blakeyboy

Good observation, and a damn good point. I have a standard joke with a particular mate who likes wordplay. One of us will do something for the other. Then this is said: "Thank you! " "It's the least I could do" " Oh, thanks for doing the the least you could do"....exeunt stage left.

Yes, prices of stuff are going to go crazy- anyone here seen nice campsite prices? Some are ridiculous! I think velcro prices will rise too, and that's always been a rip off....

We have made full provision for anyone in a chair- my sister has MSA and is chair bound now, and she'll be visiting. Mind you, she has a special vehicle to move her about now. if not, maybe a member on the visit could do a Zoom type thing?

This is the problem, I feel......getting irritated by the pompous. It boils down to that. I find a lot of people in my work whose hubris is astonishing, when it's all castles on sand. Why is this? Ignorance? Following the herd- FOMO? Insecurity? Small genitals? Who knows, but the older ( and hopefully wiser) I get, the easier it is to spot, and this can save an enormous amount of time and effort because you can simply then do business with those clients who aren't idiots, however famous and wealthy the idiots are. If you are going to quote, quote. If you want to quote, but are unsure, go find out. Sorry! Go AND find out....see how Americanisms can creep in? So- you don't hear anyone saying 'I knew him, Horatio', or 'All that glisters', or 'Stuff that dreams are made on' because they don't know that's what the Great Man wrote, and go with the popular saying. Is this wrong? In it's simple form, I don't feel it is. Language usage evolves, and you HAVE to run with it. Americans saying AWESOME all the time may be bloody annoying, but we say AWFUL without batting an eyelid.....

Oxford Reference state 'Referendums', but say 'referenda' is often used..... I still say 'referenda' is tricky, since it is mainly used by people who think it's simple matter like 'stadium', and think they are showing off......

i always knew the word 'datum' as the first point on a drawing etc that you were happy with, and did all other measurements from there. I never linked it to 'data' for years!!

Ceasar adsum iam forte, "passus sum", sed Antone... "Post toti emul esto", as my father used to say, before I realised that if you moved the spaces, it's 'Post to tie mules to'....:)

damn you Bagerap! Too quick! I was going to suggest I saw them on stage at Filey Butlins in the '80s....

Did you ever know Ken Cox?

Ha! I think this gerundive/gerund plural business is a minefield- agendum, datum...hmm...collective nouns? Oxford has recently spoken- 'referendums' yes, 'referenda' no.... Maths is hard. ...not 'maths are hard'......singular...collective? Mass? The 's' is as misleading at the end as the 's' in 'athletics'...... language is fun, and the rules are loose- quadrasonics, or tetraphonics, fine, but 'quadraphonic' is a bastard child.... Got to dash- I've got to get those jussive subjunctives out of the freezer....

ah- yes- but 'Referendum' isn't second declension....it's a gerund- "The asking of the people", and, by definition, is singular, so 'referenda' never existed, and is used by people who want you to think they know Latin when they don't.... All that glisters.....:-)

Then you shall have first refusal! Whatever that means...!

I'm just finishing my biggest project, and it's for Marshall the guitar amp people. We have a new recording studio being built at the factory in Bletchley, and, when the Covid business has passed, I have the green light to see if any forum members who are into rock music etc would like me to arrange a meet in the new studio to see the gear, and have a tour of the factory etc.... Anyone interested? Would be nice to put faces to names!

Yes yes yes!! This afternoon I had a friend reckon that the console I've nearly finished is "pretty unique' and I pressed the button.....!

Yes!! that's what I mean Mike!! Two separate words that don't mean the same thing...why try and combine their usage into 'insure'? Doesn't make sense to me...

best I could do in ten years...accidental find...

Will the coloured ones be more expensive? If so, I can imagine the likes of marleybob and other Ebay trash buying those big sets of Sharpie pens that have lots of different colours!!

oo- what about 'different to', ( so I say "it's similar from" ) and, in Parliament particularly: "we will insure this happens" .....ggrrrr....

If I have to answer that, am I the 'quizzee' ?

ooh yeah! It is second declension, after all, which is what people assume about 'referendum', and come unstuck. 'Referenda' was often used by people who wanted to appeared learned, rather like 'Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well' and 'stuff that dreams are made of' etc..etc....I don't worry any more- language evolves, but when someone talks crap with a smug look on their face I press the button marked 'launch all missiles'....:)

Since the start of Covid, 'data' has been referred to as a plural, strangely, after decades of everyone getting it wrong... 'Referenda' seems to have vanished now, thank heaven, replaced by 'referendums', but remember that we are often not the arbiters of good usage: in US supermarkets one till/checkout is labelled '15 items or fewer', quite correctly, instead of using 'less', and it can easily be argued that 'math' is the correct abbreviation of 'mathematics', and not 'maths'.....

Hmm..saw that....it's tricky - I think the light angle is once again moving the teeth about.....a bit like Ken Dodd's passport photo....

Whaaaat??? And there was me thinking slabbing was a good thing to do and only made money for the coin owner! Brezhnev never told us....