BOB Customer Service is da bomb

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Now, now .... keep in mind that Americans (and by that I mean we lovely folks in the US) have always been creators of slang. Long before things were "da bomb" they were "the bee's knees."
I know I tend to use the newer slang terms only when I want to express some serious sarcasm, (Well, ain't dat jus' da bomb -- said as snidely as possible).

Actually, most slang in general is created by groups who feel dispossessed and cut out of the mainstream. Thus, Cockney rhyming slang, Black slang (dating all the way back to the days of slavery), the slang of prison populations. It's just a way of fighting back and creating your own identity with your group.

The only people I worry about are those that don't know the difference between slang and formal English (whether we are talking about that language as it is spoken in the UK and former colonies or the US and former territories) ... those people, sadly, are doomed to a life in the gutter ... unless they are really good at either sports, or entertainment, or perhaps if they have a successful drug dealing business.

huh, that's just what i wanted to say, although i might add that you yanks do not have the monopoly on slang...

i like to think that slang is one of the vital signs of a living language.

(although i do enjoy latinate slang considerably).

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

huh, that's just what i wanted to say, although i might add that you yanks do not have the monopoly on slang...

i like to think that slang is one of the vital signs of a living language.

(although i do enjoy latinate slang considerably).

Yes, Zeep .... however, we yanks do not have a government sanctioned group trying to keep our language "pure" either .... tends to allow us to grab our slang from anywhere and everywhere.

One of my favorite bits of slang comes from a movie .... when expressing great dismay ... "Quel Frommage!!" ..... yes, I know what it really means, but in American slang now ... it means "what a shame" ..... funny, yes??

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Yes, Zeep .... however, we yanks do not have a government sanctioned group trying to keep our language "pure" either .... tends to allow us to grab our slang from anywhere and everywhere.

One of my favorite bits of slang comes from a movie .... when expressing great dismay ... "Quel Frommage!!" ..... yes, I know what it really means, but in American slang now ... it means "what a shame" ..... funny, yes??

oh, but the Académie is not there to combat our very own slang (we have a very long and rich tradition of it which is one of our national prides), but the attempts of you heathen yanks to soil our beautiful language with such impurities as "weekend", "email", "hot dog", "spam" etc. (if you speak french, you will immediately realize that this is in fact hilariously tongue in cheek, since they *did* try --unsuccessfully-- to prevent the adoption of all of those english words, which are now commonly used and may even be in the dictionary).

life is very hard for them, poor dear Immortels, and i think they must be under an exceptional amount of stress. quel fromage.

plus i imagine it enrages them to no end to know that those pesky québécois colonists have a much more efficient Académie (although i think it's called something different) and have given the francophone world such pearls as "courriel" (email : from "courrier" mail + "électronique" which i think you can translate on your own), "pourriel" (spam ; from "pourri" rotten +"courriel"), and "chien chaud" (quite literally, "hot dog") (correct me if i'm wrong, yvan).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

I am so sick of the massacre I hear daily of the English language. We are becoming a nation of illiterates. "Da Bomb"? "My Bad"? Perhaps its my age, perhaps its the heat, but someone has to speak out. Stop the dumbing down of America! (stepping off soapbox now)

Please let me clarify that I have nothing against the use of slang (as long as it's not vulgar) in "informal" settings such as this. I just hadn't come across that particular expression before and was interested to know what it meant.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

oh, but the Académie is not there to combat our very own slang (we have a very long and rich tradition of it which is one of our national prides), but the attempts of you heathen yanks to soil our beautiful language with such impurities as "weekend", "email", "hot dog", "spam" etc. (if you speak french, you will immediately realize that this is in fact hilariously tongue in cheek, since they *did* try --unsuccessfully-- to prevent the adoption of all of those english words, which are now commonly used and may even be in the dictionary).

life is very hard for them, poor dear Immortels, and i think they must be under an exceptional amount of stress. quel fromage.

plus i imagine it enrages them to no end to know that those pesky québécois colonists have a much more efficient Académie (although i think it's called something different) and have given the francophone world such pearls as "courriel" (email : from "courrier" mail + "électronique" which i think you can translate on your own), "pourriel" (spam ; from "pourri" rotten +"courriel"), and "chien chaud" (quite literally, "hot dog") (correct me if i'm wrong, yvan).

