Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

7 hours ago, robmcg said:

 

If anyone in NZ spelt colour as 'color' they would be deported. Equally bad is 'barn' for 'shed'. Foreign indeed.

 

Whatever happened to standards?

 

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Yes we'll have none of that kind of nonsense here thank you very much.

 

Profoundly reassuring, you two, thank you.

 

Meanwhile my daughter, who lives on US-teen Youtube content, seems intent upon sounding like a Valley Girl [Edwardian sighs and wrings his hands].

 

The Boy, at Remote School, has just won his first trial, successfully defending Odysseus on a charge of causing the death of his men.  He got a real buzz out of it.  Another advocate in the family?

 

 

[Buhar]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

 

Meanwhile my daughter, who lives on US-teen Youtube content, seems intent upon sounding like a Valley Girl [Edwardian sighs and wrings his hands].

Not the interrogative inflection at the end of every sentence, please! Or should that be "purleeese"?

 

Hand wringing is not enough. Tell her to stop it. Right away. Now.

 

You have my deepest sympathy, James. 

Alan 

[drmditch]

14 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

 

The need for shingle stain suggested non-UK; as Annie posted it, I wondered if it was from New Zealand

 

When I had shingles, now several years ago and in a far-away country, they were painted in mercurochrome. This was bright red and looked very dramatic. Fortunately I did recover and did not lose an eye.

 

Wasn't there a discussion on differing usages and spellings a long way up-thread?

[Annie]

22 minutes ago, drmditch said:

Wasn't there a discussion on differing usages and spellings a long way up-thread?

 

The Americans decided that they wanted to distance themselves from Britain by initiating a system of spelling words incorrectly.  They have succeeded in this since now Britain and the countries of the former British commonwealth consider them to be illiterate idiots.

[brack]

21 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

My impression is that the technology has moved on over the last couple of years, with cottage industry resin printing using more affordable machines producing better quality at lower cost, so that Shapeways and the like no longer have the edge.

Shapeways' edge to me was that it is effectively the eBay of 3D printing. You design and upload, then they do the printing, shipping and sales. Their marketplace has allowed me to sell models on 6 continents - I have produced more Sipat locos than Bagnalls did, and the trickle of royalties paid for my own prints, my lathe, my milling machine and other hobby purchases.

Sadly their continual efforts to raise their prices and make prints lower quality and less detailed (back in 2011 they successfully printed locos with 0.17mm cross sectional diameter curly handwheels, which they forced me to revise 3 times over the years until I gave up, left them off and got some etched) have reduced the flow of orders to an intermittent trickle.

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Buhar said:

Not the interrogative inflection at the end of every sentence, please! Or should that be "purleeese"?

 

 

 

Like, totally.

 

20 minutes ago, Annie said:

 

The Americans decided that they wanted to distance themselves from Britain by initiating a system of spelling words incorrectly.  They have succeeded in this since now Britain and the countries of the former British commonwealth consider them to be illiterate idiots.

 

I have heard that Webster, he of the dictionary, felt that Americans would be unable to spell words not rendered phonetically.  I note similar limitations in the way Americans pronounce things.

 

While no doubt a well-meant rationalisation of the language, one cannot help feel, taking the long view, that denying generations of Americans the challenges of English spelling and pronunciation has, by making life too easy for them, held back their development ...

 

Hat ... coat ... 

[Schooner]

Any change that reduces the information transmitted is not rationalisation, but loss...

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

I have heard that Webster, he of the dictionary, felt that Americans would be unable to spell words not rendered phonetically.  I note similar limitations in the way Americans pronounce things.

 

I have heard it said that, despite the intensive re-use of English place-names in the United States, no-where is there a Loughborough, as they would be obliged to pronounce it Looga-borooga. 

[Hroth]

19 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

no-where is there a Loughborough, as they would be obliged to pronounce it Looga-borooga. 

 

Or it would have ended up as Luffburra, though that sounds more Antipodean....

 

Having managed to annoy a lot of people, I'll just saunter off..

[CKPR]

On 30/04/2020 at 07:23, Edwardian said:

 

Meanwhile my daughter, who lives on US-teen Youtube content, seems intent upon sounding like a Valley Girl [Edwardian sighs and wrings his hands].

 

Someone had to...probably a good idea to have some Butterworth or Elgar lined up to play after this !

 

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by CKPR

[Edwardian]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I have heard it said that, despite the intensive re-use of English place-names in the United States, no-where is there a Loughborough, 

 

There may be other reasons for that; have you been to Loughborough?

 

I recall a comedian on the radio, years ago, remarking that she grew up in a town so dull that it couldn't even find anywhere to twin with; it had to make do with a suicide pact with Loughborough. 

