Venting thread

[Man in Space]

Descriptivism Prescriptivism (thanks Travis) has infected Threads now too. Don’t dare say “on accident” lest you get drawn and quartered.

[Travis B.]

Descriptivism has infected Threads now too. Don’t dare say “on accident” lest you get drawn and quartered.

Don't you mean prescriptivism?

[Man in Space]

Descriptivism has infected Threads now too. Don’t dare say “on accident” lest you get drawn and quartered.

Don't you mean prescriptivism?

…how embarrassing. Yes.

[keenir]

Descriptivism has infected Threads now too. Don’t dare say “on accident” lest you get drawn and quartered.

Don't you mean prescriptivism?

well now both of them are here.

[Travis B.]

Descriptivism has infected Threads now too. Don’t dare say “on accident” lest you get drawn and quartered.

Don't you mean prescriptivism?

well now both of them are here.

I find it ironic that you can consider insisting on the use of the term descriptivism to describe descriptivism is in a way prescriptivist.

[keenir]

Don't you mean prescriptivism?

well now both of them are here.

I find it ironic that you can consider insisting on the use of the term descriptivism to describe descriptivism is in a way prescriptivist.

I was just referring to how both words are now present. nothing more.

[Man in Space]

Got hit with a slur today by some guy who claimed that English has stopped evolving and is now frozen. This is the first time I can recall having been hit with a slur that refers to a group I belong to.

[Raphael]

Got hit with a slur today by some guy who claimed that English has stopped evolving and is now frozen. This is the first time I can recall having been hit with a slur that refers to a group I belong to.

1) Sorry to hear that.
2) Is that slur a relatively recent coinage? In that case, it would be quite ironic.

[Man in Space]

Sorry to hear that.

Thank you.

Is that slur a relatively recent coinage? In that case, it would be quite ironic.

Yes. It was against my autism (don’t know if the guy knew I had it or not though).

[Linguoboy]

USAmerican healthcare rant incoming!

So I've been on a particular medication for a couple years now. Out of the blue (according to my doctor's office), my insurer demanded a prior authorisation before approving the latest refill. They communicated this to the pharmacy, which in turn emailed my doctor for the necessary documentation. Rather than read these emails, however, my doctor's staff just assumed what was needed was a new prescription and sent that back instead. (This according to the pharmacist explaining why my prescription still wasn't available.)

So I emailed my doctor's office and was told they were working on it and would let me know when they had a decision. A week later, now completely out of medication, I asked them for a progress report and was told the same thing. Then yesterday I received a written denial from the insurer, who said they'd asked for documentation of my kidney function and never received it. Furious, I emailed my doctor's office asking what they were doing to appeal the decision. My doctor wrote back this morning scolding me for "attacking the wrong person" and telling me to take it up with the insurer.

I am so fucking frustrated by all this. The worst part is that this is actually one of the better doctors I've worked with.

[Travis B.]

I'm of the view that we should ban private health insurance, and prosecute every single (at that point former) health insurance person responsible for things like this, and this goes for the entire hierarchy, up to the the executives who instigate such policies. Any "excess mortality" resulting from their decisions ought to be treated as murder and prosecuted accordingly.

[Torco]

I, for one, support the healthbiz pogroms.

[Ares Land]

Sounds horrible.

We have bureaucratic headaches with healthcare, though they're not typically life-threatening.

(My latest healthcare related headaches: convincing health insurance that dead people are actually dead takes an awful lot of paperwork.)

[Linguoboy]

Sounds horrible. We have bureaucratic headaches with healthcare, though they're not typically life-threatening.

This isn't life=-threatening, just terribly inconvenient. I've been using up a lot of mental energy on this that I could really use for other things.

I tried calling the insurance and they were like, "Yeah, your doctor has to call us." And my doctor responded a bit more temperately and said, "We faxed them what they wanted and we'll appeal if we have to." (Why he couldn't have communicated that without first being challenged, I don't understand.) So now it's all stuck in limbo for who knows how much longer.

(My latest healthcare related headaches: convincing health insurance that dead people are actually dead takes an awful lot of paperwork.)

Ah yes, I've had a lot of fun experience with this. My favourite part was trying to get Cook County to stop sending my dead husband jury summons. I called the office and they were like, "You need to send us a death certificate." I was like, "I got the death certificates from you. If that's what you need, just walk down the fucking corridor and get one!"

(Speaking of which, saw a news report today with the headline that Cook County is "temporarily" unable to give out paper copies of vital records, like birth, death, and marriage certificates. I didn't even read it; I was just like, "Of course, why expect local government to fulfill its most basic functions? You're just lucky the water in your pipes won't kill you.")

[Ares Land]

(Speaking of which, saw a news report today with the headline that Cook County is "temporarily" unable to give out paper copies of vital records, like birth, death, and marriage certificates. I didn't even read it; I was just like, "Of course, why expect local government to fulfill its most basic functions? You're just lucky the water in your pipes won't kill you.")

