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Message |
Richard Bollard
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 4:22 am
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 17:43:34 -0000, "Mike Lyle"
<mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
| Quote: |
Repeated Peeve/
What I don't like is the way broadcasters use (not always
correctly -- see "clapboard") Americanisms when there are already
distinct Briticisms. As I always say when I rave about this, there is
no such military garment as a "fatigue" in British English. BrE does
not call pavement cafes or roadside cafes "sidewalk cafes". Etc. I
speculate that it's partly that few British reporters have any
first-hand knowledge of military life, and partly that they want to
sell their reports to non-BritE networks: if the stuff is made on our
time, then it should be in our vocabulary, and they can record
another version on their own time, thank you.
More interestingly, there's some kind of near-racism sometimes
apparent. Foreigners, especially the less pink ones, are not armed:
they're "gun-toting". It carries a slight impression of pantomime.
I won't rave on. </Repeated Peeve
(Oh, and why "gun-battle", FGS? As opposed to bows and arrows?)
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On a related peeve, people are always "gunned down", nobody gets shot
anymore.
--
Richard Bollard
Canberra Australia
To email, I'm at AMT not spAMT.
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Ross Howard
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 5:08 am
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:22:37 +1100, Richard Bollard
<richardb@spamt.edu.au> wrought:
| Quote: | On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 17:43:34 -0000, "Mike Lyle"
mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Repeated Peeve/
What I don't like is the way broadcasters use (not always
correctly -- see "clapboard") Americanisms when there are already
distinct Briticisms. As I always say when I rave about this, there is
no such military garment as a "fatigue" in British English. BrE does
not call pavement cafes or roadside cafes "sidewalk cafes". Etc. I
speculate that it's partly that few British reporters have any
first-hand knowledge of military life, and partly that they want to
sell their reports to non-BritE networks: if the stuff is made on our
time, then it should be in our vocabulary, and they can record
another version on their own time, thank you.
More interestingly, there's some kind of near-racism sometimes
apparent. Foreigners, especially the less pink ones, are not armed:
they're "gun-toting". It carries a slight impression of pantomime.
I won't rave on. </Repeated Peeve
(Oh, and why "gun-battle", FGS? As opposed to bows and arrows?)
On a related peeve, people are always "gunned down", nobody gets shot
anymore.
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And the death of anyone at all aged under 70 is always "tragic".
--
Ross Howard |
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R H Draney
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:25 am
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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Ross Howard filted:
| Quote: |
And the death of anyone at all aged under 70 is always "tragic".
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(Checking almanac)...Nixon was 81...not applicable....
Carry on....r
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Mike Lyle
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:57 am
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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R H Draney wrote:
| Quote: | Ross Howard filted:
And the death of anyone at all aged under 70 is always "tragic".
(Checking almanac)...Nixon was 81...not applicable....
Carry on....r
|
But amid this plethora of...er...things, the most shock-horror word
pollies can find for a mass murder is always "unacceptable".
"Unacceptable"? That's what Wimsey would have used to his wine
merchant of a dodgy bottle of port.
--
Mike. |
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M. J. Powell
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 7:20 am
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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In message <4ppfm1979504srhc5eda4k2olkb8shjl0h@4ax.com>, Ross Howard
<gguiri@yahoo.com> writes
| Quote: | On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:22:37 +1100, Richard Bollard
richardb@spamt.edu.au> wrought:
On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 17:43:34 -0000, "Mike Lyle"
mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Repeated Peeve/
What I don't like is the way broadcasters use (not always
correctly -- see "clapboard") Americanisms when there are already
distinct Briticisms. As I always say when I rave about this, there is
no such military garment as a "fatigue" in British English. BrE does
not call pavement cafes or roadside cafes "sidewalk cafes". Etc. I
speculate that it's partly that few British reporters have any
first-hand knowledge of military life, and partly that they want to
sell their reports to non-BritE networks: if the stuff is made on our
time, then it should be in our vocabulary, and they can record
another version on their own time, thank you.
