Things I will never understand.

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JamesJenkins
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Post by JamesJenkins »

andybeddy wrote: November 17th, 2020, 5:58 am why there isn't a "for Dummies" guide to the slang that goes around
There is, https://www.google.com/ and it is always more current then anything those old school books could have.
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maxgal
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Post by maxgal »

EltonTheSnowman wrote: August 27th, 2020, 4:20 am
Bookworm360 wrote: August 26th, 2020, 1:38 pm
timberwolfmage wrote: November 15th, 2006, 3:58 pm

There's a theater tradition that says Shakespeare's play Macbeth is cursed, and that you will bring down disaster on yourself (or your production of the show) if you say its name, specifically within a theatrical setting.

MACbeth, MACdonalds. *grins*
Then what do you do when you are performing it? :hmm:
If you say "Hot potato, orchestra stalls, Puck will make amends!", you should be safe. :wink:
(reference for the confused: https://youtu.be/h--HR7PWfp0?t=71)
So THAT's what those 2 actors kept saying to Blackadder! :roll:
I've seen that episode (& all the others) so many times, but could never catch anything between "Hot potato" and "make amends."
Louise
"every little breeze..."

Fun Fact: 40% of all statistics are wrong.
SonOfTheExiles
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Post by SonOfTheExiles »

EltonTheSnowman wrote: August 27th, 2020, 4:20 am
Bookworm360 wrote: August 26th, 2020, 1:38 pm
timberwolfmage wrote: November 15th, 2006, 3:58 pm

There's a theater tradition that says Shakespeare's play Macbeth is cursed, and that you will bring down disaster on yourself (or your production of the show) if you say its name, specifically within a theatrical setting.

MACbeth, MACdonalds. *grins*
Then what do you do when you are performing it? :hmm:
If you say "Hot potato, orchestra stalls, Puck will make amends!", you should be safe. :wink:
(reference for the confused: https://youtu.be/h--HR7PWfp0?t=71)
It is also the tradition when someone is going onstage to not wish them luck, but rather to say "Break a leg!"

And some of them mean it! :lol:

Chris
Currently on sabbatical from Librivox
maxgal
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Post by maxgal »

...why we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway.
Louise
"every little breeze..."

Fun Fact: 40% of all statistics are wrong.
SonOfTheExiles
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Post by SonOfTheExiles »

And how come a cargo goes by ship and a shipment goes by car?

Chris
Currently on sabbatical from Librivox
maxgal
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Post by maxgal »

...why "flammable" and "inflammable" mean the same thing -- or rather, why both of these are acceptable words when either one would suffice.
Louise
"every little breeze..."

Fun Fact: 40% of all statistics are wrong.
maxgal
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Post by maxgal »

...why otherwise normal people use "big" words when testifying in court ... e.g., "I observed him as he proceeded to exit the vehicle" instead of "I saw him get out of the car."
Louise
"every little breeze..."

Fun Fact: 40% of all statistics are wrong.
maxgal
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Post by maxgal »

...why so many people will never understand why "irregardless" is not a word. (But this is just me crying in the wilderness.)
Louise
"every little breeze..."

Fun Fact: 40% of all statistics are wrong.
SonOfTheExiles
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Post by SonOfTheExiles »

Also, some of what passes for "wise sayings" and "maxims".

For Example: "It takes a thief to catch a thief".

Now that doesn't say a lot for the police force.

Or: "They passed like ships in the night".

Imagine two people going up a corridor going "a-WOOOOO-BA! a-WOOOOO-BA!"


Cheers,
Chris
Currently on sabbatical from Librivox
maxgal
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Post by maxgal »

:lol:
Louise
"every little breeze..."

Fun Fact: 40% of all statistics are wrong.
Bookworm360
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Post by Bookworm360 »

maxgal wrote: November 18th, 2020, 12:54 am ...why otherwise normal people use "big" words when testifying in court ... e.g., "I observed him as he proceeded to exit the vehicle" instead of "I saw him get out of the car."
To sound smarter, probably.
2 Timothy 1:7. Look it up.
Specializing in Middle-Earth🧝‍♀️, classics📖, and art🎨🖌
andybeddy
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Post by andybeddy »

maxgal wrote: November 18th, 2020, 12:54 am ...why otherwise normal people use "big" words when testifying in court ... e.g., "I observed him as he proceeded to exit the vehicle" instead of "I saw him get out of the car."
Instantly made me think of that episode in "Friends" where Baby kangaroo Tribbiani (sorry, Joey) uses a Thesaurus to write a letter. "...They are humid pre-possessing homo sapiens with full sized aortic pumps." ( "People with big hearts") :D
ColleenMc
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Post by ColleenMc »

Bookworm360 wrote: November 23rd, 2020, 4:56 pm
maxgal wrote: November 18th, 2020, 12:54 am ...why otherwise normal people use "big" words when testifying in court ... e.g., "I observed him as he proceeded to exit the vehicle" instead of "I saw him get out of the car."
To sound smarter, probably.
Police and detectives do this a lot, mostly because it's the language we learn when they teach us to write reports in the academy and field training. There are a lot of sort of standard phrases, like "I observed" or "I exited my vehicle" or "I activated my lights and sirens and initiated a traffic stop" that just become automatic. It's how I would think, almost, as I was working a call and starting to order the events in my head for the report narrative I would write when I got back to my car or back to the station.
If that's what is in your brain when you think about the sequence of events, that's what comes out of your mouth when you testify in court. We had training classes (brief ones in the academy and a longer one that you were generally sent to during your first year or two on the street) on testifying in court as well, and again, that was how it was taught.

I rebelled against it a bit when I started, because I'm also a writer and my preference is for straight and direct. I never did let them get me into the really old-school form that some still use of narrating everything in the third person "this officer initiated a traffic stop" because I thought it was silly -- even sillier than the rest. But I would get "corrected" and told to use the formal language in training so I just went with it. I think it's probably a holdover from the days when most police officers had just high school education (or less) so they wanted to drill everyone on a standard format so that even if you couldn't write a coherent sentence outside of a police report, you could at least string together the formal phrases in a report/court testimony and sound decent. It also might be a carryover from military habits, that a lot of formal police training became based on, after World War II especially, when so many of those going into policing were veterans. A lot of the narrative stuff sounds like military action reports.

Anyway, long answer to a passing observation. I guess the short form would be, as far as officers/detectives go, we don't choose to use that formal language ourselves to sound smart or put one over, it's the language and structure we are trained in and it's how you end up thinking as you are writing reports and then testifying in court.

Colleen, retired with 16 years in.
Colleen McMahon

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mightyfelix
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Post by mightyfelix »

That's so interesting! Thanks, Colleen!

(Maybe we only think we'll never understand some things! :wink: )
SonOfTheExiles
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Post by SonOfTheExiles »

Things I'll never understand.

How do you cook a phoenix? :hmm:

Cheers,
Chris
Currently on sabbatical from Librivox
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