I overheard a very interesting snippet of conversation as I was walking into town from work tonight. There were two teenage girls and a teenage boy and they had clearly been arguing about something. The argument seemed to be at an end and one of the girls, pointing at the boy was shouting at the other girl.

"Dat conversation's done. Done. Dat conversation's over. Why you keep loggin' on to him?"

From the context I'd guess it means, "starting to interact with him again".

It was an interesting usage. I wonder if it's a common bit of teen language that has somehow passed me by or was some bit of idiolect peculiar to this one girl.

Has anyone else encountered it?

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

I've not heard it personally. Presumably it comes from computers. It's certainly an interesting extension of meaning.

I haven't heard it, either, but that's an interesting point, arnie.

I am going to bring up a side issue; Bob talked about "overhearing" a snippet of conversation. I did the same thing tonight on a plane. The guy in front of me had a delicious English accent (and he looked pretty delicious, too!), and I overheard him telling his seat-mate that he was a linguist from England. The stupid guy next to him didn't even know what a linguist is! I thought, how unfair! I could have had the best conversation with him!

How frustrating! And you could have told him about all your English lexical friends and your meeting with John Simpson - and got him to join us on this board!

I know. I was just a little too shy to reach forward and tell him that I'd overheard his conversation. I imagine my very sociable husband would have done that, but I just didn't have the nerve.

In my experience Americans are more "forward" than Britons in any case. It would be rare for us to engage a stranger in conversation in any form of public transport.

Having said which, last week I was on a train and a Latvian lady came round with the trolley. I asked whether they had any beer and she trotted out the usual nonsense about Stella Artois and Carling, assuming that I meant chemical fizz. Well, our highly enlightened rail company (possibly in response to complaints from a voluble, crinigerous passenger) has recently taken to stocking W J King beer - a bottle-conditioned masterpiece brewed in Horsham - and I asked her about it. She had no idea so I had a close look at her catering accouterments and, what do you know, she had just one bottle left, which I promptly purchased. The Latvian lady didn't know where the bottle-opener was to be found but I carry my own, so that was no problem.

Anyway, a Columbian chap saw my beer and asked for the same but was obviously disappointed as I had taken the last bottle. So I suggested he had a Bass as the next best thing, which he chose, and that started the whole compartment chatting about beer and then on to other things. The hour's journey passed very quickly and pleasantly and I am looking forward to my next journey.

Good beer - what a wonderful conversational catalyst.

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that started the whole compartment chatting about beer and then on to other things. The hour's journey passed very quickly and pleasantly

that's the difference between England and America. Over here, that would end as an episode of "Cops."

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Over here, that would end as an episode of "Cops."

Well, I was in first class; things might have been different had I been in standard - although I doubt that "cops" would have been the topic since I don't think we get the series. It might have been football, though

Returning, however briefly, to the original question, John (the most occasional of occasional posters here) says that he has also heard this usage so perhaps it is emerging slang in the UK Midlands. Or perhaps we are both a little drunk.

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Over here, that would end as an episode of "Cops."

I read that rather differently from Richard. I got the idea that the Colombian gentleman, foiled by Richard in his quest for good beer, would have murdered him, causing the cops to be called. The cops would discover that the bottle of W J King in fact contained high-grade cocaine and the Latvian lady was a "mule", involved in smuggling the white stuff. This chance discovery led to the smashing of an international drug cartel.

We were riding the train through New Haven
Gulping down brews within the club car
When an Englishman, a language maven,
Came and asked for a beer at the bar.

The bartender said, “Here’s Budweiser.”
But the guy said, “ I don’t drink that crap.”
Which made him much sadder but wiser
When the bartender decked the poor sap.

The gent picked his face off the train floor.
“Don’t you offer the King, King of beer?
It’s by far the best beer you could ask for,
Not the USA slop you serve here.”

So that started the brouhaha going
As it seems everyone threw a punch,
And the medics could spend the night sewing
The assorted cut parts on our bunch.

We rode down the rail line a’drinking
After tossing UK on the track.
He’s draped on a cross-tie a’thinking,
“I was told that the Yanks just liked crack.”

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The cops would discover that the bottle of W J King in fact contained high-grade cocaine and the Latvian lady was a "mule", involved in smuggling the white stuff.

So far as I'm aware, the only narcotic carried by Southern is alcohol. Even tobacco is now barred.

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In my experience Americans are more "forward" than Britons in any case. It would be rare for us to engage a stranger in conversation in any form of public transport.

Not in mine. When I was in England I found that people on the street or on the train spoke to me just as often as those in the U.S. I specifically remember one train ride in London where the person next to me asked where I was from and from there we talked and talked.

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that's the difference between England and America. Over here, that would end as an episode of "Cops."

Really? It must be more popular where you live. I've never seen it, nor do I have any inclination to do so.

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Not in mine. When I was in England I found that people on the street or on the train spoke to me just as often as those in the U.S. I specifically remember one train ride in London where the person next to me asked where I was from and from there we talked and talked.

I can only guess that possibly you met another American!

I can assure you (from experience of over 60 years) that, in the south of England (and especially in London) it is very rare for strangers to engage one another in conversation without there having occurred some incident that acted as a catalyst to start it. Of course, once conversation is established then it will usually continue.

I have been in lifts and public transport in the USA where complete strangers have started a conversation with me with no pretext at all, simply saying, something like, "Hi, How are you?". That would be very unusual in England.

(I'd have to say that in this my experience tallies with Richards. I have commuted to work for more than thirty years and the number of times a stranger has engaged me in conversation can be counted on one hand. Of course the converse is also true.

By contrast I have spent very little time travelling around the US but have rarely managed to set foot out of the hotel without somebody talking to me.

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I can only guess that possibly you met another American!

No, this was someone who lived in London, Richard.

Well, I will believe you both then as I have only been to England twice. However, it certainly wasn't my experience. In fact, having posted here, I was expecting that but instead found that everyone was quite friendly and started conversations with me.

I'm wondering if it could be that Americans don't talk to Americans and the British don't talk to the British...but that the English are intrigued with an American accent, and I know the Americans are intrigued with a British accent. In fact, in some of the situations where people struck up conversations with me, it was because of my "American" accent.