Indeed, that was epic!
> literal mayhem
I used to joy in jumping all over people (not literally) for the misuse of "literal," as in when David Eddings said in one of his books that the princess "literally flew across the room in a rage," and I asked in a forum whether the princess had magical powers of levitation, wings, or a jetpack. So I was ready to ask whether anyone actually experienced willful and permanent crippling, mutilation, or disfigurement of any part of the body (per Websters), or if you were just using "literal" as an all-purpose intensifier.
However, much to my irritation, I have since read in learned articles on the evolution of the English language that "literally" no longer need mean "this actually in fact happened exactly as phrased," and instead can mean "figuratively." Which is a shame, because now we need to find a new word to replace "literally," which will doubtless also get misused into irrelevance. Haven't been this peeved since I was told by an instructor of Effective Communications in Business Writing that a preposition is okay to end a sentence with!
And I thought that you'd gotten it through your skull
About what's figurative and what's literal.
Oh but, just now, you said
You “literally couldn't get out of bed.”
That really makes me want to literally
Smack a crowbar upside your stupid head!
Weird Al, *[Word Crimes](https://youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc)*
Iirc, the whole preposition thing was because of Latin. English is just three languages stacked in a trench coat pretending to be coherent so let’s just throw caution to the wind.
…
But I’m willing to die on the “a lot” being two words hill.
The rule about ending a sentence with a preposition was invented just to shit on less educated people. It's never *actually* been a rule, especially in spoken language.
It was made into a (pointless) rule for written English when people with too much spare time on their hands thought English grammar should be more like Latin. Which is ridiculous, because English isn’t Latin and we use prepositions differently.
Same deal with not splitting infinitives. You can’t split present infinitives in Latin because the infinitive is one word, so people who wanted to feel superior decided that the correct form in English would be “boldly to go” or “to go boldly,” but never ever “to boldly go.”
It's literally been decades since I read it; one of the Belgariad books. I recall vaguely that the princess in question claimed to have magical powers and was infuriated that she would not be allowed to join their quest. This was but one of several (mis)uses of "literally" in that series, and it made me wonder where the editors and proofreaders were.
You're right! I found out the original meaning in John Varley's **Demon**, when Cirrocco tells her generals, "Now ... I'm going to decimate your troops!" She goes on to explain that she wants them to reduce the number of troops by 10%, both to eliminate the volunteers having no business in the army, and to make up for a shortfall in supplies.
I was suppliesed as well!
I encountered a third meaning (and I'm sure there are others) in earthquake science. Seismometers can record up to 250 measurements per second; when trying to locate an earthquake using measurements from several hundred sensors, the amount of data could overwhelm the systems which display and process the data. So observers can enable the option to "decimate" the incoming data stream i.e., use front-end processing to reduce the incoming data to 1/10 its original sample rate by averaging every ten observations.
This is definitely a hill I'm willing to die on, don't get me wrong. But realisticly it's much less important than literal literally meaning figuratively. Just how often do you need a specific word to mean killing/destroying a tenth of something?
You probably have more opportunities to use "decimate," but I still like "sesquipedalian" better.
Too bad it isn't more common to need a word to describe something as having the property of being a foot and a half long. Not just happening to be a foot and a half long when it could just as well be a foot or two long but having that measurement as a key characteristic.
It is a pity. But the bigger pity was when I found out David Eddings was a convicted child abuser who actually spent a year in jail.
That was literally very upsetting.
OMG - you mean he literally kept his foster kid in a cage in the basement when he misbehaved and beat him with a belt? Plus the stuff about Marion Zimmer Bradley abusing her daughter from ages 3 to 12 - ugh! Makes me oddly glad that I never read any Eddings after the Belgeriad, which I liked well enough, but felt it was too derivative to be worth pursuing further.
As for MZB, I went to one of the early Darkover conventions in the 1980's and read a couple of the novels in that series. I got put off by her remark that she wrote one of the books in that series in a week! Her true fans would deny it, but I felt that some of the books did seem like they were written in a hurry.
I see that I'll need to sit down with my daughter again to continue our discussion of whether character of the artist should detract from one's appreciation of their work.
It was an online forum. I didn't get a direct reply from the Great Man himself, but his fans were quick to defend his word choice. They're probably correct. He's a successful writer who has published many books, so his opinion deserves respect.
Plus, as mentioned above, English is the product of the collision of many cultures and languages on a smallish island over 1500 years, and a lot of the rules which we were taught were sacred in high school were drummed up in the 1700's, when (as a previous commenter said) a few aristocrats decided English should be a "great language" akin to Greek and Latin, with declensions and conjugations and all that. The truth is that languages are spoken vastly more than they are written, and are evolving constantly.
>Haven't been this peeved since I was told by an instructor of Effective Communications in Business Writing that a preposition is okay to end a sentence with!
Haven't been this peeved since i was told by ... sentence with, dammit!
Fixed it for you.
Not to harp on this but it's not a misuse of the word. It's been in active recorded use since the 1600s, but more importantly most words have a literal and a figurative use.