Does that sort of thing happen often? Is it 'temporary' as in 'some important bit of IT crashed and it'll take a couple of hours before it's back again' or as in 'expect weeks without birth certificates?'

I don't think they even report it when that sort of thing happens here.

Ah yes, I've had a lot of fun experience with this. My favourite part was trying to get Cook County to stop sending my dead husband jury summons. I called the office and they were like, "You need to send us a death certificate." I was like, "I got the death certificates from you. If that's what you need, just walk down the fucking corridor and get one!"

I work in IT and I mean, it's not that hard to cobble together some sort of API through which various government offices could check if the person you claim is dead is, indeed, dead. Instead they insist on death certificates and something called a livret de famille , which is of vital importance. Why that is, I don't know because you can come up with a decent forgery of either document in 5 minutes.
(I'm a little unfair here because they will implement exactly such an API eventually.)

[Linguoboy]

(Speaking of which, saw a news report today with the headline that Cook County is "temporarily" unable to give out paper copies of vital records, like birth, death, and marriage certificates. I didn't even read it; I was just like, "Of course, why expect local government to fulfill its most basic functions? You're just lucky the water in your pipes won't kill you.")

Does that sort of thing happen often? Is it 'temporary' as in 'some important bit of IT crashed and it'll take a couple of hours before it's back again' or as in 'expect weeks without birth certificates?'

I don't recall this specific sort of thing happening before, but I'm used to a local government that screws things up pretty regularly.

In this case, they're blaming it on the death of the County Clerk, whose official signature has to be on all of these documents. (She passed away Sunday and it wasn't completely unexpected, as she was undergoing treatment for a serious medical condition.)

Ah yes, I've had a lot of fun experience with this. My favourite part was trying to get Cook County to stop sending my dead husband jury summons. I called the office and they were like, "You need to send us a death certificate." I was like, "I got the death certificates from you. If that's what you need, just walk down the fucking corridor and get one!"

I work in IT and I mean, it's not that hard to cobble together some sort of API through which various government offices could check if the person you claim is dead is, indeed, dead. Instead they insist on death certificates and something called a livret de famille , which is of vital importance. Why that is, I don't know because you can come up with a decent forgery of either document in 5 minutes. (I'm a little unfair here because they will implement exactly such an API eventually.)

And maybe someone has proposed that here as well, but there's too much institutional inertia holding it back (not to mention a profit motive, since every physical copy of an official document costs money; for instance, a single death certificate will cost $15, plus more if you order it by phone or have it expedited).

[doctor shark]

Ah yes, I've had a lot of fun experience with this. My favourite part was trying to get Cook County to stop sending my dead husband jury summons. I called the office and they were like, "You need to send us a death certificate." I was like, "I got the death certificates from you. If that's what you need, just walk down the fucking corridor and get one!"

I work in IT and I mean, it's not that hard to cobble together some sort of API through which various government offices could check if the person you claim is dead is, indeed, dead. Instead they insist on death certificates and something called a livret de famille , which is of vital importance. Why that is, I don't know because you can come up with a decent forgery of either document in 5 minutes. (I'm a little unfair here because they will implement exactly such an API eventually.)

And maybe someone has proposed that here as well, but there's too much institutional inertia holding it back (not to mention a profit motive, since every physical copy of an official document costs money; for instance, a single death certificate will cost $15, plus more if you order it by phone or have it expedited).

This also seems accurate, though inertia is also quite strong in many of these offices. When I had to order an apostilled birth certificate copy to move to the Netherlands, that was quite an... erm, "adventure", shall we say: it had to be ordered by mail, using only postal money orders (because ordering online wouldn't make the birth certificate valid for the apostilling procedure!), and given that I was born in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, dealing with the office was quite an adventure. (And not in a good way.)

[Torco]

targeting chocolate ads to people a day after they register their spouse's passing seems profitable. With this API, I can yield an automated daily report of recent widowers to our advertising agency, so promote me.

[Rounin Ryuuji]

This also seems accurate, though inertia is also quite strong in many of these offices. When I had to order an apostilled birth certificate copy to move to the Netherlands, that was quite an... erm, "adventure", shall we say: it had to be ordered by mail, using only postal money orders (because ordering online wouldn't make the birth certificate valid for the apostilling procedure!), and given that I was born in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, dealing with the office was quite an adventure. (And not in a good way.)

Today I've learnt what apostilling is.

[Ares Land]

targeting chocolate ads to people a day after they register their spouse's passing seems profitable. With this API, I can yield an automated daily report of recent widowers to our advertising agency, so promote me.

Interesting idea, but I think I'll pass, sorry If that's the alternative, I'd rather keep sending the damn certificates.