Comments on This should be a Criminal Offence

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mneme
Join the old-fashioned club mneme.  Before we know it the word buoy will be pronounced 'boo-eh,' in the USA and there will be no such thing as a queue.  It will be a line or a lineup.  Perhaps it has something to do with the letter 'u?'

posted by johnmacnab on February 15, 2010 at 2:44 PM | link to this | reply

I agree, johnmacnab.. 'more narrow,' to a wordsmith, is only slightly less gramatically jarring than is 'more narrower' ... at least the latter sounds 'more wrong' -- the sort of thing that gets serious linguists very excited about innovative language usage .. still sounds clumsy to me, but maybe I'm old-fashioned.

posted by mneme on February 15, 2010 at 2:00 PM | link to this | reply

Crikey yes.
And before the "indestructible' CD's.

posted by majroj on February 12, 2010 at 9:25 PM | link to this | reply

majroj
You mean they crashed as they tried to remember what an 8 track stereo was?  Was it something that existed before DVD's?

posted by johnmacnab on February 12, 2010 at 9:10 AM | link to this | reply

Re: majroj
Yeah, when their 8track stereos broke they dozed off.

posted by majroj on February 11, 2010 at 9:04 PM | link to this | reply

majroj

Formula 1 was definitely owned by a Scot - or two.  Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart.  I met Jim Clark a few times when my mate used to go racing down in the borders.  Those were the days when the 'pits' were just wherever you took your car off the trailer, and if you were short of a part or gas you asked the 'pit crew' beside you.  Jackie became Sir Jackie which had us all hooting with laughter at the silly English, but what can you do. 

I thought the NASCAR accidents were caused by either dizziness as they went round and round and round - or by sleepiness as they went round and round and round

posted by johnmacnab on February 10, 2010 at 6:56 PM | link to this | reply

Hey, I can remember when Formula 1 was OWNED by a Scot!

and air intakes were on the front of the car.

Yeah, those grammatic questions....that's what causes all those inattention accidents in NASCAR, arguing usage over the two-way.

posted by majroj on February 10, 2010 at 5:40 PM | link to this | reply

majroj
God, majroj - you've hit the nail on the head.  How on earth can Michael Schumacher concentrate when he's leading the field and has to work out the 'stricken /struck' problem?

posted by johnmacnab on February 9, 2010 at 2:18 PM | link to this | reply

sam444
It is, isn't it, sam444.  It should keep me awake at night.

posted by johnmacnab on February 9, 2010 at 2:03 PM | link to this | reply

Narrower thinking.
I'm still realing under the correctitude of whether someone "was struck by the changes", or "was stricken"?.

posted by majroj on February 8, 2010 at 10:00 PM | link to this | reply

Amazing how things occur without the slightest hint of safety in the forefront! sam

posted by sam444 on February 8, 2010 at 5:23 PM | link to this | reply

Pat_B
You would think so, wouldn't you.  Especially when lives depend on fractions of an inch or millionths of a second.  Eventually what is learned on the track will filter down to our everyday cars - but I can't think of any particular event at the moment.  How about your ability to keep your car on the straight and narrow when you're driving at 200 mph? No?

posted by johnmacnab on February 8, 2010 at 3:47 PM | link to this | reply

Somehow I expected a dab more grammatic propriety
among people who use the word offence, etc., which seems so much more downright upright and proper than the American way of spelling. If it's a formula 1 car, I don't expect the width, whether less wide or more narrow will impact my everyday driving.

posted by Pat_B on February 8, 2010 at 1:36 PM | link to this | reply