Someone wrote a letter to an advice columnist whining about staff saying “no problem” or something similar rather than “You’re welcome.” They got an appropriate response – Pound sand, they’re doing their job, not a favor to you.
The trend that I despised was the use of “Perfect” to indicate agreement to any more or less adequate plan of action.
Piraro’s odious Easter eggs are most annoying when the count appears to be off by one. It wasn’t until I started writing this sentence that I noticed it was a normal “piece of pie” on the box, and not a “pizza pie“.
P.S. The last two strips deserve at least a partial synchronicity tag: the premise of the contradictory humor is fundamentally the same in both. (In the first strip, it was clear from the first panel what the punchline in the fourth panel was going to be.)
Downpuppy, what do you make of “brilliant”?
Kilby speaks of Piraro’s odious Easter eggs.
Certainly the Secret Symbols (and published count of them) were Piraro’s invention, back when he was doing Bizarro as a solo enterprise. But nowadays it seems to be mostly Wayno who is executing them, as he writes and draws the weekday and Saturday cartoons. (With some kind of consultation with Piraro, we are given to understand.) And particular cases of accidental miscounting, as well as playful misdirection for fans of that feature, probably should be laid at Wayno’s door.
Since both signatures still appear on those non-Sunday Bizarros, here at CIDU we have continued to tag both names.
Brilliant meaning good is OK in Britain, as long as it doesn’t escape. It has no place in the New World. Like house sparrows, kudzu, pythons, knotweed, water chestnuts, usw, language invasions are often disastrous.
Certainly the Secret Symbols (and published count of them) were Piraro’s invention
Certainly he was just ripping off Hirschfeld and the hidden “Nina”s, complete with Nina-count by his signature…
I’ve only heard “perfect” used that way by non-native English speakers, who seem to be trying to import a usage from their native language; which language that is, in memory I can’t recall — French? Spanish? A romance language, I’m pretty sure…
Good point, larK. I meant “introduced them, with his own elaborations, to Bizarro” – the focus was on differentiating him from his junior partner, not his predecessors.
No, I have heard native American speakers using “perfect”. One waitress at a restaurant that we used to go to after hockey games (no longer an option as they reduced hours) said it a lot. As in, you’d order a roast-beef sandwich, to which she’d reply, “Perfect, perfect”.
Someone I know is always, always, ALWAYS apologizing. She can’t say two sentences without a “sorry” in there somewhere. “I’m sorry to bother you…” “I’m sorry, do you need this?” “I’m sorry, the dog is out.” “I’m sorry, the dog is in.” I asked her to stop apologizing all the time. She said “Do I? I’m sorry.”
mark in Boston,
Wait til she hits menopause. She may get a little feistier then. heh
larK, that’s amazing. I remember about 20 years ago when it seemed like every young person I dealt with used “perfect” like that. “I’d like a ham sandwich.” “Perfect.” It was so tempting to reply “It doesn’t have to be perfect. Minor flaws are acceptable.” Or, if I were feeling particularly grouchy, “It had better be.”
Don’t let their reputation fool you. Turtles can move fast if they want to. They usually do when I try to photograph them. They’re hustling out of frame by the time I get the camera ready…
There is a YouTube channel that in the past featured a guy feeding turtles and fish at a pond. The turtles are red-eared sliders. You see where they get the “slider\” name, when they get a treat from him they quickly turn and launch themselves into a slide into the water.
Only time I use “perfect” in that manner is when there has been a discussion about what needs to be done/made/ordered and the other person we are giving the order to finally gets the information correct – and even then, who knows if it will right.
i am so delighted to find that there are other individuals who are similarly annoyed by the language abuse trends now become so abundant in our culture, if that’s the word i want…one of my “favorites” is the seemingly required statement/reply in interviews to almost any question, “absolutely, absolutely “, as if twice makes it 110% (or alternatively 1,000%) certain…yes i’m a non-recovering curmudgeon
Comics I Don't Understand 
Someone wrote a letter to an advice columnist whining about staff saying “no problem” or something similar rather than “You’re welcome.” They got an appropriate response – Pound sand, they’re doing their job, not a favor to you.
