Rant of the Day v2.

[Ex-Ascot]

Just transferred dosh to our (Cape's) lawyer in CPT to screw the watchmaker who 'posted' my expensive watch which went missing. I don't care how much it costs but they are going to suffer and hopefully go bust. The lawyers will win financially in the end of course but that is always the case.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

PN, I doubt they are storing "your" stuff. They will simply pull extra items off the manufacturer in 2 months time. If they are big enough, they will be making the manufacturer eat the cost difference (if there is one) in the price in two months. Even my own local guy sold the ones he'd just sold me, and put mine on his next order, so he was only storing them for about 2 months. He was explicit with me that this was what he would do, and confirmed that I definitely wouldn't want delivery for at least two months. He confirmed the price with the manufacturer as we were speaking so that he knew he wouldn't lose out.

[Pontius Navigator]

Fox, indeed,just a question of process

[Pontius Navigator]

I have nothing against Indians, at least India, but there just seem to be so many Indian talking heads on the TV.

[Capetonian]

Many British Indians, and Indian Indians for that matter, speak better English and are better informed and more articulate than the locals. Perhaps that's why.

[boing]

Was walking down the street in Victoria British Columbia behind two Indian ladies in spectacular saris. When we stopped at the street corner waiting for the crossing signal I overheard their conversion in the most beautifully lilted and perfect English you could imagine. Obviously extremely cultured and well educated.

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[Alisoncc]

Personally find the singy-songy English as spoken by those from the Indian sub-continent quite irritating. All the inflections seem to be in the wrong place. Yuk.

[OFSO]

Listen carefully. They are native Welsh speakers...

[k3k3]

Like this?

The Australian thing of ending each sentence with a rising inflection so everything sounds like a question jars as well.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

One of the notable things about Canadian immigrants is that they all speak English or French between themselves, even when they think nobody is listening. This is quite opposite to what I have noted in, for example, the USA or UK. I myself make a real effort to say aboot, not about
That said, the Winkler, MB town guide is printed with three languages in parallel; English, Low German, and Ukrainian. And there is a radio station that does a (CBC approved) voiceover for Hockey Night in Canada in Punjabi.

[Slasher]

The Australian thing of ending each sentence with a rising inflection so everything sounds like a question jars as well.

I concur. It’s damn annoying on the rare occasions I have to call Dunnunda and have someone answer saying “Good morning?”

“Well it might if the clouds clear.”
“Your membership is due Mr Slasher?”
“You asking me or telling me?”
“I’m saying your membership fee is due now?”
“Well maybe. I assumed it’s next month.”
“Our records show it’s payable now?”
“Maybe they do I wouldn’t know. I’m not there where you are.”
“You’re payment is expected by the end of this month?”
“Well from your side I suppose so.”
“Ok this will be done by TT?”
“Yes but I can also e-transfer if you like.”
“No I’m saying you have to send it by TT?”
“Yes! That’s your company’s standard method.”
“I’m transferring you to Accounts now?”
“I wouldn’t know. Are you?”

It wasn’t always so. I know in junior high school Strayans still spoke normal. It was around the mid 70s when this crappy way of talking started? Pretty sure it was caused by Rodney Rude n that? It must’ve caught on?

Also it’s not a millennial or younger generation thing? Plenty of older generations do the same?

[Hydromet]

Agree - maybe late '70s or early '80s that I first noticed it, and I seem to recall some comedian did a skit on it - not Rodney Rude though. He may have started it, though.
I reckon it's particularly noticeable in girls when they hit their teens.

[Pontius Navigator]

My number 1 daughter is a natural mimic. Coming home from primary one day she's asked in a Highland accent, 'where's ma piece?'. We had to ask for a translation. A few years later a French girl asked where she was from as she couldn't recognise her French accent. Later on a French woman thought she was French. Now she is teaching French, German and Spanish. Her son is too and also Russian.

If you listened to her in conversation her accent will subtly switch to yours.

[llondel]

I concur. It’s damn annoying on the rare occasions I have to call Dunnunda and have someone answer saying “Good morning?”

One could argue that this should rightfully be a question because how do they know what sort of morning you're having. Didn't Bilbo Baggins have a discussion with Gandalf the wizard about such matters, although he seemed to consider it a statement more than a question.

[Slasher]

Good morning.

One could argue but one wouldn’t really ask would one unless one made direct enquiry after one’s introduction.

So...you having a good morning ‘del?

Besides I dunno who Bilbo Baggins or Gandalf the wizard are. They sound like a couple of drunks who partially sung The Near Future.

https://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question107399.html

[OFSO]

This is a rant with feeling !

I recently acquired a number of DVDs of films, being discarded. Two were films of best-selling books that I have read many times, "His Dark Materials" books I and II, and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". In both these books, the reader is left in the dark at the start of the book, both stories commence in everyday, nay, innocent settings, and only as one reads does the story unfold and the reader discovers the complexities of the plot and is amazed at what is happening.

However both the DVD's of these books start with a voice-over by an unseen narrator who explains in great detail the setting and the problems and complexities facing the characters. This, before an actor appears on the screen.

Both the films are a product of Hollywood. I can only imagine that it is thought, probably wrongly, that American audiences cannot understand complex plots, so it is necessary that at least half the story be explained in advance. I couldn't be bothered to watch.

A third film, "Troy" was a ludicrous Hollywood imagining of events which took place in late Bronze Age society, compressing ten years action into a couple of weeks, but putting my interest in realism aside it was an engaging film with some excellent acting which I really enjoyed. And the events were not spoiled by being explained in advance.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

This is to be expected, as the story of Troy evolved that way.
The Homeric stories were best-loved classics originally for oral recitation, and audiences for The Iliad would of course have known the full plot from previous listenings. Thus the ageless themes, lyric content, and skill of the orator (or the actors in the film) are the key elements, not the twists and turns of the plot.

[OFSO]

Yes, thought-provoking to read that a sign of being an erudite man in ancient Greece was the ability to recite the Iliad from memory. All of it. Try that in Greece today.

[boing]

OFSO
The best Le Carre productions were the BBC series with Alec Guinness as Smiley. Very understated.

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[Pontius Navigator]

Yes, thought-provoking to read that a sign of being an erudite man in ancient Greece was the ability to recite the Iliad from memory. All of it. Try that in Greece today.

This was normal and only the rise of literacy and printing made memory less common. In Shakespeare's time, if asked what their play was about, expect a full recital.