BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Jeri
Date: 29 May 16 - 11:23 PM

Seen on that channel I have that scrolls the schedule, I notice that starting at midnight is "Town Hall: Maine's Heroine Epidemic". I'm not all that familiar with Maine heroines, and had no idea there was a problem with an excess of them. (Yeah, I know it's spelling, not grammar, but I didn't really want to start a whole new thread for it.)

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 May 16 - 04:56 AM

Eliza, your Bardic interpolations most germane, and much appreciated. But as to putting up my weapon: what warrant does that impertinent youth imagine himself to have to address me in such truculent & patronising tones: impudent little upstart as he is!

Not but what that is probably just such another hyperbolical overstatement as that to which it is in itas turn riposte; but I am as entitled to such hissiphitz as I may please to indulge in as is he -- and to calligraph such according to my own taste without the leave of him!

Innit!

Peace'n'❤·x·❤·2·all

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 May 16 - 06:31 AM

And I am not bound to placate thee with my ripostes.

(Haste Thou To t'North, Act 2 Scene 18, Eric The Red)

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 May 16 - 05:08 AM

To Steve and Michael:

"Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them!
Good signior, you shall more command with years than with your weapons."

(Othello, Act 1 Scene 2)

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 May 16 - 01:50 AM

I am not bound to please thee with my answers

The Merchant of Venice IV i 65

as I might just have quoted before

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 May 16 - 01:46 AM

As I might just possibly have

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 May 16 - 05:19 PM

In fact, Michael, I explained calmly to you in that thread, at 7.41 pm, why my patience with you had run out. You were having one of your especially silly days. On such occasions, at least half-expect derision.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 May 16 - 05:04 PM

I lie low then bite like an alligator. Ask Keith.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 May 16 - 04:16 PM

Steve: Thought it worth checking re your "hissy fit". It was on the 'Whither Labour' thread on 10 May, where you suddenly turned most truculent about some remarks I had addressed to you which seemed to me no more contentious than the usual sort of give'n'take generally regarded as pretty well par-for-the course on this forum. I was somewhat taken aback by the apparent virulence of your response -- which also managed to get the date of my birthday wrong, and also enjoined me to indulge in some spirituous liquors when you know perfectly well that I never indulge in such and have not done so for about 15 years.

If that was not 'a hissy-fit', then, as the great Runyon might have put it, I guess it will do till a hissy-fit comes along!.

Regards

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 May 16 - 12:56 AM

I thought I recalled some spat between us on a recent thread that seemed a bit OTT to me at the time. But I can't recall details; so "let the dead bury their dead," as the guy said, & let's look to the future.

I rather liked my "hissi-fit" as a sort of creative neologism. Sorry if it offended your sensitive semantic sensibilities!*

≈M≈

*Aware of the quasi-tautology; but thought worth it for the alliterative effect.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 May 16 - 09:40 PM

There'll be no dread thrift here. Michael is inventing a spat I didn't know we had. Either that or I'm developing Alzheimer's...

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 22 May 16 - 08:04 PM

So do I: thread drift on The Northern Tide. Drifter alert! Tends to happen when personal spats get in the way of a good thread.

Hissyfit

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Jeri
Date: 22 May 16 - 07:33 PM

I like Hissyfit's music.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 May 16 - 06:44 PM

What hissi-fit [sic] Michael? In this grammar-pedant thread, shouldn't you at least get that right? Michael, what you wrongly alleged I underwent was a hissy fit. Tsk.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 22 May 16 - 06:34 PM

On a day out with the grandkids last Thursday, we took the lift (elevator) down to a play area, had a happy hour there, then had to get the lift back up 3 floors to the exit. It's one of these glass cage lifts in an otherwise big empty space. I said to the grandson, aged 5, "Go and call the lift" as I know he likes pressing buttons, but he threw his head back and bellowed loudly in that big echo-ey space "THE LIFT"!
His voice reverberated all around, but of course, he'd only done what I'd asked him to do!

And when my daughter was young and being a wee bit naughty, I said in very exasperated voice, "Oh, will you BE-HAVE?" she drew herself up to er full 2-year-old height, lower lip trembling, hands on hips and answered - "I AM HAVE!"

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Jeri
Date: 20 May 16 - 06:00 PM

Here's some Weird Al for ya.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 May 16 - 02:51 PM

Hello, Steve. Got over our hissi-fit then, have we? I remember one joker on Uni-Chall once, introducing himself as "reading The Little Red School Book".