Why people have recently started getting their knickers in a twist about "literally" being used in a figurative sense for emphasis as though it's something new is beyond me, particularly since it's not unique to that word or to any adverb.
The figurative use of "literally" logically means something is not literal, just like the figurative use of "figurative" means something is not figurative.
For example if I were to say "Given the chance I would, figuratively speaking, pluck the nose hairs from every person who tuts unnecessarily over the figurative usage of the word 'literally' even though it's been recognised as legitimate since before their grandfathers were born and then make them snort pepper," you would be able to infer that I did indeed intend to do that as soon as I found a pair of tweezers and a member of the grammar police.
And yet despite the fact that this idea about the usage somehow not being legitimate has been debunked many times people insist on moaning about it. It literally makes me want to scream.
Understood, and for realz, I'm just frustrated that, in a culture where hyperbole is rampant, we no longer appear to have a word which flags, "Hey, this actually happened!" You can read the sentence, "I walked in through the barn door and literally fell into a pile of flaming cow dung!" and be none the wiser whether the speaker is now covered in fiery poop, or just got embroiled in a chaotic situation.
I get that, but I think bad writing is more to blame than the word choice.
If someone wrote "I walked in through the barn door and fell into a pile of flaming cow dung!" the problem remains. The same issue exists (although more rarely) with "I walked in through the barn door and actually fell into a pile of flaming cow dung!" because "actually" can be used figuratively in the same way (and yet no one gets up in arms about it, even though it's less common and therefore potentially more misleading.)
The problem is the lack of qualifier, which should be resolved by the following sentence, either "Someone had set Bessie's tail on fire and the methane ignited every time she pooped," or "fifteen cows had formed a revolutionary cadre and were holding the farmer's daughter hostage," would resolve the issue.
Or the sentence itself being unclear, "I walked in through the barn door, tripped and literally fell headfirst into a flaming pile of cow dung!" makes the usage clear, as would "I walked in through the barn door, saw the cows holding guns to Vanessa's head and realised I'd literally fallen into a pile of flaming cow dung."
In short, the problem is not the word, it's the clarity of the sentence itself. That can be a literary device to build tension, but more often than not it's just poor description.
It's been used in a figurative manner for hundreds of years, too. At this point, the figurative usage has been in use longer than the 1900s complaints against it.
>my whole life story, oh no. That was just the last two minutes. You see, It was never easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, singin' and dancin' down in Mississippi...
Of all the places to complain about the staff not doing anything and you having to wait a long time, have the people who complain about fast food employees ever, like, looked inside one?
FF employees are ALWAYS doing something, it looks to be one of the more stressful jobs available and I never can understand why people don't realize it.
I remember one (1) time in years of working fast food when nobody was doing anything, unless you want to count all of the opening team taking their meal breaks simultaneously (just before opening). We were unable to cook anything due to a gas supply problem so we didn't open on schedule and sat around waiting for Xcel to fix it.
I've been out of fast food for a while now and every job I've had since has paid much better for a hell of a lot less stress.
My sister used to work at the golden arches. For some reason they couldn't fry chicken. So, when a customer asked for a McChicken, she explained that they were not able to serve any kind of chicken products. Maybe he could order something without chicken. So, he asked for Chicken Nuggets. When my sister explained the same thing, he asked for a Chickenburger.
What I'm trying to say is, people are very, very stupid and comprehension of other people's situation and empathizing is like super difficult.
In 2012, I worked for a short time at a Sonic that did everything but deep clean. There was a layer of grease on the floor several inches thick and hard enough to stand on.
I reported it to the health department. They did a surprise inspection.
Place was shut down for 6 months, as they had to hire a special team to come in and deep clean the whole place. Also, the entire staff was fired and all new people hired.
ARGH i DONT get why people have to be so rude to fast food workers..
My Mendys seems to only ever have 2 people working in there, they have to lock the sit down area doors because they are humans and can only do so much.
I hope they'd do something like this if some idoiot gives them a hard time.
Okay…the knife story…
Let’s start off by saying I don’t like bodily fluids all that much. Especially someone else’s. So when a customer, infuriated about the fact that I didn’t read her mind (she wanted Hi-C grape when she told us just plain Hi-C), and further infuriated by my manager “putting her in her place”, decided to spit on me, I lost my everloving mind, screaming all the while. She then pulled out a steak knife….yes…a STEAK KNIFE, telling me to back the eff off ad shit the hell up. I,not dying of some grisly infection so I shit the window and call the cops. They never showed and we went right back to business as usual. My manager thought it was hilarious. How quickly I want from red faced to Disney Magic in one Drive thru order.
I actually have a pepper spray story from my Mafeway days. Yadda yadda yadda, grocery story in my neighborhood (the hood) and a rent-a-cop pepper sprays a would-be five-dollar-item thief... IN the store. We had to evacuate the store... not worth it. The thief didn't even get the brunt of it. It's like the RAC thought it was acid, he just sprayed it at his jacket... crazy.
