References and aphorisms that are lost on the audience...

[Hot Pepsi]

I recently used the term "Mendoza Line" for "the lowest acceptable threshold" for something at work and then realized nobody in the meeting watched SportsCenter in the 80s. Or at all. Or, in one case, was alive in the 80s or 90s.

I've also used the term "Moneyball" as a verb to mean "replace the output of one departing staff-member with contributions from multiple people."

[San Bernardhinault]

I was mocked relentlessly a few months ago for using the term "curate's egg". And it still gets raised from time to time. It appears to be a phrase that does not exist in the US lexicon.

[ursus arctos]

Virtually no one remembers that Brooklyn had trolleys, let alone that that was what the baseball team were dodging

[ursus arctos]

I was mocked relentlessly a few months ago for using the term "curate's egg". And it still gets raised from time to time. It appears to be a phrase that does not exist in the US lexicon.

Only among Anglophiles and readers of 20th century British books

[Amor de Cosmos]

Virtually no one remembers that Brooklyn had trolleys, let alone that that was what the baseball team were dodging

Really? I assumed they were dodging bean balls

[Amor de Cosmos]

I learned long ago that Briticisms frequently have you marked down as a snob here.

[WOM]

I uploaded an image to a Teams chat and added "Click to embiggen" beside it. Separated the generations, that did.

[ursus arctos]

[Hot Pepsi]

I uploaded an image to a Teams chat and added "Click to embiggen" beside it. Separated the generations, that did.

I use cromulent a lot.

[Hot Pepsi]

I was mocked relentlessly a few months ago for using the term "curate's egg". And it still gets raised from time to time. It appears to be a phrase that does not exist in the US lexicon.

I don't know what that means. I mean, I looked it up, but I was not familiar. I don't think I know what a curate is.

[ursus arctos]

This is the first issue with its use in this country

[Amor de Cosmos]

I don't think I know what a curate is.

A stand-in for a vicar. Basically.

[ursus arctos]

Which we generally don't have either, even among High Church Epsiscopalians.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Virtually no one remembers that Brooklyn had trolleys, let alone that that was what the baseball team were dodging

The fares?

[sw2borshch]

I was mocked relentlessly a few months ago for using the term "curate's egg". And it still gets raised from time to time. It appears to be a phrase that does not exist in the US lexicon.

I first encountered it on my Physics report card and had to have it explained, as did our mam and dad.

[Guy Profumo]

A stand-in for a vicar. Basically.

Doesn't the word "vicar" also mean "stand in"?

[Snake Plissken]

I use “bailiwick” a fair bit. Usually to confuse people who are annoying me by pestering me to do something that is nothing to do with me.

I learned the word from a Tom Clancy book.

[Benjm]

A curate is an assistant/junior priest rather than a stand-in in the locum sense. In popular culture they were commonly depicted as figures of fun; nervous, gauche, not quite up to the job yet.

I don't know whether the supply of clergy is plentiful enough for the role to widely exist any more.

[Benjm]

I use “bailiwick” a fair bit. Usually to confuse people who are annoying me by pestering me to do something that is nothing to do with me.

I learned the word from a Tom Clancy book.

The Channel Islands are bailiwicks. Are you sure that you didn't come across the term while, ahem, managing your investments?

[kokamoa]

I wrote a work email to my manager a week or so back complaining about something which had been given to me to do at very late notice. She was very sympathetic, understanding and apologetic about my complaint. Admitted that she was in the wrong etc, but also that she had to use Google to look up what I meant by the word “galling”. I think she’s a year or two older than me as well.

[sw2borshch]

Doesn't the word "vicar" also mean "stand in"?

Because they're standing in for God? Best He could get at short notice?

[sw2borshch]

I wrote a work email to my manager a week or so back complaining about something which had been given to me to do at very late notice. She was very sympathetic, understanding and apologetic about my complaint. Admitted that she was in the wrong etc, but also that she had to use Google to look up what I meant by the word “galling”. I think she’s a year or two older than me as well.

I had to explain asterisk to someone who I thought would have known the other day.

[Guy Profumo]

Because they're standing in for God? Best He could get at short notice?

Wikipedia seems to agree?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicar

[jwdd27]

We have a new colleague who rides a rather loud motorbike, which he very audibly parks down the side of the office. As he arrived the other day I referred to him as "Evel Knievel".
Blank looks all round from the room full of those born in the 1980s and 1990s, and I think they thought I don't like him and was calling him evil.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

We have a new colleague who rides a rather loud motorbike, which he very audibly parks down the side of the office. As he arrived the other day I referred to him as "Evel Knievel".
Blank looks all round from the room full of those born in the 1980s and 1990s, and I think they thought I don't like him and was calling him evil.

I suppose "Barry Sheene", the other long standing reference for anyone on a motorbike, would have been equally baffling.

The continued high profile of F1 means that there is of course always a new go-to reference for fast drivers, though "Stirling Moss" stuck around for a long time in popular usage as well as sitcom dialogue (whenever a polis apprehended a speeding driver).