Might be an absurd phrase, and often misunderstood: my mother who ran a restaurant once told a customer way back then that I was at Cambridge reading English; and he replied in shocked tones and apparently seriously "What! Can't he read yet?" But it just happens to be the idiomatic phrase for studying the subject of a particular university faculty. So go on being tickled by it; but just don't expect an Act of Parliament to insist that another locution must henceforth be employed.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: saulgoldie
Date: 20 May 16 - 02:26 PM

Not an English major, I. Curiously enough, 'twas English coursework what hindered me more'n math or science. But I keep relearning the importance of clear communication and the hijinks that ensue when it does *not* take place. Plus, I never had that much trouble with the actual English (he said, somewhat over confidently). My problem with "it" was more often with the teacher person with whom I would likely have personality clashes--their fault, not mine, natch. Oh, and the fact that there was so damn much *reading* that I had to do, which I unfortunately do v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 May 16 - 09:08 AM

Pick your context. IMNSHO "reading" a university subject is perfectly understandable, and common, if slightly archaic, usage.
And in the UC context, reading pornography would be quite a study. The studying kind, not the roomy sort, or the studding antics! (don't ya just love pedantry?)

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 May 16 - 06:31 AM

You read English, eh? But what did you study?


(Sorry, the absurdity of that expression always tickles me. I await the day that some linguistic iconoclast introduces himself on University Challenge by saying "Joe Bloggs, reading pornography and studying astrophysics.")

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 May 16 - 05:31 AM

I read English at university; but I wasn't an English Major: the highest rank I achieved in my Territorial Army days was Captain.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Donuel
Date: 19 May 16 - 08:30 PM

OK , all those who were English majors , sound off!

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: saulgoldie
Date: 19 May 16 - 03:26 PM

I scanned this thread to see if anyone mentioned this. Not grammar, but unforgivable, nonetheless.

One affixes one's "John Hancock" on the appropriate line. One does not affix one's "John Henry" unless one is using a 9 pound hammer. John *Hancock* was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He signed with an YUGE flourish. John *Henry* was, of course, a steel-driving man, and likely had little use for a fountain pen. Honestly, people, can we *puleeze* keep our "Johns" straight??

Oh, jeez! I just realized what I inadvertently did there with "Johns" and "straight!!" But it's too late, baby, this keyboard thing doesn't have a backspace/delete/correctype. So the error stays!

Yowzah!! It's not safe out there for anyone, anytime, anywhere!

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Mr Red
Date: 05 May 16 - 05:20 AM

One doesn't round UP, one rounds. Also one doesn't round DOWN, one truncates.

In JavaScript truncation is a "Math.Floor(var);" jobbie (what is the plural in Amerispeak?)
In VBA it would be "Int(var)" etc
C++ is to complicated to even consider. IMNSHO

And on the subject of Amerispeak I came across the word instantiate and had to consult American dictionaries until it made itself a little more obvious.
It turned out to be the process of creating an instance of an object/variable and, yes, it is computerspeak !

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: saulgoldie
Date: 04 May 16 - 09:47 AM

BTW: BillD, czech yer massages and phone home. You know where to find me.

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: saulgoldie
Date: 04 May 16 - 09:46 AM

As I have thought more about this thread and the bigger concept, it occurred to me that it is as with everything that there are them what cares, and them what doesn't. Those of us who care must inure ourselves to the manifold misuses of werdz and grandma, and just go on with our lives, secure in the knowledge that we are superior, and we are the keepers of "the mother tongue" and fie on everyone else. IMNSHO.

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: EBarnacle
Date: 28 Apr 16 - 10:11 PM

From the Paris Orly web site: 20% of flights delighted. My comment to the friend who sent this to me was that I hope she got to fly happily on a darkened aircraft.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 01:56 PM

Donuel, Stanley Unwin was a comedian (sometimes called 'Professor' Unwin') who could speak for ages in a strange garbled English he called Unwinese. If you look for him on Youtube, you can listen to him.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 01:42 PM

Heard that old chestnut on the radio this morning, "the noise level rose to a tremendous crescendo." I suppose the lack of editorial attention mitigates against avoiding these errors...😉

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 01:32 PM

My English teacher was Dr. Irwin Corey.

Senoufou, Is Stanley Unwin a double talker extraordinaire?

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 01:27 PM

Bill, that example actually made me laugh out loud, ten seconds after I read it.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 01:10 PM

"At this point in time, the intoxicated individual exited the vehicle."

