[HPFGU-OTChatter] Profanity in Russian speech WAS Re: HP in translation

[Mrs. Lee Storm (God Is The Healing Force)]

[justcarol67 wrote]:
| Why, for example, must an employee now be an "associate"?
| Why must a storm be a "precipitation event"? Why must a "problem" be
| an "issue"? Why should I list my "gender" on a loan application as if
| I were a part of speech?

[Lee adds]:
When I worked for what was then AT&T Bell Labs, they had such phrases as:
"The job went away" (the position was disbanded)

"An At Risk Employee" (someone whose job went away and is still hanging
around posting internally for a position because they took extension time
rather than a lump sum severance.)

"Vertical Level Conference (Basically, a chance for us little people to
gripe to the upper management but, in truth, upper mags aren't really
listening, just trying to make us think they are.)

Everything was a "Process," you hoped you fitted into the "Value Added
Employee" category, etc.  It all got to be really silly and disgusting.
Ah--yes--and don't forget the "key word of the month" thing...like
"Quality," which was a real hoot!  Our Department Head sent out a memo
regarding this word and, to show how it worked, the word was spelled
"qualty." Not kidding! Now, where was that quality proofreader?

[justcarol67]:
| Anyway, I'm at the point in life where everything was "better" when I
| was a kid--no cell phones or video games or black metal music or
| grammar checks and we read or rode bikes or walked in the hills and
| built forts out of pine needles to entertain ourselves and actually
| learned to spell and write without a computer and do arithmetic
| without a calculator--so forgive me if I sound like an old fogy.

[Lee]:
Yes! Yes! And imagination was the key to good play!  And one could play cops
and robbers without worrying about being accused as threatening or some
silly thing like that.  Bottle caps were gold coins and a shoe box was a
treasure chest where you stashed your gold coins. :-)  Fridge boxes were
houses, forts, spaceships or whatever.  Ah--I could go on for hours...

[justcarol67]:
| Carol, wondering what her accent sounds like to other ears and
| remembering being called a "Yankee" when she briefly lived in North
| Carolina

[Lee]:
Well, I have a wacky cross of accents, having lived most of my life in New
York City and the rest in New Jersey with exposure to Southern, New England
and others.  So, in a word, my accent is a general East Coaster.  Of course,
being a bit of a camel ion, I pick up the accent from wherever I happen to
be.

Cheers,

Lee, the Old Fogy Prudehead In NJ :-)

Do not walk behind me,    | Lee Storm
I may not care to lead;   | N2FGC
Do not walk before me,    | n2fgc at arrl.net (or)
I may not care to follow; | n2fgc at optonline.net
Walk beside me, and be my friend.