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Post by Little Jack Horner on Jul 8, 2022 0:12:03 GMT
I can’t think of anything amusing or original to say to start the month so I have been delaying doing so in the hope somebody else might think of something first. In the meantime…
It is depressing that so few others are now taking part in this forum. I am not sure why that might be because for every posting there are around ten viewings. Surely it is not that uninteresting? I am afraid I have no idea how we might attract more visitors to make a contribution. Maybe all viewings are from existing contributors? I will be sorry if the forum were to go defunct.
Just one item of possible interest. Folks may remember my admitting an addiction to the New York Times Globle challenges. There is another forum which provides similar challenges: WordMaster. A recent solution was DAUNT. I have to say that it is a word that I had not previously encountered except as a derivative as in dauntless and daunting. Oddly enough, I came across exactly that word only two days later. Here it is: “Does any chase total daunt the ambitions of this rejuvenated set-up*?” [*The English cricket team]. Nothing very startling but a surprising coincidence. Much more startling was the English defeat of the Indian team!
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Post by Verbivore on Jul 8, 2022 8:20:38 GMT
Here's a website I stumbled across today; mayhap of use or interest. It claims to be a dictionary of many kinds and uses, and includes quizzes. I can't yet endorse it as I've played with it only for 10 minutes, but it could be fun. For me, a wee distraction from the ongoing
house-move saga.
New address found and signed for in the location of Billimari (meaning 'plenty of water' in the local Wiradjuri language – though the land there has a flood-free history). Move-in isn't until 3 August.
I was seeking a degree of isolation and I think I've found it: a simple, small cottage – one of five in a cluster of half- and quarter-acre blocks – in a dying hamlet of fewer than 30 humans. It is plumb in the middle of various earthy cultures: agri-, horti-, bovi-, ovi-, and viticulture. And then there's the local Kultcha – perhaps the earthiest of all.
The main (effectively only) street – the three others are grassed tracks – hosts a dozen or more abandoned, derelict cottages of various vintages, some built between the world wars, a few in the late 20th century. There is almost no passing traffic (and especially no trucks). My place is two back from that little-used main street, so protected from what vehicular noise and fumes there might be. According to the Post Office in the nearest town – Cowra, famed for the WWII PoW breakout – my street number doesn't exist, despite that the numbers / houses either side are acknowledged. Greater invisibility? Good!
There is no commerce of any kind; the one shop that did exist has been closed for 40 years. After WWII, when Billimari lost its relevance, most of the residents upped and moved to larger regional towns for work and shopping.
I'll need to travel 16 or 23 km for ordinary shopping and 76 km for special spending excursions. (My last place was 14 km from town.)
A challenge
The region has a very different culture from what I'm accustomed to, so I shall be sounding things out quietly (at first). It's been many decades since I was The Only Gay In The Village  so I'm facing a social experiment. |
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Post by Trevor on Jul 11, 2022 13:30:50 GMT
Hi all, Just been posting a couple of replies in an apostrophe discussion over on Twitter ( here, if anyone's interested) and in passing spotted that someone mentioned the old Apostrophe Protection Society had shut down in 2019. That much, I knew, but in reply someone mentioned that it appears to have sprung into new life! And sure enough, the website has been updated with a new chairman in place. Trevor. |
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Post by Trevor on Jul 11, 2022 15:16:48 GMT
It is depressing that so few others are now taking part in this forum. I am not sure why that might be because for every posting there are around ten viewings. Surely it is not that uninteresting? I am afraid I have no idea how we might attract more visitors to make a contribution. Maybe all viewings are from existing contributors? I will be sorry if the forum were to go defunct.] I'm only a very occasional contributor these days, so not really my place to comment, but it seems to me that the days of dedicated forums (fora? 😂) are pretty much a thing of the past. Not sure how you'd attract more people here, when for the majority online discussion consists of social media channels with a much more informal structure. When matters of grammar and punctuation crop up on Twitter, for example, there's often a lot of contributors diving in (like the Earl's Court vs Barons Court discussion I posed a link to earlier) but Twitter discussion - much as I enjoy it - can be confusing to follow with no real 'linear' route when threads split off in different directions. |
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Post by Verbivore on Jul 11, 2022 23:14:44 GMT
Hello, Trevor! Thanks for the link to the revitalised APS site. However, on the About us page there’s a solecism beginning the second paragraph: “ After briefly closing down at the end of 2019, a new champion for the Apostrophe Protection Society emerged in 2022 in Bob McCalden”. Did a “new champion” close down? Hmmm … For the APS’s sake, I hope Mr McCalden doesn’t limit the Society’s board discussions to only matters of the apostrophe, else he might find participants following our lead and going elsewhere to more broadly discuss matters punctuational and linguistic. I wish him well. It appears that the only discussions to be had are on Fakebook, so I'll not be indulging. |
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Post by Trevor on Jul 12, 2022 7:23:08 GMT
It appears that the only discussions to be had are on Fakebook, so I'll not be indulging. Well I am on Facebook (rather too much) but the page on there appears to be mostly people posting examples of misuse and lots of people tutting. No real 'discussion' that I've come across so far. |
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Post by Dave Miller on Jul 12, 2022 9:24:58 GMT
Sadly, Trevor’s right!
