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Post by Verbivore on Sept 5, 2021 11:42:59 GMT
As of yesterday I'm now two years past my biblically allocated three-score years and ten, so every day is a bonus. Belated Happy Birthday, Verbivore! I reached the big seven-o recently and found it exceedingly depressing and frightening. Everyone sent me jolly cards and made witty, celebratory remarks, while all I wanted to do was forget about it. I've decided it's essential that I live to at least 94. I spent 47 years of my life at school, college, university and work, doing things that I didn't want to do but that other people made me do, and I insist on having an equal amount of time doing whatever the hell I want to do. Thank you, Twod – though I managed to ignore the occasion for most of the day. At age 65 I couldn't bear the thought of retirement, so I half retired and worked 20 hours/week for five years. For whatever poorly considered reason I figured I should retire at 70, which I did. Big mistake! I thought I had retirement all planned, including a major trip around the planet, but COVID has well and truly scuppered all such plans and now I'm bored shitless, despite trying to keep myself occupied or amused. A big car-rebuild project was supposed to help, but again COVID got in the way, holding up parts deliveries. And now that all of my state (NSW) is under stay-at-home orders my grip on sanity is even more tenuous. My standard response to a "How are you?" has become "No crazier than yesterday – I think". Mr Lennon got it right with "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans", which he may have borrowed from one Allen Saunders. Another, more scholarly (or pretentious?) version is "Cor hominis disponit viam suam: sed Domini est dirigere gressus eius" (A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps) – Proverbs, xvi, 9. (c. 350 B. C.) The sun will rise tomorrow. I hope. :-)
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Post by Dave Miller on Sept 5, 2021 12:46:45 GMT
… I've decided it's essential that I live to at least 94. I spent 47 years of my life at school, college, university and work, doing things that I didn't want to do but that other people made me do, and I insist on having an equal amount of time doing whatever the hell I want to do. I have a lesser target: my “work” pension stems from working for 25 years, before being made redundant (and taking early retirement instead, at 55). I paid in for 25 years, and have so far drawn out for 12. If I can get to 80, I’m winning!
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 5, 2021 22:22:07 GMT
My morning grump
From an ABC News article, a cliché and a nonsense:
"At the end of the day my whole life was decimated".
At dinnertime (or bedtime), the poor dear's life was reduced by ten per cent. What she referred to was her separation from her husband. She got to keep the house, the car, and the children, so perhaps hubby amounted to a mere ten per cent.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 5, 2021 22:40:59 GMT
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Sept 7, 2021 15:54:22 GMT
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 7, 2021 20:10:59 GMT
Thank you, LJH.
I'm glad that this one is to be delivered via YouTube. The previous one you mentioned was via Zoom, which I do not allow near my Macs. (The cameras are blocked by thick, opaque stickers.)
I've yet to be convinced of the validity of the term bad language. To my mind / eye / ear, language is never bad, just sometimes inappropriate, suboptimal, or poorly used.
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Sept 7, 2021 23:30:02 GMT
I find that the advantage of Zoom is that one’s messages are not character limited and also, sometimes, one can have actual, live conversations with people around the world. I find that very rewarding and one can always turn off, or cover, one’s camera and one can mute oneself.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 8, 2021 0:42:35 GMT
Zoom has a reputation of being burgled, which immediately puts it on my banned list. It's not something I need. Should I feel the need for such form of communication I could do it via Apple's FaceTime.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 10, 2021 8:22:58 GMT
The live stream of the Blackheath History Forum was interesting enough, though it told me little new. A comment of mine, under my moniker 21stCentury Ozman, was acknowledged in the discussion: "The phenomenon of asterisks in 'offensive' terms has a lovely name: grawlix (pronounced 'grollix')". On the legal prosecution in Australia of 'offensive' language: About 20 years ago in my home town (Lismore, NSW) a chap was charged for using 'offensive language' at a supermarket checkout. The magistrate, Pat O'Shane, ruled that the offending word ( fornicate in four letters) had become such common usage that it could no longer be regarded as offensive, and dismissed the case. I don't know how (perhaps a later over-ruling?) but since then there have been further, and successful, such cases, so precedent law seems to have a few holes in it. In the 1970s, potty-mouthed and risk-taking Australian TV personality Graham Kennedy was censured by the Australian Broadcasting Control Board for saying faaaark on the box. In his defence, Kennedy claimed to have been mimicking a crow-call, thereby giving a middle finger to the censors. Had the censors not made a fuss it may have passed into history un-noted, but instead it became one of the nation's 'great moments in TV history'. Ms Laugesen mentioned convict James Hardy Vaux's A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language, which I republished in 2008 and 2016. Tony Robinson, in an episode of one of his TV series ( Tony Robinson Explores Australia, Tony Robinson's Time Walks, or Tony Robinson Down Under – I don't recall which), referred to that book and I subsequently sent him a copy. If anyone would like a PDF copy, just ask and I'll email it (38 A5 pages, 413 KB).