The trend that I despised was the use of “Perfect” to indicate agreement to any more or less adequate plan of action.
Piraro’s odious Easter eggs are most annoying when the count appears to be off by one. It wasn’t until I started writing this sentence that I noticed it was a normal “piece of pie” on the box, and not a “pizza pie“.
P.S. The last two strips deserve at least a partial synchronicity tag: the premise of the contradictory humor is fundamentally the same in both. (In the first strip, it was clear from the first panel what the punchline in the fourth panel was going to be.)
Downpuppy, what do you make of “brilliant”?
Kilby speaks of Piraro’s odious Easter eggs.
Certainly the Secret Symbols (and published count of them) were Piraro’s invention, back when he was doing Bizarro as a solo enterprise. But nowadays it seems to be mostly Wayno who is executing them, as he writes and draws the weekday and Saturday cartoons. (With some kind of consultation with Piraro, we are given to understand.) And particular cases of accidental miscounting, as well as playful misdirection for fans of that feature, probably should be laid at Wayno’s door.
Since both signatures still appear on those non-Sunday Bizarros, here at CIDU we have continued to tag both names.
Brilliant meaning good is OK in Britain, as long as it doesn’t escape. It has no place in the New World. Like house sparrows, kudzu, pythons, knotweed, water chestnuts, usw, language invasions are often disastrous.
Certainly the Secret Symbols (and published count of them) were Piraro’s invention
Certainly he was just ripping off Hirschfeld and the hidden “Nina”s, complete with Nina-count by his signature…
I’ve only heard “perfect” used that way by non-native English speakers, who seem to be trying to import a usage from their native language; which language that is, in memory I can’t recall — French? Spanish? A romance language, I’m pretty sure…
Good point, larK. I meant “introduced them, with his own elaborations, to Bizarro” – the focus was on differentiating him from his junior partner, not his predecessors.
No, I have heard native American speakers using “perfect”. One waitress at a restaurant that we used to go to after hockey games (no longer an option as they reduced hours) said it a lot. As in, you’d order a roast-beef sandwich, to which she’d reply, “Perfect, perfect”.
Someone I know is always, always, ALWAYS apologizing. She can’t say two sentences without a “sorry” in there somewhere. “I’m sorry to bother you…” “I’m sorry, do you need this?” “I’m sorry, the dog is out.” “I’m sorry, the dog is in.” I asked her to stop apologizing all the time. She said “Do I? I’m sorry.”
mark in Boston,
Wait til she hits menopause. She may get a little feistier then. heh
larK, that’s amazing. I remember about 20 years ago when it seemed like every young person I dealt with used “perfect” like that. “I’d like a ham sandwich.” “Perfect.” It was so tempting to reply “It doesn’t have to be perfect. Minor flaws are acceptable.” Or, if I were feeling particularly grouchy, “It had better be.”
Don’t let their reputation fool you. Turtles can move fast if they want to. They usually do when I try to photograph them. They’re hustling out of frame by the time I get the camera ready…
There is a YouTube channel that in the past featured a guy feeding turtles and fish at a pond. The turtles are red-eared sliders. You see where they get the “slider\” name, when they get a treat from him they quickly turn and launch themselves into a slide into the water.
Only time I use “perfect” in that manner is when there has been a discussion about what needs to be done/made/ordered and the other person we are giving the order to finally gets the information correct – and even then, who knows if it will right.
i am so delighted to find that there are other individuals who are similarly annoyed by the language abuse trends now become so abundant in our culture, if that’s the word i want…one of my “favorites” is the seemingly required statement/reply in interviews to almost any question, “absolutely, absolutely “, as if twice makes it 110% (or alternatively 1,000%) certain…yes i’m a non-recovering curmudgeon