Since every second programme on TV seems to be cooking related, one of my peeves has been the uses of 'down' and 'off'. Didn't 'cook' used to mean 'cook'? Now chefs seem to cook 'down' or cook 'off'. What's that all about?
"I'm going to cook that down for a while."...etc.
or
"That's cooking off nicely"
I'm familiar with reduction. I could accept with some tolerance that cooking down is akin to reduction, but it doesn't appear to me to be uniformly used that way on the shows I've watched.
I worked in IT for a while, and one that consistantly got my goat (examine that!) was the 'flavours' of Unix. Granted, this was a while ago, so I apileofgeese if this is all old hat now.
- "What flavour of Unix are you running?"
- "Fuckin' raspberry...I don't know! What version are your socks?"
It's almost like the terminology was contrived to give it the nonchelant cool of establishment.
- "Aha...it's that young go-getting whipper-snapper Unix."
- "I have multiple flavours you know!"
- "Oh! My mistake, you speak in enigmatic jargon, thus you must be steeped in history. Welcome to the old school"
To be fair, it was established. Still is, I'm sure. But it could so easily have been smell, or...texture or something.
- "What's your favourite texture of Linux?"
- "Kill yourself"
I think in reality this is a continuation of my ongoing frustration with people not examining themselves and what they think they know to be true. We take a lot for granted - specifically things that have been taught to us by people we perceive to be an authority on a subject...or an authority in general.
If a qualified (or TV) chef tells us it's cooking down, it's cooking down. Right? I think I saw Tim Lovejoy quiz Simon Rimmer about this once on 'Something for the weekend'. My possibly flawed recollection of the response was simply a look along the lines of "Oh fuck off Tim...it's just one of those things we say."....and that's my problem with it.
I'm certainly not immune to it, but I promise I do examine the accuracy of and my motives for using certain phrases in order to improve my English.
Now...'got my goat' - what's that all about?!
