what I have learned today.

[Mr Larrington]

Usually spelled selkies here

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie

And that’s the way Professor Larrington spells it too. In a book.

[TheLurker]

And that’s the way Professor Larrington spells it too. In a book.

Shifty things vowels. They've got history that way.   No. 45 from, "Ye Bumpere Liste of Glo∫∫ological Jests & Japes"


An odd thing from when I was a middling young Lurker; having moved from civilisation to the howling badlands of the South (Norhants) I was required by a beak to spell the word "manure" (no I have no idea why either - strange people teachers), so I did.  Whereat I was told that the second letter was an "a" not an "e" because the cloth eared idiot teacher couldn't do accents that weren't English midlands and misheard the very clearly ennuciated "a" as an "e".  Pillock.

[ian]

In the part of the Midlands I grew up in they didn't do the vowel shift, so fight is still pronounced fate etc. Water is w-hat-er like someone fat sat on the a and squashed it flat and wide. The outside world, which debuted in the late 80s, is now eroding the delightful linguistics and turning it into a more standard Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire mix.

[andytheflyer]

In the part of the Midlands I grew up in they didn't do the vowel shift, so fight is still pronounced fate etc. Water is w-hat-er like someone fat sat on the a and squashed it flat and wide. The outside world, which debuted in the late 80s, is now eroding the delightful linguistics and turning it into a more standard Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire mix.

Thank you for that jog of my memory.  My late dad was from Langley Mill on the Notts/Derbys border.  All of his uncles and aunts were of the short-tunged variety.  I had to listen carefully to work out what was being said.  Happy days.....

[Canardly]

It is thought the english word smithereens comes from the Irish smidiríní i.e. little bits.

[offcumden]

It is thought the english word smithereens comes from the Irish smidiríní i.e. little bits.

New to me, too - thanks.  I have a friend called Smithers; I think of his kids as smithereens.

[rafletcher]

Courtesy of ian, the word “canorous”.

[Salvatore]

That on a yiddish virtual keyboard, the backspace key points to the left, even though the character to the right is deleted, yiddish being written right to left.

[Kim]

That on a yiddish virtual keyboard, the backspace key points to the left, even though the character to the right is deleted, yiddish being written right to left.

I'm betting the return key does too.  Unless it just says <Return>.  I suppose we're far enough abstracted from the physical carriage return levers of typewriters that it doesn't matter any more.

(I remember my mum learning to use a word processor and subconsciously raising her hand to slap the monitor in a manner reminiscent of the funky chicken movement I perform with my left arm when exiting a roundabout in a hybrid^[1] car.)


_{[1] But not electric.  It seems my gear-change instinct is linked to engine noise, rather than road speed.}

[Salvatore]

I'm betting the return key does too. 

[checks] Yes.

I only spotted the backspace thing when unsuccessfully trying the yiddish version of wordl (vertle or ןןץרטל).

[Cudzoziemiec]

Norwich Pharmacal Order
I initially thought it was a typo...

[Kim]

Norwich Pharmacal Order
I initially thought it was a typo...

Apparently it's an archaic word for pharmaceutical.  The company seems to have changed its name several times over the latter half of the 20th century, through the usual mergers and acquisitions.  The Norwich in question is USAnian.

Obviously Reverend Lafayette Moore and Oscar G. Bell were shortsighted in not using a catchy Pratchett reference in case their company formed the basis of an important legal case a century later.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Given their liking for archaic language, it would be a snappy bit of Chaucer.

[ian]

I never knew there was a Norwich in NY. There's one in Connecticut. They pronounce it Nor-witch and not Norrich, unless they're old people who pronounce it as the Angles intend. If you ever watch old interview footage with Americans, it's amazing how British they often sound.

[ElyDave]

That on a yiddish virtual keyboard, the backspace key points to the left, even though the character to the right is deleted, yiddish being written right to left.

I'm betting the return key does too.  Unless it just says <Return>.  I suppose we're far enough abstracted from the physical carriage return levers of typewriters that it doesn't matter any more.

(I remember my mum learning to use a word processor and subconsciously raising her hand to slap the monitor in a manner reminiscent of the funky chicken movement I perform with my left arm when exiting a roundabout in a hybrid^[1] car.)


