Pointless But It Does My Head In

[STN]

People who love to tell you that the Beatles 'were just ok, really' or variations thereof. Not big and not clever.

and yet my genuine opinion, please trust me.

Well I don't love telling people it, but if it comes up, people always accuse me of trying to be clever, which does my head in.

 

[STN]

okay, this is a very narrow one, that's pointless and petty but drives me mental. I really hate the way (this goes back to when I worked in a call-centre) that there's a specific and universal phonetic alphabet for dickheads.

'B for Bertie'
'F for Freddie'
'M for Mother'
'N for Norman'
'P for Peter'
'S for Sugar'

if they're really good they'll use both 'B for Bertie' and 'D for dirty'. Brilliant.

 

[Tentative Andy]

and yet my genuine opinion, please trust me.

Well I don't love telling people it, but if it comes up, people always accuse me of trying to be clever, which does my head in.

And then that's what they always say in response!

Nah, but if that's really your considered position then obviously I can accept that, bit I've have had a lot of experiences of people coming out with it in a really smug way and then not being able to back it up at all. Sometimes popluar, highly rated things can be good.

 

[STN]

And then that's what they always say in response!

Nah, but if that's really your considered position then obviously I can accept that, bit I've have had a lot of experiences of people coming out with it in a really smug way and then not being able to back it up at all. Sometimes popluar, highly rated things can be good.

Ah, well this is the thing, I always then feel pressured into defending myself, indie-kid style, by naming something mainstream that I do like to show I'm not just being a berk, when actually I spend all my time smoking gitanes and prancing around barefoot listening to the Theoretical Girls and reading Jean Genet.

 

[Pestario]

okay, this is a very narrow one, that's pointless and petty but drives me mental. I really hate the way (this goes back to when I worked in a call-centre) that there's a specific and universal phonetic alphabet for dickheads.

'B for Bertie'
'F for Freddie'
'M for Mother'
'N for Norman'
'P for Peter'
'S for Sugar'

if they're really good they'll use both 'B for Bertie' and 'D for dirty'. Brilliant.

yes, though I get N for November more these days

 

[STN]

bravo!

 

[Tentative Andy]

Ah, well this is the thing, I always then feel pressured into defending myself, indie-kid style, by naming something mainstream that I do like to show I'm not just being a berk, when actually I spend all my time smoking gitanes and prancing around barefoot listening to the Theoretical Girls and reading Jean Genet.

Lols. There's something to be said, I think, for being barefoot whilst at home.

 

[STN]

yeah? I like everything from Faust to Fela Kuti to Girls Aloud.

 

[Tentative Andy]

And that's surely as it should be! A good tune can come from anywhere. (Maybe sounds like some bland 'it's all music, maaan' generalisation, but means something slightly different in my head).
I think next time you have an annoying phone call as described above, you should designating letters using your favourite artists - F for Faust, G for Genet, B for Beefheart etc.

 

[BareBones]

yes, though I get N for November more these days

November's the correct phonetic alphabet one though isn't it? Once when i was on the phone to my bank or phone company or one of those people, i was giving details of a new address or something, and i couldn't remember what the phonetic for N was, and i said "N for... nostril"

 

[STN]

I was sort of joking, but I do agree with you, Andy.

Thankfully I no longer have to speak to people on the phone - that was a job I had years ago, thus making my gripe all the more petty and hateful.

 

[john eden]

Actually any attempt for people to make calling them back or recording their details eaiser is welcome.

The amount of phone messages I get which are:

"Hi this Mr [unintelligible]. Please call me back on [reads out number at lightspeed]".

 

[Martin Dust]

Actually any attempt for people to make calling them back or recording their details eaiser is welcome.

The amount of phone messages I get which are:

"Hi this Mr [unintelligible]. Please call me back on [reads out number at lightspeed]".

I haven't answered the phone a home for nearly 20yrs and removed the answer machine at the same time.

 

[zhao]

Actually any attempt for people to make calling them back or recording their details eaiser is welcome.

The amount of phone messages I get which are:

"Hi this Mr [unintelligible]. Please call me back on [reads out number at lightspeed]".

people should always state their numbers AT THE BEGINNING of a message instead of at the end of 3 minutes of babbling gibberish so that you have to listen to the whole damned thing repeatedly if you don't get the number.

 

[Mr. Tea]

okay, this is a very narrow one, that's pointless and petty but drives me mental. I really hate the way (this goes back to when I worked in a call-centre) that there's a specific and universal phonetic alphabet for dickheads.

'B for Bertie'
'F for Freddie'
'M for Mother'
'N for Norman'
'P for Peter'
'S for Sugar'

if they're really good they'll use both 'B for Bertie' and 'D for dirty'. Brilliant.

Haha, I totally see where you're coming from there. Thing is I'm actually enough of a nerd to know the proper one (alpha, bravo, charlie...x-ray, yankee, zulu). How do I know this? Have I osmotically absorbed them from watching The Bill after getting home from school?

 

[STN]

I mean, people don't have to use the actual one, it's just the universiality of the idiot's one. It is always used by people who then turn out to be idiots on unrelated matters, and is always said in a twee, tentative voice.

The other brilliant one is giving your phone number without using the words 'double' or 'triple', or saying the numbers more than once. Like this:

oh-seven-six-two-five, three noughts, eight, two sevens.

Surely even a child could see where this method might come unstuck?

 

[Pestario]

November's the correct phonetic alphabet one though isn't it? Once when i was on the phone to my bank or phone company or one of those people, i was giving details of a new address or something, and i couldn't remember what the phonetic for N was, and i said "N for... nostril"

oh, is it? well I still get the idiot version for all the other letters

just to add to the phone call gripes: We have a reference number system which goes 2009/xxxx and it annoys me when people say 'two zero zero nine' or ' two double zero nine' when it clearly refers to what year we are in!

 

[STN]

are you in a call-centre then, Pestario?

 

[Mr. Tea]

Re. phone manners, my girlfriend's dad still thinks it's acceptable to answer the phone by yelling "SE'NTWOFOURSIXTHREENINEONEFOUR" (or whatever it is) at you as soon as he picks up the receiver. It's a bit disorienting the first few times you hear it, but you get used to it eventually. Maybe that's how everyone used to answer the phone, he's pretty old.

I like Bell's suggested standard telephone greeting: "Ahoy-hoy!".

 

[STN]

it is quite an old fashioned thing to say your phone number when you answer. Bonus points for not even saying the area code.