Oh dear. I’m getting really old. I’ve found something else
that irritates me. I know that I shouldn’t let it get to me but I can’t
help it. Things came to a head this morning:
On the Today programme on Radio 4, James Naughtie introduced a story
about the fact that online reviews are often faked. Apparently, many of
them are written by third parties for money. Naughtie began by asking
listeners, “Do you believe the reviews that you read online?”
Then he interviewed Nisha
Arora, a senior director at the ‘Competitive and Markets Authority’. I
haven’t reproduced the interview in full but I expect you’ll realise the cause
of my irritation fairly quickly.
James Naughtie What persuaded
you that this (investigation) was necessary?
Nisha Arora So, this is a growing market. It’s....
James Naughtie The
most famous site is Trip Advisor. It’s widely used.
Nisha Arora So, there are a number of sites out
there....
James Naughtie And
it’s a paid-for business to write a fake review?
Nisha Arora So, what we’ve found is....
James Naughtie What
could you do about it?
Nisha Arora So, what we can do about it is....
James Naughtie It
could be a breach of the law. How do you prove it?
Nisha Arora So, we would find evidence of....
James Naughtie Do
you suspect there’s an organised racket going on here?
Nisha Arora So, we don’t know the extent of the....
Six questions, and the answer given to every one of
them began with, “So, ……”
This is a fairly recent phenomenon. I think
that I only began to notice if about two years ago and I may be wrong, but it
seems to me that most people who suffer from this verbal tic are women.
I hope very much that it doesn’t replicate the
proliferation of “like” and appear in virtually every response that some people
give. I expect that you’ll begin to notice it now and you may become
irritated too.
Sorry about that.
Thursday July 9th 2015
I heard an interview with The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne,
this morning. He was asked about the
budget and began 11 of the 15 questions that he was asked by saying, “Well…. “
Yet another irritation!
Tuesday August 11th 2015
Adam
Peaty was interviewed on the radio this morning. He is a
gold medal-winning swimmer. I wasn’t at
all interested in anything he or his interviewer had to say but I was struck by
the fact that in three minutes and in five answers he said, “you know” twenty
six times. That was pretty impressive
and easily beats the previous "YOU KNOW" world record held by Ray Parlour, the Arsenal
footballer, in a TV interview in 2001.
Later I saw an interview with Peaty on BBC television:
Interviewer What an incredible twelve months.
Adam Peaty Yeah I mean, it’s, you know, been absolutely
fantastic but. . . .
Interviewer The next step is Rio and you’ll be going there
as a gold medal favourite.
Adam Peaty Yeah I mean, it’s, yeah, pretty, you know,
dramatic. . . .
Interviewer It wasn’t a great last Olympics and now a glut of medals
Adam Peaty Yeah I mean, er, I think, you know, when.
. . .
Interviewer . . . .they’re all going to be after you now.
Adam Peaty Yeah I mean, they’ve been after me since last season.
. . .
Interviewer Are you worried that you’re going in there with the
great icons of swimming?
Adam
Peaty Yeah I mean, it’s pretty fantastic. . . .
All five answers began with,
“Yeah I mean” but on the plus side,
he is a very good swimmer indeed.
