Posts by Rob Hosking
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Question: is there something about the dolphin referecne I'm missing And do i really want that quesiton answered? Is it going to be like when I looked up the alternative meanings to 'snow job' and 'snowball' after reading a post here last week??
Never a huge fan of 'Victoria' but still have two other early singles - 'All I Can Do', which I love and which is different to the album version; and 'Airway Spies'...got memories of singing 'Railway Pies' to the tune of it when Dance Exponents played Sweetwaters '84.
All joking aside, pleased to see the Luck got the award.
On the subject of scenic NZ stuff, this might stir a few memories:
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The American film"Groundhog Day" (based on Canadian Groundhog named "Bill Bailey" with Bill Murray and Andie McDowell seems to have come to mean repeating the same day over and over.
Yeah, but it sort of fills a useful purpose when used in that way. It's not as if it takes over a useful word and changes the meanign to mean soemthign another word perfectly adequately covers.
There was a phrase used by a previous generation 'I think this is where we came in' which dates from when picture theatres rotated their features throughout the day. It's fallen into disuse for obvious reasons but Groundhog Day is kind of another way of saying 'we've been here before'.
Just seen another word misused, over the South AFrica - England game - at least one report claims England was 'decimated'.
People use this word to mean something like 'badly beaten' but it has a very precise meaning: it means losing one in ten men. So if 1.5 England players were killed during the game (or 2.2 if you include the reserves) then it would be accurate. But only then. Anything else is not just hyperbole (and getting back to the sport=war metaphor talked about earlier) it just plain inaccurate.
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Oh, and sheer fucking WAFFLE.
Maharey in the House this week talking about "a range of initiatives we have put in place."
No-one just DOES anything thing anymore.....
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Indeed. Members of the community are cordially invited to now come up with examples of words whose "wrong" meaning has become generally accepted through sheer currency in the language.
Or, knock off and have a drink.Or both.
Cheers.
Words, now...
My folks, especially my dad, use the term "coon" to mean basically anyone who looks odd.
I can still remember ...and this really shows my age...Dad waking up on the couch (he used to crashout after dinner) in the middle of Studio One when Space Waltz came on the Teev doing 'Out in the Street" and saying "who's that funny looking coon?" (this would have been about 1974)
I managed to find out the racist meaning of it, fortunately before creating any faux pas.
Words often used wrongly...well pet peeve - curmudgeon time (and here the Glenmorangie is kicking in nicely....)
'flout' the law. The number of times you hear people say "flaunt the law" which sort of means waving it in someones face. Which could happen, I guess, but its not what the speaker is trying to convey. I've heard this on National Radio news.
'infer' being used instead of 'imply'. Real pet peeve this one...
I've kind of given up on misuse of 'liberal'. Only people who have wasted their youth studying political philosophy tend to use this correctly.
I had one flatmate, years ago, who had some beaut genuine malapropisms.
The only one I recall was when she was being hassled about saying one thing and doing another and she got all dignified and declared "It's a woman's provocative to change her mind" and could not see why this was met with laughter.
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OK, now you've lost me totally, and I've been following this thread closely until now.
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Dad would know what to do.
Too right. Damn good clip 'round the ear. Tolja once, tolja a hundred times!
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Would that be the celts or the cults?
The most important thing...well, one of hte most imporant things...look, a kind of significant thing... to remember about the game of rugby is this: it's all about cheating and - this is the important bit - getting away with it.
The founding myth of rugby is about a bloke breaking the rules - he picked up the ball and ran with it when he was supposed to kick it.
There are all these incredibly complicated rules - see the examples cited above - which have only one aim, which is to find a way to cheat the rules the ref won't see.
This is why it flourished in English posh schools. They are full of arcane rules, both official and unofficial. Mostly they are nonsensical - things like how many buttons you can have done up on your jacket and that sort of thing.
The point is to prepare people for life by putting a whole lot of silly rules in front of them that they have to break if they are going to live. It teaches them how to break the rules and not get caught. A lot of our own posh schools have a similar ethos.
This is one of the reasons - though not the only one - why rugby union boards are full of lawyers.
I thought it was a shame they legitimised lifting in the lineout. The whole point of lineouts was their sheer dodginess.
Re; The alt broadcasts: I think I heard a bit of the 'Dad' one in 1991. It's all a bit fuzzy now. Was always a great 'Dad's Tips' fan - still got a couple of tapes which were merchandised at the time. I regard them as sublime, unacknowledged Kiwi comedy classics.
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Robyn G wrote:
(I feel like I'm being initiated into a cult.)
You are.
Gathers in groups at night around flickering fires /screens....stange language of its own....
Just watch for the pamphlets and the funny underwear....
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A fucking great post. Nothing like a few hard facts to deal with grizzlers.
One other apsect of course is the nubmer of ex All Blacks who are now coaching overseas. There's at least two at this World Cup, quite possibly more, not to mention all those ex ABs coaching non-national teams around the world.
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Pleased to see Fox back commentating. When he was doing it a few years ago he really added something.
Dunno yet about Merhtens, but perhaps there's a first five thing happening. If they're any good they're good at reading the game and what is going to happen next.
Mexted....well....A certain novelty value which wears off after a while.