Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Tue May 08, 2018 10:30 am
I've just found out that certain Irish names are pronounced nothing like their spelling like Niamh (neeve )
Padraic (porik) Eidlah (ailey )
They are pronounced how they are spelled. When you're taught how certain letter combos are pronounced in the Irish language they make sense. Certainly more sense than things like Worcestershire or Leicester or Featherstonehaugh. How is that last one fanshaw? Even when you learn the rules of pronunciation in English they don't make sense.
Bicester, Gloucester, Worcester, Leicester and many others - I don't think these are as illogical as you suggest. If you take away the -ster, you'd struggle to pronounce what you're left with as anything other than a single syllable, and suddenly they start to look more sensible.
The only example I can think of which appears to buck the trend is Cirencester. Maybe it's the only one with an extra syllable. Consistency could be achieved with Sirenster, but I don't think anyone says that.
I used to think that the crown jewels were just the jewels in the queen's crown. In fact, I don't think it's that obvious that they aren't, but apparently they aren't. Most of you are probably finding out for the first time that they aren't.
Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2019 10:07 pm
I used to think that the crown jewels were just the jewels in the queen's crown. In fact, I don't think it's that obvious that they aren't, but apparently they aren't. Most of you are probably finding out for the first time that they aren't.
Not obvious until someone tells you, but, listen carefully - Lady Gaga doesn't say "pah-pah-pah-poker-face-pah-pah poker face", but "pah-pah-pah-pah-poker-face-pah-pah fuck her face".
Mark Deeks wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 5:30 pm
Not obvious until someone tells you, but, listen carefully - Lady Gaga doesn't say "pah-pah-pah-poker-face-pah-pah poker face", but "pah-pah-pah-pah-poker-face-pah-pah fuck her face".
Every, or nearly every, car dashboard has a little triangle beside an icon symbolising a petrol pump. This tells you what side of the car your petrol tank is.
Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:33 am
Probably obvious to the stalwarts here but I've only just discovered that Stewart Holden started this very forum
Well he started c4countdown the Yahoo group, but it had been taken over by Charlie by the time it migrated here. So it depends on whether you consider this to be the "same forum".
Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:33 am
Probably obvious to the stalwarts here but I've only just discovered that Stewart Holden started this very forum
Well he started c4countdown the Yahoo group, but it had been taken over by Charlie by the time it migrated here. So it depends on whether you consider this to be the "same forum".
I'm only quoting from the Wiki which suggested the forum c4countdown was started by him
When I first started getting stuff from the Huffington Post in my Facebook feed, I would sometimes confuse it for a joke site like Daily Mash or Newsthump because it's got a joke-sounding name. Did no-one consider this drawback?
Here's one that I think fits the theme of this thread perfectly.
Basic potato peelers work in both directions.
Also you don't even have to remove the peeler from the surface of the potato to continue peeling.
This has more than doubled my potato peeling efficiency, and feels a lot safer too.
Jon O'Neill wrote: ↑
Also you don't even have to remove the peeler from the surface of the potato to continue peeling.
I'd go so far as to say that if you do remove the peeler from the surface of the potato, you won't be able to continue peeling at all.
I've never used a potato peeler.
Maybe I should post that on the correct thread
Although I do own one for carrots.
I like to just cut the peel off although more often than not I have Jackets or ready roast/ new potatoes
Just found out today that the word is spelled prerogative and not perogative. I've never heard it pronounced prerogative in my 37 years. Also perogative comes up in my phone's predictive dictionary even though it's wrong.
Admittedly probably the only time I hear it pronounced is in the Bobby Brown song and he has to make it track lyrically but it just looks wrong to me and I'm going to make it my perogative to continue to spell and pronounce it wrong.
Having recently damaged my right knee o ordered a walking stick from Amazon.
I opened it and started using my right hand with the stick
Only to realise that you use the hand on your good leg instead.
Totally counter intuitive to my brain.
But it works.
Am I the only one to not get it
Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:02 pm
Those things you have at parties that you blow into and they unwind and make a noise don't have a standard method name.
Along with those things you make out of a sheet of A4 with numbers and colours and choices where you put your fingers in and wiggle
I'm not dead yet. In a rut right now because of stress from work. I'll be back later in S89. I also plan to bring back the Mastergram - if I can find a way to run a timer or clock through pure MediaWiki without having to upload to Vimeo every time.
