*Sticks head above parapit wearing big hat*
I don't mind the phrase touch base. It came from a legit meaning in baseball (I assume) and has been adapted into wider use. Fair enough. I think that it works in the contexts in which I've seen it, and yes, I've used it myself.

That said, I don't work in an office, so for me it's isolated from management speak, rather than bundled in with the rest of it.

Oh, and because every post this week seems to require some vitriol to stick to the board; new and improved. No. It can be new, in which case there wasn't anything before it to improve upon, or it can be improved which means that it's an updated version of an old product.

*crawls back into trench and replaces hat with helmet*
( kappynitty doubled your entendre on, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 12:18, 4 replies)

I would imagine that...
...in the baseball context, "touching base" with someone only means a very brief and necessarily cursory meeting which allows for nothing more than "you ok?" "yup" exchanges.

When a boss idiot uses the phrase to mean an interminable meeting where they fumble for the right phrases for two and a half words, shouting at you whenever you interrupt them with a suggestion of whatever it sounds like they might be trying to get at, I'd be inclined to think they are talking bollocks.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 14:23, closed)

but....
that's the nature of language, isn't it? It changes, it adapts, it takes on new meanings in new situations. If all phrases had to stick rigidly to their original meanings then we would have to keep making up new ones. The point is that it originated somewhere and it's not a great leap of imagination to see it in it's new meaning.

But again, I've not had twatty bosses use it on me, amid a shower of other bollocks, so for me personally it remains untarred by that brush. Hence, I suspect, my warmer feelings for it.
( kappynitty doubled your entendre on, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 14:45, closed)

That would be 'Parapet'
Which, incidentally, predates baseball by an awful lot of years. It's the top of a wall or trench. If you stuck your head above the parapet you stood the chance of getting shot, hence the implied risk.

Just saying.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 17:49, closed)

can something still be new but not totally original?
New potatoes?
New labour?

If, and it's a big if, i liked BMWs and I bought a new 3 series, could it be said to be both new AND improved, i.e it's not a used car and it's an improvement on the outgoing model?

Don't mean nuffin, Just sayin'
(Moominator missing the good stuff cos' the swear filter is on, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 19:34, closed)