Crisis of Faith - Dear John Letters

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, Armin said:

By the way... does there really exist the English word "Zeitgeist"...? I was searching for that word in English (Zeitgeist is German) and found "spirit of the times" and "Zeitgeist" as an English translation for German "Zeitgeist" (pons online dictionary).

Yes, it is a real English word.  But it is an obvious cognate of the German portmanteau.  It is not a tremendously common word.  But educated people will use it to sound like they are smarter than others (cue Dennis Miller).  It is more simply referred to as a "world view."  This is a valid word for individual world views, as well as that of the society you live in (be it nation, locality, or the entire world/age/era).  It is probably somewhat similar in German.

Edited May 10, 2017 by Guest

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Armin said:

Yes, I think it means the same (like world view). But I wonder how you would pronounce it in English...

 http://howjsay.com/pronunciation-of-zeitgeist ... The English pronunciation on howjsay is certainly right, but the German not exactly.

The best I can tell you is that we would pronounce the vowels slightly differently.  The German makes it a dipthong (almost a zy-et).  In English, it is a standard vowel (the English "i" which is technically also a dipthong, but less pronounced).

Edited May 10, 2017 by Guest

[Jamie123]

My my, what a thread this has been so far. We have had:

• The "Dear Johnning" of missionaries
• Sarah Brightman
• Katherine Jenkins
• William Blake
• Aled Jones
• The Snowman
• Sylvester Sneakly (alias The Hooded Claw)
• Dick Dastardly
• Snidely Whiplash
• Insurance fraud
• Penguins
• Robby the Robot
• Cockney rhyming slang
• Fountain pens
• How to pronounce the word "Zeitgeist" 

I am dying to know where it will go next!

Edited May 11, 2017 by Jamie123

[Jamie123]

17 hours ago, Armin said:

You forgot Loriot.

Did I? Oh, sorry....:(

By the way, it never struck me before but The Hooded Claw always had the hood of his cape down, and wore instead a rather silly-looking bonnet. So was he technically a "hooded" claw?

Nobody remembered the Hooded Claw for years until 1984 when Franke Goes to Hollywood released the song "The Power of Love":

Quote

I'll protect you from the Hooded Claw
Keep the vampires from your door
When the chips are down
I'll be around with my undying
Death defying love for you

Envy will hurt itself
Let yourself be beautiful

Sparkling love, flowers and pearls and pretty girls

Whenever that song came on the radio my roommate (I was in college at the time) would do an impression of a "hooded claw" using his arm as a "claw" and covering himself with his coat as a "hood". But whenever I tried to enlighten anyone about who the Hooded Claw really was, I'd get: "Surely that was Dick Dastardly!"

No it wasn't!

It makes me soooooo mad!

By the way, at that time there were no fewer than three songs simultaneously in the UK charts called "The Power of Love":

• "The Power of Love" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
• "The Power of Love" by Jennifer Rush
• "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News (which was also the theme song for the movie "Back to the Future")

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by Jamie123

[askandanswer]

On 2017-5-11 at 0:59 AM, MormonGator said:

Given your unhealthy obsession with fountain pens (that all of us here at the compound are deeply worried about) this is hypocrisy times 10. 

 

Lol, as if you could ever find any therapist that would be willing to see Zil! What a silly assumption.

[Sunday21]

On 2017-05-15 at 2:20 PM, askandanswer said:

Lol, as if you could ever find any therapist that would be willing to see Zil! What a silly assumption.

I am sure that any therapist would be delighted to see @zil. Think of the job training. In fact, we should donate her to a psych dept. One walk around zil, and they could write their final exams and take their degree. (That's from 'Three Men in a Boat'. Have you read? Funniest book in the English language. Connie Willis made homage to it in 'To say nothing of the dog')

Edited May 18, 2017 by Sunday21

[Jamie123]

You've gotta love these guys...

 

[Jamie123]

21 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

(That's from 'Three Men in a Boat'. Have you read? Funniest book in the English language. Connie Willis made homage to it in 'To say nothing of the dog')

That is my favourite book of all time! There was a sequel "Three Men on the Bummel" but it was not so funny as the original.

Some of my favourite bits:

• Harris' dismal attempt to sing comic songs (which leads into the story of the German professor and his two students)
• "The cheese"
• Harris and the pie
• Uncle Podger and the picture-hanging
• The battle of the pineapple chunks

Quote

George got out his banjo after supper, and wanted to play it, but Harris objected: he said he had got a headache, and did not feel strong enough to stand it. George thought the music might do him good—said music often soothed the nerves and took away a headache; and he twanged two or three notes, just to show Harris what it was like.

