OK. I was, as I sometimes do, have been sarcastic. It's all just apple's and orange's.


There. Is that better?

Okay, you are probably right, CJ, with the regulars. [Though, I am not quite sure we can call you a regular these days! ]

Perhaps I over-reacted a bit. However, I would love to see more people posting here, and in particular I am desperately trying to get someone I know to post on this board. For new people it isn't the same. They already are outsiders to begin with. If you think about it, there are a lot of things that we have all learned from each other, like Richard and his beer, as well as his penchant for apostrophes; you, CJ, and your penchant for the precise double dactyl, as well as your every other Monday or every other week or whatever schedule; Tinman and his googling; Arnie and his Latin; Bob and his grammar skills as well as his Alice knowledge; Jerry and his cleverness with words; Asa and his love of sexual inuendos; etc., etc. It is hard enough to be new here without to be asked about your use of an apostrophe!

quote:

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Originally posted by C J Strolin:
OK. I was, as I sometimes do, have been sarcastic. It's all just apple's and orange's.


There. Is that better?

---

Fine. But I feel you have a superfluous apostrophe in "it's".

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Kalleh, I totally agree. My point was that we need not be overly-sensitive concerning the occasional friendly jibe between regulars. Had a newcomer offered up the same, let's say, "inventive" syntax as B.H. did, I would never have pounced upon him or her. None of us would.

I'm sure that newcomers to the board, unless they are complete newcomers to the internet in general, know the score. Every board has its regulars (including those demoted for lack of participation - Hmmmph!!) and most newbies will lurk for a while before getting their feet wet with their first post.

And on another subject:

quote:

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It is hard enough to be new here without to be asked about your use of an apostrophe!

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"...without to be asked..."?? I realize that I have been chastised for my projected corrected version of the OED but are you and B.H. undertaking a similar attack on English grammar??


(Note to any lurking newcomers: This is said in jest. Plus, we give everyone at least three free errors before we pounce.)


And B.H., I agree. That was my error. I meant to use the plural possessive so it should have been "itsz's."

Okay, okay, I get it. The sarcasm is dripping. No more comments from this peanut gallery. I don't think this is my day on wordcraft!

[This message was edited by Kalleh on Wed Oct 29th, 2003 at 18:49.]

This thread is taking on the feel of a Saturday chatroom discussion. Now all we need is for some newcomers to join in so we can tie them to a spit and roast them slowly over a linguistic fire! BWAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!


Two notes to any newcomers lurking: 1.) "BWAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!" is meant to represent evil laughter and 2.) all of the above is sarcasm and/or in jest and/or not to be taken seriously, especially if you happen to be Kalleh's timid friend.

quote:

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Originally posted by BobHale: You may be expecting a call from Disney's lawyers but you should also expect a call from mine.

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Never fear, CJ, I shall undertake your defense.

Please send retainer.

Very truly yours,
Shufitz, attorney at law

(Kalleh, you can start shopping for that new Mercedes.)

Since posting here with Richard, I think I'll take a Rolls Royce, please.

Since pedantry seems to be the theme today, I would point out that the vehicle subject above the mention is a Rolls-Royce. The hyphen is essential.

By the way, I'm off to the airport now and will be away for a few days. Normal service will be resumed next week.

Richard English

quote:

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This thread is taking on the feel of a Saturday chatroom discussion. Now all we need is for some newcomers to join in so we can tie them to a spit and roast them slowly over a linguistic fire! BWAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!


Two notes to any newcomers lurking: 1.) "BWAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!" is meant to represent evil laughter and 2.) all of the above is sarcasm and/or in jest and/or not to be taken seriously, especially if you happen to be Kalleh's timid friend.

---

I would like to take this opportunity to say that I have always found "BWAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!" to be an incorrect spelling of the classic "Evil Laugh". It is obvious that the Evil Laugh begins with an "M". It's spelled: MWAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

Surely everyone knows that a consonnant pulmonic bilabial nasal is far more frightening and intimidating than a consonnant pulmonic bilabial plosive.

I mean, really folks, can we have some standards?

<runs away giggling>

quote:

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I would point out that the vehicle subject above the mention is a Rolls-Royce. The hyphen is essential.

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Oh, my, Richard, you are just lucky that I love Fuller's 1845 so much!

quote:

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Oh, my, Richard, you are just lucky that I love Fuller's 1845 so much!

---

Which incidentally was on draught as a guest beer in my local last night. Personally I find it a little too sweet for my taste.

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

A few notes...

