10 random thoughts - any explanations?
By R Rajesh
Was just lazing around wondering about the things we take for granted...no...not the deep philosophical thing about relationships, the comity of religions and stuff, but the more basic, inane, everyday stuff that we dont bother to question coz the answers are relatively unimportant to us. You must have asked these questions urselves, or mebbe they were there in the back of ur minds, unarticulated and unknown even to ur conscious mind. Whatever....
I just thought I should share them with you. I'm not looking for answers, but if have explanations, ur welcome.
Just read on and wonder with me:
1. If things that are perpendicular are called 'flat' why are vertical high rise buildings called 'flats'?
2. If 'lift' means to pull something/hoist something up, why do we say "I'm taking the lift to go down"? (For those who didnt get it, elevators are called lifts in India)
3. If, according to science, hot air goes up, why does it get colder the higher we go?
4. Why do people say 'bring me the cheque' to the waiter in a restaurant when they're actually asking for the bill? How come the same people don't ask for a cheque when they buy groceries? Shouldnt the waiter respond to "where's the cheque waiter?" by answering, "I'm waiting for you to write it sir, and please remember to mark it as a/c payee"?
5. Why do people in a restaurant order 'appetisers' only when they're really hungry? They claim only if they're hungry can they eat both the appetiser and the main course, otherwise ditch the appetiser? Isn't an appetiser meant to whet the appetite?
6. Why is it that in marriage, you 'break' the engagement, but when its a business engagement, you always 'cancel' it. On second thoughts, why cant you just say, "Anita and I are now dis-engaged"?
7. Why are actresses nowadays called 'actors'? Is it a politically correct tribute to the libbers, or are the women just less feminine nowadays?
8. Why is it that so many corporates have designations like 'General Manager (Marketing)
GM (Sales), GM (Finance), GM (Systems) etc...when a 'General' Manager is historically
supposed to be a generalist and not a specialist? Case in point: the world of medicine
where you have General Practitioners and Specialists/Superspecialists.
9. Staying in the world of Corporatedom, what is the logic in having a designation like AVP (Asst.Vice President) when a Vice President is already an Assistant President? In
the future are we going to see Sr. Deputy Asst Vice Presidents, Jr. Deputy Asst Vice
Presidents, Trainee Deputy Asst. Vice Presidents and so on?
10. Why don't hospitals name their Head Surgeon as Chief 'Operating' Officer?
Was just lazing around wondering about the things we take for granted...no...not the deep philosophical thing about relationships, the comity of religions and stuff, but the more basic, inane, everyday stuff that we dont bother to question coz the answers are relatively unimportant to us. You must have asked these questions urselves, or mebbe they were there in the back of ur minds, unarticulated and unknown even to ur conscious mind. Whatever....
I just thought I should share them with you. I'm not looking for answers, but if have explanations, ur welcome.
Just read on and wonder with me:
1. If things that are perpendicular are called 'flat' why are vertical high rise buildings called 'flats'?
2. If 'lift' means to pull something/hoist something up, why do we say "I'm taking the lift to go down"? (For those who didnt get it, elevators are called lifts in India)
3. If, according to science, hot air goes up, why does it get colder the higher we go?
4. Why do people say 'bring me the cheque' to the waiter in a restaurant when they're actually asking for the bill? How come the same people don't ask for a cheque when they buy groceries? Shouldnt the waiter respond to "where's the cheque waiter?" by answering, "I'm waiting for you to write it sir, and please remember to mark it as a/c payee"?
5. Why do people in a restaurant order 'appetisers' only when they're really hungry? They claim only if they're hungry can they eat both the appetiser and the main course, otherwise ditch the appetiser? Isn't an appetiser meant to whet the appetite?
6. Why is it that in marriage, you 'break' the engagement, but when its a business engagement, you always 'cancel' it. On second thoughts, why cant you just say, "Anita and I are now dis-engaged"?
7. Why are actresses nowadays called 'actors'? Is it a politically correct tribute to the libbers, or are the women just less feminine nowadays?
8. Why is it that so many corporates have designations like 'General Manager (Marketing)
GM (Sales), GM (Finance), GM (Systems) etc...when a 'General' Manager is historically
supposed to be a generalist and not a specialist? Case in point: the world of medicine
where you have General Practitioners and Specialists/Superspecialists.
9. Staying in the world of Corporatedom, what is the logic in having a designation like AVP (Asst.Vice President) when a Vice President is already an Assistant President? In
the future are we going to see Sr. Deputy Asst Vice Presidents, Jr. Deputy Asst Vice
Presidents, Trainee Deputy Asst. Vice Presidents and so on?
10. Why don't hospitals name their Head Surgeon as Chief 'Operating' Officer?
posted by R.Rajesh at 11:07 am
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