There was the following sentence in New York Times’ (May 3rd) article titled, “Complaining is hard to avoid, but try to do it with a purpose,” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/your-money/the-satisfaction-and-annoyance-of-complaining.html?_r=0
And I stumbled on the ending phrase “Lose the whiny entitled air.”
“Instead of using a complaint as a conversation opener, he (Will
Bowen, an ordained minister who has written the book “A Complaint Free
World”) suggested, “talk to them about something good or positive.”He is not arguing that you can’t note when something is wrong. He says
you should just do it directly in a neutral manner to the person
responsible, not to everyone around you and not with a voice of
outrage.“Say, ‘The soup is cold, and could you warm it up,’ ” said Mr. Bowen,
“Not, ‘how dare you serve me cold soup!’ ” Lose the whiny entitled
air.
As I wasn't able to understand what “Lose the whiny entitled air" means, and its connection with the preceding line, I first looked for the idiom “lose the air” in both Cambridge and Oxford online dictionaries in vain.
Questions:
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Is “Lose the whiny entitled air,” here an imperative form? Can we order someone to “lose the air”?
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If this is not an imperative form, what is the subject of this phrase?
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How is “Lose the whiny entitled air” connected with the preceding sentence, “Say, ‘the soup is cold, and could you warm it up,’ ”? To me it doesn’t flow smoothly.
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In essence, what does “Lose the whiny entitled air” mean?
Best Answer
Q1: Yes, this is an imperative. Just like "Shut the door!" A "whiny entitled air" is a type of bad attitude, so another way to say this is: "Lose the attitude!"
Q2: The subject of the sentence is, of course, implied "You".
Q3: Will Bowen is advising people to "complain with a purpose". In the sentence "how dare you serve me cold soup!", the speaker's only purpose is to complain and express her displeasure and to imply that this should never have happened to me (The italicized words express entitlement: the speaker feels that she deserves better treatment). Complaining with a purpose in a neutral tone of voice is saying "The soup is cold, and could you warm it up". The purpose is to have the waiter bring her hot soup so that she can enjoy eating it.
Q4: “Lose the whiny entitled air” means that the speaker should complain without whining about how cold the soup is. The speaker should express a desire to have the problem remedied (to have the cold soup heated) rather than a desire to express her outrage (the feeling that she's entitled to (privileged to have) perfect service and that mistakes like this should never happen to her because somehow she's special).