I feel (and am) rather aged coming back to London after more than thirty years.
I didn’t know how difficult it is to get called Ms – just by spelling it out you draw to yourself the attention you didn’t want.
I thought it was only in the USA that things like ‘Howdy, MMarks’ (the way WordPress greets me backstage) were encountered, or Moo cards originated (posted in a box marked ‘Yay!’, and apparently can’t be received in a plain envelope).
But today at Sainsbury’s, joining the queue for personal service and buying a ‘southern fried chicken wrap’, I am met with ‘Babes, why don’t you get a Meal Deal?’
Someone trying to sell solar panels greets me at the door with ‘Hello darling, how are you today?’ In fact the words ‘How are you today?’ signal a cold phone call.
A mailing-list colleague says how much he dislikes Virgin Mobile addressing him as ‘Peeps’!
To quote another poster:
Office 2013 has bits of that. When one finishes a spell-check, a pop-up box announces:
“Spelling and grammar check complete. You’re good to go!”
After doing something else, it answers: “We did that for you.” Who’s “we”?
Somewhere else it replies, “Nope.”
I suppose I am becoming the old person I was destined to be.
Anyone else having difficulties with the modern world?
Hm, being called “love” in shops was something that surprised me in England 30 years (or rather more) ago. I thought it amusing and very British then. I still find it more funny than bothering. The return to “Miss” is awful though.
‘Love’ is very common among shopkeepers and has been for ages. ‘Darling’ is also a possibility. It’s also probably common among nurses and careworkers. But I’m not used to ‘Hello darling, how are you?’ from someone who knocks at the door and wants to sell solar panels. Perhaps it’s because it’s different if I go into a shop, or I am a patient, and if someone comes to my door trying to sell me something.
Go west (OK, east), go south (Finland’s not bad), never go back. Never give them your name, always answer unknown callers with “Mr Li Window Cleaning”, punch anyone who uses neologisms (it’s OK, you’re a woman). When I went back ca 1998 I’d emerge from meetings not knowing what on earth had been discussed, due to the slang being used (dog’s bollocks = good or bad?), but it didn’t matter. Leave asap.
The window cleaner thing is OK. Trouble is we get some callers who turn out to be NHS or social services.
There was actually a caller on Wednesday who was looking for work as a window cleaner. But he was polite.