Harris said he would rather have the headache.

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by Jamie123

[Sunday21]

@Jamie123. I love those bits. So funny! I can't read your list without laughing! How about trying to get out of the maze? 

[Jamie123]

32 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

How about trying to get out of the maze?

Oh yes - I've been in Hampton Court maze myself many times. It's actually neither as easy as Harris makes it out to be, nor as difficult as he finds it!

[Sunday21]

@Jamie123! How cool. I would love to go!

[Guest]

On 5/11/2017 at 3:01 AM, Jamie123 said:

My my, what a thread this has been so far. We have had:

• The "Dear Johnning" of missionaries
• Sarah Brightman
• Katherine Jenkins
• William Blake
• Aled Jones
• The Snowman
• Sylvester Sneakly (alias The Hooded Claw)
• Dick Dastardly
• Snidely Whiplash
• Insurance fraud
• Penguins
• Robby the Robot
• Cockney rhyming slang
• Fountain pens
• How to pronounce the word "Zeitgeist" 

I am dying to know where it will go next!

That took some impressive study.  You could submit this as a master's thesis.

[Jamie123]

1 minute ago, Carborendum said:

That took some impressive study.  You could submit this as a master's thesis.

Oh well we can now add:

• Frankie Goes to Hollywood,
• The Hee-Haw show, and
• Jerome K. Jerome

to the list!

[Sunday21]

@Jamie123

Do you mind recommending some books? Have you tried Connie Willis? She has some great books like 'Blackout' and 'All Clear' about time travelers who are stuck in the uk during the blitz. 

[Jamie123]

1 hour ago, Sunday21 said:

@Jamie123

Do you mind recommending some books? Have you tried Connie Willis? She has some great books like 'Blackout' and 'All Clear' about time travelers who are stuck in the uk during the blitz. 

Actually I don't believe I've ever heard of Connie Willis, but I will certainly check her out.

Books I would recommend....

Have you ever read the "William" books by Richmal Crompton? The hero - William Brown - is an 11-year-old schoolboy who lives in an almost constant state of war with the adult world (parents, older siblings, fussy neighbours, local farmers etc.) His gang "The Outlaws" also clashes with the odious Hubert Lane and his gang. William's "lady love" is a sweet little girl called Joan who lives next door to him, while his worst nightmare is another girl called Violet Elizabeth, the spoilt and domineering daughter of the self-made village squire.

There are about 40 books in total, spanning the period from early post-WW1 right up to the 1970s. (William - like Bart Simpson - never ages. He is always 11.)

However I wouldn't bother with the later stories too much: the real classics were all published between 1922 and around 1935.

Quote

From "William Below Stairs"

William was feeling embittered with life in general. He was passing
through one of his not infrequent periods of unpopularity. The climax
had come with the gift of sixpence bestowed on him by a timid aunt, who
hoped thus to purchase his goodwill. With the sixpence he had bought a
balloon adorned with the legs and head of a duck fashioned in cardboard.
This could be blown up to its fullest extent and then left to subside.
It took several minutes to subside, and during those minutes it emitted
a long-drawn-out and high-pitched groan. The advantage of this was
obvious. William could blow it up to its fullest extent in private and
leave it to subside in public concealed beneath his coat. While this was
going on William looked round as though in bewildered astonishment. He
inflated it before he went to breakfast. He then held it firmly and
secretly so as to keep it inflated till he was sitting at the table.
Then he let it subside. His mother knocked over a cup of coffee, and his
father cut himself with the bread knife. Ethel, his elder sister,
indulged in a mild form of nervous breakdown. William sat with a face of
startled innocence. But nothing enraged his family so much as William's
expression of innocence. They fell upon him, and he defended himself as
well as he could. Yes, he was holding the balloon under the table. Well,
he'd blown it up some time ago. He couldn't keep it blown up for ever.
He had to let the air out some time. He couldn't help it making a noise
when the air went out. It was the way it was made. He hadn't made it. He
set off to school with an air of injured innocence--and the balloon.
Observing an elderly and irascible-looking gentleman in front of him, he
went a few steps down a back street, blew up his balloon and held it
tightly under his coat. Then, when abreast of the old gentleman, he let
it off. The old gentleman gave a leap into the air and glared fiercely
around. He glanced at the small virtuous-looking schoolboy with
obviously no instrument of torture at his lips, and then concentrated
his glare of fury and suspicion on the upper windows. William hastened
on to the next pedestrian. He had quite a happy walk to school.

