Oh, I know. I really did feel bad for the Dominoes workers.
Fortunately I'm capable of holding seemingly-contradictory opinions.
This joke is so old it has hair growing out of its ears.
I almost pretended to be outraged, just so that you all could point out in your predictably contrarian way that this is even funny in a certain light.
This sounds like a great idea for a prank. Very ingenious.
I don't like listenign to awkward things though.
This seems topical because of schmucks.
You could run the prank as a CFO of a large multinational with huge stock holdings, and call representatives of two major investment banks or hedge funds with an extremely complicated buy/sell order, and make them repeat it to each other. That would be less assholish but might wreck the world economy.
If it's any consolation, both parties seem to get off the phone without any idea that they were the butt of a joke. Part of the call must have been cut-off, because it's not clear where the pizzas will be delivered. If it's all getting delivered to the prankster's house, and he pays up, then no harm no foul.
8: A prank that has the potential to wreck the world economy would not seem to qualify as less assholish by any reasonable definition of assholity.
Better change my plans for Thursday evening, then.
Though oh man those nuclear launch codes were going to be hilarious.
Part of the call must have been cut-off, because it's not clear where the pizzas will be delivered.
I don't think you have to give your address anymore, although we do all our pizza ordering via computer.
If Domino's stores your address and phone number with every order you make, that raises the amusing possibility of the pranksters ending up with the delivery made, without having provided an address. Of course that only works if one of the places called was in the same city and they forgot they made an order with that phone number in the past.
When I worked at CompUSA we used to connect the tech support people to each other so it looked like they were each getting external customer calls. This worked well in large part because the tech support people were goddamned idiots.
Somehow a Domino's thread doesn't inspire pizza craving for me.
I think I heard the Don and Mike Show do this trick once with 1-900 number phone-sex operators.
I just think it's funny when they're both computing the price and not batting an eye that their customer is apparently computing the price down to the cent, and disputing the charge.
No person who remembers anything from the Don and Mike Show can be all bad.
How about a mix-and-match? A three-way conference call between Domino's Pizza, CompUSA tech support, and the phone-sex operator?
Maybe I mentioned this before, but I worked at CompUSA. Not tech support but in the warehouse packing catalog orders.
Do we all compulsively pronounce it Compoosa?
The first month I was in the top five salespeople for the region. The second month I only showed up about half the time. The third month I was fired.
Well, I don't know if I was technically fired. My manager sent me home in a fit of pique one day so I never came back. Apparently he was very confused by that.
The first month I was in the top five salespeople for the region. The second month I only showed up about half the time. The third month I was fired.
Cocaine. It's a hell of a drug.
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GEORGE PLIMPTON, MOTHERFUCKERS.
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Cocaine Being seventeen. It's a hell of a drug.
They both create delusions of grandeur, and high anxiety.
(Just like a white winged dove, sings a song like oversleeping sleeping late, late, late)
Are people these days really not familiar with the concept of "dry goods"? I suppose that would make sense.
34: I thought that was sort of weird, at that. I certainly knew.
34: If you don't dry the goods, you get a fungus.
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Quick usage/etiquette question.
My feeling, as a pathologically deferential native English speaker, is that the use of "please" with requests has begun to sound peremptory and to signal an expectation of compliance with the request. Or that it sounds wheedly. I don't know if there's a standard softening strategy beyond layers of "might you possibly be able or willing to x, if it's not too much trouble?" Am I making this up?
"Could you please provide a letter of recommendation for me? THANKS IN ADVANCE I KNEW U WD."
Hmm. Now that looks perfectly ordinary and I'm not sure under what circumstances I find it too demanding. I may be imagining something like the Ud. form of the imperative in Spanish -- my husband was saying that this often sounds off, because if you're on formal terms with someone you're very unlikely to be ordering them around. "YOU, SIR: GO WITH GOD!" Anyway, I don't actually need a letter of recommendation this week, but of course any of you is welcome to write one for me. But please submit it early.
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I'm confused by what you are asking, but if you want a letter of recommendation, you should spell out all of letters in all of the worlds in the message.
'Please' doesn't work well with asking, and asking 'Would you mind...? Thanks" seems more polite than ordering or commanding someone, even with a please.
"Could you please" sounds peremptory to me, but 'please' tacked on to the end of the request sounds polite. "Please' at the beginning tends to sound a bit wheedling. All this is informed by my gut and nothing else.
Hello,
I'm applying for X, and thought of past interaction with you Y. Brief summary of excellent interaction if relevant. Could I ask you for a letter of recommendation, please? The application specifies addressee Z by deadline D. Thanks for considering this request.
It's all in TFA. Comments at the linked post discuss when and to whom 'please' sounds rudely like an imperative.
I don't think anything got settled, but we talked about it.
My bosses use "please" to soften an order. But it is appropriate that they're giving me orders, so.
As a less-wheedly alternative to "Could you please provide a letter of recommendation for me?", I'd suggest "I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide a letter of recommendation for me."
34: I saw that to. I couldn't believe it.
I don't know what "dry goods" means, despite having read dozens of old-timey novels that mention it. I think it means "clothes".
43: no surprise. (NFS?) But thanks to everyone! & I will never get a letter of rec from anyone if I do not now shut the browser and work.
48: It just means stuff-that's-not-food. Like plimsolls and antimacassars and flatirons.
49: you can't ignore 30 forever, LB.
I just clicked through. Some good sense in that piece:
Yet another possibility is that "honed in" was a typographical error for "horned in." It would fit the context.
Suuure, one of the greatest literary figures of his time just made a dopey typo.
This is a man whose greatest literary achievements centered on putting himself in a position to be severely concussed. I think some erratic spelling is the least that could have been expected.
This is a man whose greatest literary achievements centered on putting himself in a position to be severely concussed.
I know there was a lot of drinking at the Paris Review but I don't think that counts as being concussed. Anyhow you're forgetting this slice of awesome.
Funny, I always thought of dry goods as including dry food, with a specific associated image of the beäproned general-store proprietor drawing from a barrel of flour behind the counter.
I can't decide if this one is awesome and cruel or just awesome. Either way, it's good to remember the 70s were a different time.
Me too. Actually I thought it meant that stuff exclusively. Food that lasts indefinitely.
Re: please
Please see this discussion of AmE and BrE differences in usage.
Who else wants to reveal what they thought "dry goods" meant? So far the people who were wrong are outnumber the people who were right.
It means stuff like you buy at Target back before Target added groceries.