Wednesday, 2 July 2008
Irresistible
I just have to share this one with you. A local care home here in Toronto has just made a small change. The receptionist in the lobby is no longer to be known as a receptionist. Oh no. Now he or she is, wait for it, a Director of First Impressions. You couldn't make it up!
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8 comments:
God help us! That one takes the cake.
Good Lord! How can one 'direct' first impressions...?
It has the flavor of "I'll tell you what to think!" which, come to think of it, is how some governments operate (but it used to be just Communist ones...).
You couldn't make it up!
Well... you could... it's just that no-one would believe you!
;-)
Glad to see you're having fun!
Why use one word when four sound so much better?! I can imagine in a hundred years time someone saying 'Director of first impressions is a bit of a handful - why not just have one word and call him/her a receptionist?'!
I see from gemoftheocean's comment that our expression 'takes the biscuit' becomes 'takes the cake.' Having long been interested in languages, it is fascinating to see the slight differences when reading the comments on blogs when they come from the other side of the pond.
Was it not Churchill who said that the English and Americans were divided by a common language?
Yes Pelerin, and when you throw Ireland into the mix it gets even more interesting.
After almost 40 years here in the US, I've become acclimated (acclimitized, to you...!) to the variations, but the spelling still gets me.
However, when my sister in Ireland says she was at a party and "had great crack", I have to pull myself up and remember that 'crack' in Ireland is very different from 'crack' here in the US - and a lot safer, too!
Though I do understand that our 'crack' is becoming prevalent over there also, unfortunately.
Gor: what's "crack" in Ireland. I take it your sister was not speaking of a variant of cocaine OR the dreaded "plumber's crack." [I expect the latter is the same everywhere! ;-D]
Irish 'crack', or more strictly, 'craic' is simply lively and entertaining conversation, a particular passion of the Irish, who can keep a good session of craic going for hours.
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