School was at first equally successful. William opened his desk, hastily
inflated his balloon, closed his desk, then gazed round with his
practised expression of horrified astonishment at what followed. He
drove the French master to distraction.

"Step out 'oo makes the noise," he screamed.

No one stepped out, and the noise continued at intervals.

The mathematics master finally discovered and confiscated the balloon.

"I hope," said the father at lunch, "that they've taken away that
infernal machine of yours."

William replied sadly that they had. He added that some people didn't
seem to think it was stealing to take other people's things.

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by Jamie123
Spelling

[Sunday21]

@Jamie123! I have got to read these William books! They sound awesome! And a series. BRiILL. 

Have you hear of the Adrian Mole series? Very funny! The series follows Adrian throughout his life. They had many funny references to uk culture that I did not get or barely got. For example, in one book Adrian's parents live in a converted pigsty. I only got this because I have uncles in the uk who kept buying ancient old conjoined row houses and knocking them together to make one real house. Endless conversation about how much you could renovate without upsetting the local council. 

I used to live in an apartment next to a museum which was an old house. The house was the oldest hose in town and bravely wore a plaque attesting to its great age - one hundred years old! My uk friends assured me that the houses that they grew up in were all a lot older than 100 years. Nothing special. 

You are not going to believe this but I swear this is true and is an excellent example of the Scottish approach to child rearing. My uncles came to Canada and discovered the concept of a 'basement'. They decided that they all needed one too. They went back to Glasgow and decided to construct basements under their houses. They began to dig. My uncles are a motley collection of engineers and related semiprofessionals eg roofers and such. They coralled the children to move the dirt from the holes in buckets. We have many children in the family and they are all considered to be free labor. We even lend children to the neighbors for free labor: cleaning the silver, babysitting, and general housekeeping. I think the idea is that when you are an adult, you should be grateful to be an adult and not long for the golden days of childhood.

, 

[Jamie123]

54 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

Have you hear of the Adrian Mole series? Very funny! The series follows Adrian throughout his life. They had many funny references to uk culture that I did not get or barely got. For example, in one book Adrian's parents live in a converted pigsty. I only got this because I have uncles in the uk who kept buying ancient old conjoined row houses and knocking them together to make one real house. Endless conversation about how much you could renovate without upsetting the local council. 

I love the Adrian Mole books. In fact Sue Townsend who wrote them (now sadly deceased) often claimed the "William" books were part of her inspiration.

56 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

I think the idea is that when you are an adult, you should be grateful to be an adult and not long for the golden days of childhood.

I had a colleague a few years ago who came from a very large Irish Catholic family. He told me he and all his siblings were expected to work when they were kids. When I said "I guess that's how you earned your allowance" he looked at me funny and said "we didn't really get any allowance".

I guess food and a bed to sleep in was their "allowance"!

[Sunday21]

@Jamie123. Yes, this description perfectly encapsulates my family's approach to child rearing. More fatal beatings required! 

[Jamie123]

21 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

More fatal beatings required! 

Quote

HEADMASTER: Your son seems to take no interest in school life WHAT-so-ever.  He refuses to
muck in on the sports field. And its weeks since any master has received any written work
from him.

FATHER: Dear me.

HEADMASTER:  Quite frankly Mr. Perkins, if he wasn’t dead I’d have him expelled!

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by Jamie123

[Sunday21]

I have many relatives who are moulded in the image of this schoolmaster

 

[Sunday21]

How funny ! Look what I just posted! 

[Jamie123]

17 hours ago, Sunday21 said:

How funny ! Look what I just posted! 

haha - I think you and I have some of the same dark tastes in humour!

[askandanswer]

On 2017-5-18 at 9:23 PM, Sunday21 said:

I am sure that any therapist would be delighted to see @zil. Think of the job training. In fact, we should donate her to a psych dept. One walk around zil, and they could write their final exams and take their degree. (That's from 'Three Men in a Boat'. Have you read? Funniest book in the English language. Connie Willis made homage to it in 'To say nothing of the dog')

Actually, I think a specialist in extra-terrestrial life forms would be the most appropriately qualified person to exam @zil

[Guest]

I can't believe this thread is still going.

[askandanswer]

1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

I can't believe this thread is still going.

Still going but in frequently changing directions as guided by the promptings of @Jamie123 and @Sunday21