We should do themed weeks here at NN.
This picture has been sitting on my desktop for three weeks; I was about to upload it when Jenny got all excited about Alok’s stub, so I thought I’d hang fire for while. But Cath keeps talking about it (it’s a Northern thing, I guess) so maybe I’ll join the fray. A thorn between two roses.
This was thrown up by my backup software (no, I’m not running Leonard yet. Might get around to it someday). Ignoring the spelling mistake for a minute (it’s not; I’ll explain0), the idea of something being ‘completely user’ appeals to me.
‘This pipette is completely user.’
‘Damn. Better get it fixed, then.’
‘I can’t use this TC hood; it’s completely user!’
‘Your talk was completely user. You’ll never get the job.’
Ahem. Back to your regular nonsense.
fn0. The backup was in fact complete, but I stopped the previous one midway. The latter message has partially over-written the previous, which read to the effect, ‘backup cancelled by user, some files not copied’.
_‘This pipette is completely user.’
‘Damn. Better get it fixed, then.’_
This reminds me of a note scrawled onto a pipette in a neighbouring lab a few years ago:
“Doesn’t suck”.
Lots of people apparently assumed that if something doesn’t suck, it is actually working…
How beautifully ambiguous!
Speaking of ambiguity, Richard, I love the way your subconscious editor convinced yourself that the message said ‘completely user’. And it was so convincing it suckered Cath as well.
There was, in fact, no ‘l’ in that word. Just the brain, struggling to see meaning where there is none.
I did notice the lack of an ‘l’; which is how I know it’s an over-written thingy. Ner.
That’s your story and you’re sticking to it.
are you casting nasturtiums on my honesty?
No, Aspidistras.
Orwell, never mind.
D’oh!
Speaking of dubious punctuation, I’ve never understood that Simpsonian apostrophe.
It’s French. As in “of the oh”.
Duh.
I can’t add anything to this except something of dubious relevance.
At a conference in Belfast while The Troubles were still just about happening, I found myself in the Gents at the Bar in Queen’s University. Drying my hands on the roll-a-towel, I noticed its brand
ADVANCE TOWELMASTER
beneath which someone had scrawled
and be recognised
Henry: LMAO excellent. A sense of gallows humour?
Cath: Shouldn’t that be D’uh, then?
Or possibly D’oeux?
D’oeux? D’oeux? Bah. This could mean a number of things, such as
D’oeufs
D’yeux
D’eaux
D’oiseux
D’Timeo Danaos Et Dona Ferentes.
Duh is short for dumb, is it not?
Also, what did the French captain say to his first mate before they boarded their ship?
“A l’eau, c’est l’heure”.
Oh yeah, and French Dockers Rule, Au Quai.
Elizabeth II Rules, UK
… and Roget’s Thesaurus Rules, Dominates, Governs, Regulates, Officiates, Supervises, Manages, Sufficiently, Adequately, Satisfactorily.
Bloody hell. I go to sleep for seven measly hours and this place turns into some bad pun factory.
Bilingual bad puns, though.
Yeah, I’ll give you that.
Really, what a completey user thread.
giggle
D’yknow that Billingsgate in London gets its name from the bilingual nature of the people who lived there back in the 17C. Some say twas foreigners, others just say those salty seadogs having a particularly salty turn of phrase.