More interestingly, there's some kind of near-racism sometimes
apparent. Foreigners, especially the less pink ones, are not armed:
they're "gun-toting". It carries a slight impression of pantomime.
I won't rave on. </Repeated Peeve
(Oh, and why "gun-battle", FGS? As opposed to bows and arrows?)
On a related peeve, people are always "gunned down", nobody gets shot
anymore.
And the death of anyone at all aged under 70 is always "tragic".
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And their family was 'devastated'.
Mike
--
M.J.Powell |
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Ross Howard
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:07 pm
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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On Wed, 2 Nov 2005 00:20:10 +0000, "M. J. Powell"
<mike@pickmere.demon.co.uk> wrought:
| Quote: | In message <4ppfm1979504srhc5eda4k2olkb8shjl0h@4ax.com>, Ross Howard
gguiri@yahoo.com> writes
On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:22:37 +1100, Richard Bollard
richardb@spamt.edu.au> wrought:
On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 17:43:34 -0000, "Mike Lyle"
mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Repeated Peeve/
What I don't like is the way broadcasters use (not always
correctly -- see "clapboard") Americanisms when there are already
distinct Briticisms. As I always say when I rave about this, there is
no such military garment as a "fatigue" in British English. BrE does
not call pavement cafes or roadside cafes "sidewalk cafes". Etc. I
speculate that it's partly that few British reporters have any
first-hand knowledge of military life, and partly that they want to
sell their reports to non-BritE networks: if the stuff is made on our
time, then it should be in our vocabulary, and they can record
another version on their own time, thank you.
More interestingly, there's some kind of near-racism sometimes
apparent. Foreigners, especially the less pink ones, are not armed:
they're "gun-toting". It carries a slight impression of pantomime.
I won't rave on. </Repeated Peeve
(Oh, and why "gun-battle", FGS? As opposed to bows and arrows?)
On a related peeve, people are always "gunned down", nobody gets shot
anymore.
And the death of anyone at all aged under 70 is always "tragic".
And their family was 'devastated'.
|
And that's just the cousins -- spouses and offspring are "totally
destroyed".
--
Ross Howard |
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J. J. Lodder
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:05 pm
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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Robert Lieblich <robert.lieblich@verizon.net> wrote:
| Quote: | "J. J. Lodder" wrote:
Charles Riggs <chriggs@Čircom.net> wrote:
On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 21:34:55 +0000, "M. J. Powell"
mike@pickmere.demon.co.uk> wrote:
In message <q8bam1dks09ikkilosls80t5mu87775b2u@4ax.com>, Charles Riggs
chriggs@?.net.invalid> writes
On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 19:34:32 +0000, "M. J. Powell"
mike@pickmere.demon.co.uk> wrote:
But I don't speak American.
Oy!
Oy! Charles?
Yes?
Oh, you meant why the Oy!, I suspect. We've been down this road many
times in AUE. Not only is American the wrong word to use when
referring to the American language, I find it somewhat insulting to
educated Americans. The English we speak isn't identical to that
spoken by educated Londoners, but that doesn't make it non-English,
which "American" implies.
Nothing wrong with 'American' for the American dialect of English.
It upsets only some Americans,
but everybody else understands what is meant,
Everybody understands what "nigger" means. There's more to it than
that.
I must confess that referring to AmE as "American" doesn't bother me
all that much. Still, what's wrong with "AmE," at least within the
friendly confines?
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You wouldn't equate 'American' with 'nigger'
for loading?
Jan |
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J. J. Lodder
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:05 pm
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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Charles Riggs <chriggs@Čircom.net> wrote:
| Quote: | On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 20:27:18 -0500, Robert Lieblich
robert.lieblich@verizon.net> wrote:
"J. J. Lodder" wrote:
Charles Riggs <chriggs@Čircom.net> wrote:
Oh, you meant why the Oy!, I suspect. We've been down this road many
times in AUE. Not only is American the wrong word to use when
referring to the American language, I find it somewhat insulting to
educated Americans. The English we speak isn't identical to that
spoken by educated Londoners, but that doesn't make it non-English,
which "American" implies.
