Every couple of weeks, we go to the Whole Foods grocery store for a few special items. At the checkout line, they have the standard credit card console. After you swipe your card, the status display reads, "Press green button," referring to the "Enter" key on the key pad. Presumably that is for final approval of the transaction. I'm sure Whole Foods had a more meaningful instruction before, but customers didn't know what to do, so they changed it to something clearer. Unfortunately, they changed it to something entirely useless. It makes sense to have an explicit "Are you sure" step before charging your card, but "Press green button" doesn't mean anything. All you know is that you have to press an arbitrary button before you get your stuff. If they're not going to have it mean anything, they should get rid of it. It's just another thing people can forget or screw up.
I just discovered a few weeks ago what cell towers look like. Many of the standalone ones in Austin look like the second picture here, except they are unpainted. There are also many cell towers that are integrated with telephone poles and other structures. Now I see them everywhere. I had no idea there were so many of them. What's especially disturbing is how they were there the whole time. It's like discovering you had the wrong lyrics to a song you've known for years.
I dislike the increasing use of interactive voice response (IVR) systems that require you to talk rather than use the keypad. Part of it is that I feel weird talking to nobody. I understand that is a personal opinion, and that some people feel more comfortable speaking words rather than using a numeric keypad.
The more important concern I have is that it makes the call less private. I'm sure the service providers are good about making sure highly sensitive information like passwords or social security numbers are entered through the key pad, but I still say somewhat sensitive information when I work through the menu of a health insurance or a financial services company. I don't necessarily want people in earshot to know that I'm calling to check on my claim or checking my bank balance.
A corollary is that others nearby might not want to hear my business regardless of its content, so being able to conduct as much of the call in silence is the considerate thing to do.
One can respond by saying I shouldn't be making such calls where I'm concerned about privacy or disturbing others, but that's not very helpful. The whole idea is that these systems provide valuable and convenient services, so suggesting I work around an inconvenience is missing the whole point.
Political correctness is about changing the way people express themselves. In theory, that means that people will think differently. In practice, it accomplishes little.
Consider the evolution of "crippled." People didn't like being called "crippled" because there was negative baggage, so we started using "disabled" instead. Wouldn't you know it, "disabled" started to have negative connotations, so we switched to "handicapped." Surprisingly, that didn't work, so we decided to give "physically challenged" a try. Well, I guess it was too challenging for us, so we moved on to "differently abled." You get the point.
We start using news term to avoid the negative connotations of the old. The problem is that the baggage wasn't attached to the old word, but to the old concept. As long as the concept and its perception remain the same, the baggage will always catch up. There's how fired became laid off became downsized became right-sized might soon become externally redeployed1.
There are certainly plenty of apparent exceptions. Contrast n-plus-5-letters to black2.
Gay is still a neutral term where faggot is not. I suspect that neither of those is an actual exception. Instead, they both demonstrate how newer terms that are free of baggage can only do so when society at large becomes less bigoted and judgmental. The contrast with fired makes it more clear. Involuntary disemployment is always going to be a negative event because it's real and meaningful. It's good to avoid loaded, bad terms for things like race, gender, sexual orientation, and other things that don't (or shouldn't) affect people's lives in general. Losing a job or a limb isn't one of those things. It's one thing to be respectful of disabilities, it's another thing to try to wish them away. I think the key distinction is whether someone would mind shifting into the other category. I think I might mind being black a bit, but much less than 40 years ago. Ditto for being female or gay. However, I can't imagine ever not minding losing leg. That is always going to be viewed as a big bummer. What's important isn't the futile quest for a positive name for something negative, but treating people with respect. And that's a lot harder than changing the way people talk.
1
I googled that phrase expecting to find a nice link to Max Barry's Company, but found almost nothing except a real world use in this EU report (PDF). It's in the wild!
2
Assuming black is ok these days. White seems fine, and I'm cool with brown, but that's hardly conclusive.
I've noticed that luxury car models tend to have names that are more like part numbers than words. It's not a perfect correlation, but it's pretty reliable. Non-luxury cars tend to have words as their names. Luxury cars may use words such as "Turbo" as modifiers on the base model name, or non-luxury cars may have alphanumeric codes like 2500HD in the same role, but the base model names tend to follow the pattern. Note the luxury cars (exceptions highlighted; it looks like there are more exceptions than there really are because the names much longer):
Ford: Crown Victoria, Edge, Escape, Escape Hybrid, E-Series Van, E-Series Wagon, Expedition, Explorer, Explorer Sport Trac, F-150, F-250 Super Duty, F-350 Super Duty, F-450 Super Duty, Five Hundred, Focus, Focus Wagon, Freestar, Freestyle, Fusion, Mustang, Ranger, Shelby GT500, Taurus, Taurus X
GMC: Acadia, Canyon, Envoy, Savana, Savana Cargo Van, Sierra 1500, Sierra 2500HD, Sierra 3500HD, Sierra Classic 1500, Sierra Classic 2500HD, Sierra Classic 3500, Sierra Hybrid, Yukon, Yukon Denali, Yukon XL
The distribution of Federal Reserve Districts is clearly indicative of the era in which it was created. At first glance, it seems obvious that the 12th District needs to be split, while the 5 Northeastern Districts could be consolidated into 2 or 3. I wish there was a USA Mapper that did for the US what does for the world. That would make it clearer how they should be redrawn.
I made the mistake of doing a load of laundry with a free sample of detergent. They never give out "Free & Clear" samples, or product with no added fragrance1 or dyes. It's astonishing how repellent these odors are once you've spent a few years avoiding them.
1 Note: "fragrance free" and "unscented" are not the same thing. The former means absolutely no stinks; the latter means they may have added some stinks to cover up other stinks
There are some jokes that just don't work if you have any knowledge of the subject. I saw some comedian make a joke like that. "You know how they have those indestructible black boxes that they dig out of plane crashes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that?" Because then the plane wouldn't fly. It would be too heavy. Duh. I didn't laugh. Other people did. Ach! Knowledge. Such a curse.
Blog in your native Indic script: Convert English characters to Indic script as you type! Learn more about transliteration on Blogger.
Does anyone else get that? Or are they inferring that I specifically might have a particular interest? I get spam for Indian people, and I figure Google is probably as smart as spammers.