What is the most pretentious thing you've seen someone do?

[kinzarose]

Inspired by another thread. When I was at university there was an older lady who thought she was vair posh, was very keen to have her designer labels on display and loved name dropping brands into conversation. We had a group tutorial over lunch once, so we all ate together. This woman took a two foot (yes, literally) wooden salt and pepper mill out of her bag, stood up and started grinding pepper onto the shop bought sandwich she had with her. It was just the most pretentious thing ever, she was a "food snob" apparently 🤣

We invited some of the neighbours over for dinner. When we'd finished eating I started stacking plates and some of the guests helpfully passed their plates to me. One piped up disdainfully "oh - stacking at table are we?" I should have said that I'd given the servants a night off, but I thought of that too late.

@Spanielsarepainless

I was behind a yummy mummy in Lidl who was on the 'phone to her friend. She told the friend she would see her later, but was in Waitrose at the moment.

I was going to post the same thing - I was in Aldi and I heard a business-man type guy on the phone say, "I'm on my way but I've just nipped in to Waitrose."

@SirChenjins

No - it was spelled Shiobhan but pronounced SHOW-bin (the emphasis was to be on the first syllable)

Yes, it probably did come from her parents - but what a ridiculous thing to do. It's like calling your son Matthew. but insisting he's called Matt-HUGH

You misunderstand. What i mean is, the correct spelling of the Irish name ordinarily pronounced roughly like "Shivaun" is Siobhán, not Shiobhan.

@Timeforwinterclothes

I worked with a woman who always appeared superior. She talked about her property and her land. One day she told me that she had tree surgeons tidying up the trees on her land. She lived near a very posh village so I took this at face value. She was off sick and my boss decided to drop in her pay slip. She lived in one of the roughest roads in a two bed terraced social housing property which was in a poor state of repair. He was shocked. Sad though that she had to pretend.

This is really sad, how awful that she feels the need to lie like that.

@scarpa

A very desireable area in the North West is Worsley which in the 1970's reorganisation was 'moved' into Salford, not sure some people are over it even yet, Salford definitely isn't on their addresses if they can avoid it. At the same time other areas started to class themselves as Worsley when they were certainly not, it makes for some laughs.

@JudgeJ

I've got a friend who insists she lives in Worsley when she's got a Wigan postcode, always tickles me

It was like when Ilkley got included in Bradford for lockdown and Covid measurement purposes Absolute outrage!

Years ago Battersea was very trendy and up and coming and Clapham, right next door really wasn't. (1970s)

A relative of mine lived in Clapham. He always said he lived near Battersea, rather than say he live in Clapham!

[quote Somethingsnappy]@BoreiPuriHagafen..... A PhD, you say...? [/quote]
No. She said “an actual PhD”. Wouldn’t want a stealth boast to go unnoticed.

@SirChenjins

My ex MIL used to say " have you had sufficient

That’s derived from elegant sufficiency

Oh God, I had a boyfriend who used to say 'thank you I have had sufficient' when he was full and did not want seconds. It made me want to punch him.

@SirGawain No. She said “an actual PhD”. Wouldn’t want a stealth boast to go unnoticed.

It wasn't a stealth boast in the slightest. I wasn't trying to conceal anything.

As I already said - I was replying to a poster with serious pretensions who said that TV was inherently anti-intellectual and brainless, so I was pointing out that there is no conflict between genuine ('actual') educational qualifications and thinking that some TV programmes are worth watching.

The PhD thing was relevant and not in any way 'stealth'.

Never mind.

I get what you meant, @BoreiPuriHagafen.

FWIW, I’m doing a PhD right now and every single PhD student I know (myself included) is absolutely obsessed with Love Island, Bake Off and various other reality TV trash. Make of that what you will.

These are brilliant!

I have had all the parenting ones but one that sticks out to me was at work once, didn't particularly liked my job so at lunchtime I used to take my book and hide away in a corner somewhere.

