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Friday, June 19, 2015

107. So....

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.

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