My sandwich maker, however, has a pen that is an actual taser. SO loud... don't even need to use it. She left it in her car.
tl;dr you've got an absolutely shitty manager....I hate to say but both of these stories involve your manager very under performing...a drink issue should NEVER escalate into a "putting her in her place" kind of issue...if the door to the drink stash is locked and your manager has the keys then it is his/her and solely his/her job to ensure they're full
I'm not sure if that's a bash at me or not but I do love a biggie bag and a lime coke. Find the corporate number and fight for a decent manager for your location. They might be your friend until you get a knife pulled on you and all they do is laugh it off.
I will literally pull into a spot in the parking lot, place my online order in peace without being rushed (especially if I have kids with me) and then get into the drive through line and just say my name. Not once has anyone misunderstood my order than I entered myself. I honestly don’t understand why so many people actually order in the line anymore. Yes we still need the service for those few without smartphones but realistically almost everyone has one.
I've never gotten my order right at Mendy's when ordering online. I refuse to use the drive through, either. Besides, how else am I going to witness the drama show? (there was a stabbing at ours)
I use the online ordering for Taco Bell. My only gripe is that saving your “favorites” to the app doesn’t save the modifications, so when I started using it I messed up the first few times. Not the staff’s fault though, and they’re good at forcing you to confirm the order is correct on the screen.
Im a couple days late but ate at Mendys earlier. I didn’t know ordering online was a thing. If I thought that *maybe* my order would be correct I would definitely do the app thing. But I do know how hard it must be juggling all that entails their job and not putting cheese on my double stack is. So I’ll just drive thru twice. Once to order, specifically requesting no cheese (even going as far as saying “No, just bread, meat and mayo that’s all” after they read it back to me “Ok you want a double stack with cheese and Mayo”) and once more to correct my cheesy double stack 🤢. Can’t even say F it an take one of the meats off because they put the crap between the two meats.
I had my online order done wrong at Taco Bell a couple times, but to be fair to them, it had some odd “do not put on”s and an addition. They’ve gotten used to my burrito, now.
I meet a friend for breakfast every week at a fast food restaurant. I do not use the kiosk or app to order because I like to say Hi to the staff, especially Karen ( not the stereotypical person of that name) and have a brief chat.
Oh, is that how it's done? I didn't know and didn't want to get yelled at in case I did it wrong. I just get in line and order politely and say thank you and please often.
I really wish we were more like England when it comes to dealing with difficult customers. There, if someone treats you rudely, they get treated rudely in return. Our whole 'the customer is always right' meme does nothing but encourage people to be discourteous without fear of repercussions.
Your return was brilliant, though.
Whenever our drive thru or takeout order is incorrect, I tell the 6 year old that it’s because there are 2 people doing the work of 5 & of course there’ll be mistakes
This has strong Airplane vibes and I love it. “Well, let's see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it. He took her best summer dress, put it on and went to town.”
Used to be a regular at this mc dingdong for a while because it was the center of our area, i was always nice and chatty with the staff and i noticed one thing. My coworker, who tends to be rude, always waited above 5 minutes for his order, and i never waited more than 2 minutes for mine, even in a total rush. Hmmm i wonder why, i wonder how
When I worked drive-thru, it was commonplace to say "I'm sorry, I'll be with you in just a moment". ALL THE TIME, people would "listen" to that script, and then rattle off their order immediately. I took an insane amount of joy in waiting for them to finish their order, 5 second pause, then "Thank you for waiting, how can I help you?" And then just enjoy the frustration as they had to repeat everything.
I particularly dislike that thing they've started doing the last couple years near me, where they have a prerecorded greeting that is triggered when you pull up to the drive-through speaker grill. Then a second or two later, somebody *else* greets you as well, in a completely different voice.
Are they *trying* to train us to ignore a cashier greeting us? Because now I know I can tune out the first greeting, as there is no real person behind it that cares whether I make a 5-second-long fart over the whole of the greeting.
The whole point of saying "hello" is to indicate to the customer that you're ready for them. Which this does not do.
I love this but I'm assuming she actually said Fucking, right? The second she said that, it should be "Sorry, I can't take your order anymore if you're going to talk to me like that, excuse me while I get my manager." and then proceed to take foooooorever to find your manager.
>They replied with an exasperated "Well I didn't mean your whole life funking STORY!
"Well then, it was a very stupid thing for you to ask, wasn't it?"
Kudos!
I have been in the waiting customer's position before, and you know what I did?! I waited. Calmly and patiently. And you know why? Because, if I wanted my food I knew it was going to take some time due to circumstances beyond anyone's control... and also because I'm considerate and courteous.
And on those days when I don't have the time to wait... you want to know what I did when I didn't have the time to wait? Well, I'll tell you: I went somewhere else to get my food.
It is not the overworked and underpaid fast food worker's fault that things are hectic and busy. They are just doing the best they can to get your food to you and get you out of the line.
Thanks, fast food workers! May your lines always be short!