1.) Shufitz, I had already made out my check to you in the amount of $1,000 to put you on retainer before realizing that this would make me either "Shufitz' client" or "Shufitz's client" depending on the whim of the person referring to me. Both are acceptable in the U.S. so, rather than risk alienating prospective judges, juries, etc, I'm afraid I'll have to seek legal counsel elsewhere.

2.) WinterBranch, you must be using a severely abridged dictionary. "MWAA-HA-HA-etc" is defined as the more sinister version of "BWAA-HA-HA-etc" which, with its "BWAA-" begining, is more conducive to humor. I used it so as not to scare off Kalleh's easily startled friends (none of whom seem to be posting recently but that's another matter).

3.) R.E., if the name of the beer is "Fuller's," would something belonging to the beer (an ad campaign, for example) be referred to as "Fuller's's whatever"? GOTCHA!! BWAA-(not MWAA-)-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!

4.) And in regards to Rolls-hyphen-Royce cars, in 1968 a friend of mine tried to buy just the Rolls-Royce hood ornament so that he could attach it to his Ford P.O.S. and was told that they went for $50 plus. Just for the damn hood ornament! God only knows what they go for today but I assume that their pricey nature is designed to discourage people like my friend from '68.

quote:

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Originally posted by Richard English:
Since pedantry seems to be the theme today, I would point out that the vehicle subject above the mention is a Rolls-Royce. The hyphen is essential.

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Error indeed, but Kalleh is in good company omitting that hyphen. It was also omitted by the BBC, the Scotsman, and the Telegraph (last paragraph) -- all in the last couple of days.

(earning husband points here )

Now I'm back and catching up (and see, to my horror that my sentence about Rolls-Royces had a typo) I will comment:

1."... R.E., if the name of the beer is "Fuller's," would something belonging to the beer (an ad campaign, for example) be referred to as "Fuller's's whatever"?..."

No.

Or more fully. the Brewery is Fuller Smith and Turner and the beers are known as "Fuller's Beers" - that is beers produced by the Fuller etc. brewery. If you were talking about, say, the colour of the beer, you might say "...Fuller's London Pride's colour is a medium amber..."

2. The Rolls-Royce mascot (NEVER called a hood ornament - or even a bonnet ornament) is correctly known as the Spirit of Ecstacy. It was modelled on Lord Montague's mistress. All RR mascots are different one from another since they are made using the lost wax process and are hand finished. They are very expensive to replace and I would think that, even in 1968, $50 was a very good price. If a thief were to wrench off my Spirit it would almost certainly damage the radiator shell (hand made and signed by the craftsman who made it) and I would have a bill of probably a couple of thousand pounds to pay.

The RR logo, the Spirit mascot and the classic radiator shape are all Rolls-Royce trademarks and cannot be replicated without permission from the Company (which is almost never given)

Richard English

[This message was edited by Richard English on Mon Nov 3rd, 2003 at 13:59.]

quote:

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earning husband points here

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Sorry, Shu; I missed this! Thanks! While Richard says that the hyphen is essential, I will say that it is almost never used in the U.S.

By the way, what exactly is meant by essential? While I don't mean to quibble about such a minor point, I always think of essential as meaning "important in the highest degree." If that is so, why do we find it without the hyphen at times, even in the English literature?

It's simple enough. The vehicle manufacturer, Rolls-Royce, registered that as the company name just about a hundred years ago. If the hyphen is omitted, then that's not the name of the Company. It is a wrong as it would be to speak of, say, "A Cadilla"

That it is often spelt wrongly in the USA does not mean that the incorrect name is acceptable, only that it is a common error.

Incidentally, Claude Johnson, the works manager when the Company (always capitalised, by the way) was the man who came up the the slogan "The Best Car in the World" and he is sometimes referred to as "The Hyphen in Rolls-Royce". Although his name is not known by the public, it is doubtful that the marque would have achieved the success and distinction it did.

So it's Rolls-Royce, never Rolls and definitely never "Roller". Royce, on its own, is permissable since Henry Royce was the engineer and creator of the vehicle; Charles Rolls had little to do with the Company after about 1908 and he was killed in a flying accident (flying a Wright) in 1910.

Richard English

[This message was edited by Richard English on Tue Nov 4th, 2003 at 2:14.]

quote:

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Originally posted by Richard English:
It's simple enough. The vehicle manufacturer, Rolls-Royce, registered that as the company name just about a hundred years ago. If the hyphen is omitted, then that's not the name of the Company.

---

Interesting. You're saying then that I could bang together a line of cars in my garage (my talents don't lie in that area but that's besides the point), label them "Rolls Royce" (without the hyphen) and then make a bundle? Excellent!