This colleague happens to walk past and asked what I am reading, so this was like a top50 fiction book so I said something non committal and his answer was - oh you read things like that do you? I wouldn't what a dick, I am sure he was alluding to "women's books" or something

It’s not a stealth boast if you’re stating it directly. It also makes sense to state it within the context.

And slightly off topic, I’m of the opinion that if one has given years of blood, sweat and tears to gain a doctorate one should be allowed to be very proud of it indeed.

@ddl1

Someone on our street has a CBE, and insists on using it all the time on our whatsapp group

The former chair of our County Council had a CBE and used it in his Twitter username after his initials so if his initials were XYZ the username would be 'xyzcbe'. (He was known for constantly tweeting his opinions, before this became fashionable.)

You could have pointed out that the ability to pronounce ‘sepulchre’ would not be required until Easter.

I have done something really pretentious!

Quite a few years ago (before t'internet) I made a friend who said her father was a very famous author. I asked his name and I had never heard of him. I suspected maybe daughterly pride had exaggerated his fame somewhat.

Then he sadly died and his death was on the front page of our Sunday paper!

A few years after this I bought a copy of his most famous book. I put it down after about 2 pages, absolutely couldn't bear it.

But I kept that book on my bookshelves for about 10 years so that if anyone noticed it I could say, "Oh yerse, xxxxx, his daughter is a friend of mine, dontcha know."

But no one ever did.

Only medical doctors are the real deal. The others have usually not achieved a fistful of top Science grades and sailed through an interview to get into university initially!

I guess not pretension as such, but I know quite a few folks who have gone down the 'I'm so wholesome and not flexing my privilege at all' route wrt bringing dogs in to work and stuff like that. One primary school teacher even tried to fob off her lack of personal provision for her dog as 'an opportunity for inter species understanding'. Err, no. You're just taking your bloody dog into your workplace because you're tight.

At a local 10cc concert on the show ground you could bring a picnic. We did with one in the usual Tupperware type boxes and a rug to sit on . The couple in front of us came with a fold out table and seats, wine and wine glasses ,and proceeded to take a 3 tier cake stand out of a bag to complete the scene ,all the while looking down ,literally ,on us lesser peasants . My husband and I often remember it when we've had subsequent picnics.

[quote Moonshine5]@dayswithaY
"adequate comensurables. I think she meant food"
Howling[/quote]
Even then the word she wanted was ‘comestibles.

@Cam22

Only medical doctors are the real deal. The others have usually not achieved a fistful of top Science grades and sailed through an interview to get into university initially!

Wrong. The term Doctor in medicine is a convention. The medical qualification is a double graduate degree. An academic Doctor is an advanced postgraduate degree usually a PhD.

Wrong?!

Au contraire.

Everyone and his dog “does” a PhD, currently. It’s that dumbing down thing, again.

Many years ago, before qualification inflation, a doctorate was not essential even for a senior academic post. The director or the institution that I worked for only had a Diploma. He preferred to be known as, let’s say, John Smith, not because he was friendly, but to hide the absence of a PhD. After a few years the local university awarded him an honorary Doctorate. Henceforth he was known as Doctor Smith. Strictly speaking he was entitled to do this but the convention is that honorary titles are not normally used in RL.

Everyone and his dog “does” a PhD, currently. It’s that dumbing down thing, again.

Oh do piss off. This is blatantly untrue. How many people do you know who are doing their PhDs at the moment?

I’m currently doing mine after a decade of full-time work and anyone who tries to tell me it’s easy and dumbed-down can go ahead and punch themselves in the face. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, so so much harder than I ever would have expected and far harder than any job I’ve ever had. Nobody else gets to tell me it’s easy!

A woman from work gifted a car by her parents. Made us sit there and watch a very long video of her recording the inside of the car. Showing the cup holders and how the seats go down. Along with outside. Lovely close up shots.