Not to change the subject, but...

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Berkeley Brett - 30 May 2010 09:02 GMT

I find it amusing when people say, "Not to change the subject, but..."
and then proceed to change the subject. It's one of those self-
falsifying statements, like, "Needless to say..." (then why are you
saying it), or "I don't care what anybody thinks of me..." (then why
are you telling us this), or "This statement is false."

At its worst, "Not to change the subject, but..." can be equivalent
to, "Please forgive me, but I'm about to be rude..."

(Which prompts another thought: in these days of voicemail, isn't it a
bit rude to interrupt an in-person conversation to answer the
telephone? I mean, that made sense at one time (when you might have
missed an important call), but perhaps it doesn't any more.)

Ah, we can be a silly species at times....

--
Brett (in Berkeley, California, USA)
http://www.electoralmaps.org/
Timeline of U.S. Presidential Elections

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Derek Turner - 31 May 2010 09:55 GMT

> I find it amusing when people say, "Not to change the subject, but..."
> and then proceed to change the subject.

FWIW I have never heard anybody use that phrase in my 56 years. (BrE)
Maybe it needs to be added to my stock of 'appalling Americanisms'?

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Dr Peter Young - 31 May 2010 10:07 GMT

>> I find it amusing when people say, "Not to change the subject, but..."
>> and then proceed to change the subject.

> FWIW I have never heard anybody use that phrase in my 56 years. (BrE)
> Maybe it needs to be added to my stock of 'appalling Americanisms'?

The statement seems familiar to me (over nearly 71 years!).

With best wishes,

Peter.

Signature

Peter Young, (BrE, RP), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004.
(US equivalent: Certified Anesthesiologist)
Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired.
http://pnyoung.orpheusweb.co.uk

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tony cooper - 31 May 2010 14:05 GMT

>> I find it amusing when people say, "Not to change the subject, but..."
>> and then proceed to change the subject.
>
>FWIW I have never heard anybody use that phrase in my 56 years. (BrE)
>Maybe it needs to be added to my stock of 'appalling Americanisms'?

I've always understood the meaning of "Not to change the subject" to
be "I'm going to talk about something else, but not because the
present subject is unpleasant". It implies that the present subject
is OK to talk about, but I'm going to talk about something else".

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Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

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John O'Flaherty - 31 May 2010 16:34 GMT

>I find it amusing when people say, "Not to change the subject, but..."
>and then proceed to change the subject. It's one of those self-
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
>Ah, we can be a silly species at times....

Can I ask you a question?

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John

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mm - 31 May 2010 19:06 GMT

>I find it amusing when people say, "Not to change the subject, but..."

Maybe they are trying to express the hope that after a bit, people can
come back to the current topic. I never use that phrase, and I do
change the subject sometimes, but I'm great at remembering what we
were talking about and starting that off again when my topic plays
out.

>and then proceed to change the subject. It's one of those self-
>falsifying statements, like, "Needless to say..." (then why are you
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>telephone? I mean, that made sense at one time (when you might have
>missed an important call), but perhaps it doesn't any more.)

I think its still a problem. I'm willing to assume that everyone has
an answering machine or service, or if not, you're excludign those
people. Still, office personel can call and when you call back 2
minutes later, you get their voice mail and you're back to the end of
their queue again, a queue that can take them days to get to you
again.

Some people call from home or office phones, then leave and don't
carry cell phones, or don't answer when they're driving. Or even more
likely, you only have the landline number because that's the number
they called you from, and you don't know their cell number, or its a
call that should be made to their work or home number.

And I seem to have the habit of making my non-work calls when I finish
all my work, which also seems to be just before I leave, from both
work and home. This gives people no time to call me back. I'm in
the process of breaking that habit, but it's hard.

Some people also don't have caller-id and some of their callers don't
leave their numbers, preferring to call back, so if the person called
doesn't answer, he can't call back.

People should say "excuse me", take the call, ask if they can call
back in, say, 10 minutes (What should the punctuation be around
"say"?) and if they are told no, say "excuse me,...." again to the
person there, and do a nuts and bolts talk without chitchat.

>Ah, we can be a silly species at times....

Signature

Posters should say where they live, and for which area
they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in
Western Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis 7 years
Chicago 6 years
Brooklyn, NY 12 years
Baltimore 26 years

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2010

Not to change the subject, but...