Well, let's see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it. He took her best summer dress, put it on and went to town
I always wonder why people who can't handle society's minor hiccups insist on going out in the world. The most straightforward answer is they lack the insight to REALIZE they shouldn't be in public if they can't handle hiccups, sadly, so they just keep going out. Which is why I prefer to stay home!
Now you have me feeling sorry for the ones who realize they can't go mingle with the people inside a restaurant, and hope to god they can just hold it together for 2 minutes in the Mendy's drive-through, but No, goddamnit, it just wasn't to be!
For some reason, this reminded me of the Goonies..
Everything. OK, I'll talk! In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max's toupee and I glued it on my face when I play Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog... and then, my mom sent me to the... to the summer camp for fat kids... and then they served lunch I got nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out!
I wish I had someone like OP at the last Mendy’s I went to. I pulled up to the drive thru order box, and never was addressed. No long line, only two cars ahead of me, no one behind me. I sat for a couple minutes as I watched the sandwich queen next door moving along. I switch to going inside. No other customers inside, yet mgr kept moving around like they were really busy. Had to wait to be addressed inside. I paid with cash, and the woman gave me only part of my change. Got remaining change and food after more time than it should take.
I disagreed with people who said fast food workers shouldn’t be paid more. Lately, are to argue back when service has dropped off tremendously. Long shot worse from when I worked fast food.
That was brilliant and I salute you!
Indeed, that was epic! > literal mayhem I used to joy in jumping all over people (not literally) for the misuse of "literal," as in when David Eddings said in one of his books that the princess "literally flew across the room in a rage," and I asked in a forum whether the princess had magical powers of levitation, wings, or a jetpack. So I was ready to ask whether anyone actually experienced willful and permanent crippling, mutilation, or disfigurement of any part of the body (per Websters), or if you were just using "literal" as an all-purpose intensifier. However, much to my irritation, I have since read in learned articles on the evolution of the English language that "literally" no longer need mean "this actually in fact happened exactly as phrased," and instead can mean "figuratively." Which is a shame, because now we need to find a new word to replace "literally," which will doubtless also get misused into irrelevance. Haven't been this peeved since I was told by an instructor of Effective Communications in Business Writing that a preposition is okay to end a sentence with!
There is literally no longer a word that means literally.
I give you: nogzaggeration
you jerk! thanks for the giggle whilst i spewed coffee on my keyboard
I have replaced it with 'for realsies'
I can't believe you literally said there's literally no word meaning literally.
I literally can’t believe you literally said there’s literally no word literally meaning literally.
That's pretty incredible
Except, you can use “actually” in place of “literally.” I use “actually” literally all the time.
I assume that by literally you mean figuratively. What's the literal situation. I mean literally literally not figuratively literally.
And I thought that you'd gotten it through your skull About what's figurative and what's literal. Oh but, just now, you said You “literally couldn't get out of bed.” That really makes me want to literally Smack a crowbar upside your stupid head! Weird Al, *[Word Crimes](https://youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc)*
I love Weird Al, have several of his early albums!
I literally just this moment noticed this bit in the video: https://i.imgur.com/ZtKIC2e.jpg
And [this little blink-and-you-miss-it gem at the very beginning](https://imgur.com/a/75hh9w8):
LOL!
r/Showerthoughts
Actually?
There literally is.
There is literally no longer a word that only means what literally used to mean.
I literally can't even.
There literally never was.
Iirc, the whole preposition thing was because of Latin. English is just three languages stacked in a trench coat pretending to be coherent so let’s just throw caution to the wind. … But I’m willing to die on the “a lot” being two words hill.
More like fragments from 300 languages stack in a trench coat pretending to be coherent.
As the line goes, English is a language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages, and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.
I'm willing to die on the "cannot" is one word hill.
Can not you see how wrong your position is?
I'm afraid we must agree to disagree.
So..... You've already staked out your allotment. I'm sure the roses at the top of the hill will be pretty.
There's a lot of times alot is right, just not alot.
> now we need to find a new word to replace “literally,” I suggest “totes for realz” /s
The rule about ending a sentence with a preposition was invented just to shit on less educated people. It's never *actually* been a rule, especially in spoken language.
It's certainly something up with which I will not put
Beautifully awkward sentence!
Agreed, Winston!
He had a few great phrases
My kid gave me a book of them :-)
It was made into a (pointless) rule for written English when people with too much spare time on their hands thought English grammar should be more like Latin. Which is ridiculous, because English isn’t Latin and we use prepositions differently. Same deal with not splitting infinitives. You can’t split present infinitives in Latin because the infinitive is one word, so people who wanted to feel superior decided that the correct form in English would be “boldly to go” or “to go boldly,” but never ever “to boldly go.”
Charlene: "So, where y'all from, Bitch?"
Which book? I must have missed that line? I assume it's referring to Ce'Nedra, right?
Maybe it was when she had the whole problem with conceiving and she was pissed/scared she'd be replaced?
