What Really Grinds Your Gears?

[jimmydasaint]

As a 54 yr-old middle-aged man, I have a number of things which really grind my gears. However, after reading another thread on how to pronounce De Broglie, I have to let off some steam.

 

You Yanks are lovely people and I have an American colleague who is a good friend BUT...

 

What really grinds my gears is the way you guys pronounce the name of the artist Van Gogh. It is not "Van go" - that sounds like an advert for a bloody delivery van. The pronunciation is "Van Hoch" like coughing out a half eaten kebab.

 

Please get that right. IIRC, they don't pronounce the letter "G" so Greggs the bakers are not likely to be found in Holland.

 

Now your turn. What really grinds your gears?

[Lord Antares]

Speaking of Americans, when they don't use the metric system. Ugh.

Or when they call football soccer

[zapatos]

As a 54 yr-old middle-aged man, I have a number of things which really grind my gears. However, after reading another thread on how to pronounce De Broglie, I have to let off some steam.

 

You Yanks are lovely people and I have an American colleague who is a good friend BUT...

 

What really grinds my gears is the way you guys pronounce the name of the artist Van Gogh. It is not "Van go" - that sounds like an advert for a bloody delivery van. The pronunciation is "Van Hoch" like coughing out a half eaten kebab.

 

Please get that right. IIRC, they don't pronounce the letter "G" so Greggs the bakers are not likely to be found in Holland.

 

Now your turn. What really grinds your gears?

 

When people get annoyed at those who don't know any better.

[dimreepr]

I try not to let anything grind my gears, it damages the gear box.

[zapatos]

Speaking of Americans, when they don't use the metric system. Ugh.

Agreed. I remember my mother saying she didn't want to switch because that meant none of her recipes would work anymore. Huh?!?!

Or when they call football soccer

Since we already have something called 'football', what would you have us call it?

 

Stefan Szymanski, a sports economist at the University of Michigan, published a paper debunking the notion that "soccer" is a semantically bizarre American invention. In fact, it's a British import. And the Brits used it oftenuntil, that is, it became too much of an Americanism for British English to bear.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/why-we-call-soccer-soccer/372771/

[StringJunky]

Agreed. I remember my mother saying she didn't want to switch because that meant none of her recipes would work anymore. Huh?!?!

Since we already have something called 'football', what would you have us call it?

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/why-we-call-soccer-soccer/372771/

Yeah, i remember 'soccer' was used here a lot as a kid. I seem to remember a mag or comic by that name as well.

[zapatos]

Yeah, i remember 'soccer' was used here a lot as a kid. I seem to remember a mag or comic by that name as well.

Interesting. That led me to a web site called www.soccerbilia.co.uk specializing in British football/soccer magazine memorabilia.

 

Reclaiming the name "Soccer"

 

Some people incorrectly assume that America invented the word "Soccer" and, as a result, British fans tend to recoil from the name and stick to "Football". In fact, "soccer" is the nickname from the early 20th century and is a contraction of "Association Football".

 

This term of affection was used throughout the last century and only slowly started to be dropped from the late 1970s. It was a surprise in 1951 that Charles Buchan called his magazine a "Football" Monthly when in all his editorials his copy was about the joy, or the skill, of soccer. Raich Carter launched his "Soccer Star" in 1952 and "World Soccer" followed in 1960. The dummy issue of Goal magazine that circulated to newsagents in the summer of 1968 featured the strap line of "The Worlds Greatest Football Weekly" but, crucially, by launch it had become "The Worlds Greatest Soccer Weekly".

 

For a site dedicated to the British Football/Soccer magazine memorabilia of the second half of the 20th Century it really had to be called "Soccerbilia".

http://www.soccerbilia.co.uk/acatalog/About-Soccerbilia.html

[StringJunky]

Interesting. That led me to a web site called www.soccerbilia.co.uk specializing in British football/soccer magazine memorabilia.

 

http://www.soccerbilia.co.uk/acatalog/About-Soccerbilia.html

This is a current British magazine:

 

[CharonY]

Nothing. I am too used to superior German engineering! Well and the Einstein/Einstien thingy.

[jimmydasaint]

It's Fronkensteen!

[Lord Antares]

About the football/soccer dispute, two things:

 

1) Soccer was invented first and it was called association football. The term soccer was introduced only after there was American football.

 

 

In the United States, American football is referred to as "football".^[3] The term "football" was officially established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season, when the sport first shifted from soccer-style rules to rugby-style rules. Harvard was one of the primary proponents of the rugby-style game, and it could easily have been called "rugby" at this point; however, Harvard compromised and did not request that the name be changed to "rugby".^[4] The terms "gridiron" or "American football" are favored in English-speaking countries where other codes of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia.

 

I always used to call American football rugby.

 

2) The reason why non-American countries still call it soccer is to avoid confusion. When there is something international, it usually refers to it as football. The others usually call it football amongst themselves.

 

But whatever, this is just a pet peeve, nothing to analyze in depth.

[iNow]

Grinds my gears? The US electorate right now

[NimrodTheGoat]

wehn people say that my little lamb is a goat - _ - he is not a goat, he is a lamb, A LAMB

Edited March 10, 2017 by NimrodTheGoat

[dimreepr]

But whatever, this is just a pet peeve, nothing to analyze in depth.

