| Author |
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Skitt
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:05 am
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT |
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Tony Cooper wrote:
| Quote: | Evan Kirshenbaum wrote:
Tony Cooper writes:
(Mark Brader) wrote:
Tony Cooper writes:
I did have key to my grandparent's apartment.
You know, most people would specifically say "grandmother" or
"grandfather" there, whichever was the case.
Why?
"Grandparent's" is eminently reasonable to me to describe the place
where both my grandfather and grandmother lived.
But why refer to just one of them if both lived there?
Piling on. Mark was already there.
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Well, you know how it is with fumbles.
--
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:05 am
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT |
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On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 17:53:23 -0700, Evan Kirshenbaum
<kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Tony Cooper <tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> writes:
On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 23:29:31 -0000, msb@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:
Tony Cooper writes:
I did have key to my grandparent's apartment.
You know, most people would specifically say "grandmother" or
"grandfather" there, whichever was the case.
Why?
"Grandparent's" is eminently reasonable to me to describe the place
where both my grandfather and grandmother lived.
But why refer to just one of them if both lived there?
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Piling on. Mark was already there.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL |
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:05 am
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: If I Were the Copy Ed |
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On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 17:39:20 -0700, "Skitt" <skitt99@comcast.net>
wrote:
| Quote: | Tony Cooper wrote:
(Mark Brader) wrote:
Tony Cooper writes:
I did have key to my grandparent's apartment.
You know, most people would specifically say "grandmother" or
"grandfather" there, whichever was the case.
Why?
"Grandparent's" is eminently reasonable to me to describe the place
where both my grandfather and grandmother lived. I would describe my
own home as my "parent's" home when I lived there.
I may be out of step here, but I really don't see why.
It shoud be "parents'" and "grandparents'" for the plural possessive.
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Right. I wasn't paying attention. I misunderstood Mark's
oh-so-subtle OY!.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:05 am
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: If I Were the Copy Ed |
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Tony Cooper writes:
| Quote: | Thanks once again to aue, another Great Pondial Difference has been
brought to the fore. I can't say this is true for all cities and
states in the US, but I don't think you'll find a residential door in
Florida with a mail opening.
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I didn't realize Lake Ontario was the Great Pond.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "You are not the customer,
msb@vex.net you are the product." |
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Charles Riggs
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:10 pm
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: If I Were the Copy Ed |
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On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 01:34:10 GMT, Tony Cooper
<tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:
| Quote: | On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 17:39:20 -0700, "Skitt" <skitt99@comcast.net
wrote:
Tony Cooper wrote:
(Mark Brader) wrote:
Tony Cooper writes:
I did have key to my grandparent's apartment.
You know, most people would specifically say "grandmother" or
"grandfather" there, whichever was the case.
Why?
"Grandparent's" is eminently reasonable to me to describe the place
where both my grandfather and grandmother lived. I would describe my
own home as my "parent's" home when I lived there.
I may be out of step here, but I really don't see why.
It shoud be "parents'" and "grandparents'" for the plural possessive.
Right. I wasn't paying attention. I misunderstood Mark's
oh-so-subtle OY!.
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A Cooperian admission of error. I shall mark this day on my calendar.
--
Charles Riggs |
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Charles Riggs
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:10 pm
Post subject: Re: Latch (was: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: ...) |
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On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:17:34 GMT, Tony Cooper
<tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:
| Quote: | I've heard the expression "Is the door on the latch?" (meaning "Is the
door locked?") but I don't remember if I read it or heard it.
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Since it isn't American English, you probably either read it somewhere
or heard it when you were in the British Isles.
--
Charles Riggs |
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Alan Jones
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 1:04 pm
Post subject: Re: Latch (was: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: ...) |
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"Charles Riggs" <chriggs@éircom.net> wrote in message
news:ok8ml19d7c916c7fl57g09u8mhtf4jdk03@4ax.com...
| Quote: | On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:17:34 GMT, Tony Cooper
tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:
I've heard the expression "Is the door on the latch?" (meaning "Is the
door locked?") but I don't remember if I read it or heard it.
Since it isn't American English, you probably either read it somewhere
or heard it when you were in the British Isles.
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NSOED says that "on the latch" means "fastened by a latch only, not locked".
