Words that annoy me for no particular reason.

[slowmotion]

Playbook
Roadmap

 

[Blue Hills]

Playbook
Roadmap

Am surprised that roadmap is still trundling on.
I remember corporates putting in press releases donkeys years ago. Then journalists picked up on it. I well remember standing outside a soho pub and nattering to a tech journalist who used it. Almost lost my pint. Surely not long for this world?

 

[Poacher]

Diagnostics.


Hell, I've got nothing against agnostics, apart from mild contempt for their lily-livered fence sitting, and I certainly bear them no ill will. Diagnostics sounds like something religious zealots would scream while herding sceptics into a barn with pitchforks, before setting fire to it.

 

[PeteXXX]

Do we still have football managers 'setting out their stall'?

I don't have any great interest in the game, but that used to really annoy me when I heard it uttered!

The only people who should be setting out stalls is Market traders and boot fair people.

 

[matticus]

No, I think players "going about their business" has replaced it (in many sports).

 

[Oldhippy]

I know nothing about sport in general but I've always wondered why those largely over weight drunk blokes in pubs when football is on and they seem to know everything! They are missing a trick not employing these people. 😁

 

[DaveReading]

I know nothing about sport in general but I've always wondered why those largely over weight drunk blokes in pubs when football is on and they seem to know everything! They are missing a trick not employing these people. 😁

My late father, some time ago, acted as a consultant for a well-known Edinburgh football club who wanted to upgrade their floodlights.

Upon successful completion of the project, the directors thanked him for his help and advice, to which his response was "I've been offering advice from the terraces for the last 30 years, and it's the first time you lot have taken it!".

 

[PaulB]

One word I can't abide happens to be how a Midlands football team came by their name. They were team of a chicken-packers from a factory near Birmingham and came to be known as West Bromwich Albumen.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Do we still have football managers 'setting out their stall'?

Ah yes. Also, they used to set out their stalls "early doors".
Why "doors" I wonder? I get that the earliness of "early" may not be quite descriptive enough somehow of just how early the stall-setting is being done, but "doors"? Does "doors" add to the earliness quotient? Can you accuse a tardy friend of being "late doors" when he's more than just a little late?
I've never, in my life heard the phrase "early doors" outside the whole Ron Atkinson-era football manager speak.

Another phrase you only ever hear being used in the wrong context in a football setting is "stonewall" when describing a penalty. Considering that stonewall can mean either (a) to deliberately avoid / filibuster a particular political question or enquiry, or (b) to be generally uncooperative or evasive, or (c) literally, a wall made from stones, it seems an odd phrase to use to mean "a certainty". But for football fans, a penalty claim for their team is always a "stonewall penalty".

 

[Oldhippy]

When I was touring we used the term early and late doors if sound check finished before we expected and late doors if the band over ran their time.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

When I was touring we used the term early and late doors if sound check finished before we expected and late doors if the band over ran their time.

We have found a non-football manager user of "early / late doors"!

Please, go on OldHippy, why late "doors"? Why not just "late"?

 

[Oldhippy]

I remember comms calls asking if we were set for doors from front of house staff. It was wether to start letting punters in the building or opening street doors to ensure hasty exit punters when show finished.

 

[Tenacious Sloth]

Ah yes. Also, they used to set out their stalls "early doors".
Why "doors" I wonder? I get that the earliness of "early" may not be quite descriptive enough somehow of just how early the stall-setting is being done, but "doors"? Does "doors" add to the earliness quotient? Can you accuse a tardy friend of being "late doors" when he's more than just a little late?
I've never, in my life heard the phrase "early doors" outside the whole Ron Atkinson-era football manager speak.

Another phrase you only ever hear being used in the wrong context in a football setting is "stonewall" when describing a penalty. Considering that stonewall can mean either (a) to deliberately avoid / filibuster a particular political question or enquiry, or (b) to be generally uncooperative or evasive, or (c) literally, a wall made from stones, it seems an odd phrase to use to mean "a certainty". But for football fans, a penalty claim for their team is always a "stonewall penalty".

Another classic phrase only used in football that grips my craw is ‘The boy done well’ instead of ‘The boy did well’.

Actually, not sure where ‘Grips my craw’ comes from. Or even, what a craw is?

 

[Tenacious Sloth]

We have found a non-football manager user of "early / late doors"!

Please, go on OldHippy, why late "doors"? Why not just "late"?

They used to watch a lot of football.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I remember comms calls asking if we were set for doors from front of house staff. It was wether to start letting punters in the building or opening street doors to ensure hasty exit punters when show finished.

Thanks! So it's a theatrical / musical term, seems to work in that context.
Stall-setting, less so.