Man Down, Send Tissues
If it’s seemed a little quieter than usual, that’s because your host is now entering week two of Man Flu Fortnight™. And this year’s strain is a real humdinger. I’m assuming that the fever and shivers and sleep deprivation will eventually pass, at which point normal service will resume.
By all means chat among yourselves.
I feel your pain, David. Had it just before Christmas. It’s a real clinger.
I feel for you, old boy! I’ll bet your significant other regards your suffering with cynical feminine indifference – mine does!
I’ll bet your significant other regards your suffering with cynical feminine indifference
He got it first.
Get well soon, David.
This guy’s suffering might be even worse than the dreaded man flu:
‘According to a Princeton University student, joking about the way he pronounces “Cool Whip” is a microaggression, and microaggressions are very serious because they can lead to binge drinking.’
‘In a column for The Daily Princetonian, Tennessee freshman Newby Parton explains that he is from an area where people pronounce their “wh” sounds “hw,” and that this has caused hardship in his life – such as having to endure people asking him to say “Cool Whip”.’
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/395715/princeton-student-joking-about-how-i-pronounce-cool-whip-microaggression-katherine
Tissues will be sent when you admit you will do the thing that most men do and, pause for deep breath, examine what comes out post-blow.
Sure, it’s revolting but one has to know these things.
Get well.
@RY
They’re scrapping the bottom of the victimhood barrel it would seem.
Cool Whip…
They have scraped out (and scrapped) the bottom of the victimhood barrel, sucked up the moisture beneath, and begun digging up the earth to reap its bounty. You’ve perhaps heard the expression “low-hanging fruit”? This victimhood fruit they have found under the barrel is so low-hanging, it’s a potato. Which, to make my point clear, is not actually a fruit.
I think the appropriate response to being notified of a microaggression is to express microsympathy and perhaps offer a microapology in the form of looking remorseful for a microsecond.
Oh, apologies – didn’t realize dicentra had already posted that on other thread.
A ‘flu jab for £9 at a supermarket in November is a good investment. Put it in your diary for 2015, David.
[ Writes down ‘flu jab’. Slumps across desk, oozing snot. ]
Yes, it is indeed a nasty strain and beware – you’ll think you shrugged it off, only for it to return about a week later… :/
Take a nice long rest on your bacon-scented pillowcase.
Microbillionaire:
“They have scraped out (and scrapped) the bottom of the victimhood barrel,”
Meanwhile, when somebody opens up about actual victimhood at the hands of feminists — to the extent of feeling suicidal and wanting to castrate himself! — the appropriate reaction is, of course, to write bullying blog posts attacking him:
http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2091#comment-326664
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/mit-professor-explains-the-real-oppression-is-having-to-learn-to-talk-to-women/
Not even a week into the new year and the Guardian decides that brown sauce is racist.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2015/jan/05/-sp-brown-sauce-sales-are-falling-has-britain-finally-come-to-its-senses?CMP=share_btn_tw
didn’t realize dicentra had already posted that on other thread.
It warrants reposting. That poor kid needs saving and quick.
Also, I’m still recovering from the semi-annual sinus infection that struck me down for three days. Not as bad as the flu but the sinus pain got so bad one night I resorted to using narcotics left over from last year’s oral surgery.
‘Tis the season.
I’m Irish.
I worked in London some years ago.
Every so often, one of my English co-workers would stop at my desk and ask me to pronounce “thirty three and a third”.
Or, a favourite of the girl next to me: “this is the third film”
Oh the Humanity! Oh the myriad of micro-aggressions!
If you feel the need to be micro-aggressed by a “wh” pronunciation go ask a Kiwi how to pronounce a place name like Whakatane.
It will come back “F” + “uck” + “uh” + “tah” + “nay”
After recovering from that, have a crack at Whakapapa
I’m Irish.
And then there is a fellow American who did graduate work in Britain, and of course he speaks American.
—The British will explain why they’re giggling.
And there is the story of the American, or someone traveling internationally, who went skydiving in Australia, had the second parachute finally open about 100 feet up, and the next thing he sees is a white surface, he hears hissing and beeping in the distance, and then he finally sorts out that the presence of the nurse means he’s in a hospital.
He really wants to hear the bad news. “Ah . . ah, Nurse, I really need to know the actual truth. Did I come here to die?”
Oh, No, sir!! You came here yestodie!
I’m reminded of the joke about the two Irish lumberjacks who went to America in search of jobs, and returned because all the jobs called for “tree fellers”.
If you feel the need to be micro-aggressed by a “wh” pronunciation go ask a Kiwi . . .
. . and I’ve heard that tourists in Hawaii–ha-wai ee–will learn of poo-eye-na-co–Puainako, which is a place near Hilo—hee-lo—, and will learn of moa mo’a—mo-ah mo ah–, which is cooked chicken . . . and following all that, and having learned all about pronouncing Hawaiian, may ask about the ban-zai pee-pee-lee-nee.
