The article further hypothesizes that's not true of Europe ...
I would tend to disagree with that, at least regarding the cities of Britain. The people living in the country and suburban areas tend to be conservative (small 'c') and vote Conservative (large 'C') - the more right-wing party. City-dwellers tend to be more liberal (small 'l' and vote Labour - the left of centre party. Urban dwellers, as in America, tend to be mainly the more recent immigrant families, young professionals, and the poorer indigenous white British. At the time of the industrial revolution the cities grew really fast as poor land workers were attracted by the promise of work in the factories. Tenements were thrown up to house them (after a fashion) and even after the decline in industrial work these areas are attractive (if that's the word) to the new immigrant families, young professionals, etc. because of the relatively low rents.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Commenting on his decision not to replace regular quarterback Mark Sanchez with Tim Tebow, coach Rex Ryan said, ""I believe we can win with Mark. And I believe we can win with (Tim) Tebow, but I'm not going to let you or anybody else convince me out of it..."
Nowadays the requirement for a ciy to have a cathedral has gone, with the result that some large conurbations, hitherto only towns, have become cities.
Richard,you may be the only person I know who uses the word hitherto in daily, informal conversations!
quote:
City-dwellers tend to be more liberal (small 'l' and vote Labour - the left of centre party.
So, it looks like it's the same here. [Edit for typo]This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,
The Grauniad has a piece about Ambrose Bierce - well, actually a series of quotes from The Devil's Dictionary, but they aren't real journalists like Bierce.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
In fact, a couple of years ago I was on a cruise and they had a copy of the complete Devil's dictionary in the ship's library. I read it from cover to cover. It's a very clever book.
I see from the article that it's now available in a Kindle edition so I will download it right now.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
Yes, I've always liked the Devil's Dictionary as well. I hadn't remembered his definition of happiness; did you see it? "An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another." Doesn't it sound a little like epicaricacy? I know it's not taking joy in the misery of another...but it's contemplating the misery. Very interesting.
I have just been re-reading my copy - having downloaded it (free) from Amazon - and, bearing in mind the recent elections in the two remaining superpowers, this definition amused me:
Convervative, n. A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
Of course, the UK's versions of Liberals and Conservatives are not quite the same as the USA's - but if I understand the differences aright Bearce's definition seems pretty well spot on for the US versions
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
Lowest ever voter turnout in ANY national election (15%); one polling station reporting no attendance AT ALL; Liberal Democrat candidate beaten by "spoiled ballot paper" in Coventry
I nearly didn't bother to vote as I had received no information about any of the candidates - apart from their political afiliations. Since I don't believe that the job of Police Commisioner is a political one I wasn't going to vote simply on party lines.
However, one of our local papers (funnily enough one of the free ones, not the main paid-for one) carried the biographies of all the candidates and so I was able to make an informed choice and voted.
Incidentally, I suggest one of the reasons why the polling stations were empty is simply that so many more people these days have postal votes. I have had my own for over a quarter of a century, simply because I used to travel a lot in my job. Nowadays you don't even have to prove a special need to get a postal vote - and it surely saves a lot of time and effort.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
Originally posted by Richard English: I nearly didn't bother to vote as I had received no information about any of the candidates - apart from their political afiliations. Since I don't believe that the job of Police Commisioner is a political one I wasn't going to vote simply on party lines.
The various political analysts suggest that this is the main reason. People who would normally vote simply do not believe that Police Commissioner should be a politcal post. Besides, how radically different can their polices be? Is anyone going to say "Vote for me, I'm in favour of crime?"
It is also suggested that the unusually large number of spoiled ballots was people intentionally protesting in the only way possible. I know personally of at least one voter in the UK who did this and I would have considered it myself. Incidentally after Tony Blair became labour leader my father, a lifelong supporter of the labour party made the active decision not to vote because he felt that no party represented his views.
I'd really love to see a "None of the Above" on our voting papers. Trouble is that it would probably win.This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
There was a story the other day about a woman who ran over her husband because of the election of President Obama. I heard two different versions for her reason: one, because he wouldn't vote and she thought his vote was necessary for O's defeat; and two, because she thought his vote for the president p;ut him over the top. I guess he hopes his candidate for District Attorney won and prosecutes her to the fullest extent of the law.
I had an interesting election day. I couldn't vote because...of Obama! I was in the city, trying to get home in time before the polls closed. However, Obama had flown into Chicago, and they closed most of the downtown streets, meaning the buses and cabs were very late. I was not able to get home in time to vote, and I would have voted for Obama!
BTW, I wonder how the polls for voting are related to polls about the candidates.