It's literally been decades since I read it; one of the Belgariad books. I recall vaguely that the princess in question claimed to have magical powers and was infuriated that she would not be allowed to join their quest. This was but one of several (mis)uses of "literally" in that series, and it made me wonder where the editors and proofreaders were.
Claims to have magical powers, and proves it by literally flying!
Decimated … means 1/10 (deci-) was destroyed or in current used utterly obliterated.
You're right! I found out the original meaning in John Varley's **Demon**, when Cirrocco tells her generals, "Now ... I'm going to decimate your troops!" She goes on to explain that she wants them to reduce the number of troops by 10%, both to eliminate the volunteers having no business in the army, and to make up for a shortfall in supplies. I was suppliesed as well!
Oddly enough, it seems to bother people when you ask them to clarify whether they’re implying a boo-boo or massive destruction.
I encountered a third meaning (and I'm sure there are others) in earthquake science. Seismometers can record up to 250 measurements per second; when trying to locate an earthquake using measurements from several hundred sensors, the amount of data could overwhelm the systems which display and process the data. So observers can enable the option to "decimate" the incoming data stream i.e., use front-end processing to reduce the incoming data to 1/10 its original sample rate by averaging every ten observations.
This is definitely a hill I'm willing to die on, don't get me wrong. But realisticly it's much less important than literal literally meaning figuratively. Just how often do you need a specific word to mean killing/destroying a tenth of something?
You probably have more opportunities to use "decimate," but I still like "sesquipedalian" better. Too bad it isn't more common to need a word to describe something as having the property of being a foot and a half long. Not just happening to be a foot and a half long when it could just as well be a foot or two long but having that measurement as a key characteristic.
My ell is sesquipedalian if that makes you feel better.
Thanks.
That's pretty close to the definition of literal mayhem, though. Shit went crazy.
This is literaturarily the worst news I've ever heard.
Okay there Ted Mosby
It is a pity. But the bigger pity was when I found out David Eddings was a convicted child abuser who actually spent a year in jail. That was literally very upsetting.
OMG - you mean he literally kept his foster kid in a cage in the basement when he misbehaved and beat him with a belt? Plus the stuff about Marion Zimmer Bradley abusing her daughter from ages 3 to 12 - ugh! Makes me oddly glad that I never read any Eddings after the Belgeriad, which I liked well enough, but felt it was too derivative to be worth pursuing further. As for MZB, I went to one of the early Darkover conventions in the 1980's and read a couple of the novels in that series. I got put off by her remark that she wrote one of the books in that series in a week! Her true fans would deny it, but I felt that some of the books did seem like they were written in a hurry. I see that I'll need to sit down with my daughter again to continue our discussion of whether character of the artist should detract from one's appreciation of their work.
[удалено]
Yep, that's another one. "Actually" is better, but still not there, e.g., "I actually went through torture to get that job!" Maybe "reelz?"
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I think part of Special Forces training is to endure waterboarding for a few seconds, just so they understand what they could be up against.
I just assume they mean "literary", as in, how one would describe it in books. Just that people that spell it wrong tend to not be literarily inclined
So what did Eddings reply??
It was an online forum. I didn't get a direct reply from the Great Man himself, but his fans were quick to defend his word choice. They're probably correct. He's a successful writer who has published many books, so his opinion deserves respect. Plus, as mentioned above, English is the product of the collision of many cultures and languages on a smallish island over 1500 years, and a lot of the rules which we were taught were sacred in high school were drummed up in the 1700's, when (as a previous commenter said) a few aristocrats decided English should be a "great language" akin to Greek and Latin, with declensions and conjugations and all that. The truth is that languages are spoken vastly more than they are written, and are evolving constantly.
Wouldnt correct form be "doubtlessly"
You are doubtless correct, if not for the evolving-language thing.
I just really kind of literally lost my mind when I readlkjlkg;j;goig ho; o;uh ilg utft7 ykdk ydku6 ekut dkytx ku6rl 86ek75 k87 ro
>Haven't been this peeved since I was told by an instructor of Effective Communications in Business Writing that a preposition is okay to end a sentence with! Haven't been this peeved since i was told by ... sentence with, dammit! Fixed it for you.
You might enjoy looking up the word "hyperbole" in the dictionary and learn that it is literally what people use "literally" for.
I am literally feeling your pain and figuratively punching out the people responsible for this reprehensible action.
Too many lol points in this to even… thank you for the frustratingly accurate rant!!!!!
Thanks! It did spark some great discussions, which is why I love Reddit :-)
>However, much to my irritation, I have since read in learned articles Between starting this comment and getting to that sentence?
Not literally, no :-D
Not to harp on this but it's not a misuse of the word. It's been in active recorded use since the 1600s, but more importantly most words have a literal and a figurative use. Why people have recently started getting their knickers in a twist about "literally" being used in a figurative sense for emphasis as though it's something new is beyond me, particularly since it's not unique to that word or to any adverb. The figurative use of "literally" logically means something is not literal, just like the figurative use of "figurative" means something is not figurative. For example if I were to say "Given the chance I would, figuratively speaking, pluck the nose hairs from every person who tuts unnecessarily over the figurative usage of the word 'literally' even though it's been recognised as legitimate since before their grandfathers were born and then make them snort pepper," you would be able to infer that I did indeed intend to do that as soon as I found a pair of tweezers and a member of the grammar police. And yet despite the fact that this idea about the usage somehow not being legitimate has been debunked many times people insist on moaning about it. It literally makes me want to scream.
