There have not been many other searches of interest lately, which is why I haven't posted any of them to this blog. One of my more recent searches involved the search terms "difference java script" as I looked for a clear explanation of the difference between the Java and JavaScript* web programming languages. That search yielded 722,000,000 results, but the very first one gave me my answer. I do take exception with Joe Burns' characterization of Object Oriented Programming (OOP) as "a relatively new concept." Unless this article was written in 1993, and I don't think it was, OOP has been around for quite a while.
* Keep in mind that Google automatically filters out words repeated in a search, so there was no need to repeat the word Java in the search term.
Another recent search was inspired by today's comic for Zits (pictured below):
I had never heard of travertine before, so I searched for just that one word. The good news is that the word is specific enough to return quality results right away, despite the search returning 2,420,000 hits. Bypassing the two sponsored ads at the top (highlighted by Google in a faint pink) and the Wikipedia page on travertine (seems like Wikipedia is always right near the top of most Google searches, doesn't it?), the second hit was this one. Everything you ever wanted to know about travertine, all in one website.However, I have been wondering something recently, based on personal experience. I want to know if there is a term or even a euphemism for people who always have to get the last word in a telephone conversation. Perhaps you know some people who fit that bill. My mother actually made me notice this first, and I don't mean anything negative by the observation. This isn't anything I'd noticed until recently, so it doesn't bother me terribly much. I just suddenly realized that, no matter what we were saying at the end of our phone conversations (all the niceties, like "good talking with you," "I love you," "talk with you again soon," or "bye"), my mother always had to say the last word. Which is fine, really. And then I noticed other people doing it, too. It's not gender-specific, but I seem to notice women doing it more frequently than men. It's really just a way to be polite.
So, here's what I want to know: has someone concocted a term for those people who always have to get the last word in a conversation, and if so, what is that term? How would I search for it?
I tried the search phrase "term person last word conversation," which yielded a very large number of hits: 222,000,000. Even worse, the results on the first page jumped all around the lexicon of English words, from fatal last words to long-term care options for seniors to long-term adaptation for people with aphasia. Clearly, that search was not going to work.
I modified the search term by just one word, but one that is much more specific: "lexicon person last word conversation." That search yielded a much more manageable 113,000 hits. The first hit on that list seemed to have some promise, since the clipping promised a discussion on "...who just HAS to have the last word in any conversation about music." Sadly, these comments were directed just at music snobs, so no real help there.
One drawback of the Google search engine is that they often substitute a word that is very similar in the search results for one of the search terms. I kept getting results that included the word 'conversion' rather than 'conversation.' That was not helpful at all.
It could be that the word 'lexicon' was too restrictive for everyday use. Many of those 113,000 hits mentioned above included very specific language-to-language conversions, even when it returned a result with the word conversation, not conversion. I modified the search term again to use "person has to have the last word telephone conversation," which returned 6,360,000 hits. Hey, when in doubt, throw the kitchen sink at it, right? One of the hits seemed to have some promise, and I include that link here because it is interesting in its own right. That blog post breaks down the pros and cons of using either the telephone or e-mail to interview a subject. Needless to say, that's not what I'm searching for.
This result was also interesting, but it focused on the beginning of a telephone conversation, not the ending. This hit did mention the ending of a phone conversation, but because it was focused on a telephone interview for a job, it recommends the interviewee "let the employer have the last word." Again, not what I'm searching for. There was this admonishment posted on none other than the Lance Armstrong Foundation website, in which Busymom.net recommends allowing the other person on the phone to respond after saying your closing. Getting warmer...
Once more, I changed the search term to be "person compelled last word telephone conversation," which yielded a mere 56,400 hits. One of those described the activity of always having the last word in a conversation under the category of "know it all." That matches some of the results found above, but it's still not what I'm searching for. The people I've noticed who have to have the last word on the telephone are not doing it to prove how much they know, they're just being nice. I tried putting the word 'nice' into the same search term above, but had no better results. The total hits returned actually went up, in fact, to 57,000.
This link seemed to be similar to what I was searching for in the first place, but not exactly. The same author also posted about ways to cut off phone or e-mail conversations when no reply is needed. These still aren't the results I wanted, but they were fairly close. Perhaps we just don't have a word in the English language that describes a person who has to have the last word in a polite conversation.
In a last-ditch attempt to find an answer, I went to Ask.com, which formerly was known as Ask Jeeves (as in the name of an English butler, who was the site mascot). I remember Ask as being able to parse an actual plain language question into a credible search, so I thought I would give it a try. When I typed in my query as, "is there a word for a person who has to say the last word in a telephone conversation?", this site was one of the first non-sponsored* results. This post got to the heart of the matter, and I know there are etiquette issues at the heart of my original question. From an English perspective, Jonathan addressed how people are used to a somewhat lengthy process for saying goodbye and ending a telephone conversation. His Chinese friend, on the other hand, was not. That was pretty interesting.
* Ask, by the way, offers up more sponsored links (five), which were inserted into the list of search results without any offset and a barely there light blue background that is hard to notice, and ads that simply don't apply to the search. Did I need ads for the Global Executive Database, computer training in how to use MS Word, or how to download MS Office (including Word) for $11.95? No, I did not. Ask also puts ads at the bottom of each page, so you have to be careful when looking at the search results. All of these things are very big reasons why most people prefer Google over other search engines.
So, the end result was that I never found the real answer for my search. Sometimes, that happens. A person can still learn a great deal by searching for information. For example, in my searches, I also stumbled across the fact that today, 10 March, marks the 133rd anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell's famous phone request for "Mr. Watson, come here -- I want to see you." Bell had to have the last word! So, this is topical for today's date in history. Who knew?
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