More Bad Language

I wonder sometimes how people manage to qualify as TV announcers. One actually said roofless the other day when referring to the Virginia Tech university shootings. He obviously meant ruthless. I have great sympathy for anyone who has a speech impediment, but I don't think that was the case in this instance. The announcer was just lazy. It's called Estuary English and it has taken over most of southern England., since the soap 'East Enders' started. The diversity of dialects that enriched the English language is being lost. I like Cockney, but Estuary English is most definitely not Cockney. There are similarities, but Cockneys really speak well. They may drop their aitches, but in my experience most of their pronunciation is accurate. In fact if you watch some of the films from the fifties, which are admittedly not the best examples, the Cockneys speech is similar to the posh people’s, just peppered with rhyming slang. My point is that the media are not setting a good example and we are all the poorer for it. Manglinq the language leads to misunderstanding; misunderstanding fuels prejudice and bigotry. It is not 'Politically Correct' to criticize, but without criticism how can you improve. Everyone feels that they are right, except me (grin), but nobody is perfect. We can all use a little constructive criticism occasionally.

More bad language

One of the most abused words in the English language is done.
My dictionary says this is the past participle of the verb do. Briefly this means that it should only be used with another verb, to expand on its meaning.
I suppose that the most famous example is the Lord's Prayer 'Thy will be done'.
What it isn't is a verb. It is simply not correct English to say someone done something.
They may do something, or maybe they did something in the past, which they shouldn't have done.
Maybe this is too subtle, that last phrase looks the same as what I object to. The subtlety is that the verb in the phrase is 'have' not done.

I cringe every time I hear someone say things like I done the lottery, or the boy done good.
Todays plug is for Survey Scout. This is a website that links to over 500 survey sites that will pay you real cash for taking surveys.

Old buses in Folkestone

It's amazing how many people like old buses.
The M & D and East Kent Bus Club have been running a few events every year sponsored by Stagecoach. The latest of these took place on Easter Monday in Folkestone.
In these events the vintage buses take over some of the routes in and around the town and run to the regular Stagecoach schedules. Passengers travel for free.
My brother brought his son (aged 9) and a friend and this was their first experience of travelling on a double-decker bus. They chatted to an old man who told them how he and his friends used to collect bus tickets in their teens.
The youngsters were fascinated to hear that in those days just after the Second World War, tickets were made of card and had every fare stage on the route printed on them. The conductor used a hole punch to indicate which stop the passenger could travel to.
There were six different values colour coded to enable them to be easily identified.
The bus I was on made two trips to Folkestone Harbour, one to Hythe, two to Cheriton and finished up with one to Hawkinge Battle of Britain Museum.
The last one was a bit of a challenge for the old bus as the final hill up to Hawkinge is very steep and she was fully loaded. In total she carried over 300 passengers and the other buses were just as full.
I wore my Garmin Foretrex 201 Wearable Personal Navigator throughout the day and it coped reasonably well with being inside a bus. The last trip was so full that I couldn't sit by a window, so it couldn't see any satellites. The rest of the day provided some useful results.
In total we travelled about 75 miles, the top speed was 45.5 mph although the manufacturer only claimed a top speed of 42mph when the bus was new.
The Dover Transport museum will be running some old buses from Whitfield to Dover on the 29th April and the The M & D and East Kent Bus Club are having another open day in Herne Bay on 5th August 2007.

Bad language

There is a lot of swearing on films and TV, but that’s not what I’m referring to.
I think that the media should set an example. Most writers are highly educated; they have an excellent command of language. The trouble is that they don’t use their knowledge.
I keep seeing abuses of the English language. People who should know better using phrases like: The Romans are... which is stupid.
The Romans no longer exist, so all references to them must be in the past tense.
This may appear pedantic, but language was invented to enable humans to clearly exchange information. Misuse of language leads to misunderstanding and probably explains why the world is in the state it’s in.
Bad language takes many forms, there’s dumbing down and verbal diarrhoea. The former is usually justified by the excuse that it lets the audience understand what’s being said. The latter is just a form of snobbery.
Verbal diarrhoea means using more, or longer words than necessary.
Advertising is another user of bad language. In this case the aim is to persuade us to buy the product, so it can be useful to muddy the waters. For example: Saying that something is a ‘quality product’ leads most people to assume that that is a good thing. Strictly speaking the word quality is a noun, not an adjective. On its own it means some aspect of an item and can be bad, or good.
If it is going to be used to describe something it needs to be part of an adjectival phrase for example low quality, poor quality, or maybe even high quality.
Adverts that don’t mean what they say are a constant source of amusement:
Nothing works better than Anadin; so don’t take anadin, take nothing to cure your headache.
9 out of 10 cats prefer Felix; can I have that it writing? Why are my cats all the 1 in 10 that don’t prefer it, anyway
Heavy plant crossing… I was expecting a Giant Sequoia to walk across the road.
My motto is KISS – keep it simple stupid. If you want to be understood, write as you speak. Don’t use 2 words if 1 will do and don’t use a long word (affirmative) when a short one would be better (yes).

Fireworks

It's Easter again, the daftest festival in the Christian calendar.
I mean, Christians worship Christ as the son of god, but they've adopted this pagan festival to celebrate his death. It's also one of the most commercially exploited times of the year, with cards, eggs and other chocolates, it's almost as bad as Christmas.
Another excuse to overindulge, spend money and let off fireworks. Why do people feel the need to annoy their neighbours in the dead of night by letting off high explosives?
I know that it doesn't compare to the terror of living in a war zone, but it scares the life out of one of my dogs. She shivers in terror as soon as one goes off and takes a good 12 hours to recover. In the UK the madness starts in October and goes on until after New Year, with sporadic outbreaks at random through the rest of the year. Guy Fawkes night on November 5th is the only national occasion for celebration with fireworks, but that doesn't stop the idiots. Sometimes it sounds like world war 3 has erupted.
I used to love fireworks as a kid and even years ago when my son was young. In those days they were all about the spectacle, sparkles and pretty colours. Modern ones are all bang and no flash. People seem to let them off just for the explosion, they obviously can't see anything when low clouds cover the area as they often do in the winter.
A lot of the fireworks on sale are positively lethal, they are designed to be used by trained pyrotechnicians who understand the risk, yet they can be obtained by any idiot with an internet connection.
What do you think?
Should we have a total ban on firework sales to the general public?

True Chivalry is Never Sexist

I hold the door open for everyone, male, or female, who I meet. It becomes a pain in the neck after the fourth, or fifth, ingrate has barged through, but I do it even if I'm in a hurry.
I firmly believe that good manners make me a better person. Chivalry is just an extension of this, it costs nothing and makes the world a better place.
Chivalry is an integral part of civilisation. It isn't some medieval invention by knights, it's deeper than that.
Man developed, because our ancestors shared their good fortune with their neighbours. They cooperated to find food and protect vulnerable members of their community. It would be a shame, if we lost the benefits of chivalry through the mistaken belief that it is sexist.
I've shared most of my life with my wife, some people would consider this to be a sexist remark. 'My wife' to them implies ownership, but she refers to me as 'my husband', is that sexism too?
I would never dream of intentionally letting a door slam in her face and I hope that all of the people who say chivalry is sexist would feel the same about their friends, lovers, partners, colleagues, fellow commuters...
Why not extend this to everyone? It is only a very small step. A stranger is after all only a potential friend. It costs nothing and makes you feel good.
Go on try it.