Pointless But It Does My Head In

[Martin Dust]

For real, Paul. In the morning there's a hard lesson of yes you can have the changes and here's the cost phone call...

 

[Guybrush]

Sorry for being late to the party, but maybe a cross-linguistic comparison can shed some light on the meaning of the saying «the exception that proves the rule». The verbatim translation of the Swedish version of it is «the exception that confirms the rule». So now you know.

 

[zhao]

clients who do not say what they mean, mean what they say, change their minds more than 3 times, or have totally backwards interpretations of simple concepts like "simple" or "modern".

clients who always pick the worst solution.

clients who take too long deciding, and when it comes down to it the team has 36 hours to deliver.

clients who think they know what is best - what the FUCK did you hire ME for then?!?!

note:

thank the lucky stars, knock on wood, keeping fingers crossed, i no longer really have most of these problems... these days i usually working with people who are not COMPLETE morons...

 

[bruno]

clients who always pick the worst solution.

you have to present them with only one solution. and looking directly into their eyes with fiery conviction. this in my experience.

 

[zhao]

that made me laugh out loud

 

[DJ PIMP]

you have to present them with only one solution. and looking directly into their eyes with fiery conviction. this in my experience.

that's what i try and do now; do it once and get it right the first time.

however i am dealing right now with a client who wants "edge", but cannot specify what this means.

 

[zhao]

however i am dealing right now with a client who wants "edge", but cannot specify what this means.

stark colors, stressed type of different sizes, no grid.

 

[IdleRich]

The verbatim translation of the Swedish version of it is «the exception that confirms the rule». So now you know.

But does that saying exist in Sweden except as a translation of that rule? Because if not that's trivial. You're just saying that "prove means confirms" which it does now - my point is that "prove" used to also mean "test" and that usage has almost died out except in that phrase but with the more common usage that phrase is meaningless.
Do people use that saying at all in Sweden?

 

[Guybrush]

But does that saying exist in Sweden except as a translation of that rule? Because if not that's trivial. You're just saying that "prove means confirms" which it does now - my point is that "prove" used to also mean "test" and that usage has almost died out except in that phrase but with the more common usage that phrase is meaningless.

According to this site, the saying is derived from Latin.

The expression stems from Cicero’s defence of a certain Bilbo, accused of having been wrongly granted Roman citizenship. The prosecutor pointed out that a number of agreements with certain non-Roman people explicitly forbade their acquiring Roman citizenship; for want of such an agreement with Bilbo’s people, the prosecutor suggested that such an agreement was to be assumed implicit. It was the obvious flaw in this reasoning which Cicero remarked upon; if something be explicitly prohibited under a given set of conditions it must be permitted under the rest, i.e. ‘the exception proves the rule for the instances not described.’​

Oh, wait, here is a better explanation (and I’m beginning to sense that most people use the saying wrongly):

"Exception probat regulam [Lat.], the exception proves the rule. A legal maxim of which the complete text is: exceptio probat [or (con)firmat] regulam in casibus non exceptis--`the fact that certain exceptions are made (in a legal document) confirms that the rule is valid in all other cases.'"

The application is this. Suppose a law is stated in such a way as to include an exception, e.g., "Parking is prohibited on this street from 7 AM to 7 PM, Sundays and holidays excepted." The explicit mention of the exception means that NO other exceptions are to be inferred. Thus we should take the Latin verb probare in the maxim to have the sense of "to increase the force of."

 

[IdleRich]

That's interesting. Never heard that explanation before. Either way, the saying is being used incorrectly I guess.

 

[mos dan]

And don't get me fucking started on "could of"/"should of", misplaced apostrophes, 'definately', 'lazer', 'euthenasia'...

this one shakes me to the very core of my being.

 

[Martin Dust]

Maroon Fucking 5

 

[gabriel]

Gabriel, as soon as I saw this thread I thought you'd pop up with one of your pet hates, but as yet you haven't. Perhaps I've exaggerated in my mind the extent to which people saying 'Trivial Pursuits' maddens you?

LMAO yes it's true, i do hate the added 's' on the end there. there are loads of stupid little things that annoy me, though i think me listing them here will actually probably only serve to annoy me even more...

 

[Mr. Tea]

The phrase "X and Y are both the same". The 'both' is totally redundant: how can something be 'the same' without being 'the same as (something else)'?

 

[zhao]

well unless only 1 of them is the same. as the other. sorry just being retarded.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Being called a 'customer' rather than 'passenger' when using day-to-day public transport (tube, busses etc.).
Oddly enough, I've found you tend to get called 'passenger' when you fly, even though you are most definitely a customer (to the tune of several tens or hundreds of pounds) in this case!

 

[Edward]

People whow work on planes & trains often use "myself" instead of "me" during their announcements. I think they think it makes them sound more official. It is very odd.

"If you require any assistance please contact myself or one of my colleagues."

 

[Mr. Tea]

The 'myself' thing annoys me greatly, I think someone may have mentioned it in this thread already.
I find it's used by (sorry) people who aren't very educated but want to sound educated - they try to be "more correct than correct", and end up using words incorrectly as a result.
Same goes for use of 'I', as in "that conversation between you and I", sort of thing.

 

[zhao]

people who aren't very educated but want to sound educated

might not be a stretch to say that a majority of all the annoyances in the world are a result of stupids trying to act smart.

and on the other side most of the bestest things in the universe come from intellegent people acting retarded

 

[Guybrush]

The 'myself' thing annoys me greatly, I think someone may have mentioned it in this thread already.
I find it's used by (sorry) people who aren't very educated but want to sound educated - they try to be "more correct than correct", and end up using words incorrectly as a result.
Same goes for use of 'I', as in "that conversation between you and I", sort of thing.

Hypercorrection