I don't know why they bother. It's a given that us heathen yanks will eventually soil every language on the face of the earth. I mean ... really ... look what we did to English!!

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Please let me clarify that I have nothing against the use of slang (as long as it's not vulgar) in "informal" settings such as this. I just hadn't come across that particular expression before and was interested to know what it meant.

But thats my point. I find the use of terms such as "da bomb' and "my bad" and "Dis" and "Fitty" (for 50) and so much more extremely vulgar. Could it be just pure laziness on the part of the speaker? Or can some words just not be properly spoken by some people? Yes, I remember the slang we used in the 60's. Cool. Bitchin'. I guarantee you I didn't use THAT word around my parents.....Oh my God I just realized........that was 40 years ago! Guess I"ll go crawl back into my cave. But before I go, let me just say, perhaps I reacted so strongly to this phrase at this time, because of the book I am currently reading.
"Chrome Yellow" by Aldous Huxley. This man literally takes my breath away with his phrasing of words. I am so thankful for the 'look-up' feature on the Kindle. Although I have always prided myself on my knowledge of words, I find myself using it at least every three pages. Again, stepping off the box.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Oh my God I just realized........that was 40 years ago! Guess I"ll go crawl back into my cave. But before I go, let me just say, perhaps I reacted so strongly to this phrase at this time, because of the book I am currently reading.

The word "curmudgeon" comes to mind.

L8r, dude!

BOb

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

The word "curmudgeon" comes to mind.

L8r, dude!

BOb

heh...

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

But thats my point. I find the use of terms such as "da bomb' and "my bad" and "Dis" and "Fitty" (for 50) and so much more extremely vulgar. Could it be just pure laziness on the part of the speaker? Or can some words just not be properly spoken by some people? Yes, I remember the slang we used in the 60's. Cool. Bitchin'. I guarantee you I didn't use THAT word around my parents.....Oh my God I just realized........that was 40 years ago! Guess I"ll go crawl back into my cave. But before I go, let me just say, perhaps I reacted so strongly to this phrase at this time, because of the book I am currently reading.
"Chrome Yellow" by Aldous Huxley. This man literally takes my breath away with his phrasing of words. I am so thankful for the 'look-up' feature on the Kindle. Although I have always prided myself on my knowledge of words, I find myself using it at least every three pages. Again, stepping off the box.

I little of both, I suppose. I could never completely understand why some people pronounced "ask" as "axe" .... I really thought there had to be something wrong with them.

Then I moved to Central Texas, where people pronounce words with no thought as to the letters, or the order in which those letters occur, in those words.

I'll give you a couple of examples. There is a river near my house. It is the Pedernales River. Ped-er-nal-es. So, naturally, that is pronounced (are you ready?) Perdinalis. Yup .... ped=per der=din and ales=alis. The name Buchanan? Pronounced BUCKanin. Fifty ... fitty. I've given up trying to decide if it's nature or nurture. Some people will sadly never speak English well, even though they were born and raised here (I mean really .... look who we have as a President ... the man can barely speak English at all). Others will (I hope) grow out of the need to speak English badly and learn to love the language.

[zelda_pinwheel]

and some will argue that a deft use of slang can actually elevate the language to hitherto unknown heights... there is a difference between slang and ignorance. i am a fervent proponent of slang, which i think often expresses a truly brilliant creativity. in fact i'm pretty sure shakespeare used quite a bit of it.

on the other hand, people who say "détonner" when they mean "dénoter" (both words exist, but they don't mean even close to the same thing), or "travesty" when they mean "tragedy" (again, not the same thing.) drive me CRAZY.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

and some will argue that a deft use of slang can actually elevate the language to hitherto unknown heights... there is a difference between slang and ignorance. i am a fervent proponent of slang, which i think often expresses a truly brilliant creativity. in fact i'm pretty sure shakespeare used quite a bit of it.

on the other hand, people who say "détonner" when they mean "dénoter" (both words exist, but they don't mean even close to the same thing), or "travesty" when they mean "tragedy" (again, not the same thing.) drive me CRAZY.

