What does soon mean?

In these forums, the "We'll be back soon" message appears more than you think, so if we take this example, soon means never.

Respecting to Apple Developer website, it's true that it has been in maintenance for some days, but this makes me thing if it's in maintenance or if it's a problem with the site. Anyway, we are just users and we don't know what's happening. The only thing you can do is wait

gail from maine wrote:

You realize you are addressing someone, who despite their 30+ years in the technical software business business, was an English major in college (graduated and everything!)...😁😁😁

GB

As opposed to "not-graduated and nothing"? Or is the logical opposite ""not-graduated OR nothing"?

OMG!

😝

Of course I knew. I can always tell when I actually can read what someone has written and understand it. When it has good grammar and syntax, makes logical sense. uses complete sentences, puts capitals where they belong, and has an understanding of punctuation.

Despite my 30 years as a university professor of finance, I was an English major, too (graduated and everything!) We are kindred spirits. And, I'm a cat lover.

Michael Superczynski wrote:

It's possible that Apple is using "soon" in the cosmological sense.

In that context, the Earth will soon be consumed by the Sun when it becomes a red giant in about 4-5 billion years.

Yeah, that's it.

Were you not planning on destroying the Earth with the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator next week? Or do you just not like being reminded of all the times you were beaten by a big gray rabbit?

Michael Superczynski wrote:

Ever since I've starting using Apple kit, I've softened my outlook with the rabbit.

I just wish he would quit texting me all the time constantly reminding me of all the times he blew me up!

How many times must we tell these kids ... the celluar service providers are the ones who can block texts, not the hardware provider (Apple)?

Sheesh!

Oh yeah - we definitely are kindred spirits! It is always a pleasure to read your posts as well, and a most welcome port in the storm of fragmented sentences, horrific misspellings, general air-headedness, and the belief that using text words (other than OMG) in place of actual English is OK.

At least the ESL folks have an excuse....

GB

OK, I'm officially freaking out (as well as rolling with laughter) right now....

As if emoticons weren't bad enough....😮

I think I'll address you as Prof from now on. You and my husband....(he's an English prof!)

GB

Oh, gosh, please don't call me that. You married an English prof? All I can say is things must get really noisy around the dinner table. 😀 My wife and I could spend hours picking out all the gross errors in the newspaper, magazines, TV ads, etc. Oh, she was a teacher, too. Speech Pathologist treating K-6 kids.

Hahaha! So you know how it goes. We watch CNN and cringe at the constant misuse of words....

The current favorite is "notoriety"....they seem to think it is complimentary. Geeeeeeez....

And I spend most of my working day yelling at people and their moronic misuse of words (I work remotely so, they can't hear me - thank GOD!). Their current favorite is "socialize". Meaning meet with, connect with, talk to, converse with. Everytime they say it I want to scream "Parrrrr-tay"! Or "Watch out, the Reds are coming"!

Double geeeeeeeez....

And, OK, I won't call you that (that which shall not be named - to paraphrase). I figured your handle wasn't Kappy for no reason (is that a double negative, right here in front of us?) OMG!!! 😮

I look forward to our next repartee - I must off to sleep, since it is almost 3....and I have a 7:30 meeting tomorrow (I totally forgot until just now. TGIF).

Ciao,

GB

I tried to trick it earlier... I closed the browser window, went out for "soon" and when I came back I tried to load it again but it knew what I was doing and kicked me out again! I have kept trying to trick it ever since but so far.... no dice!

English majors? Have you acquired POEM (Professional Organization of English Majors) T-shirts?

K-6 Speech Pathologists? Has she heard David Sedaris' "Me Talk Pretty One Day"?

Yes, I spend too much time listening to NPR.

Our favorite is the misuse of further and farther. Next in line would probably be the use of "more or most" instead of using the comparative or superlative of the adverb - such as "more clear" rather than "clearer." One of my personal favorites is the phrase, "more perfect." How can something be more than perfect? That's logically not possible unless it was already "less than perfect" in the first place.

The abuse of the language is beyond belief. The worst part is that the abuse has filtered down to the those who are supposed to speak the language correctly, i.e., formal English not colloquial English. TV announcers and talking heads are the worst of the lot because they are using writers who should know better.

Imagine how things will become when the stop teaching English in schools! The disaster created by teaching phonetics is already quite apparent.

Don't get me started. I can drag on this topic ad nauseum.

You and me both, brother! And as far as "more perfect" goes.....perfecter?

Talking heads? More like talking morons...(and I'm don't mean their opinions). You are right that they are the most egregious abusers. In my opinion, they should be fined every time they misuse the language. My husband and I are contantly looking at eachother and saying in disbelief "did he (she) just say that?" OMG!!! I love having my DVR because then we can replay it to make sure we didn't mishear what we think we heard (we never do).

How about "I" and "me"...or even worse - how about "Mary and myself went to the store". Myself?

Here's a good one...when people are talking about criminals (like criminals who they have witnessed executing a criminal act, or whom they have been victimized by), and they refer to them as "the gentleman"...SERIOUSLY???? Since when do criminals get to be put in the same category as the rest of the men in the world?

And what ever happened to people using dictionaries and thesarusi? I don't use spell checker because it makes decisions about the words I'm chosing and changes them to its liking (context be ******). My wonderful Mac dictionary lives in my dock and is open whenever I'm on the machine. I can't tell you how many times a day I click on it and go to either the dictionary or thesaurus. When I'm working for "work", I have no such luxury (PC and all...). So, I keep my Mac on the table behind me so I can grab it when I need to look things up. I couldn't live without it. Maybe we should see if Apple would be willing to send the newscasters of the world a Mac so they would be able to consult lingual reference sources upon occasion. 😁

OK, see what you made me do? I'm taking deep breaths now. I would say that we are definitely kindred spirits! Feel free to rant on to me about this anytime! I'm totally in your camp!

GB

Get a room!

That said, here are my pet peeves:

Then and than. I saw a business van with the phrase "More then just balloons", painted on the sides.

There, their and they're. These are used at random and interchangably in online forums.

Your and you're. I wish I was kidding.

Finally, the random, or possibly Freudian gaffs that slip through by lack of proof-reading.

PS: Just ironic: At a local public garden:"Historic planting in progress". The Archives at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Hahaha! Their, There, They're not the same (Cafe Press T-shirt).

Let's eat grandma.

Let's eat, grandma.

Grammar saves lives....

Yeah, on this forum, it's your basic nightmare. I spend as much time cringing as I do answering questions. I give people a pass on its and it's, since they are a bit more esoteric (the ownership thing always throws people off). But the other contraction mishaps? OMG is all I can say....

GB