So, on the theme of Annoying Things that Annoy me

..here is one of my favourites.

Given the two facts that motorists are meant to be keeping their eyes on the road ahead and that the Western mind is inclined to read down from the top of the page, I do not know WHO came up with the notion that the word order in road markings should be reversed, so that you end up blinking stupidly over the bonnet and wondering where the "Give" is in "Give Way". The answer is : under your tyres.
Why do they bother doing an eye test for a New Zealand road licence, when clearly the common condition is supposed to be shortsightedness?
Or do they assume, in these days of the Nanny State where Big Brother wil do your thinking for you, that we only have enough mental capacity to process the meaning of one word at a time?
In which case the road marking outside the Corelli School says it all.

Child

That

Mind

Class, brains and charm

She's a real keeper, Richie!

Things that annoy me about the All Black rugby jersey fruckus

OK, let me start by saying that the MOST annoying thing about the news articles following the matter is the continuing pandering to the insistence of A Certain Sports Brand that their name is not capitalised. Adidas (see, I can do it, it follows a fullstop) have a permanent ban on following the common dictates of grammar.Sigh.
"In English, we capitalise words that are proper nouns—that is, they describe a specific thing or entity. They could be a title, a name, or a specific place such as the president's residence: [THEE] White House.
We lowercase words that are considered common nouns—that is, they can be used to describe many things, such as any one of the multitude of white colored houses in the world."
Adidas, that non-specific and common sports brand, are at the centre of a controversy caused by the fact that they are charging residents of New Zealand (that country where the Rugby World Cup is being held) close to 57% more for a jersey, replica of those worn by the All Blacks (the national team of New Zealand) than they are charging anyone else in the world. Adidas New Zealand manager Dave Huggett describes this as 'fair and reasonable' because if they don't do that, they won't be able to 'invest anything in this country for the next 12 months'.
Is it just me, or does that mean New Zealanders who buy the All Black jersey will be the ones paying for all investment in New Zealand rugby for the next 12 months? We will effectively become the sponsors of the All Blacks?
Does that mean we may once again see grammatically correct sports advertising? Because if so, bring it on!
The second most annoying thing about the whole debacle is the addition of the acronym WAG to the New Zealand vernacular. WAG was first used to describe the filthy-rich, spoiled and attention-seeking coterie of football Wives And Girlfriends that did not so much follow the England football team around as try to lead it by  the - well, you know. The term has now been applied to one Nicola Grigg, girlfriend of Al Black captain Richie McCaw, who is weighing in with an opinion on the jersey debate. What does she have to say? This, on Twitter.
"Why the hell shd @adidas change it's prices?? It's like me telling Louis V I won't buy their bags anymore bcos they're too $$$."
Two salient facts.
Louis Vuitton bags cost anywhere between $570 and $5802.
Louis Vuitton had not, last time I checked, established an international reputation for rugby.
I would have called this next statement a fact except it's an opinion : the fashion industry is the worst waste of space in the world and its immediate demise would affect few people per capita, and just possibly would lead to luvvies everywhere raising their eyes from their swollen egos and noticing that many people in the world have Real Problems Not Of Their Own Doing. Death, disease, daily terror, deprivation and despair just for instance.
The notion of Ms Grigg righteously refusing to pay for an overpriced piece of baggage makes me chortle; because trust me, if she won't pay for it, some other fool will only be too happy to be parted from their money. At least, I hope it's her money she is notionally going to retain. After all if the only money That Sporting Company can spare to invest in New Zealand in the next year is the profit it is making off New Zealand rugby supporters, I'd prefer to see it funnelled into rugby than overpriced toys for overgrown spoilt teenage girls.

FACEPALM

From the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang:

phenom

 Home > Library > Literature & Language > Oxford Slang

noun, US

Something remarkable or 'phenomenal', esp. an unusually gifted person, prodigy. (1881 —) .

New Yorker : He has a series of run-ins with a militant black rookie phenom (1986).

[Shortened from phenomenon.]

Please note that last sentence. There was already a perfectly good word to describe this sportsman, but Americans have chosen to shorten it and as always, the rest of the English-speaking world is following like wiggly puppies.

Dansk (Danish) n. - fænomen

Nederlands (Dutch) zeer begaafd en veelbelovend iemand, fenomeen

Français (French) n. - phénomène

Deutsch (German) n. - (ugs.) sehr begabte Person

Italiano (Italian) fenomeno

Português (Portuguese) n. - fenômeno (m)

Nobody else feels the need to shorten the word. What, does it concentrate the meaning? Are celebrities more famous because they’re celebs, and can you fit more into 24/7 than you can into all the time?

And this brings me to the shoe-in.

It’s a SHOO-IN, dammit!

Michael Quinione puts this much better and more politely than I can.

“SHOO-IN

This one is spelled wrongly so often that it’s likely it will eventually end up that way. The correct form is shoo-in, usually with a hyphen. It has been known in that spelling and with the meaning of a certain winner from the 1930s. It came from horse racing, where a shoo-in was the winner of a rigged race.

In turn that seems to have come from the verb shoo, meaning to drive a person or an animal in a given direction by making noises or gestures, which in turn comes from the noise people often make when they do it.”

THANK YOU!