Nothing wrong with 'American' for the American dialect of English.
It upsets only some Americans,
but everybody else understands what is meant,
Everyone understands it, but it is generally only the ignorant who say
it. Hi, JJ. It is excusable, though, from a European; from an
American, it is not.
|
What makes you so funny is that your attitudes
are so much like those of a Belgian.
| Quote: | Everybody understands what "nigger" means. There's more to it than
that.
I must confess that referring to AmE as "American" doesn't bother me
all that much.
It may not bother you, but I'd bet my last euro you don't use the word
when referring to American English.
|
You would lose, in some cases.
| Quote: | Someone who says "I speak
American" (probably intoning it as "Amurican") instantly labels
himself as a hick. It's the sort of thing Archie Bunker used to say.
|
Well, Archie Bunker is -the- American,
the holotype of the species.
He has proved to be more durable
than JR from Dallas,
Jan |
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JF
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:44 pm
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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X-No-Archive: yes
In message <3sqdp0Fp6kgpU1@individual.net>, Mike Lyle
<mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> writes
| Quote: | But amid this plethora of...er...things, the most shock-horror word
pollies can find for a mass murder is always "unacceptable".
"Unacceptable"? That's what Wimsey would have used to his wine
merchant of a dodgy bottle of port.
|
You're right. Geoffrey Howe, who was foreign secretary at the time when
a British fiction writer irritated Mohammedans with a novel about some
dodgy verses in al Quran (some?), he told parliament that the Mohammedan
habit of wanting to kill such writers was 'unacceptable'.
I saw an ugly demonstration in Reading in which frothing at the mouth
Mohammedans were waving "Kill Rusdie" placards. Thames Valley police
were politely asking them not to. In Spain the Guardia Civil waded into
a local demo and clubbed one of them of them to death. Similar treatment
was dished out by the CRS in France. Needless to say, the silly splat
rumbled on for weeks in the UK, but not in Spain or France. That's why
the English police need powers to toss these troublemakers in the
bastille for a few months without trial until tempers have cooled.
There was a spot of bother in Paris last week. Nothing serious:
Mohammedans and nig-nogs killing each other. I was astonished to hear on
the news the following morning that a couple of troublemakers had
received long prison sentences. The following morning?
--
James Follett. Novelist. (G1LXP) http://www.jamesfollett.dswilliams.co.uk |
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Robert Lieblich
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 7:49 pm
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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"J. J. Lodder" wrote:
| Quote: |
Robert Lieblich <robert.lieblich@verizon.net> wrote:
"J. J. Lodder" wrote:
Charles Riggs <chriggs@Čircom.net> wrote:
On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 21:34:55 +0000, "M. J. Powell"
mike@pickmere.demon.co.uk> wrote:
In message <q8bam1dks09ikkilosls80t5mu87775b2u@4ax.com>, Charles Riggs
chriggs@?.net.invalid> writes
On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 19:34:32 +0000, "M. J. Powell"
mike@pickmere.demon.co.uk> wrote:
But I don't speak American.
Oy!
Oy! Charles?
Yes?
Oh, you meant why the Oy!, I suspect. We've been down this road many
times in AUE. Not only is American the wrong word to use when
referring to the American language, I find it somewhat insulting to
educated Americans. The English we speak isn't identical to that
spoken by educated Londoners, but that doesn't make it non-English,
which "American" implies.
Nothing wrong with 'American' for the American dialect of English.
It upsets only some Americans,
but everybody else understands what is meant,
Everybody understands what "nigger" means. There's more to it than
that.
I must confess that referring to AmE as "American" doesn't bother me
all that much. Still, what's wrong with "AmE," at least within the
friendly confines?
You wouldn't equate 'American' with 'nigger'
for loading?
|
I don't know what you mean by "for loading." And no, of course I
don't equate the two words. I was simply making the quite obvious
point that comprehensibility and offensiveness are not equivalents.
