Cheers! (barf) **Warning** I Have Opinions, and this is my blog.

I hate it when American people of the US persuasion sign their emails with ...

"Cheers!"

(Hork, gag smnarf -- Just typing it makes me heave)

I frequent a Blog that is pretty freewheeling, people say what they really think. The blog is about what stupid things people do in the horse world, but people sometimes go OT, and that is what happened here.

Now this all started with one poster quoting an email she got from an ally of an erstwhile horse rescuer whom the board was actively slamming at this time. This slimeball signed his email with "cheers".

Then:

F said...
What is with the cheers thing with him? Does he have an adult beverage in his hands at all times? That might explain the blind loyalty to PEC.

X said...
I usually end my emails with 'Cheers'. It's British slang, means the same as 'Take care' or 'See you later'. I was raised on British comedies, so I use their words often even though I've only visited sunny (Hah!) England once.

In my defense, I shot off the following rant before X's comment posted.

Y said...
The "cheers" thing? (pet peeve alert!) If you are from the US, it is an embarrassing affectation and you should stop immediately. It is like the American tourists who go "on holiday" to the UK for a week and come home saying "jumper" and "biscuit". No one thinks: "Ooh, that is so sophisticated they said "cheers" like they do on them PBS shows." And I assure you any Brit you encounter will probably be too polite to tell you to STFU, but they are certainly thinking it. Okay that rant was more adamant than it should have been (I was right about the pet peeve thing - I could go on but I am sure that is someone else's peeve!)

I never would have posted this on any other blog comments. But this particular one, as I said, folks can be pretty forthcoming with opinion -- And besides, I mean every single word of it, and more. You should have seen the unedited blog post -- oh wait! you will because that is what this entry is all about!! And if I can stop just one person from bugging the shit outta me I'll call that a good day.

So on we go...

J said...
I lived in the UK for many years. Brits can be prissy pommies for sure. Cheers is an old east coast phrase. If you recall a few of us Yanks decided we didn't want to kowtow to a nutters king who felt he could tax us up one side and down the other. Yeah, it's called the English language because we share quite a few words.Duh. Please, save the pommie prissdom for a UK board. mmmkay?

(Screeching to a halt) Wha..? Geeze, where to begin with this? Suffice it to say, that yeah, we Yanks (oh dear) didn't want to kowtow to a "nutter" (ack!) (You are so making my point for me! God, you sound like an ass!) Why on earth are you using the fact we wrested our sovereignty from them as an excuse to cloak yourself in their colloquialisms? The POINT is we wanted to be SEPARATE from them. You know what is really is? It is a class thing. Many Americans have this well-known hardon for all things UK. They think it makes them sound "better" (than you), that it sets them apart and above the hoi polloi, the riff-raff, the "common"... *sniff*. I think it makes them sound like desperate, 41-year old Dungeon Masters wearing capes and waiting for the next RenFair(e). AND haven't you heard: "England and America are two countries separated by a common language." -GB Shaw

I certainly couldn't say that, so...

Y said...
J, I warned you it was a peeve! Yeah, totally irrational and snarky. Apologies, but it still bugs me! I figured I would be leaning on someone else's buttons....SO, again my apologies and I will take my "...and another thing-- they spell with unnecessary vowels!" comments elsewhere. Cheers!!

...so on...

A said...
I lived in the UK for five years, and now in Austria (come from the US). I mangle my vowels all the time and when I write something formal, I have to go check that the spelling is either American or English, but not both in the the same text. Cheers, just after leaving I said it all the time because it was expected of me to talk like a brit if I was in Britain, rather than an Ami. Habits are hard to break :)

I find it interesting that this person did not seem to get my f-ing funny joke. I know things don't always translate well in email/type, but come on. I console myself with thinking perhaps this person is twelve.


K said...
The "cheers" thing bugs the shit out of me, too.

Y said...
Thanks for the commiseration, K ! I find it interesting the folks defending the "cheers" thing both said "...but I lived in England!" I lived for seven years in Germany. So from now on, I will just sign off:

Lederhosen!!

(All meant in good fun, folks! Holster the flame throwers!)

Then lastly...
B said...
Well, I'm going to turn in, my Lhasa is jumping on the keyboard, (edit).... Later....or should I say,"Cheers"....Nope, it's too lame!

I will close by saying, Of course you are allowed to sign off with the "c" word. This is, after all, AMERICA (but--see above!!) And I am allowed to think you are a pale, shivering, fey poser unable to think for yourself, and so have to don the affectations of people who are cool precisely because they are being true to themselves.

I have one friend who signs their emails "Cheerios^TM"!
Awesome.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I enjoy many things British. I am crazy for the Jane Austin-a-thon going on on Masterpiece Theater right now. I love all things by Evelyn Waugh, Roald Dahl, the Buzzcocks, the Beatles, David Mitchell, and on and on. I will actually buy a book simply because it was on the short list for the Man Booker Prize. But I am able to tell where they stop, and I start. Reading about a culture or seeing it on TV does not make it my own.