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Sept 10, 2021 9:54:15 GMT
I also made a comment during this broadcast. I referred to the relevance of social class. I think my comment was misunderstood; I should perhaps have referred to social status.
It seems to me that this is very important in the context of the acceptability of “bad“ language. Of course I am not properly familiar with the situation in Australia but it is certainly the case that people in my social group in the UK do not use bad language. Even informally such usage would certainly be deprecated and even a word like “bloody“ would be unusual and only used carefully and, I think, deliberately, for special effect. I think the same would apply in regard to my family in Australia. I suspect that the speaker’s age, their social status and the environmental context might have more to do with the issue than was clear in the webinar.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 10, 2021 11:04:13 GMT
Ah! I saw that comment.
I think Australian language use stems to a large degree from our convict origins, as does our lack of religiosity.
Yes, some convicts were from more elevated / educated / refined backgrounds / professions (there were bent lawyers and doctors among others) but far more were from among the impoverished. Example: Paddy Muldoon, my great (x2) grandfather, then aged 18, from Co. Tyrone, had fled poverty in Ireland to find work and sustenance in England, where he was nicked for stealing a silk handkerchief in order to buy bread. He was sentenced to transportation with seven years' hard labour.
I don't know how he spoke, but he was literate: he kept a journal. In that journal he stated that he'd left Ireland a "god-fearing Catholic" and arrived in Australia a confirmed atheist. He'd had all religion flogged out of him by the cruel beatings administered by his Christian masters on the ship (of the Fourth Fleet).
While I was raised not to swear, in later life I found uses for such language, including the Graham Kennedy crow-call when hitting my thumb with a hammer.
My attitude is that the only 'bad language' is that which is poorly used.
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Sept 13, 2021 23:48:34 GMT
How about this for the correct use of a grocer’s apostrophe, seen in a restaurant menu?
Creamed potato’s shrimp and parsley sauce
(Although it would be better with a “with” after potato’s.)
Was it deliberate? Dunno.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 21, 2021 7:05:44 GMT
My chance find of the day …
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 22, 2021 0:59:28 GMT
I got involved in a debate this morning over biannual/biennial and that led me to compile this list of ~annuals/~ennials.
twice yearly – biannual thrice yearly – triannual yearly – annual 2-yearly – biennial 3-yearly – triennial 4-yearly – quadrennial 5-yearly – quinquennial 6-yearly – sexennial 7-yearly – septennial 8-yearly – octennial 9-yearly – novennial 10-yearly – decennial 11-yearly – undecennial 12-yearly – duodecennial 13-yearly – tredecennial 14-yearly – quattuordecennial 15-yearly – quindecennial 16-yearly – sexdecennial 17-yearly – septdecennial 18-yearly – octdecennial 19-yearly – novdecennial 20-yearly – vigintennial / vicennial 25-yearly – quadranscentennial 30-yearly – tricennial 35-yearly – quintricennial 40-yearly – quadragennial 45-yearly – quinquadragennial 50-yearly – semicentennial 55-yearly – quinquinquagennial 60-yearly – sexagennial 65-yearly – quinsexagennial 70-yearly – septuagennial 75-yearly – semisesquicentennial 80-yearly – octogintennial 90-yearly – nonagintennial 100-yearly – centennial
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 22, 2021 1:53:26 GMT
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