Others have pointed out that using "American" to mean "American
English" is not the usual practice. On top of which it could ignite
another of those "Wbaddaya mean Brazilians aren't Americans?" threads
that we can all do without.
We have "American English" and, for those who calculate the cost of
every letter, "AmE." That suffices.
--
Bob Lieblich
In his reasonable-man pose |
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John Dawkins
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 11:58 pm
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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In article <886em19rtq3sjvku11dsmo096704c2qcai@4ax.com>,
Charles Riggs <chriggs@éircom.net> wrote:
| Quote: | It may not bother you, but I'd bet my last euro you don't use the word
when referring to American English. Someone who says "I speak
American" (probably intoning it as "Amurican") instantly labels
himself as a hick. It's the sort of thing Archie Bunker used to say.
|
Also used by Henry Louis 'The Hick of Baltimore' Mencken.
--
J. |
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J. J. Lodder
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 4:26 am
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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Robert Lieblich <robert.lieblich@verizon.net> wrote:
| Quote: | "J. J. Lodder" wrote:
Robert Lieblich <robert.lieblich@verizon.net> wrote:
"J. J. Lodder" wrote:
Nothing wrong with 'American' for the American dialect of English.
It upsets only some Americans,
but everybody else understands what is meant,
Everybody understands what "nigger" means. There's more to it than
that.
I must confess that referring to AmE as "American" doesn't bother me
all that much. Still, what's wrong with "AmE," at least within the
friendly confines?
You wouldn't equate 'American' with 'nigger'
for loading?
I don't know what you mean by "for loading." And no, of course I
don't equate the two words. I was simply making the quite obvious
point that comprehensibility and offensiveness are not equivalents.
Others have pointed out that using "American" to mean "American
English" is not the usual practice. On top of which it could ignite
another of those "Wbaddaya mean Brazilians aren't Americans?" threads
that we can all do without.
We have "American English" and, for those who calculate the cost of
every letter, "AmE." That suffices.
|
It isn't for Americans to decide what is sufficient for others,
Jan |
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Murray Arnow
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:31 am
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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J. J. Lodder wrote:
| Quote: | Robert Lieblich <robert.lieblich@verizon.net> wrote:
"J. J. Lodder" wrote:
Robert Lieblich wrote:
"J. J. Lodder" wrote:
Nothing wrong with 'American' for the American dialect of English.
It upsets only some Americans,
but everybody else understands what is meant,
Everybody understands what "nigger" means. There's more to it than
that.
I must confess that referring to AmE as "American" doesn't bother me
all that much. Still, what's wrong with "AmE," at least within the
friendly confines?
You wouldn't equate 'American' with 'nigger'
for loading?
I don't know what you mean by "for loading." And no, of course I
don't equate the two words. I was simply making the quite obvious
point that comprehensibility and offensiveness are not equivalents.
Others have pointed out that using "American" to mean "American
English" is not the usual practice. On top of which it could ignite
another of those "Wbaddaya mean Brazilians aren't Americans?" threads
that we can all do without.
We have "American English" and, for those who calculate the cost of
every letter, "AmE." That suffices.
It isn't for Americans to decide what is sufficient for others,
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Indeed! That's a Dutch prerogative. |
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Mark Brader
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 6:25 am
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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Richard Bollard writes:
| Quote: | On a related peeve, people are always "gunned down", nobody gets shot
anymore.
|
They are if the wound is a relatively minor one.
--
Mark Brader | "The problem with waiting for a 'smoking gun' is
Toronto | that it means the gun has already been fired."
msb@vex.net | --Michael Chance |
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Ross Howard
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 6:46 am
Post subject: Re: Who said I don't have a life? |
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On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 23:25:26 -0000, msb@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrought:
| Quote: | Richard Bollard writes:
On a related peeve, people are always "gunned down", nobody gets shot
anymore.
They are if the wound is a relatively minor one.
|
True, but in that case they're always "only inches away from tragedy".
--
Ross Howard |
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