Jon Stewart is not obscure. He is a hugely important and influential satirist in the best sense of the word. He examines important and often overlooked or misrepresented political issues with humour and wit, but always with meticulous research and an even hand (although in the great New York tradition, he is definitely left-leaning). Many world leaders have appeared on his show, and opinion polls cite his show as the source of political education for many Americans.

His take on British politics and monarchy is perhaps not as finely tuned as his skewering of American politics, but he is certainly qualified to comment. His show was broadcast on More4 but is sadly now unavailable on this side of the Pond.

So my life has not been totally futile and meaningless after all! A footnote in history, with my name on it! Thanks, Michael - you've made an old man very happy.

(me, yesterday, this thread.)
I'm relieved that I'm the first person to point out that I have fallen here into a common error, albeit in good company ('Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown'd,', The Tempest III.iii.92, as Fowler - who goes on about this for pages and pages - points out.)

The relative pronoun is the subject of 'need protection', and should therefore be'who.'

Many apologies.

Shocked to hear on Today this morning that the expression 'Indian summer' is of American origin. (We're not in one at the moment, it appears - too early).

I consulted the OED:

First recorded use 1778.

Interesting?

I had learned this quite a few years ago. So many of our words and sayings are of N American origin.

Well, you learn something new every day!

I'd always assumed, in my ignorance, that it referred to the east India, rather than aboriginal americans.

Me too.

Can anyone tell me about the expression' giving a heads up' as I hear it in a daily basis and hate it, hate it, hate it as being another of these pretentious workplace expressions that really doesn't mean much. Any alternatives I can suggest to people?

According to the OED, 'heads up!' as a phrase meaning 'watch out!' is (surprise, surprise!) American in origin - first recorded in 1916. As an adjective (a 'heads up alert') it is first found in 1979. As a noun ('a heads up on a sale') it is recorded in 1981. Roz's hate phrase 'giving a heads up' first appears in 1988, in the Los Angeles Times.

How about 'giving a warning' or 'giving an alert' if you want to avoid the phrase?

Thanks RO. I'm still interested though as to how its seemingly just appeared in the British workplace in the last two years. I never heard it used- or at least so often- before that. May be its a lot to do with the sector I work in- local government- where everyone is watching out these days and giving each other warnings. Previously I worked in housing associations with developers and land agents where the vocab was entirely different- not offensive, just different. There are a few phrases I dont seem to hear any more either.

Anyother workplace hates? Mine used to be more bang for your buck, plus thinking outside the box. Get in the >>>>> box and shut up!

Being in the same sector as Roz, mine's "horizon scanning", which is reflective of the current paranoia in the sector (however, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you). It always reminds me of meerkats.

I've also got a thing about "stakeholders", which conjures images of a Transylvanian mob carrying torches and assorted farm implements.

We must work for the same organisation- I trip over farm implements every day....

I'm surprised 'stakeholder' survives. It was a very fashionable concept from 1993 (when it was popularized by Will Hutton) and 1995 (when it was effectively killed off by Tony Blair) - see here. I'd have thought that by now it would have gone the way of 'back to basics'.

Sorry, I meant from 1995 to 1997.

De-risking, let me out now

Roz will enjoy Cheeky's post here.

[Moved from this topic]
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PEDANT ALERT! - There are no apostophes in coffees and teas!! Honestly, get the basics right.

Maybe I'm not the market you're after but basic grammatical errors like that instantly put me off and it's so simple to get right!

climbs off high horse after realising apostrophes was incorrectly spelled - hangs head in shame...

To amfm you really do need to get a life

Although why did you put apostrophes in teas and coffees but not hot chocolates? I do have a life, btw, it just happens to be a correctly punctuated one.