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 01:08 PM

(To be pedantic, I did include 'usage' in my list. Had my mind not been fuzzy after 3 days of music, eating & drinking and driving 5-6 hours in mountains, I might have begun with actual grammatical examples.) ☺

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 01:06 PM

Thanks Eliza. That is indeed the word I was fumbling for; but I tend to be getting maybe just an itty-bitty aphasiac in my dotage...!

≈❤M❤≈

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 01:02 PM

I would call them malapropisms. A late friend used to crease us up at bingo. She used to complain about her various veins. And one memorable evening, she announced to the whole table that her husband was putting up a dildo rail in their hall.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 12:57 PM

Actually, Bill D, to be pedantic, those are errors of usage/vocabulary that you instance, rather than of grammar or spelling. But your point is nevertheless entirely valid.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 12:38 PM

Donuel, that sounds like Stanley Unwin!

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 12:05 PM

If were made emperor, one of my first edicts would involve grammar and spelling and usage classes for military and/or police spokespersons.

I cringe every time I hear one confuse 'contingent' with 'contingency'.

"We sent a contingency of peace keepers to control the situation."

There are so many other examples that I dare not start listing them.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Apr 16 - 09:54 AM

I am tracing Steve's grammar rules for posterior.

On the other hand it is not fairly to attackment pacific people with bi Poland lysdickia just for bemusementality.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Bert
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 10:40 PM

I wouldn't have said anything Steve, but the thread was about being pedantic, so I couldn't resist.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 09:31 PM

I stand corrected, Bert. My only defence is that (woe is me...) my jokes were copy 'n' paste jobs...

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Bert
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 09:25 PM

One doesn't round UP, one rounds. Also one doesn't round DOWN, one truncates.

Anyway, the rules of grammar are different for songwriters where the use of the vernacular is almost de rigueur. Also, without the use of cliches Country music would die.

It is said (by whom I do not know) that one must listen to a song ten times before you can remember one line. However if you use a cliche, your song will be remembered on the first hearing, and if you can get that cliche in the title, you've got it made.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 09:03 PM

One day at school, the teacher said to me, " Hey, Shaw, stand up and tell me two pronouns!"

Rather surprised, I said, " Who, me?"

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 08:52 PM

Farmer to sheepdog: Did you round up the sheep?

Sheepdog: Yes.

Farmer: So how many were there?

Sheepdog: Forty.

Farmer: But there were only thirty-eight this morning!

Sheepdog: But you told me to round them up!

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 07:52 PM

"Mummy mummy! I'm having real trouble with my grammar! Boo hoo!"


"Ah, diddums! They're, their, there! It'll be all right in the morning!"

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 07:45 PM

Yes, well we don't still live in medieval times. Generally speaking, the sealing wax can be dispensed with on most occasions and attesting by independent witnesses accepted instead.

As for threads on pedantry not being allowed to contain jokes, well that's a shame. Just when I was about to tell a pedantry joke. Hope it won't make Nigel and Doug choke on their porridge. Ahem:

Who started the pedants' revolt?

Why, Which Tyler, of course!

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 02:37 PM

Couldn't your seal be your sign?
Nope!
As some of our legal experts will probably explain, in UK to be enforceable a contract relating to land must be Signed, sealed & delivered. That's 3 requirements, not two.
Or, to keep it musical on the 'Cat. Just listen to Stevie Wonder.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Senoufou
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 07:49 AM

Thank you Michael for your kind wishes.

Oh dear, does one need permission to make a joke on a thread now? Most threads on most forums drift a bit (or a lot) and certain posts trigger a funny incident or item from one's past. I think this mirrors normal conversation among friends.

To get back to punctuation (or lack thereof) the double-glazing van opposite has returned, complete with redundant apostrophes. I'm so tempted to get my red pen (never without one!) and 'correct' the mistakes. I might even give the chap detention.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 07:22 AM

Items on examination papers are conventionally called 'questions', even tho they are commonly injunctive rather than interrogative in form as somewhat pedantically & redundantly mentioned above; frequently taking the form of a quotation [often invented by the examiner, I suspect, rather than taken from some actual critical or discursive work as he hopes to make it appear] followed by the instruction to "Discuss".

≈M≈

Eliza -- You get·well·soon, yahear!

Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 25 Apr 16 - 06:54 AM

I think pedantry can be a real dampener on a bit of fun, if taken to excess.

If this were a joke thread, I would agree but it's a thread about pedantry. What did you expect?

DC