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Post by Trevor on Jul 12, 2022 12:06:53 GMT
I feel obliged to clarify: this is not always the case. |
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Jul 18, 2022 22:46:06 GMT
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Post by Verbivore on Jul 24, 2022 22:48:27 GMT
The affecting story of a young person assigned female at birth and struggling to define “eir” identity (Kobabe uses e/er/eir neopronouns) … NeopronounsThe pronoun business seems to have overtaken the race to join the alphabet-soup GLBTIQACDC… circus. As to how often I’ll need to use eirself, emself, perself, airself, or emself in my new cultural environment (a dying rural hamlet of six houses, where I’ll likely be The Only Gay in the Village) … . Pronouns: A Guide for the American University CommunityNeopronounand the Spivak pronounPerhaps one shall default to one: then one cannot be accused of ageism, sexism, ableism … (but is one, in its claim to uniqueness, elitist?). Or I could use Duck / Dux / Ducky … . Okay, I'm getting silly now. I'll retire before I offend some sn*****ke. My email signature is: [Name]
he / him / his for those who GAFF.
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Post by Twoddle on Jul 25, 2022 8:02:22 GMT
I'm all for new gender-neutral singular pronouns and adjectives to replace "they/them/their" (which will always be plural in my vocabulary). It's a pity they haven't settled on one, definitive set! I prefer the "Per" group from that list - it's simpler than the others as there's no need to have different subject and object pronouns.
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Post by Verbivore on Jul 27, 2022 11:29:49 GMT
Somebody, please resurrect Sir Ernest Gowers!
I have concluded that (at least parts of) the Australian Public Service could use a visit from the late Sir Ernest.
I have, over the past five weeks, spent more than seven hours on Hold, listening to ghastly Muzak, while waiting to connect with a human being; spoken with 11 'servants'; sent 37 emails; visited more than a dozen websites; filled out six different – all irrelevant! – forms; twice visited the relevant regional office; dealt with five departments / agencies on line and by phone … and I've yet to succeed in my quest: simply (?!) registering an online account whereby I can manage my tenancy matters directly.
Each of the 11 people I spoke with told me a contradictory story, some of which were read directly from the departmental bible – with no apparent comprehension by the officer, so how the hell is a mere layperson to understand the arcane system in use when even its operators haven't a clue is beyond my ken.
The 'service' needs a thorough flush out of important-sounding but meaningless gibberish and a serious re-education in plain-English communication – not to mention hiring some competent coders who'll make websites that work. Preferably first time.
The people I've been dealing with
(a) don't bloody well listen – rather, they hear what they want to hear so that they can answer from their formula sheet;
(b) they are incapable of explaining anything that's out of the line of their experience (yet they're operating within their own systems);
(c) don't know WTF they're talking about
(d) have each given me bum steers (including instructions and links) to nowhere productive.
There was a time when to enter the Australian public service one had to demonstrate a reasonably high level of communication skills – i.e. listening, speaking, and writing – as well as general intelligence but, sadly, that is no more.
Instead, the departments I've been dealing with are staffed by cretins.
There, I've had my dummy spit. ;-)
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Jul 28, 2022 14:14:29 GMT
That was a real rant, VV. I hope you feel better for it. I think we all experience similar things from time to time but I don’t think I have a hard one quite as bad as yours. Typically, routine enquiries are dealt quickly but anything unusual can take forever. One has to hope that the use of automated systems costs less than the employment of competent staff and that the savings are passed on to customers by cheaper products or less expensive services. At least, that is the consolation I take when I have calmed down.
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Post by Twoddle on Jul 29, 2022 8:04:23 GMT
Recently I wanted to have some routine blood-tests done, so I 'phoned my doctor's surgery and, after the obligatory pressing of about a dozen 'phone keys and fifteen minutes of listening to crappy, repetitive music and the same important messages umpteen times, I was finally counted down from number twelve in the queue and I managed to speak to a receptionist. Doctor's receptionists in the UK must be bred especially for the job and then given several years training in how to prevent patients from obtaining medical advice, and this one was probably top of her class. She informed me that I'd have to 'phone back at 8 a.m. - what?! I'm rarely conscious by 8 a.m.! - when she'd give me an appointment to 'phone the doctor to discuss the matter. I haven't bothered; no wonder the life-expectancy of the average UK citizen is currently decreasing.
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Post by Trevor on Jul 30, 2022 21:15:05 GMT
"they/them/their" (which will always be plural in my vocabulary). "Oh, look, someone has left their phone on the bus." |
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so I'm facing a social experiment.
