New York Times. May 11, 2022. One of America’s greatest stand-up comics. A satirist in the deepest sense. George Carlin. Always critical of his homeland. Its short-comings. Its deceits. For many a true patriotic American.
humor
Rhode Island
Comments:
“As a telephony engineer, I feel for Nathan. Too many times in the office, I’m locked in and focusing on work and then someone comes with a drive-by question that totally breaks my concentration and flow. Some times it can take 10-15 minutes to get back in the groove of what you’re doing. Huge time waster.”
“”Do you have a second?” “Wait 5 minutes; in the middle of something.” Solves a lot of problems.”
“Perusing has two definitions in the dictionary that are contradictory in nature. Perusing also is defined as to skim in Meriam dictionary. Both meanings have been in use over 400 yrs.”
“That little interruption costs 30 minutes of context switching, but feels like 2 hours of stress. So in an 8 hour day, he will have to work 8.5 hours to finish the same work, but it will feel like 10 hours. It’s like slamming on the breaks in a car.”
“She is falling for him bc he doesnât care.”
Euphemisms
Because Americans find it difficult separate what they say from the person they are saying it to – especially in the case of criticism – they strive to use softer, more indirect language, including euphemisms: mild or indirect words or expressions substituted for ones considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
Examples of euphemisms: pre-owned car instead of a used car, sex worker instead of a prostitute, to be between jobs instead of to be unemployed, senior citizen instead of old person, underserved neighborhood or underserved population instead of the poor, or an impoverished, needy neighborhood.
Further examples: economically disadvantaged instead of poor; temporary negative cash flow instead of broke; enhanced interrogation methods instead of torture; collateral damage instead of civilian deaths.
About George Carlin.
fun is inefficient
Comments: “As a german i can say, this is so funny i will laugh about it later after work between 17:00 and 17:22 on my way home” … “I tested it and couldnt find any humor here – greetings from germany” … “He says words that are longer than most of your sentences.” … “Stay serious my friends,fun is inefficient” that was ironically one of the funniest moments.”
Plan carefully
Some people simply do not plan carefully enough.
German driving rules
YouTube comments:
“Most of this isn’t particularly unique to Germany (except the famous end of speed restriction on the Autobahn and the standard speed limits in different areas). Germany mostly follows the Vienna Convention standard signs, as opposed to the American/Japanese/Australian ones which have different colors and shapes and often use text instead of symbols.”
“I love that the German word for a traffic sign is ,,das Schild” (“shield”). Makes me think of knights and turtles.”
“I found this very interesting. I wonder how strictly Germans obey das Stopp-Schild. In the USA we have identical stop signs, but most drivers just treat them like a Vorfahrt gewären Schild. They will slow down and check for cross traffic, but won’t usually come to a complete stop unless they see someone coming.
Interestingly, we also have a sign that looks exatly like the Vorfahrt gewären Schild, except that it says YIELD in the middle. It basically means the same thing. However, because most drivers treat the stop sign like a yield sign, some people will be even less careful at a yield sign, which can be very dangerous.
My hometown recently replaced all of the yield signs with stop signs because of this. There is no equivalent to the Vorfahrtsstrasse-Schild in the USA. If an intersection does not have a stop sign (or yield sign or stop-light or similar) then you can assume that you have the right of way, because there will be a stop sign (or similar) on the intersecting road.
The closest thing to a Vorfahrtsstrasse-Schild in the USA would be a green light an intersection. You only see this at intersections with high traffic, where the priority road constantly changes, such as on a highway, or a town’s main street. As for speed limits, our signs look very different, but the speeds are very similar (after the conversion to MPH). I also wonder how strictly Germans obey speed limits, because in the USA you can usually go 5-10 MPH faster without getting pulled over, at least in my experience.”
Supermarket checkout
At the supermarket check out somewhere in Germany. Cashier to customers: â28,35 Euroâ. The customers silently passes the 50 Euro bill to the cashier. â21,65 is your changeâ. The customer packs up his groceries and leaves the store.
This type of limited conversation at the supermarket check out is not a rarity. Until a couple of years ago this was a common interaction. Nowadays, you will get a âgood dayâ or âhave a nice dayâ from the cashier before he puts the groceries in your shopping cart to make space for the next customer.
However, the cashier would never ask the flour- and sugar-buying customer if they are going to bake today. Furthermore, if a customer buys cereal and milk the cashier would never ask, with a winky face, if they are someone that likes breakfast for dinner. The cashier would also not say how much he likes cookies if someone was buying some. The check out is a place where you pay, not for small talk.
Critique and Humour
German colleagues will at times communicate critical feedback with irony, hoping to gain a smirk or a smile. This is not meant to make fun of the colleague whose work is being criticized, but rather to add a lightness to the criticism.
The person criticized is given the opportunity to accept the feedback with a sense of humour and light-heartedness. The Germans value the ability to maintain a healthy, objective distance to oneâs own work.
Humor: the ability to accept with lightness personal imperfections and those of the world, as well as the difficulties of daily life.
Steve Jobs – Merciless Criticism
An article on Jony Ive, the head of design at Apple Computer, in the New Yorker Magazine from February 23, 2105 touches on how the late Steve Jobs gave constructive feedback:
“Jobsâs taste for merciless criticism was notorious. Ive recalled that, years ago, after seeing colleagues crushed, he protested. Jobs replied, ‘Why would you be vague?,’ arguing that ambiguity was a form of selfishness: ‘You donât care about how they feel! Youâre being vain, you want them to like you.’
Ive was furious, but came to agree. ‘Itâs really demeaning to think that, in this deep desire to be liked, youâve compromised giving clear, unambiguous feedback,’ he said. He lamented that there were ‘so many anecdotes’ about Jobsâs acerbity: ‘His intention, and motivation, wasnât to be hurtful.'”
Steve Jobs. More German than American logic.
Mr. German man loves insurance
An American woman. Married to a German man. About how her husband, and his friends, are enthusiastic about insurance. And about how shocked they were to hear that she, and her American friends, never even heard of such kinds of insurance.
Warning ! This woman is a youtuber. And an American on top. So, she is more than a bit animated. And frankly, she could have made her points in about two minutes instead of seven and a half.