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Schadenfreude

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March 01, 2019, 10:23
Kalleh
Schadenfreude
I found this article interesting, especially because they thought "epicaricacy" didn't catch on because it was hard to say and an "ugly" sounding word. While I don't think "Schadenfreude" is an ugly sounding word, clearly it is not each to pronounce as I've hard many mispronunciations.
March 02, 2019, 19:29
Kalleh
quote:
There is no English word for this particular pleasure, although over the centuries people have had a go at trying to invent one. So around the 16th Century, someone tried to introduce “epicaricacy,” but that is a real mouthful and that definitely did not catch on because about a hundred years later, you’ve got people saying oh why don’t we did we have a word for this in English?

March 11, 2019, 21:08
bethree5
I keep waiting for that moment of schadenfreude when Trump slips on a banana peel and actually falls. Somehow his 30% (backed by Fox & cowardly centrist Rep pols) keep holding him up & denying me that pleasure. Oh, well, revenge is a dish best served cold... Is there a German word for that?
March 11, 2019, 21:24
BobHale
I recently saw again an old (but still funny) clip of Trump claiming that the Bible is his favourite book and then being unable to recall a single quote from it. Even atheists like me can reel off dozens of famous bits of the Bible at the drop of a hat.
What occurred to me was that (and I did need to look up the reference) it would have been even funnier of one of his staff had told him to answer that question by just saying "Mathew 19:23-26".

For those who don't want to look it up it's the bit about "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God" - a quote that I'm sure everyone knows.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
March 13, 2019, 08:15
bethree5
Good one, Bob.
March 13, 2019, 19:22
BobHale
At least your politics is comprehensible (also reprehensible but that doesn't need to be said). Ours is utterly baffling. In recent weeks Brexit has been in the news again with a string of votes in Parliament. As far as I can work out the following are all true.

1. MPs definitely want to leave Europe.
2. MPs definitely don't want to leave with any deal that the EU is prepared to offer.
3. MPs definitely don't want to leave with no deal.

(All of those have been voted on.)

And then of course it's all irrelevant because it's not up to us. If the EU says "You are in or you are out" and refuses to allow indefinite extensions of the deadline then we are out with no deal, regardless of what our Government says. If the EU will extend we are left in the situation of a being someone who is always saying "goodbye" but never actually leaves.

As I say, our politics are baffling.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
April 17, 2019, 19:42
Kalleh
How do you feel about the extension, Bob?
April 17, 2019, 21:41
BobHale
quote:
Originally posted by Kalleh:
How do you feel about the extension, Bob?


Very glad that I live in China.

Smile


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
April 29, 2019, 19:40
Kalleh
Is there ever a point when England wouldn't consider you a citizen?
April 29, 2019, 20:48
BobHale
quote:
Originally posted by Kalleh:
Is there ever a point when England wouldn't consider you a citizen?


Not unless I specifically renounce my citizenship although they can in principle revoke someone's citizenship as in the recent case of Shamima Begum who went to fight for Isis and has had her citizenship revoked. Whether that would be possible for someone with birth citizenship rather than adopted citizenship I don't know.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
April 30, 2019, 19:31
Kalleh
And - I suspect you'd never do anything like that. Wink