_{[1] But not electric.  It seems my gear-change instinct is linked to engine noise, rather than road speed.}

Imagine having spent most of your driving life with a mangle, switching to automagic for 6 years, then back to mangle again.  Took a while before I stopped pulling up to roundabouts with a last minute juddering change down to second.  And the there's roundabouts in France, where I have attempted to change gear with the arm rest

[ian]

All this keyboardery reminds of the time I was there, in front of an eager audience of around 1,000 Japanese folks at the University of Tokyo and the presentation laptop decided that, yes, now is the time to request a password. Inputting these vital details wasn't helped by the keyboard having gone kanji-fied. Before I knew it, there were about 100 people on stage trying to save me from a terrible conjunction of IT and language. Eventually a small chap emerges through the crowd and gives it a good poke and, forgive my Japanese – voilà, the desktop. He bows a little and exits stage left. I'd supposed the guy who fixed things to be a very well-dressed IT guy, it turned out later he was actually the Minister for Something Grandiose. Imagine, on the other hand, what would happen, if Liz Truss tried to do IT support.

[Mr Larrington]

But not electric.  It seems my gear-change instinct is linked to engine noise, rather than road speed

This.  I have driven petril-engined motor-cars with CVT a few times and never felt the slightest urge to reach for the skies stick.  The first of them was an horble Ovlov 340, though, so I did feel the urge to reach for the 14 lb lump hammer, the matches and the Lighthouse Family.

[Ham]

But not electric.  It seems my gear-change instinct is linked to engine noise, rather than road speed

This.  I have driven petril-engined motor-cars with CVT a few times and never felt the slightest urge to reach for the skies stick.  The first of them was an horble Ovlov 340, Daf 66 with Extra! Heavy! Bodywork! and ElasticBand^TM Drive! though, so I did feel the urge to reach for the 14 lb lump hammer, the matches and the Lighthouse Family.

Just a little FTFY. and to demonstrate unfortunate familiarity with both, the Renault engines used in these monstrosities had wet liners (where the cylinder bore is separate from the block) which had a common fault that after a while the lower seal wore, the liner would drop[ by a couple of thou resulting in cylinder head gasket blowing with unfortunate rapidity. I can also confirm that with practice, said gasket can be replaced in under two hours. It would have probably been easier to change girlfriend.

[Mr Larrington]

Fortunately that example belonged to Professor Larrington's then-boyf's mother, so I only had to drive it twice.  Albeit that the first time was with that lady's Doberdog* in the back, who set up the most fearful row every time the horromobile exceeded 50 mph.  All the way from Greenwich to Woking

The second time just had Lt. Col. Larrington (retd.) in the passenger seat and was thus calmer.

* my parents were looking after it while she swanned off to visit her son, who was working in Abroad

[Kim]

But not electric.  It seems my gear-change instinct is linked to engine noise, rather than road speed

This.  I have driven petril-engined motor-cars with CVT a few times and never felt the slightest urge to reach for the skies stick.

The corollary to this is that my clutching instincts are also tied to engine noise, which means I'm fine in a manual until it tricks me with automagic stop-start.  I'll then sit there at a green traffic light pressing the accelerator like a div wondering why the car isn't gliding forward with anbaric grace like I told it to.

[Mr Larrington]

My clutching instincts are tuned to diseasels and their low-end torque.  So when called upon to drive a ghastly Korean thing with a petril engine out of an underpowered lawnmower while on holibobs (remember them?) I kept stalling the bloody thing

Ob-cycling: long ago my knees learned that upright = fixed, which led to all sorts of prombles on the rare occasions I rode the Perfectly Good Gentleman’s Mountain Bicycle.  Fortunately they've now forgotten.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ob-the  Perfectly Good Gentleman’s Mountain Bicycle: is it a perfectly good mountain bicycle for a gentleman, or a mountain bicycle for a perfectly good gentleman?

[Mr Larrington]

Ob-the  Perfectly Good Gentleman’s Mountain Bicycle: is it a perfectly good mountain bicycle for a gentleman, or a mountain bicycle for a perfectly good gentleman?

Yes

[Cudzoziemiec]

That is perfectly good.

[Mr Larrington]

Today I are learning that TV On The Radio aka Thomas The Vance was born Richard Anthony Crispian Francis Prew Hope-Weston, which seems a tad excessive.