People who wander three abreast along supermarket aisles, pausing at each and every special and two-fer to study it minutely. They totter along at the rate of the slowest member, usually gran with or without her stick. Sometimes they have a toddler on the loose, or screaming at the top of its lungs and lunging at stuff within reach. They turn in random directions, usually changing their mind as those of us following make a dart to pass in the sudden gap.

I wasn't in a hurry, but I do hate being held up. I know what I want, where it is and how long I need to spend trapped in supermarket purgatory. Lead, follow or get out of my way!

+1 and people in the rush hour who apprach a gate/ barrier at the underground / rail station and then stop and fish in their pockets / handbag to find the ticket - so stopping all the people trying to get home

The "three abreast" thing annoys me all over the place, ever since school corridors. You even get it with push bikes and believe it or not bloody horses on the road!

In some respects I can understand why cyclists and horse riders do that. Many motorists do not leave enough space when overtaking. Forcing drivers fully into oncoming traffic avoids being squeezed off the road. It has happened to me cycling more than a few times.

Our main computer system for patient notes was down this morning. Turned out to be a nationwide problem and the company had to manually patch each one. Meant that all the patients I saw I had to scribble notes on bits of paper and now get to spend my lunch break typing them all in!

At least we were able to access summaries so I vaguely had some idea. When we get a new system in place later in the year, we won't have access to any notes if the system crashes because none of them will be locally stored.

Me again.

There is an Americanism creeping into our language and it must be killed with fire. I am talking about the habit of ignoramuses saying, without irony, "10 year anniversary".

A tautology at best, like "return back", it's currently annoying me more than it should. One only needs to actually find the definition of the word "anniversary" to see how dumb this new usage is. What's worse is I heard it on the BBC earlier today. Is this the fault of education, or simply complete ignorance?

Sorry. I feel better now.

(Not really.)

I think this has been ranted about several times, though not sure by whom.

Me thinks it may have been Heather!!

Totally understandable, though. A colleague of mine was designing an email signature today for his wife's new business venture - next to the twitter/facebook/linkedin logos were the words "Social me:". So, apparently, the word "Social" can now be used as a verb!! I just shook my head and walked away.

I'm afraid it's just the inevitable dumbing down of our language.

I wonder who first use "dumb" as a verb?

I hate the "one half". "Two and one half". How many halves do you expect? Two halves make a whole. Two and two halves would be three.

I'm hoping Morrisons makes it over here in that capacity eventually. And yes, queues are boring, but I've never zoned out so much that I didn't have my money/whatever ready.

Not really, I could have 2 halves of a cake but there is no guarantee that that is equal to a whole cake. I could have half on 2 differing axis so I couldn't join them together to make a whole one with a cut

If I offer you a cake and you state you want one half, surely by definition that's 50% irrespective of the way it's cut. If you asked for two halves of that cake, how much cake would you end up with?

I wanted the other half

I remain conflicted about things like this.

Language has always evolved, if one doesn't then it's dead or dieing. Pyppes decried the new fad for using the word idolatry, when the correct form was idololotry, and saw it as the death of the English language. Gay has now been in use meaning homosexual for longer than it was used to mean carefree beforehand. These are words we now totally accept and there are many other examples. Language evolves and adapts and we need to evole with it or risk being left behind.

BUT

I can't help getting really wound up by most of the changes, as they seem so redundant.

From nouns becoming verbs through text speak to American and Australian -isations they all just seem to set my teeth on edge. I understand that each generation has their own slang and terms to set them apart. This is only natural and right, but with the cult of youth being what it is we see more and more of these words and phrases leeching into mainstream usage and it is there I find myself getting angry with it.
I know I sound a bit 'angry from Mayfair' but I expect better from the BBC and the Broadsheets.