Tuesday, September 26, 2017

A linguistic irritant XIX

I've never cared much for the expression, "It has come to my attention..."  Typically, a teacher, principal, or work supervisor uses it when some (often petty) infraction of the rules has occurred, and the informant usually wants to remain anonymous.

My favorite example: Years ago, a former co-worker got tired of not being able to find a pen in the office.  One day, during lunch, he went to Walgreens, bought several packets of pens, and doled them out to everyone.  Upon hearing this, the person responsible for office supplies sent out an "It has come to my attention..." memo, reminding everyone that pens were (supposedly) available in the supply cabinet.  The fact that they were never available when the co-worker needed them went unacknowledged.  This co-worker told me he hung on to the memo for several years because the whole situation reminded him of  the comic strip, "Dilbert."