Get well. I’d suggest tea and toast, but you’re English, so you do that already. I’ve been recursiving on your Year in Review post, getting sidetracked by this link and that…took me ages to get back here….
No need to travel so far afield. Just come to sunny Sheffield and try out the local lingo. Ask this question to any passer by; “oowasheewee?” To which the natural answer will be “shewawee-ersen”. To Sheffielders this makes perfect sense. And if you try out that micro aggression shite you’ll just be called a “mardy bum” and given a clip round the ear.
Get well soon, David. I don’t expect this will hasten your cure, but it might take your mind off the misery for a while.
Brown snake swims between the flags.
Bask in the Crazy: Hate Speech
https://ricochet.com/bask-crazy-hate-speech/
This is a small sample:
“Anyone guilty of hate speech – which should carry criminal penalties of 25 years to life – should be sent to special prisons designed to re-educate them and to instill values of tolerance, freedom, democracy, and human rights in them. Prison is about punishment, but it’s also about changing the behavior of criminals.”
On pronunciation: the joke about the Englishman in Glasgow who stops at a Bakery and asks the Scot behind the counter: “Is that a tart or a meringue?”
The reply: “Nay, yer not wrang at all.”
The ba-dum-tish machine will overheat if you lot keep this up.
The ba-dum-tish machine will overheat if you lot keep this up.
Noooooooooo!
The ‘to die’ joke was originally a Gallipoli joke.
Pompous English General reviewing newly arrived diggers at Gallipoli:
“Tell me Digger did you come here to die?”
You know the rest.
Russell Brand to be studied at English A-level from September.
But it’s not all bad news: “The 37 new syllabuses include moves to ensure students can no longer avoid reading a whole book for their English GCSE.”
Another way is possible!
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/04/24/how-maduro-is-interfering-in-venezuelas-schools/
Socialism is shortage, principally of freedom.
“No need to travel so far afield. Just come to sunny Sheffield and try out the local lingo….”
You completely lost this Yank with that example. I don’t understand that English English, only Amurrican English. 🙂
But I did enjoy Terry Pratchett’s Nac Mac Feegles, whose speech, I have been told, is taken from actual Glaswegian.
Derbyshire is pronounced Darbyshire? Leicester is pronounced Less-ter? Cholmondelay is pronounced Chumley?
Now I am afraid to travel to anywhere in Britain without a trained multilingual guide. 🙂
So the Guardian has a rolling news page about what happened in Paris – including some very pompous stuff about freedom of speech etc. Something I’m sure they believe in.
Meanwhile, below the line in the comments section, it’s
“This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs”
Over and over again…
@ Henry
Re Paris/Freedom of speech:
http://www.samizdata.net/2015/01/the-editors-of-the-independent-explains/
You completely lost this Yank with that example. I don’t understand that English English, only Amurrican English. 🙂?
So yes, there are the concerns on occasions about just what Google does with all that data, but Googlemancy in general is a rather useful tool
. . . what I found particularly interesting is one bit where self got migrated over to being more like sen . . . and then languages do migrate . . .
Hal: Yes, sometimes Google can explain what something means, but it is always fun to “complain” about this.
My only actual complaint is that at no time in grade school or high school did any teachers say anything helpful about these striking differences in pronunciation. And thus for many years I had completely incorrect ideas about how to pronounce various names.
“. . . what I found particularly interesting is one bit where self got migrated over to being more like sen . . . and then languages do migrate . . .”
It comes from the Middle English word Seluen.
“Derbyshire is pronounced Darbyshire? Leicester is pronounced Less-ter? Cholmondelay is pronounced Chumley?”
Place names are a nightmare.
I’m almost tempted to offer a prize to the first American who can give the proper pronounciation of these places without looking them up
1. Durham
2. Towcester
3. Averham
4. Ulgham
5. Worcestershire
6. Happisburgh
7. Woolfardisworthy
8. Loughborough
9. Belvoir
10.Aslackby
For reasons of taste I’m ignoring Folkingham
“Man Flu?!” This year’s flu strain is named for the football team?
David … as you are now in day 5 of Man Flu … as I have a morbid fascination with traffic accidents, I eagerly await a health update from you
(my hopes are that this years encounter is decidedly swift and not as bad as anticipated … get well soon!)
As far as pronunciations go, I was born in Los Angeles, raised and still live in Southern California. Yet, somewhere along the line I picked up my grandmother’s Michigan “whar” for “wah” in words like Washington (“Wharshington”) or “gharsh” for “gosh”.
A gift of great amusement for husband, offspring and friends.
I’m giving like that.
I eagerly await a health update from you
Heh. I’d say about 70% restored. Still a little congested and woolly-headed, a little bleugh, but I can function, more or less. I’ve kept the tissues if you’d like to inspect them.