Now all I need is a spokesperson. I know! I'll create an animated cartoon rodent to extol my car's virtues and call him Mikky Mouse!

Back to the original subject.

Gnaw Bone, Indiana, supposedly came from a mishearing of the original French name of Narbonne.

The town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, took on that name after it was the site of a 1950 live broadcast of the radio program Truth or Consequences.

Surely everyone knows that a consonnant pulmonic bilabial nasal is far more
frightening and intimidating than a consonnant pulmonic bilabial plosive.
------------------------------------------
Say, WB, if you're any good with fricatives, may I buy you a drink?

Now why on earth aren't you using the proper term for an evil laugh, cachinnation?

quote:

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Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy:
Now why on earth aren't you using the proper term for an evil laugh, _cachinnation_?

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Not to quibble (Who, me?) but "cachinnation" does not necessarily equate to evil laughter. Definitions I see include terms such as "loud, immoderate laughter," "guffaw," "the act of laughing convulsively, often a symptom of hysterical or maniacal affections," etc. Not quite the same as "evil laughter."

May I suggest the neologism "BWAA-HA-HA-ination"?

For "evil laughter," how about cackle?

Ogden Nash:
The Wrongs of Spring, or No All Fools' Day Like an All Old Fools' Day

quote:

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Just because I'm sixty-three,
Shall April folly forbidden be?
Though the locks above my scalp
Be thin as snow on Agugst ALp,
Must I then leave April foibles
To sprouts of louts and hobbledehoibles?
...
When April hoots her girlish laughter
My senile cackle shall echo after.

---

No. I'm not saying that. I don't know about the USA but in the UK there is a crime known as "passing off". This is when a company or individual seeks to gain advantage by pretending that a product or service is supplied by a well-known organisation - when it is not.

Thus, if you were to produce a sticky brown fizzy drink and sell it in a waisted bottle under the style "Coaca Cola" it is very likely that you would be held to be trying to "pass off" your product as being that made by the Coca Cola company.

Any vehicle sold as a "Rolls Royce" would almost certainly receive the prompt attentions of the Rolls-Royce company. Indeed, any other product claiming the be "The Rolls-Royce" of anything will also receive these attentions.

Only one vehicle manufacturer has ever been allowed by the Company to use this style and that was the Brough Superior company. The story goes that the "Motor Cycle" magazine suggested, in one of its editions, that the Brough Superior was the "Rolls-Royce of motorcycles.

Soon afterwards two Rolls-Royce representives appeared at the company's Nottingham factory and asked why they were using the Rolls-Royce name in this way.

In a carefully orchestrated trip around the works the Rolls-Royce inspectors were shown some fitters, wearing white gloves, fussing over the fit of a machine's tank. The inspectors apparently professed themselves happy with the machine's quality and allowed George Brough to continue to use the "Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles" name. What they did not know was that the machine they had seen was not a standard production model but one that was being specially hand-assembled for that year's motorcycle show!

In fact, although the Brough was not a bad motorcycle, it was far from being such an advanced and competent machine as the Rudge although most Brough Superiors did have the significant advantage over most machines of the era of having much larger engines and thus held many land speed records.

Richard English

quote:

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Originally posted by Hic et ubique:
For "evil laughter," how about _cackle?_

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Nope, sorry. Doesn't work. A "cackle" is a much thinner and sharper laugh than a "BWAA-HA-HA-HA" which is more akin to a belly laugh.

Witches cackle, ogres BWAA-HA-HA-HA, and I can't conceive of the reverse. (Nice try, though.)

quote:

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Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy:
While not quite up to Max' standards, there are the Mountains here in the USA called The Grand Tetons. Translation from French: Big Tits.

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A Quebecoise friend mentioned this to her husband - both had always pronounced the words as English, and had assumed the mountains in question to have been named in English. It was a real "penny drop" moment, apparently.

[This message was edited by maxqnz on Thu Nov 13th, 2003 at 1:08.]

Well, this isn't up to Max's standards either, but I was recently in Tampa. A speaker at the conference said, "What are people who live in Tampa called? Tampons?!"

And then there's always:


Leering man to sweet young miss - I didn't promise we were going to Florida together. I only said I was going to Tampa with you.

(rim shot)

While surfing today, I found an interesting website that purports to have a list of every rude place name.

He appears to be British.

What.
A.
Shocker.

Reviving a thread

I just read an article in the Tribune citing the Big Ugly Democrat who had done something they didn't like (I don't even recall what, but I loved the name of the city!).

Big Ugly? Any relation to bumping uglies? uglieshttp://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bumping+uglies

I've vaguely heard of bumping uglies before, but I've not read about them. Funny!