Man Utd fans to sing delightful songs about him...
The use of the past tense
The use of the past tense suggests that poor old so-20th-century G&C are not the go-to guys "going forward".
bugger
just put something similar above without scrolling down. Apologies for the unconscious plagiarism. I should have read the whole page from the get-go.
I particularly hate
"What was your name..." - the temptation to reply "It was, and indeed still is, Mr Twang" is strong but you'd sound like a pompous git so I don't.
Going forward
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
How do we feel...
...about déja vu? ;-)
surely we've
discussed this before?
Um.
That was why I wrote that - we've done the whole thread before. [/jokefail]
Isn't this thread is a "callback" then
and so one for Stewart Lee fans?
Hur hur...
...you know when you do a joke on a thread, and it just TOTALLY falls on its arse, right? You know that? Have you ever noticed it?
*capers wildly around stage gurning and laughing uproariously at own humour*
;-)
Timely reminder
Episode two of Stewart Lee, tonight.
State of the art
What the fuck!! I seems to be applied to everything that is anything but the state of the art.
didn't used to happen
back in the day
So
Has anyone noticed a fairly recent trend for interviewees ( particularly business people and politicians ) to preface their opinion/justification with the word 'so'? It seems just a delaying mechanism but has no relevance to the normal meaning of 'so'.
So
do writers of television series and plays when starting a new scene. I've never heard it in real life.
'Go to' isn't really jargon,
which is language used by a profession or trade to describe some concept. I'd say 'go to' is a fairly straightforward, self-explanatory word that has evolved to neatly say: people with a good track record that has made them a preferred or first choice option.
Beautifully put
Have an up.
You're obviously
the go-to guy for succinct definition.
"I'd say 'go to' is a straightforward, self-explanatory word.."
Maybe I'm old-fashioned, maybe I'm missing something here, perhaps my 'O' level in English is a tad de trop now but, in my experience, 'go to' is two words.
Anyway.
Go to the post above. Swap around the 'go to', 'preferred' and 'first choice' in any way you want and it still makes sense.
Now go to the sentence above. 'Go to' used in, what I would like to think, is a correct fashion. Do the same swapping around.
I should have hyphenated it
to "go-to" and then it is one word!!
You're quite right about swapping the words around but, as discussed in the "Do some people..." post, it's simply language evolving. Sometimes this throws up words we like and/or think are useful and/or which stick, sometimes it's not.
I think this was the point of my OP
As Lenny pointed out, it's perfectly possible to express the concept without the phrase "go-to". I just think it is a very ugly word/phrase.
On the point of "Hello you two", I do use this occasionally, especially to two of my daughter's classmates who are identical twins and I can never tell which is A and which is B.
you don't know
what you got till it's gone
There's a little phrase
That I have never heard in real life but which crops up regularly on The Archers and that is "Hello you two". I know they do it because it's radio and it's supposed to make it clear how many people are in the scene but it still grates on me.
Incidentally, I believe that you never hear from more than 7 Archers characters in any one episode (unless they are Mr and Mrs Titcombe, Sabena Thwaites or Freda Fry).
On a similar theme...
At the beginning of any film or TV drama, when we are just getting to know the characters, the following kind of things will be said, just so you know who's who and what's what:
Man - "How's my favourite sister?"
Woman - "I'm your only sister"
Man - "What about Keith?"
Woman - "You're terrible!" (hits him with pillow)
We now know pretty quickly that both characters are siblings and that their brother Keith might be gay.
Also -
"No husband of *mine* is going out in shoes like that!"
"I may be your grandad, but..."
For my own part
I find "go-to" unobjectionable, in and of itself
Go-to
What's not to like?
Basic Humour
Surely GOSUB followed by a RETURN is a safer option?