 

Oh come on, football is a game played using the foot 99% of the time, rather than 1% of the time in so called, American football, if anything American football should be named American rugby and then banned in the rest of the world because of excessive bathroom breaks...

Edited March 10, 2017 by dimreepr

[zapatos]

Oh come on, football is a game played using the foot 99% of the time, rather than 1% of the time in so called, American football, if anything American football should be named American rugby and then banned in the rest of the world because of excessive bathroom breaks...

I've always thought of European football as theater. I've seen actors (sorry, 'athletes') get lightly brushed on the arm and react as if they'd been shot by a cannon, squirming on the ground in agony, only to lightly jump to their feet just before the medics arrive...

[Lord Antares]

That is to get an advantage for their team. It's called simulation, it's dirty and it sometimes scores goals. It doesn't mean they are pussies if that's what you're getting at.

 

I'd rather watch that than 90% of the game being taken up by breaks.

[zapatos]

Yes, it's a lovely part of the game that really highlights their football ability and sportsmanship. I'm sure they devote part of every practice on how to "appear" to be a pussy.

And yes, there is nothing more exciting than a 0-0 draw between two teams intent on taking no risks, while players flop around on the ground looking as if they are being electrocuted.

Edited March 10, 2017 by zapatos

[dimreepr]

Yes, it's a lovely part of the game that really highlights their football ability and sportsmanship. I'm sure they devote part of every practice on how to "appear" to by a pussy.

 

And yes, there is nothing more exciting than a 0-0 draw between two teams intent on taking no risks, while players flop around on the ground looking as if they are being electrocuted.

 

Well, at least we can agree that footballers appear to be pussies.

Edited March 10, 2017 by dimreepr

[Lord Antares]

Yes, it's a lovely part of the game that really highlights their football ability and sportsmanship. I'm sure they devote part of every practice on how to "appear" to by a pussy.

 

I'm not sure why you're making that point. No one thinks that is respectable and sportsmanlike behavior. Hockey players fistfight all the time like a bunch of cretinous neanderthals and I don't think that's appealing for the sport at all. Let's not even mention sports (particularly football/soccer) fans. They would kill another human being for cheering for another team.

 

 

And yes, there is nothing more exciting than a 0-0 draw between two teams intent on taking no risks,

 

Pretty much every sport is like that at the highest level. Chess suffers from this the most I've witnessed. Games are played very, very carefully with focus on caution rather than attack.

[zapatos]

I'm just having a little cross-ocean rivalry fun.

 

While I do find the 'simulations' to be a pathetic part of the game, I'm a great fan of soccer. Going to Catholic school in St. Louis, Missouri (six of the players from the US team that defeated England in the 1950 World Cup were from St. Louis) I was playing soccer by the time I was six and played soccer for about 40 years.

I also played rugby though, so I'm not sure what we will call that sport if we start calling American Football 'rugby'.

[Lord Antares]

I was playing soccer by the time I was six and played soccer for about 40 years.

 

Wow, really? Did you watch the Euro last year?

 

 

I also played rugby though, so I'm not sure what we will call that sport if we start calling American Football 'rugby'.

 

Lol yeah. I used to think that those 2 are the same sport when I was a kid. I think the solution is to delete American football

 

 

 

Oh come on, football is a game played using the foot 99% of the time, rather than 1% of the time in so called, American football, if anything American football should be named American rugby and then banned in the rest of the world because of excessive bathroom breaks...

 

And it's not really a ball either. I think it should be called Handegg.

[zapatos]

 

 

Pretty much every sport is like that at the highest level. Chess suffers from this the most I've witnessed. Games are played very, very carefully with focus on caution rather than attack.

Not American football. Only one team is on offense at a time and during the entire game one of the two teams is trying very hard to score. There is usually no advantage to sitting back with a focus on caution while you are on offense. That is one of the things that makes American football an exciting game to watch. Of course soccer has its own merits, but the excitement of frequent lead changes is not usually one of them.

 

Wow, really? Did you watch the Euro last year?

 

 

I did! Well, as much as I could. Being in the US with the smaller fan base there is a limit to how much football is shown on television.

 

I'm not all that thrilled with watching Major League Soccer in the US either. The play, while much better than it was in the past, is simply not up to the standards of what is delivered in Europe and South America. Once you are spoiled with European football it is tough to watch American soccer.

[Lord Antares]

Tell me you rooted for Croatia and I will excuse you for liking American football

[StringJunky]

Talking about grinding gears and football: when Maradona handballed that goal and got away with it I wanted to kill him. I sulked for ages afterwards... along with a few million others. There was holes in the pavement (sidewalk) where I trod.

Edited March 10, 2017 by StringJunky

[Velocity_Boy]

Speaking of Americans, when they don't use the metric system. Ugh.

Or when they call football soccer

 

Uhh..the origin of the word soccer is British.

 

Just so ya know.

 

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/whats-the-origin-of-the-word-soccer

 

What grinds my gears, mate, is people from other countries complaining about how me and folks in MY country speak.

 

Cheers, mate.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Velocity_Boy