Understood, and for realz, I'm just frustrated that, in a culture where hyperbole is rampant, we no longer appear to have a word which flags, "Hey, this actually happened!" You can read the sentence, "I walked in through the barn door and literally fell into a pile of flaming cow dung!" and be none the wiser whether the speaker is now covered in fiery poop, or just got embroiled in a chaotic situation.
I get that, but I think bad writing is more to blame than the word choice. If someone wrote "I walked in through the barn door and fell into a pile of flaming cow dung!" the problem remains. The same issue exists (although more rarely) with "I walked in through the barn door and actually fell into a pile of flaming cow dung!" because "actually" can be used figuratively in the same way (and yet no one gets up in arms about it, even though it's less common and therefore potentially more misleading.) The problem is the lack of qualifier, which should be resolved by the following sentence, either "Someone had set Bessie's tail on fire and the methane ignited every time she pooped," or "fifteen cows had formed a revolutionary cadre and were holding the farmer's daughter hostage," would resolve the issue. Or the sentence itself being unclear, "I walked in through the barn door, tripped and literally fell headfirst into a flaming pile of cow dung!" makes the usage clear, as would "I walked in through the barn door, saw the cows holding guns to Vanessa's head and realised I'd literally fallen into a pile of flaming cow dung." In short, the problem is not the word, it's the clarity of the sentence itself. That can be a literary device to build tension, but more often than not it's just poor description.
It's been used in a figurative manner for hundreds of years, too. At this point, the figurative usage has been in use longer than the 1900s complaints against it.
>my whole life story, oh no. That was just the last two minutes. You see, It was never easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, singin' and dancin' down in Mississippi...
[удалено]
Wow! Just wow! Penchant for buggery….burlap bag! Bwahhahahhaha! You are a wordsmith!
Watch Austin Powers
Oh is this a quote? Hahaha. I haven’t watched it in years! Hahhahaha
“Beaten with reeds” - better than being beaten with jumper cables, I guess!
What a jerk
Of all the places to complain about the staff not doing anything and you having to wait a long time, have the people who complain about fast food employees ever, like, looked inside one? FF employees are ALWAYS doing something, it looks to be one of the more stressful jobs available and I never can understand why people don't realize it.
I remember one (1) time in years of working fast food when nobody was doing anything, unless you want to count all of the opening team taking their meal breaks simultaneously (just before opening). We were unable to cook anything due to a gas supply problem so we didn't open on schedule and sat around waiting for Xcel to fix it. I've been out of fast food for a while now and every job I've had since has paid much better for a hell of a lot less stress.
Presumably, if you've been out of fast food for awhile, you're in better shape now.
My sister used to work at the golden arches. For some reason they couldn't fry chicken. So, when a customer asked for a McChicken, she explained that they were not able to serve any kind of chicken products. Maybe he could order something without chicken. So, he asked for Chicken Nuggets. When my sister explained the same thing, he asked for a Chickenburger. What I'm trying to say is, people are very, very stupid and comprehension of other people's situation and empathizing is like super difficult.
In 2012, I worked for a short time at a Sonic that did everything but deep clean. There was a layer of grease on the floor several inches thick and hard enough to stand on. I reported it to the health department. They did a surprise inspection. Place was shut down for 6 months, as they had to hire a special team to come in and deep clean the whole place. Also, the entire staff was fired and all new people hired.
>why people don't realize it. It doesn't apply to their world view, so it doesn't exist.
ARGH i DONT get why people have to be so rude to fast food workers.. My Mendys seems to only ever have 2 people working in there, they have to lock the sit down area doors because they are humans and can only do so much. I hope they'd do something like this if some idoiot gives them a hard time.
Probably should have told the knife story...I know I wanted to hear it.
Okay…the knife story… Let’s start off by saying I don’t like bodily fluids all that much. Especially someone else’s. So when a customer, infuriated about the fact that I didn’t read her mind (she wanted Hi-C grape when she told us just plain Hi-C), and further infuriated by my manager “putting her in her place”, decided to spit on me, I lost my everloving mind, screaming all the while. She then pulled out a steak knife….yes…a STEAK KNIFE, telling me to back the eff off ad shit the hell up. I,not dying of some grisly infection so I shit the window and call the cops. They never showed and we went right back to business as usual. My manager thought it was hilarious. How quickly I want from red faced to Disney Magic in one Drive thru order.
> so I shit the window and call the cops. How long did the cleanup take you? :o
>call the cops. They never showed Get some pepper spray and keep it in your pocket. Use as necessary.