 

I should not be harsh but the world is divided between small town boys who left and small town boys who stayed.  Loughborough was our nearest town and responsible for one of the more decisive moments in my life.  I was 16 when I overhead a village neighbour saying to my mother that she never travelled further than Loughborough for shopping, even at Christmas, "as I cannot think of anything that I would ever want that I could not find in Loughborough"

 

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The prospect of setting such limited horizons gave me the heebygeebies and that was the day I vowed to quit my native heath as soon as possible. 

 

Mind you, it could just be down to pronunciation.  I suspect there is also nowhere in the States called Towcester*. Americans are often unable to pronounce their own place names properly**.  so confronting them with Loughborough or Towcester would just be cruel and unfair.

 

* and this despite a puritan divine, Thomas Shepard, from Towcester emigrating to New England in the Seventeenth Century. 

 

** See Pittsburgh, correctly pronounced Pittsbr', like Loughborough.

[Compound2632]

10 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

There may be other reasons for that; have you been to Loughborough?

 

No. I don't think you would be prepared to count the 5-day Laser Safety Advisor training course I did at the university. All I can recall of that is that we ate very well.

 

12 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

* and this despite a puritan divine, Thomas Shepard, from Towcester emigrating to New England in the Seventeenth Century. 

 

vide Loughborough. Mustn't be too harsh, though, otherwise we'll have Simon to answer to. 

 

Childhood journeys down the A5 were enlivened by attempts to codify the rules for Towcester Races. Should drum extension leads be permitted?

[sem34090]

I can really, really, relate to that sentiment of yours James.

[Nearholmer]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

as I cannot think of anything that I would ever want that I could not find in Loughborough"

Given that contentment, or the absence of it, comes more from inside oneself than any external thing, the person who wanted nothing that can’t be found in Loughborough might just have been The New Buddha, you never know.

[sem34090]

Having visited Loughborough within the past year, that seems slightly doubtful.

 

Incidentally, Loughborough is also home to the only heritage railway I have thus far visited when only a single member of staff was pleasant... Hopefully a future visit will change that impression.

[Nearholmer]

The preserved GCR I always find very dull and uninspiring, but they do serve very good “heart attack” breakfasts on their trains. I don’t normally indulge in those sorts of breakfasts, but they certainly help take the mind off the lack of scenery.

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

The preserved GCR I always find very dull and uninspiring, but they do serve very good “heart attack” breakfasts on their trains. I don’t normally indulge in those sorts of breakfasts, but they certainly help take the mind off the lack of scenery.

 

Cutting!

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by Edwardian
Pictorial elucidation

[Nearholmer]

Yes, mostly, and even the embankments aren't much more interesting.

[sem34090]

15 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Cutting!

But true. They rely too much on their double track, I think - A nice feature, but a lot of the rest of it feels a bit dull.

[Edwardian]

2 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Yes, mostly, and even the embankments aren't much more interesting.

 

Yes, you got it.  I worried that I'd been too subtle, so added a picture. 

[Compound2632]

I've increasingly come to feel that a number of the larger standard gauge heritage railways are best enjoyed from the lineside. The experience of travelling in an ordinary Mk1 TSO - or even Mk2 - doesn't really amount to much. One might hear the beat of the engine and get a few smuts in through the window but that's about it for on-board atmosphere. I'm afraid I'm not good news for their revenue!

 

I make an exception for lines such as the Severn Valley and Bluebell, that regularly field grouping and even pre-grouping vehicles. 

[Northroader]

Come on, the Brush Works was at Loughborough. The first time I went right after leaving school the first of what we now know as class 31’s was being made the start of the brave new world as we see it today.

(baited trap carefully laid for when people come back in from rubbing noses)

[webbcompound]

a bit of a sweeping statement there Mr Northroader.

[Compound2632]

Just now, webbcompound said:

a bit of a sweeping statement there Mr Northroader.

 

I've given that "funny" but really we need a "Ho!" button to go along with "groan".

[sem34090]

13 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I've increasingly come to feel that a number of the larger standard gauge heritage railways are best enjoyed from the lineside. The experience of travelling in an ordinary Mk1 TSO - or even Mk2 - doesn't really amount to much. One might hear the beat of the engine and get a few smuts in through the window but that's about it for on-board atmosphere. I'm afraid I'm not good news for their revenue!

 

I make an exception for lines such as the Severn Valley and Bluebell, that regularly field grouping and even pre-grouping vehicles. 

I must confess that I agree - I wish the MHR had something a little bit more interesting. The best we can muster is a Bulleid open third, which isn't massively different to a MK1 TSO. We did have an Ironclad brake in open storage but there was nothing left of the brake compartment last time I saw it.