I used to wonder why an ass was sometimes a donkey and sometimes a snake depending on what the speaker felt like at the time, and how everyone just seemed to know which they were referring to. Turns out the snake was an asp. Still a stupid word to this day. I've never needed to use the word "asp".
When the electric toothbrush stops spinning temporarily every 30 seconds or so, it isn't constantly suffering from a duff battery - it's telling you to change area.
Eoin Monaghan wrote:
He may not be liked on here, but you have to give some credit to Mark
Martin Hurst wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2020 6:11 pm
1) The song played at the start of Only Fools and Horses is a completely different song than the song played during the end credits.
Martin Hurst wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2020 6:11 pm
1) The song played at the start of Only Fools and Horses is a completely different song than the song played during the end credits.
Martin Hurst wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2020 6:11 pm
1) The song played at the start of Only Fools and Horses is a completely different song than the song played during the end credits.
It's only in recent years that Civil Service guidance has changed, but it's a relic of mechanical typesetting, or something like that if I remember right. Still a good number of colleagues use them, I delight in finding and replacing them
Ian Volante wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 11:52 am
It's only in recent years that Civil Service guidance has changed, but it's a relic of mechanical typesetting, or something like that if I remember right. Still a good number of colleagues use them, I delight in finding and replacing them
Ah my first job was Civil Service, and I hadn't really had cause to type anything prior to that, so guess that's where I picked it up. Wonder what "Mavis Beacon teaches typing" used to say...
Paul Merton is older than Ian Hislop (62 to 59). OK, it's not REALLY obvious and I actually found out ages ago, but I still think it's worth mentioning. When I first started watching Have I Got News For You as a teenager, I saw Paul as the young "cool" one and Ian as the middle-aged uncool one. I would have been very surprised to be told that Paul was older at that point. But since then, Paul has definitely aged, whereas Ian looks largely the same as he ever did. So it might not be so surprising to new viewers.
Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 11:16 am
Paul Merton is older than Ian Hislop (62 to 59). OK, it's not REALLY obvious and I actually found out ages ago, but I still think it's worth mentioning. When I first started watching Have I Got News For You as a teenager, I saw Paul as the young "cool" one and Ian as the middle-aged uncool one. I would have been very surprised to be told that Paul was older at that point. But since then, Paul has definitely aged, whereas Ian looks largely the same as he ever did. So it might not be so surprising to new viewers.
A bit like Clive Dunn from Dad's Army....he used to have to dress and act older than he was and eventually he looked like Corporal Jones for real
Ian Volante wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 11:52 am
It's only in recent years that Civil Service guidance has changed, but it's a relic of mechanical typesetting, or something like that if I remember right. Still a good number of colleagues use them, I delight in finding and replacing them
Ah my first job was Civil Service, and I hadn't really had cause to type anything prior to that, so guess that's where I picked it up. Wonder what "Mavis Beacon teaches typing" used to say...
“Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing” has the same syllabic rhythm as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I need to get out more. I sincerely enjoy not being allowed to.
I'm not dead yet. In a rut right now because of stress from work. I'll be back later in S89. I also plan to bring back the Mastergram - if I can find a way to run a timer or clock through pure MediaWiki without having to upload to Vimeo every time.
Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 12:01 pm
It's a discussion that I've seen come up a few times recently. It makes sense that it might have been a thing with mechanical typewriters.
I can't see it. With a mechanical typewriter, the full stop occupies a whole space. With two more empty spaces, that's three spaces between the last word of the previous sentence and the first word of the next one. Modern full stops are usually much smaller anyway, and occupy very little space, so there's not much more than a single space between the two words. It would make more sense if there had only been one space in the olden days and now there were two. I blame ADHD myself. If you don't keep the words close together modern youth loses concentration very quickly.
Similarly, "Mersey Docks and Harbour Board" - familiar to Liverpudlians is exactly like "mairzy dotes and dozy dotes" and so needs "and little lamzy tivy" to follow
Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 7:54 am
Also am I the only that says , who? after someone says The World Health Organisation on the TV
Probably.
That reminds me though, there was a great gag in the Catherine Tate/Lauren sketch which was easily the funniest item on The Big Night In. Her teacher, played by David Tennant, was correcting her random assertions about coronavirus transmission. "What are you?" she retorted. "A Doctor? The W.H.O.?"