Excessive adjective use - its just not cricket

Last night during the ABC's cricket coverage, Kerrie O'Keefe (is he a better commentator than he was a cricketer?) said:

"Sri Lanka may be chasing a total in excess of over 300 here."

Imagine if Australia had got closer to 400 - Sri Lanka may have been chasing a total in well excess of greater than past and more than over 300.

the regal interim, and a new cult?

The man responsible for security at the Sydney Olympic Games and the Paralympics declared

"in the inter-regium between the Olympic and the Paralympic games the redeclaration of the holy war by some terrorist groups caused some problems. But in the end Olympi-ism won the day."

Or maybe it was just securi-ism, a recent international trend that's catching on like a Bush fire.

It's all internal anyway

yeah, ebay again...

Looking for the perfect dress for that occasion that has co-insided with your pregnancy?

I'm not sure who is supposed to be wearing the dress, you or the baby, mabybe both of you simultaneously?

Well it's theoretically if not grammatically possible.

sparkles, bad spelling, sparkles, bad spelling...

Seriously, I don't mind a typo or two but Ebay makes me cringe sometimes which I suppose is the snobb(!) in me...

Beautiful Green sequence and lace top

and No clever dix, there wasn't a pattern of green shading, followed by lace, followed by green ...

Its basic, its practical

"Its basical"

Or so said our new (Dutch) MD at a meeting today.

Also, does anyone else find it ironic that the MD of a large company that depends on intellectual property rights, copyright and patent protection spoke about his $10 Chinese Rolex? I don't know if it was a basical Rolex though...

Not one of mine...

Sorry not mine, stolen from the SMH care of a more avid sports fan than I :

Commentator getting clever with metaphors described Ian Thorpe at the end of a race as "dismounting from the pool".

aah.. no actually.

sorry meester fawlty

Looking for a post-able pres for Brother Gaz:

Getting Handsome – A Makeover Manuel for Men

I really hope he won't like it.

who's the free-est of them all?

I have a kindred spirit out there! I mustn't be the only one to get funny looks from the Toby's Estate crew. From the adbusters email digest today:

does anybody else stumble, saying 'free' where they mean 'fair' trade?
As in, "we bought some free trade coffee last week.
Damn, I mean..."
I seem to do it ALL the time.
Fortunately no capitalists have been in the room to pick me up on it,yet.

If a tree falls in a forest and you've seen it happen, is it still a language funny?

An innovative innovation

In an email my boss received this morning, a service was described as being:

"...a new innovation..."

As opposed to a new, novel, modern, forward-stepping, imaginative, advanced, innovative innovation perhaps?

testing the wind

hiya all.

as a new invitee (courtesy of paula) allow me to present some humble offerings from a rather large report by a very hardworking colleague...

"UNDP and DMWG organized a bribing meeting on 3rd October to share the report, ongoing activities and mechanism for coordination of ongoing activities."

"...poverty irradiation through microfinance ..."

and in the annual review of emergency relief activities:
"... a joint assessment of draughts in two provinces..."

from a completely different source (a different continent in fact) I could also mention a recent joint effort by contributors to this very blog in the vicinity of some well-decanted wine. something about about how people in glass ceilings shouldn't throw stones?

Sick people are waiting

An email from our warehouse this morning, advising they were now right to start receiving goods again after getting a touch too full:

"You may now continuing with receipts. Thank you for
your patients in this matter."

Hmm, I thought that working for a pharma company we made the drugs, not the people who take them?

sieve for meaning

For those of you who fondly remember the 15th August, 2005 entry, you'll be glad to hear that the phrase featured is gaining momentum.

I was at the World Famous Queenscliff Boxing class last night and our favourite swinger (you choose how many senses of the word) came out with:

...for all intensive purposes...

I can assure you it was a very rigorous workout.

Apologies if you can't hold on

One of our IT technicians sent an email this morning regarding some necessary maintenance that was required to one of our servers. His closing sentence:

"All should be completed by 11:30 and we apologies (okay, a simple left-hand-before-right-hand typo) for any incontinence"

I'm guessing the server was the one responsible for live streaming?

An "oldie but goldie" ...

... from the CEO's personal assistant.

"Drinks will be from 4pm onwards on the balcony outside IT on level 1 (whether permitting)."

Drinks might depend on whether the CEO assesses the weather with her.

Not bald...

Weird show, I didn't stay long - called "Shopping for love", another 'reality' show which says it all.
However, part of the beginning is the potential suitors go through the contestant's house sans contestant in an aim to get to know them. The contestant watches on a DVD player with inane host/ess. Asked how she felt about 3 strange men wondering through her home and underwear drawer the 21 yr old single for 6 months contestant replied:

"... I mean he ran the fine comb through everything."

I didn't stay for further gems.

sew sexy

Settling down to read my new dessert cookbook, doing the right thing and reading the foreword to set the tone, i had a quiet chuckle over this from one of the giants in my field about some of the rising stars,

"And, as for their approch to technique, well I would call it a seamless mating of art and science."

Art and science copulating with no visible stitching, in the end it must mean better desserts for you and me.

One from the Sun Herald!

On Yesterday's back page:

"Sam Stosur flew the flag for Australia yesterday with a gusty performance..."

Too many beans for lunch I reckon.

New Year, New Theme

hope y'all like it...

Spring Beans

My mother commenting on my hyper-active 11 month old son:

"He's really like a jack in the bean-box"

Suicide is painless

"Top Gear", the irreverend BBC motoring show is now on SBS, and if you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend it. On last night's show two of the hosts spent 24 hours inside a new compact car. They overnighted in a haunted forest, and in talking about one of the ghosts said:

"The schoolmaster was found hanging from a tree by his pupils"