This article about the difference between men and women when having affairs was quite interesting, I thought. But word related? Well, the descriptions of each the man (David Petraeus) and his mistress (Paula Broadway) were interesting contrasts. "Poor" David was described as being "vulnerable," while Paula was described as a "bimbo," "slut," and "self-promoting prom queen." In the end the author suggested that journalism students should be taught the lost art of using a dictionary. Amen.
I don't seem to be able to get the article to load here but your post reminded me of this limerick I wrote for the OEDILF back when they were atill on the letter A.
An adventurer's a brave man and bold, Of whom stirring stories are told. But an adventuress, Well that's rather less — For she's only after his gold.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
Back on the first article: my collegiate friends called such behavior "assholular". It's in the Urban Dictionary now, but I'm quite sure we invented it in 1968
Posts: 2605 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!
Not about words, but Kalleh at least might be interested in this article from the British Medical Journal.
quote:
We are concerned that the actions of the mythical character at the root of this report must be brought to the attention of the medical community, as it seems to represent the first signs of a worrying new trend in malpractice.1 2 Previous anecdotal evidence suggests the tooth fairy is benevolent, but this opinion may need revising in light of mounting reports of less child-friendly activity.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
George W Bush once declared that the problem with the French is that they have no word for “entrepreneur”. This story (told by Baroness Williams, who says she was told it by Tony Blair) was intended to ridicule the ex-president. But his overall conceit is sound: a country and its culture can be defined by its vocabulary, or lack of it. The Italians have no word for “leadership”; the Germans have no word for “small talk”; and the Eskimos have no word for “war”.
Some concepts are simply alien to some cultures, which is why the British have no word for “Kulturkampf”. The practice of “culture wars” – dividing a nation into warring tribes and then exploiting that division – has been happily absent from our politics.
The writer is really saying that English has no word for "culture wars", while using the word "culture wars" in the same sentence.
The no-word-for meme is pretty ubiquitous but that has to be one of the most ridiculous expositions of it yet.
So let's just take a second to look at it. The Germans have Kulturkampf meaning culture war which we have no word for? But the Germans don't have a word for small talk while we er... er... er...
isn't "small talk" two words, just like "culture war".
And to say
quote:
The practice of “culture wars” – dividing a nation into warring tribes and then exploiting that division – has been happily absent from our politics.
must mean he lives in a different England to me as this seems the very basis of all our politics.
I guess that journalists have no word for bollocks.This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
The no-word-for meme is pretty ubiquitous but that has to be one of the most ridiculous expositions of it yet.
That is one thing that WC has convinced me on.
I liked this article by Clarence Page. We always seem to be on the same page. He talks about the current use in the U.S. of the phrase "right to work," which really means "right not to be in a union, but to gain the same wage/benefits increases that paying unionizers pay." I find the same ridiculous use of "right to life." The real irony with right to lifers is that many are for capital punishment.
BTW, I can't seem to be able to post articles from the Tribune anymore. Sorry about that.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,
I guess that journalists have no word for bollocks.
I was rereading this thread and realized that we don't use bullocks (do we Americans?) in the U.S. Do you use it to mean "testicles" or "nonsense" in England? Or both?
Not a bad article, B3. It could've been a little longer for my taste. I'll have to look into Professor Klein's work. I knew that Professor Matisoff was doing an etymological dictionary of Sino-Tibetan languages. I wonder if Klein used some of his data, which was stored in a database.
[Corrected typo.]This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,
You're gonna have to tell me what the capillo-vaginal epithet actually was as I can't read blogger blogs over here so I can see the original WSJ piece but not the words they are euphemising.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
I enjoyed this article from the Tribune about the millenials. This got me into it:
quote:
A quick Google search of the word "millennials" returns a string of results reflecting curiosity, discontent and even some disgust with America's newest adult generation. The most recent hits include a poll on the Pew Research Center's website, "How millennial are you?" and from Mashup, an article titled, "Why can't millennials find jobs?" A recent Time magazine's cover story was called, "The me, me, me generation: Millennials are lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents; Why they'll save us all." Now that's a title.
It's an interesting read, though not sure I agree with her concluding remark that this generation is largely running the American and world economies. Come now.
She renames the generation "Generation Yum" because of their interest in food, and I definitely can see that.
I've seen an occasional mention of millenials on American websites and the like, but never troubled myself about their age. From the context I gathered they were referring to the latest generation, and from the name I inferred they were born about 2000, making them 13 or so at the moment. If they are "America's newest adult generation" either children are becoming adults much earlier than before or their namers are off by about a decade.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