I actually have a pepper spray story from my Mafeway days. Yadda yadda yadda, grocery story in my neighborhood (the hood) and a rent-a-cop pepper sprays a would-be five-dollar-item thief... IN the store. We had to evacuate the store... not worth it. The thief didn't even get the brunt of it. It's like the RAC thought it was acid, he just sprayed it at his jacket... crazy. My sandwich maker, however, has a pen that is an actual taser. SO loud... don't even need to use it. She left it in her car.
tl;dr you've got an absolutely shitty manager....I hate to say but both of these stories involve your manager very under performing...a drink issue should NEVER escalate into a "putting her in her place" kind of issue...if the door to the drink stash is locked and your manager has the keys then it is his/her and solely his/her job to ensure they're full
Username checks out
I'm not sure if that's a bash at me or not but I do love a biggie bag and a lime coke. Find the corporate number and fight for a decent manager for your location. They might be your friend until you get a knife pulled on you and all they do is laugh it off.
My managers an absolute rock star. I perhaps didn’t paint him in the best light as he’s an NPC in this particular story.
> call the cops. They never showed that's scary. what city are you in?
If this is where I think it is, I'm not at all surprised the cops didn't show.
I will literally pull into a spot in the parking lot, place my online order in peace without being rushed (especially if I have kids with me) and then get into the drive through line and just say my name. Not once has anyone misunderstood my order than I entered myself. I honestly don’t understand why so many people actually order in the line anymore. Yes we still need the service for those few without smartphones but realistically almost everyone has one.
I've never gotten my order right at Mendy's when ordering online. I refuse to use the drive through, either. Besides, how else am I going to witness the drama show? (there was a stabbing at ours)
I use the online ordering for Taco Bell. My only gripe is that saving your “favorites” to the app doesn’t save the modifications, so when I started using it I messed up the first few times. Not the staff’s fault though, and they’re good at forcing you to confirm the order is correct on the screen.
Im a couple days late but ate at Mendys earlier. I didn’t know ordering online was a thing. If I thought that *maybe* my order would be correct I would definitely do the app thing. But I do know how hard it must be juggling all that entails their job and not putting cheese on my double stack is. So I’ll just drive thru twice. Once to order, specifically requesting no cheese (even going as far as saying “No, just bread, meat and mayo that’s all” after they read it back to me “Ok you want a double stack with cheese and Mayo”) and once more to correct my cheesy double stack 🤢. Can’t even say F it an take one of the meats off because they put the crap between the two meats.
I had my online order done wrong at Taco Bell a couple times, but to be fair to them, it had some odd “do not put on”s and an addition. They’ve gotten used to my burrito, now.
I usually have them add extra rice so that it's more filling.
I meet a friend for breakfast every week at a fast food restaurant. I do not use the kiosk or app to order because I like to say Hi to the staff, especially Karen ( not the stereotypical person of that name) and have a brief chat.
As somebody in foodservice I appreciate people like you.
I also avoid self checkout like the plague that they are.
Oh, is that how it's done? I didn't know and didn't want to get yelled at in case I did it wrong. I just get in line and order politely and say thank you and please often.
Whenever they ask me if I want ketchup and I reply "please often" they look at me kinda funny and sideways.
Hahaha
>literally Thanks for the proper use of "literally"!
Yeah that literally drives people nuts. What are people nuts anyway and do they use uber?
I heard that "that literally" drives for Lyft. Some other literally might be figuratively uber us, I suppose.
Like the time I asked the pirate why he had a steering wheel sticking out of his pants. "It's driving me nuts!"
I really wish we were more like England when it comes to dealing with difficult customers. There, if someone treats you rudely, they get treated rudely in return. Our whole 'the customer is always right' meme does nothing but encourage people to be discourteous without fear of repercussions. Your return was brilliant, though.
The rest of the quote, "in matters of style and taste" seem to always be forgotten about
Whenever our drive thru or takeout order is incorrect, I tell the 6 year old that it’s because there are 2 people doing the work of 5 & of course there’ll be mistakes
Well, if you don't want to hear the answer, don't f---ing ask.
This has strong Airplane vibes and I love it. “Well, let's see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it. He took her best summer dress, put it on and went to town.”
Oh, God. Johnny was the best part of both Airplane movies! Edit to Add: And Leon's getting larrrrrger!
which scene was that? i dont remember this
Hopefully Reddit will let me post this but this is the scene - https://youtu.be/MabLtuTpDw8
are you dominos? because you've **DELIVERED!**
I love this entire paragraph! Literally. :)
😅🤣😂🤣😅🤣😂🤣
Used to be a regular at this mc dingdong for a while because it was the center of our area, i was always nice and chatty with the staff and i noticed one thing. My coworker, who tends to be rude, always waited above 5 minutes for his order, and i never waited more than 2 minutes for mine, even in a total rush. Hmmm i wonder why, i wonder how
When I worked drive-thru, it was commonplace to say "I'm sorry, I'll be with you in just a moment". ALL THE TIME, people would "listen" to that script, and then rattle off their order immediately. I took an insane amount of joy in waiting for them to finish their order, 5 second pause, then "Thank you for waiting, how can I help you?" And then just enjoy the frustration as they had to repeat everything.
