Cato's Grammar Grumble

Started by Cato, February 08, 2009, 05:00:18 PM

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Florestan

Quote from: sul G on March 18, 2009, 10:01:01 AM
Most of these infamous bonkers Euro-regulations are made up by the Eurosceptic press to scare/wind up a gullible public that likes nothing more than a good harrumph. The banana one is such a myth.  ::)

Commission Regulation (EC) 2257/94: bananas must be "free from malformation or abnormal curvature," though Class 1 bananas can have "slight defects of shape" and Class 2 bananas can have full "defects of shape."

(emphasis mine)




Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

sul G

1) What's wrong with that? All sounds pretty sensible.

and

2) as the clip points out, the current EU definition is identical to the previous ones in individual member states (including Britain) and to that used by the UN and the OECD. The fuss is made because a) it is the EU, which we are all supposed to hate and b) it is bananas. Bananas are inherently funny.

Florestan

#422
Quote from: sul G on March 18, 2009, 10:19:11 AM
What's wrong with that?

Define "abnormal curvature" and "defect-free shape" of bananas.

It boggles the mind, besides being morally outrageous, that those bureaucrats in Bruxelles spend tax-payers' money to produce such monstrosities as trying to force nature in their narrow-minded standards and regulations.

I don't hate the EU idea as it was conceived by its Founding Fathers, i. e. Jean Monet, Alcide de Gasperi, Robert Schuman and the likes. But what we have now is a supranational bureaucracy which is not accountable to anyone except themselves --- the very contrary of the original intention.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

sul G

See point 2 above. What boggles my mind is the keenness to see flaws where one wants to see them but to ignore precisely the same flaws where one doesn't. Like the UK press with this banana issue - kicking up a fuss because it comes 'from Brussels Eurocrats' where they never did when the same regulations came from London.

Kullervo

I have a reserve of my ire set aside for people who use "indicate" for "said" (as in "This person indicated to me that I was an idiot"), or "utilize" where "use" would be more apt.

Florestan

#425
Quote from: sul G on March 18, 2009, 10:31:32 AM
See point 2 above. What boggles my mind is the keenness to see flaws where one wants to see them but to ignore precisely the same flaws where one doesn't. Like the UK press with this banana issue - kicking up a fuss because it comes 'from Brussels Eurocrats' where they never did when the same regulations came from London.

I can assure you that in my own country there was absolutely no regulation regarding the curvature of bananas --- or of any other fruit or vegetable --- prior to EU issuing one, our national cohort of narrow-minded bureaucrats notwithstanding.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

sul G

Quote from: Florestan on March 18, 2009, 10:38:25 AM
I can assure you that in my own country there was absolutely no regulation regarding the curvature of bananas --- or of any other fruit or vegetable --- prior to EU issuing one, our cohort of narrow-minded bureaucrats notwithstanding.

Well, that's fine - we had them here, in the country which leads the world in Euro myth-making, that's my point. Does this banana-curvature-regulation issue seriously affect the quality of the bananas you're getting now that you're afflicted with it? Do you miss the old triple corkscrew ones?  ;D  ;)

(I'm joking, obviously - I just think that far too much fuss is made out of these issues, especially when, as shown, most of the more outrageous front-page splash regulations don't exist in the form pretended or already existed prior to the EU)

:)

Cato

Quote from: sul G on March 18, 2009, 10:31:32 AM
See point 2 above. What boggles my mind is the keenness to see flaws where one wants to see them but to ignore precisely the same flaws where one doesn't. Like the UK press with this banana issue - kicking up a fuss because it comes 'from Brussels Eurocrats' where they never did when the same regulations came from London.

There should be a fuss over both!

These things exist because, with bureaucrats, the old adage "idleness is the devil's workshop" is magnified 10X.  They come up with such things to justify their existence, when in fact they should be fired, publicly buggy-whipped, and sent to pick up trash along the highways.   8)

Corey: you are right!  "Utilize" and "indicate" are preciosities heard more and more from the morons, who are trying to puff up their wrens' feathers into peacock-plumage.   :o
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

sul G

Quote from: Cato on March 18, 2009, 10:44:59 AM
There should be a fuss over both!

Both, or neither. But not only over one - that's my point.

karlhenning

Quote from: Cato on March 18, 2009, 10:44:59 AM
There should be a fuss over both!

Or (possibly) a grumble.

Florestan

Quote from: sul G on March 18, 2009, 10:44:22 AM
I just think that far too much fuss is made out of these issues

No fuss would be made if these regulations did not exist in the first place, right? If the idea is "let EU (or UK or whatever) bureaucrats make what regulations they want, that's their job and nobody's going to comply with them anyway" then the function of government, the concept of law and the civil duty are, in long run, subverted and distorted. There are numerous examples in history of political regimes that started playing with small and often risible issues and gradually grew to full-fledge tyranny, precisely because of the attitude described above.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

karlhenning

It's a matter, perhaps, of fussing to the right degree, and targeting the fuss aright.

