Hard News: McVicar and the media
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When did people forget how to say the plural of "woman"?
It's a particularly NZ accent problem, I think. Hence the preference for sheilas or ladies -- obvious plurals.
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When did people forget how to say the plural of "woman"?
At about the the same time should have became should of
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Wasn't he just? I thought the incoming editor of the HoS said interesting things too. Well, revealing at least, if nothing else.
I have a lot of time for Bryce and I'll watch with interest once he starts at the HoS -- which, depending on lawyering, could be as late as August.
(I screeched inwardly when he made the point that if they didn't sell enough papers than there would be *less* journalists. The HoS' ongoing War on Grammar is going to be in good hands.)
Yeah, we looked at each other too ...
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Running OS X10.6, Firefox, with adblocker and noscript- but all the scripts on tvnz website are allowed. Youtube runs fine. The adobe player initialises - then just sits there loading. Forever.
Tim - I found I have to disable adblocker completely on TVNZ and TV3 to get anything to play, not just allow some items. But I know almost nothing how these things work so there's no doubt a more elegant solution out there.
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being called "Shakespeare" by ignorant youths, just for speaking normal proper English.
Who you talking about, Grandad?
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It's a particularly NZ accent problem, I think.
I wondered about that. But then a good half of my (second year film) students used to write "woman" for the plural.
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being called "Shakespeare"
I used to (justifiably) be laughed at for saying things like "thrice". It's not that I was actively trying to be pompous, it's just what happens when you learn a language on books.
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People who regularly use 'fortnight' laughed at you for saying 'thrice'??
Nobody has yet laughed at me for using 'forfend' (tho' some look quite puzzled.)
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There's a bit of dialogue in the Simpsons somewhere where Mr Burns is considering running for office and Smithers suggests people think he's out of touch...
Burns: Me? Out of touch? Heaven forfend!
Present company, etc etc...
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Verily
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I'd add forsooth, except I've never really found occaision to use that word-
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Brush up your Shakespeare start quoting him now....
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Heh!
81stcolumn, we do it so often - sometimes unwitting, oft not - -
When did people forget how to say the plural of "woman"?
It's a particularly NZ accent problem, I think. Hence the preference for sheilas or ladies -- obvious plurals.
I wondered about that. But then a good half of my (second year film) students used to write "woman" for the plural.
Timing - a little before the NZ Woman's Weekly was at the peak of its readership. And I suggest there was a causal relationship (rather than a casual one) in the initiation of this trend.
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But then a good half of my (second year film) students used to write "woman" for the plural.
Mine have problems with there and their, and are completely bewildered by they're
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Excellent interview with McVicar, Russell. Perhaps you could have thrown him the line ...common sense is just what we call our prejudices...
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Common sense was missing here.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3570271/Man-throws-petrol-at-cops-after-rampage
Police had to taser a man yesterday after he brought mayhem to his street and then tried to soak police in petrol.
Have you noticed how cell phones are banned at petrol stations?
Electrical charge + petrol = Bang.
So good to see the taser was used (?).
Pepperspray, batons, dogs would have all been safer options, but it didn't blow up, so it was a success, right? -
McVicar came across surprisingly composed, no Walker-Muldoon moments there. Still, it illustrates a wider fundamental problem - demagogic causes are too easily compressed onto a bumper sticker. To put counter-arguments on the same space is easier said than done. And we can't just wait for another David Dougherty, or even something worse.
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Have you noticed how cell phones are banned at petrol stations?
Electrical charge + petrol = Bang.
The "ban" on using cellphones at petrol stations is unsupportable by any amount of evidence and testing. This extends right up to dousing the inside of a caravan in petrol, tossing in a bunch of cellphones, and then ringing them to try and cause a fire. No result.
The Taser thing, on the other hand, is just bloody stupid. Western Australian police last year put out an operational instruction not to use Tasers on people who had poured petrol over themselves after an Aboriginal man combusted in similar circumstances. It's inconclusive if it was the Taser or the cigarette lighter in his hand that caused the fire, but the result was the same and the SOP change is logical. You certainly won't find any fire fighters who can be convinced that the discharge of 10s-of-000s of volts of electricity can be considered to be intrinsically safe.
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So you're saying it's up there with "may interfere with our navigation systems"?
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So good to see the taser was used (?).
Pepperspray, batons, dogs would have all been safer options, but it didn't blow up, so it was a success, right?This report says he was clear of petrol before they tasered him.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10637669
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So you're saying it's up there with "may interfere with our navigation systems"?
Given that I haven't seen discussion of systematic testing to prove that cellphones can't interfere with aircraft nav systems, I'd say it's even less reliable.
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So you're saying it's up there with "may interfere with our navigation systems"?
I think Toby Ziegler shot this down within about 2 minutes of the first episode of the West Wing.
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ask for directions at the McVicarage...
a helpful map of the unspanked world ... -
The "ban" on using cellphones at petrol stations is unsupportable by any amount of evidence and testing.
There is anecdatal evidence of cars blowing up at petrol stations because women stick the nozzle in the tank, get back in the car to do make-up, make phone calls and generally wriggle about in their sheer nylon get-ups on valure seats making megawatts of static. They then trot off to remove the nozzle and.. BOOM...
Girlz eh?.
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