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Hey, you're welcome on my lawn any time. Some years ago I went on an editing binge on Wikipedia, finding a bunch of templates that "misused" the phrase "due to

Hey, you're welcome on my lawn any time. Some years ago I went on an editing binge on Wikipedia, finding a bunch of templates that "misused" the phrase "due to" and changed them to "because of". As we all know, you must get this right: "The flight delay was due to bad weather." vs. "The flight was delayed because of bad weather." but never: "The flight was delayed due to bad weather." The next day, someone reverted all my changes and asked, "Mike, have you looked at a dictionary lately?" Oops. In that moment I was enlightened: I realized I could care less. I even leave out the Oxford comma as often as I use it. In fact I leave out a lot of commas I used to put in. But there is one case where the Oxford comma is still necessary. If you leave it out of this joke it ruins it: "There are two hard problems in computer science: naming things, cache expiration, and off by one errors."

gumoro 9y ago
> I realized I could care less. I see what you did there. Well done.
- rz2k 9y ago
  Though it could simply mean the realization that one can choose to care less about prescriptive language rules
  - gumoro 9y ago
    Yes I think that's exactly what Stratoscope meant, and it was funny because that expression is a classic language peeve, as it is an illogical deformation (of the phrase "I couldn't care less") that is becoming the norm... but in that situation it made perfect sense. So I was showing appreciation for that nice touch.
    - Stratoscope 9y ago
      Even funnier, when I wrote that I actually did just intend it in the sense of "could care less" and "couldn't care less" meaning the same thing. It was an example of how I had been too fussy about language rules. But now that you've explained it, I see it works the other way too! "Finally I learned to care less about these kinds of language rules." There is something delicious about two seemingly contradictory phrases that mean the same thing, and one phrase that can mean two opposite things.
- e12e 9y ago
  Webster doesn't mention any change in use, simply: "care less : not to care — used positively and negatively with the same meaning <I could care less what happens> <I couldn't care less what happens>" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - taneq 9y ago
    The first doesn't mean the same as the second, though. O.o
    - e12e 9y ago
      (On the off-chance you're not being tounge in cheek): No, "used positively and negatively with the same meaning", as in the two differently phrased idioms mean the same thing: http://www.dictionary.com/e/could-care-less/ http://www.dictionary.com/e/could-care-less/ http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2016/04/05/the_real_reason_people_say_i_could_care_less.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2016/04/05/the_rea... https://xkcd.com/1576/ https://xkcd.com/1576/ (!)
      - e12e 9y ago
        I suppose, these days, for the sake of clarifying that I'm being sarcastic, I should just start saying: "I cloud care less".
        taneq 9y ago
        To be perfectly honest, I'm kind of 50/50 between a genuine vexation with "could care less" being semantically wrong, and a cheerful agreement that usage defines meaning. The world's inconsistent and so occasionally, in response, am I. :P
        Asooka 9y ago
        Just use I'd'nt careless.
      - vorg 9y ago
songshu 9y ago
Cache invalidation. Cache expiration is easy.
- Stratoscope 9y ago
  Thank you! That's what I get for trying to tell a joke at 2AM...
__float 9y ago
Can you explain why the "never" was even "wrong"? That seems totally fine to me, and I don't understand why you would think otherwise.
- Stratoscope 9y ago
  No, I can't explain it. It was just an arbitrary rule I was taught as a kid - and that was quite some time ago! There was never a reason given for it, just one of many rules we were supposed to remember. A lot of other people were taught the same rule, but hopefully they've realized as I finally did that it just doesn't matter. Here are some interesting discussions from both sides of the fence: https://www.google.com/search?q=due+to+because+of https://www.google.com/search?q=due+to+because+of Joseph Emonds argued in the paper "Grammatically Deviant Prestige Constructions" that the underlying reason for some of these arbitrary distinctions was as a social class signifier: if you used "correct" grammar it helped indicate to others that you were a member of a more prestigious class: http://fine.me.uk/emonds http://fine.me.uk/emonds

gumoro 9y ago

> I realized I could care less. I see what you did there. Well done.

rz2k 9y ago
Though it could simply mean the realization that one can choose to care less about prescriptive language rules
- gumoro 9y ago
  Yes I think that's exactly what Stratoscope meant, and it was funny because that expression is a classic language peeve, as it is an illogical deformation (of the phrase "I couldn't care less") that is becoming the norm... but in that situation it made perfect sense. So I was showing appreciation for that nice touch.
  - Stratoscope 9y ago
    Even funnier, when I wrote that I actually did just intend it in the sense of "could care less" and "couldn't care less" meaning the same thing. It was an example of how I had been too fussy about language rules. But now that you've explained it, I see it works the other way too! "Finally I learned to care less about these kinds of language rules." There is something delicious about two seemingly contradictory phrases that mean the same thing, and one phrase that can mean two opposite things.
e12e 9y ago
Webster doesn't mention any change in use, simply: "care less : not to care — used positively and negatively with the same meaning <I could care less what happens> <I couldn't care less what happens>" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- taneq 9y ago
  The first doesn't mean the same as the second, though. O.o
  - e12e 9y ago
    (On the off-chance you're not being tounge in cheek): No, "used positively and negatively with the same meaning", as in the two differently phrased idioms mean the same thing: http://www.dictionary.com/e/could-care-less/ http://www.dictionary.com/e/could-care-less/ http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2016/04/05/the_real_reason_people_say_i_could_care_less.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2016/04/05/the_rea... https://xkcd.com/1576/ https://xkcd.com/1576/ (!)
    - e12e 9y ago
      I suppose, these days, for the sake of clarifying that I'm being sarcastic, I should just start saying: "I cloud care less".
      - taneq 9y ago
        To be perfectly honest, I'm kind of 50/50 between a genuine vexation with "could care less" being semantically wrong, and a cheerful agreement that usage defines meaning. The world's inconsistent and so occasionally, in response, am I. :P
        Asooka 9y ago
        Just use I'd'nt careless.
    - vorg 9y ago

songshu 9y ago

Cache invalidation. Cache expiration is easy.

Stratoscope 9y ago
Thank you! That's what I get for trying to tell a joke at 2AM...

__float 9y ago

Can you explain why the "never" was even "wrong"? That seems totally fine to me, and I don't understand why you would think otherwise.

Stratoscope 9y ago
No, I can't explain it. It was just an arbitrary rule I was taught as a kid - and that was quite some time ago! There was never a reason given for it, just one of many rules we were supposed to remember. A lot of other people were taught the same rule, but hopefully they've realized as I finally did that it just doesn't matter. Here are some interesting discussions from both sides of the fence: https://www.google.com/search?q=due+to+because+of https://www.google.com/search?q=due+to+because+of Joseph Emonds argued in the paper "Grammatically Deviant Prestige Constructions" that the underlying reason for some of these arbitrary distinctions was as a social class signifier: if you used "correct" grammar it helped indicate to others that you were a member of a more prestigious class: http://fine.me.uk/emonds http://fine.me.uk/emonds