A problem, especially one encountered in large organizations, that is smaller in scale than can easily be fixed with the large-scale tools on hand, leading to great life-is-too-short frustration with one's inability to immediately solve it. For example: you need $7 more than you thought to pay for the lunch just delivered for your office meeting, which can be paid for only in cash, but to obtain petty cash you must fill out three different forms and get two managerial approvals. Or, you need to swat a fly, but all you have is a sledgehammer.
Mark: Unbelievable, I just want to put this birthday card in the outgoing office mail, but I asked Ted if it was OK, and he says I have to fill out an MC-1453 "Request for Personal-Use Policy Exception" form and get two signatures. I thought that was only for, like, taking a company car or using a conference room for some nonbusiness reason.
JoAnn: Small problem problem, dude. I'd just slip it in there and move on, life's too short.
JoAnn: Small problem problem, dude. I'd just slip it in there and move on, life's too short.
by FitofPeak2 August 30, 2023
A pejorative term for trial by a jury, especially in civil cases. It flows from the notion that jurors are so unpredictable and so subject to changes in their thinking during trial and deliberations -- based on emotions, personal experience, misunderstanding the evidence, lack of attention to the instructions they are given, or occasionally dozing off or daydreaming -- that there is no rational way of predicting which side they will ultimately favor.
Oliver: So I heard you decided to waive the jury and try that copyright case to the judge.
Felix: Yeah, that case has so many documents and celebrities and whatnot it would be like OJ Simpson suing Donald Trump for securities fraud – who needs to play peer pong with something like that? I think the judge will get it.
Oliver: Word. Gotta give the Brits credit, over there you get a jury only in a libel case.
Felix: Yeah, that case has so many documents and celebrities and whatnot it would be like OJ Simpson suing Donald Trump for securities fraud – who needs to play peer pong with something like that? I think the judge will get it.
Oliver: Word. Gotta give the Brits credit, over there you get a jury only in a libel case.
by FitofPeak2 July 03, 2025
To persevere relentlessly and never quit. From Winston Churchill's famous speech at Harrow School in the darkest days of World War II, in which he said: "Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in."
Hon, I know you've missed qualifying for the Boston Marathon four times, but you're only four minutes away. Time to do a Churchill, sign up for Los Angeles next winter, and get your ten miles in today.
by FitofPeak2 February 26, 2022
An omakase (Japanese for “I'll leave it up to you”) or other tasting menu where the food served is chosen by the chef rather than by the diner. The term is a word play on the mathematical concept of the “random walk,” a mathematical concept used in science, economics and elsewhere, and the use of woks in restaurant kitchens (which is not limited to Chinese restaurants).
We tried the random wok menu at Miyamoto's the other night and it was awesome -- we loved every single dish the chef sent out.
by FitofPeak2 November 29, 2024
A generic term for a rock & roll tribute band that uses a semi-clever name to evoke the famous artist or band it covers, as, for example, the term itself evokes Led Zeppelin (covers, tarpaulin, get it?) See, e.g., By Jovi, Petty Cash, Proxy Music.
Saturday night we went to The Cave and saw that Led Tarpaulin outfit "Springsboomer" -- man, those guys can really play Bruce's stuff from the 70s and 80s!
by FitofPeak2 December 10, 2024
A Japanese omakase (tasting) menu that is so expensive that the diner runs out of money paying for it -- "no more cash!"
Hurt me, I took the client out to his favorite Japanese place in Manhattan and he insisted on the $600 per person tasting menu -- a classic nomokashe event.
by FitofPeak2 November 29, 2024
A tongue-in-cheek name for rust removal duty (ferrous oxide being the precursor to rust on steel objects), especially on Navy ships, playing on the vivid contrast between the tedious and highly unpleasant nature of the duty, involving the use of wire brushes and toxic chemicals often under a blazing sun, compared to the delightful, carefree leisure tableau depicted by the three teen protagonists of the 1986 Matthew Broderick film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
Chief Petty Officer: It's your lucky day, sailor -- two weeks of Ferrous Oxide's Day Off starting at eight bells.
Sailor: Aye-aye, Chief.
Chief Petty Officer: And don't ask my daughter out again.
Sailor: Aye-aye, Chief.
Chief Petty Officer: And don't ask my daughter out again.
by FitofPeak2 September 28, 2023