This is certainly what the expression means to me. A latch can be lifted
from the outside without a key. The Yale-type lock is a lock, not a latch,
though I believe the term "night-latch" was once used for it.
When I were a lad, the back door was fitted with a lock but almost always
left "on the latch", even at night or when there was no one in: neighbours
might want to leave a few eggs or a cauliflower on the kitchen table.
Alan Jones |
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Charles Riggs
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:32 pm
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: If I Were the Copy Ed |
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On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:38:57 GMT, Tony Cooper
<tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:
| Quote: | The very idea that mail delivery people would routinely walk up to a
house's door and stuff mail in the slot reminds me of that cartoon
with the caption "You want it when?" In my case, I have a mailbox (1)
out in front and the mailperson
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That's "mailman" in AmE, if I haven't mentioned it.
| Quote: | drives by in a right-hand drive jeep
and puts most of my mail in the box. (The rest of it goes to my
neighbors)
The Post Office would like to put in a multiple box (2) to reduce the
number of stops by the mail delivery person. Since I live in an
affluent white neighborhood, we don't have to put up with what the
USPS considers to be efficient.
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But do affluence and material things make you happy? that's the
question. Sure, you have your sterling flatware and a big swimming
pool, but what about the more important things?
Instead of being surrounded by auburn-haired lasses with lilting
voices, as you could be, you must contend with blue-haired old ladies
with hard New Jersey accents; instead of hearing traditional Irish
music on the radio and in world-class pubs, you have to settle for
Country and Rock 'n Roll on ad-riddled radio programs, if not
listening to it in one of America's seedy (for the most part) bars;
instead of having a number of BBC channels available to you with the
latest in British comedy in addition to the classics, plus intelligent
news commentary, you are subject to crap -- most of it -- even over
satellite, so ad-filled much of it is unwatchable; yes, you get to
watch the usual Hollywood films uninterrupted but very few foreign
ones, as if the world outside the US didn't exist for many Americans,
but it does for you (why be stuck?); and instead of having Europe and
much of civilization, old and new, at your doorstep, you, being in
Florida not near New York or one of the few other desirable US cities,
are many hours by plane to any city, town, or countryside worth seeing
at all, then having to fly into and out of one or another of America's
highly unpleasant airports, humiliated, while there, by the ruffians
and philistines they employ for peanuts.
| Quote: | Only the black and poor have to
accept what is best for them in this country.
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You white guys there are in much the same boat -- see my paragraph,
above.
....
| Quote: | The mail delivery person...
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No better. The word is "mailman". Next you'll be talking "personhole
cover", and we can't have that.
--
Charles Riggs |
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Armond Perretta
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:56 pm
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: If I Were the Copy Ed |
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Mark Brader wrote:
| Quote: |
Saturdays. I remember when mail was still delivered on Saturdays
sigh>.
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I do too. Yesterday.
--
Good luck and good sailing.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat
http://home.comcast.net/~kerrydeare |
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Maria Conlon
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 11:03 pm
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: If I Were the Copy Ed |
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Armond Perretta wrote:
| Quote: | Mark Brader wrote:
Saturdays. I remember when mail was still delivered on Saturdays
sigh>.
I do too. Yesterday.
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Same here. In fact, there was a time (mid-1950s) when mail was delivered
on the last Sunday before Christmas; there were a lot of Christmas cards
being sent, and there were no Zip Codes (just "zones") and no Optical
Scanners.
When did Canada do away with Saturday delivery?
Maria Conlon, who was living just outside the Detroit city limits in the
mid-1950s. (That is, just across Eight Mile Road.) |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 1:10 am
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: If I Were the Copy Ed |
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Mark Brader wrote:
| Quote: | Saturdays. I remember when mail was still delivered on Saturdays
sigh>.
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Armond Perretta:
| Quote: | I do too. Yesterday.
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Showoff. 
Maria Conlon:
| Quote: | Same here. ... When did Canada do away with Saturday delivery?
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Probably it was part of the general deterioration of mail service
in the early 1970s. Let's see what I can find on the web... okay,
a single sentence repeated identically on many web pages in the
context of trivia lists states that it was February 1, 1969. Given
how error-prone these lists can be, it would be nice to find some
independent or official confirmation -- the Canadian Encyclopedia
and Colombo's Canadian References don't say -- but 1969 does sound
about right.
