English As She Is Spoke

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon Mar 24, 2003 5:40 pm

BTW, Herbster, great stuff! I'm thinking about getting a copy myself.

jim_mc · Post by **jim_mc** » Mon Mar 24, 2003 7:37 pm

Is it not considered sporting if I eat the fish? Because I don't really like fishing (though I prefer it to golf or softball), but I love fresh trout. You just can't get a trout from the stream to the fish market to the frying pan fast enough. The fish market step must be eliminated if you're going to have some really good trout.

With all the snow melt around here, there's going to be some good eating this spring!

As far as catch and release goes, it doesn't strike me as a very humane thing to do just for fun, but if you're fishing for food and you catch one that's too small, careful release will leave the fish in a fine condition to survive.

And Cranberry, be careful using sex for recreation. You might end up getting thrown out of VEHEMENT.

FJohnSharp · Post by **FJohnSharp** » Mon Mar 24, 2003 9:01 pm

McSweeney's is THE current literary magazine. It was founded by Dave Eggers who is the editor savant du jour. If you write fiction, it's one the top three places to be published. The web site reflects Eggers, whose work is brilliant at times, often sidesplittingly funny in a truthful way, and usually at a high level of energy. His book, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" is wonderful up until the very end. It's still worth reading but is a bit of a let down in the end. The intro and the 'corrections' pages in the trade paperback version are worth the price by themselves.

www.mcsweeneys.net is the correct address. You will find some very entertaining stuff there.

madfifer9 · Post by **madfifer9** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 12:12 am

You fiendish rake you! LOL! Next thing you know, you'll be telling us you like... photographs.

Nudge nudge, wink wink...

madfifer9

Ro3b · Post by **Ro3b** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 2:47 pm

I've just bought this book and I've been giggling over it all afternoon. There's a bit of info about its origins here. One of the authors, Jose Da Fonesca, was a perfectly competent linguist who published a Portuguese-to-French phrasebook. The other guy, Pedro Carolino, came along and pirated the book, wrenching it into something that's almost-but-not-quite-entirely-unlike English.

Oh, and Aaron: "Esperar horas e horas" means "to wait hours and hours." So I'm just waiting for a chance to say "Dude, where have you been? I've been craunching the marmoset!"

brownja · Post by **brownja** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 3:01 pm

Bloomfield wrote:
Cranberry wrote:
Will you marry me, Bloomfield?

You don't want to be in bed with a sweating, wheezing fat guy who is losing his hear and who keeps tweaked feadogs on the night table... (I don't have dentures, btw. Yet.)

Of course, Bloomfield is none of these things, but he is German, and, you know, they're almost as bad as the Dutch!

jb

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 5:47 pm

This billy-goat* is a family jewel, in its selfish general direction!

Especiál if Twain Mark too spake it so ravishingly and being high on it!

I am such happiness you located this, and I pledge I'll track it** for improvisement of my English in pieces, as I was pointed outdoors. Good tanbien to improvise my Portulanguage, such my Dance New music (Jobim, Buarque, etc.) could positively asset of better linguini appropriation!

* Fr.: bouc, n.m.
** Fr.: pourchasser, v.t.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 5:51 pm

carrie · Post by **carrie** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 5:54 pm

Zoob,

You are having a nature gift in English language!

Carol

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 7:03 pm

This brings to mind the related but far less creative subject: the English Languish. A topic close to my heart (and I know to yours, too, Carol); I cannot go there for weeping.

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 7:33 pm

Wooden gnat bay "Anguish Languish"?

herbivore12 · Post by **herbivore12** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 7:34 pm

Nanohedron wrote:This brings to mind the related but far less creative subject: the English Languish.

Referring to Britons, or the language?

Sometimes I fear for English (as I know it), and decry its bastardization and/or debasement. (I once heard a conversation between two girls on a BART train that went thus:

Girl 1: "I was like, chuh! And he was all, duh!"
Girl 2: "I totally know it!"
Girl 1: "So now I'm all like, whatever, dude. . ."
Girl 2: "I totally, totally know it!"

And I was like all, "Wha'?". . . Anyway.)

But a friend of mine, whose English is excellent, also speaks the hybrid Spanish-English we now call Spanglish out here in California, and you know what? It's awesome stuff. Wish I could do it (I can speak English, and I can speak a formal sort of university-class Spanish, but Spanglish, no). Pungent, colorful, emotive stuff.

But in general, a lot of written and spoken English leaves me shaking my head and wondering if I've gotten old. I'm not even middle-aged (depending on the definition), so how can I be so awfully stricken by poor usage?

--Aaron, running to go hug his Strunk and White. . .

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 7:53 pm

Aha, Herbivka! I heard the exact same conversation on the bus last evening! College lasses. They were, like, so whatever.

Now, I know that I can spew out some pompous crud; it's just entertainment for me. Just wondering how to address issues w/ one's counselor with that particular dialect...

N

Rockymtnpiper · Post by **Rockymtnpiper** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 8:22 pm

It's totally and utterly pointless to throw a string in the water with a living earthworm on it, and hook a fish and severely injure it.

I wouldnt say its utterly pointless.... some folk find this activity helpfull... it helps one consume a "twelvie" of carbonated malt beverage whilste sitting by the lake breathing in mountain air (or at best something close to it, locations may vary)

Personaly, you wont find the string and worm in my gear. I use a #16 - #18 fly (the very finest that the fly boutique offers for sale), on a 2# tippet, and reel them in with a fabulous Ross reel. I stalk the Creek Trout, I outsmart them, and I fries them rolled in corn meal. IT is more than a sport. ... Creek Trout are a required ellement of my diet, as it is with all Coloradans.

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 8:23 pm

But seriously, N.

What is this "The English Languish" that you mention?

Best wishes,
Jerry

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English As She Is Spoke

Why, Nano!