I have one friend (who seldom reads anything but his Bible, and that only in pformat ... so he'll never know I'm ratting him out), who absolutely cannot get the difference between "incredible" and "incredulous." The thing is ... the man is smart .... one of the top attorneys in his field. But ... those two words are completely beyond his ken.

Someday he's going to get tired of me whacking him on the head every time he says "Well, would you look at that!! It's just incredulous!!" I hit him and then say "No, I'm pretty certain whatever it is ... it believes in you. The question is whether or not you believe in it."

[binzer]

Just to clarify, I don't ACTUALLY say "da bomb" in real life. If I did say it I would say "the bomb" instead of "da bomb" but generally I just use that stuff online because it amuses me :P I actually can't stand it when people say stuff like "dawg" and "da bomb" in real life.

Anyways, BoB just emailed me again.

Here it is:

Hi Lyndsey,

We wanted to let you know that we received your Cybook today and that it is now on its way to Bookeen Paris. The screen did appear to be broken. Thank you very much for your post on the Mobileread forum, one of our staff just forwarded everyone in the office a link to it. Caesar already suffered from giant head syndrome, and now someone has used the term "support god" in the thread; he has already placed a sign outside his cube reflecting his promotion :-P . We are expecting a shipment of Cybook this week. If you will purchase a Screen Replacement, available on our site Browse Categories>Devices&Other>Screen Replacement (Please select the $1.00 postage option to allow checkout process to complete), we can ship you a brand new unit when they arrive so you do not have to wait for repair and return shipment of your broken unit. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance. If you would like to purchase the Accidental Damage Plan for your replacement unit we can do that for you. Thank you for shopping with BooksOnBoard.

Regards,

Thomas A.
BooksOnBoard Support


I don't want Ceasar's head to explode, so let me just add that I have previously had excellent customer service from Kelly, and anyone else I have dealt with :P

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by binzer

Just to clarify, I don't ACTUALLY say "da bomb" in real life. If I did say it I would say "the bomb" instead of "da bomb" but generally I just use that stuff online because it amuses me :P I actually can't stand it when people say stuff like "dawg" and "da bomb" in real life.

Anyways, BoB just emailed me again.

Here it is:

Hi Lyndsey,

We wanted to let you know that we received your Cybook today and that it is now on its way to Bookeen Paris. The screen did appear to be broken. Thank you very much for your post on the Mobileread forum, one of our staff just forwarded everyone in the office a link to it. Caesar already suffered from giant head syndrome, and now someone has used the term "support god" in the thread; he has already placed a sign outside his cube reflecting his promotion :-P . We are expecting a shipment of Cybook this week. If you will purchase a Screen Replacement, available on our site Browse Categories>Devices&Other>Screen Replacement (Please select the $1.00 postage option to allow checkout process to complete), we can ship you a brand new unit when they arrive so you do not have to wait for repair and return shipment of your broken unit. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance. If you would like to purchase the Accidental Damage Plan for your replacement unit we can do that for you. Thank you for shopping with BooksOnBoard.

Regards,

Thomas A.
BooksOnBoard Support


I don't want Ceasar's head to explode, so let me just add that I have previously had excellent customer service from Kelly, and anyone else I have dealt with :P

Hey, I think it would be highly entertaining to watch a support god's head explode!! I mean .... as long as it wasn't fatal or anything!!

Hear hear and a hearty cheer to the support gods of BoB!!!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Hey, I think it would be highly entertaining to watch a support god's head explode!! I mean .... as long as it wasn't fatal or anything!!

Hear hear and a hearty cheer to the support gods of BoB!!!

That reminds me of the line in the Men In Black movie where he shoots the guys head off, and after it regrows he says:

"You don't know how much that stings!"

BOb

[zelda_pinwheel]

what ??? BoB's support staff are all aliens with exploding heads ???? does the government know about this ??????