That repeated sentence uses the name "Canada Post", and I wondered
whether that was in fact already in use by 1969. The encyclopedia
articles don't help there either, altough since Colombo's uses the
term, it must have been in use by 1976, when the book was published.
So I did a web search on "the name Canada Post". I didn't find out
when it was adopted, but I was very amused by the top hits.
The first two hits, not surprisingly, are at www.canadapost.ca itself,
and they have the identical Google synopsis (converted from a PDF
original, hence the bad punctuation). This begins:
The name Canada Post offers. instant recognition and a
high. level of public trust and confi-. dence. ...
The next hit, and another one on the first page, are on what appear
to be sites offering homework essays for schoolchildren to plagiarize
from, and here's *their* Google synopsis:
Customers associate the name Canada Post with these poor
public perception traits and it is a stigma that even
threatens Canada Post Corporation to this ...
I think the second version has it right.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "Don't be silly -- send it to Canada"
msb@vex.net -- British postal worker
My text in this article is in the public domain. |
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Maria Conlon
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 2:49 am
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: If I Were the Copy Ed |
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| Quote: |
Maria Conlon:
... When did Canada do away with Saturday delivery?
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Mark Brader:
| Quote: | Probably it was part of the general deterioration of mail service
in the early 1970s. Let's see what I can find on the web... okay,
a single sentence repeated identically on many web pages in the
context of trivia lists states that it was February 1, 1969. Given
how error-prone these lists can be, it would be nice to find some
independent or official confirmation -- the Canadian Encyclopedia
and Colombo's Canadian References don't say -- but 1969 does sound
about right.
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I remember that day very well, but I don't know whether that was when
Saturday mail deliveries were discontinued in Canada.
(February 1, 1969, was my wedding day.)
Maria Conlon |
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Mike Lyle
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 3:48 am
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: If I Were the Copy Ed |
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Mark Brader wrote:
[...]
| Quote: | That repeated sentence uses the name "Canada Post", [...]
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Just take it as axiomatic that if an organisation adopts a new name
of the format "Country Service", then its service will from that day,
if it hasn't already done so, plummet. It tells you all you need to
know about the minds of the new management.
--
Mike. |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 5:51 am
Post subject: Re: OT: Who's running the NYT [was Re: If I Were the Copy Ed |
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Mark Brader:
| Quote: | That ... sentence uses the name "Canada Post"...
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Mike Lyle:
| Quote: | Just take it as axiomatic that if an organisation adopts a new name
of the format "Country Service", then its service will from that day,
if it hasn't already done so, plummet.
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Fortunately, that name was an anomaly. The new names taken by most
Canadian government agencies at that time had the reverse format:
"Service Canada". The French names are the same way (e.g. Statistics
Canada / Statistique Canada) and I assume this was an influence.
Their standard logo has the red left-hand rectangle and maple leaf
from the then new Canadian flag, with the English name above the
French name in place of the right-hand red rectangle. I like it.
Canada Post, on the other hand, is Postes Canada in French, and
back then they sometimes used the overlapping-bilingual style
"Postes Canada Post". A few of us used to pronounce it "posties-
Canada-post". They don't do that any more.
--
Mark Brader "All this government stuff, in other words,
Toronto is not reading matter, but prefabricated
msb@vex.net parts of quarrels." -- Rudolf Flesch
My text in this article is in the public domain. |
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Sara Lorimer
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:31 am
Post subject: Re: Latch |
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Tony Cooper <tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:
| Quote: | On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 23:27:22 -0000, msb@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:
Tony Cooper:
Americans don't usually use "latch" at all unless they are talking
about fence gates. For some reason, fence gates have latches, but
that's the only instance I can think of where the device that holds a
door closed is routinely called a "latch".
What about the trunk of a car?
Yes, trunk latch would be used. We just don't mention them very
often. Same with door latches on the automobile. Some use "latch" to
describe the device that fastens a cabinet closed.
"Latch", or "latches", isn't unheard, but neither is often heard.
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"Latch" brings something else to mind for some of us (hi, Linz!), but
I'll spare Charles's delicate ears.
--
SML |
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