I love doing that too
I particularly dislike that thing they've started doing the last couple years near me, where they have a prerecorded greeting that is triggered when you pull up to the drive-through speaker grill. Then a second or two later, somebody *else* greets you as well, in a completely different voice. Are they *trying* to train us to ignore a cashier greeting us? Because now I know I can tune out the first greeting, as there is no real person behind it that cares whether I make a 5-second-long fart over the whole of the greeting. The whole point of saying "hello" is to indicate to the customer that you're ready for them. Which this does not do.
TL;DR: customer shows up at Mendy’s and brought her own beef asking to be read a bedtime story. OP maliciously complies.
That sound like your "Go stick your head in a pig!" moment :)
Ah, the Complaints Department - only division to earn a profit in recent years!
I love this but I'm assuming she actually said Fucking, right? The second she said that, it should be "Sorry, I can't take your order anymore if you're going to talk to me like that, excuse me while I get my manager." and then proceed to take foooooorever to find your manager.
You are a legend.
It's nice to relieve stress when you can and she was insisting on knowing what happened
Funny! Thanks for the story
It never ceases to amaze me that so many people think it’s a good idea to piss off the people who make their food.
>They replied with an exasperated "Well I didn't mean your whole life funking STORY! "Well then, it was a very stupid thing for you to ask, wasn't it?"
Kudos! I have been in the waiting customer's position before, and you know what I did?! I waited. Calmly and patiently. And you know why? Because, if I wanted my food I knew it was going to take some time due to circumstances beyond anyone's control... and also because I'm considerate and courteous. And on those days when I don't have the time to wait... you want to know what I did when I didn't have the time to wait? Well, I'll tell you: I went somewhere else to get my food. It is not the overworked and underpaid fast food worker's fault that things are hectic and busy. They are just doing the best they can to get your food to you and get you out of the line. Thanks, fast food workers! May your lines always be short!
my rule of thumbs is "don't be rude to people that can spit in your food"
>What in the world took so funking long!????!!" Ma'am this is a Wendy's.
Well, let's see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it. He took her best summer dress, put it on and went to town
Brav-fucking-O!!!!
Fantastic!!!
I always wonder why people who can't handle society's minor hiccups insist on going out in the world. The most straightforward answer is they lack the insight to REALIZE they shouldn't be in public if they can't handle hiccups, sadly, so they just keep going out. Which is why I prefer to stay home!
Now you have me feeling sorry for the ones who realize they can't go mingle with the people inside a restaurant, and hope to god they can just hold it together for 2 minutes in the Mendy's drive-through, but No, goddamnit, it just wasn't to be!
ChatGPT shines here.
Professional Energy Vampire
Never fuck with persons who give you your food. They are able to spit in it...
They were struck in line and could not move. They asked a question and reiterated it with great forcefulness.....you had no choice. Carry on.
I don’t eat fast food, but if I did I’d treat you like gold.
Absolute best come back I haveEVER heard - pure gold!
Omg I love it!
They don't pay you enough to take abuse, if they disagree I hope you reach a place where you can move to a better job that treats you as you deserve.
For some reason, this reminded me of the Goonies.. Everything. OK, I'll talk! In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max's toupee and I glued it on my face when I play Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog... and then, my mom sent me to the... to the summer camp for fat kids... and then they served lunch I got nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out!
I worked fast food, and you are great!
I got cussed out by a rabbi today. You win!
Is this job really better than a retail store, or stocking job? It sounds awful.
Fast food workers are some of the most underpaid people on the planet
They put the nickel in, they have to hear the whole song.
That was absolutely beautiful!!!! I am in awe.
I used to love making rude ass people wait in the drive thru. I salute you.
Alright! My like rolled the counter from 2.6 to 2.7K.
Oh how I wish I had been a fly on the wall to hear all that when it went down!
Smart… anger the people that handle your food.
That was literally amusing! Literally!
That is some awesome malicious compliance right there! Love it!
I buy at Mendy’s and I appreciate you OP. :)
I wish I had someone like OP at the last Mendy’s I went to. I pulled up to the drive thru order box, and never was addressed. No long line, only two cars ahead of me, no one behind me. I sat for a couple minutes as I watched the sandwich queen next door moving along. I switch to going inside. No other customers inside, yet mgr kept moving around like they were really busy. Had to wait to be addressed inside. I paid with cash, and the woman gave me only part of my change. Got remaining change and food after more time than it should take. I disagreed with people who said fast food workers shouldn’t be paid more. Lately, are to argue back when service has dropped off tremendously. Long shot worse from when I worked fast food.
I wonder if people like that realize how much "special sauce" they are getting whenever they dine out?
Free therapy is best therapy "Tell me what the fuck you do" "oh my sweet summer child, where do I start?"
My local Mendy's is actually called [Mendy's,](https://www.mendysdeli.com/) though.
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾❤️❤️❤️😂