Cato

James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, while offering a report on how Sen. Dodd and the White House are trying to get their stories straight on why they both approved bonuses for AIG executives weeks if not months ago, and now pretend they had no idea this was happening, uses the term "hypovehiculate" to describe how the White House now finds Dodd expendable.

i.e. hypovehiculate = to throw someone under the bus/tank/truck   :o

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123747200979984843.html  "The Devil Made Me Do It"  >:D
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

DavidRoss

Please don't mention Dodd.  He, personally, bears at least as much responsibility for the financial mess we're in as any other public official, and yet hardly a day goes by when this hypocritical scumbag isn't on TV pointing the finger anywhere but where the blame rightfully belongs.  Just thinking about him puts me at risk for a stroke.

There are no punishments in Bosch's Hell heinous enough for retributive justice against such foul betrayers of the public trust...but literally throwing him under a bus--say on the Capitol Mall--and then dragging his sorry ass all the way back to his irate constituents in Connecticut might make a good start.
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Cato

Quote from: DavidRoss on March 19, 2009, 06:55:53 PM
Please don't mention Dodd.  He, personally, bears at least as much responsibility for the financial mess we're in as any other public official, and yet hardly a day goes by when this hypocritical scumbag isn't on TV pointing the finger anywhere but where the blame rightfully belongs.  Just thinking about him puts me at risk for a stroke.

There are no punishments in Bosch's Hell heinous enough for retributive justice against such foul betrayers of the public trust...but literally throwing him under a bus--say on the Capitol Mall--and then dragging his sorry ass all the way back to his irate constituents in Connecticut might make a good start.

"Here we go a-hypovehiculating..."

(Needs some work!)   0:)
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

snyprrr

Did youse guys mention "dude" yet?

My 1905 dictionary define dude as, basically Oscar Wilde...and when i saw that, I was like..."don't call me dude, fag." :o

When did "dude" change from Oscar Wilde to surfer guy?

And how can you convince ANYONE that it matters?  Their (just testing you)they're just going to call you dude anyway.

snyprrr

IT'S ALL GOOD

every time I hear this i want to gut punch the person and say, "you're right, I feel so much better now. thank you for enlightening me that it was a GOOD thing i did."

I think this phrase originated at a backyard picnic concerning the FOOD. NOT an excuse for you not to take a stand on anything.

TOODLES!

Cato

Many good grumbles there, Snyprr!   8)

"Dudde" is Medieval English for a cloak, and became a slang word for clothes, i.e. "duds."  This is possibly the origin for "dude" in the 19th century, as Easterners wearing "fancy duds" were easily spotted in the West, and were mocked as "duded" (dressed) as inexperienced newcomers.

One source indicates the word is picked up by African-Americans in the early 1900's and stripped of negative connotations, becoming a synonym for "man" or "guy" then.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Bill and Ted movies of the 1980's make the term a national tic!   8)
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

DavidRoss

I don't know about the origins and history of the word in American slang, but when I was a child in Texas and Arizona it was a disparaging term heard mostly in Hollywood Westerns that was a virtual synonym for "urban male from the Eastern U.S."  Derivation from "duds" seems a likely story.  By the late '60s "dude" was in common use among the California youth culture (including surfers) as the masculine counterpart of "chick."

Thus it has been part of my vocabulary since the '50s and I use it unabashedly today, though rarely among those not of my generation (or near to it), and almost always with a wry undertone signaling (a) that we're not as young as we once were, (b) that sometimes we enjoy acting as if we were, or (c) that we should have learned something during the past four decades!
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

snyprrr

and "chick" comes from "shiksa"?

for me, dude is like n***** in derrogotationality. It's like calling your spouse b**** (in that terms of endearment way- roll of eyes). How sweet.

and the "yo boy" talk of ANY kind.  There's a movie called White Boyz? about some, sorry, no other term for it, wh****** living in Iowa.  It is so dead on and infuriating- Iowa boys talking like dey be down wit da homiez in da hood.  One day they go to the house of their black friend, and his mother asks the main charac. if he comes from New orleans because of his accent, and he says, no, jus livin in the hood...arrfff ::)

Another thing that bugs me is the tendency of said group to also appropriate their granny's "church sayings" and use them as if that is all it takes to be "spiritual"...what I call the "I KNOW that's right" syndrome.

then: "I'm jus gettin my ______ on"

then: when people say "oh reeeaaally?" in that faux snooty "Hamptons" accent. corollary to "dahhh-ling"

and: "go" for speak, as mentioned...extremely annoying

personally, I overuse "huh" as a sign of "who bout that?"

and yes: putting "izzle" at the end of a word. :-X