The Language (and travel) Thread

[Arcadia]

It would be salted crackers (saltines or Ritz) not graham crackers

The digestives, you mean? Cuz my student brought some in, they were definitely graham cracker-ish, not saltine-ish. But maybe there's more than one kind?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Right -- digestive biscuits are basically just round graham crackers.  I assume the name comes from the idea that they're easier to digest than the more cookie-like biscuits, or supposed to be good for your digestive tract.  Graham crackers were originally health food too, though I suspect that the modern version is a far cry from the original.

 

[Bendydoodle Cantaloupe]

Chocolate milk used to be sold as medicine!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Really? 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I have a question for our British posters.  It's my impression that Americans use the word "pie" more often, while the British use "tart" more often.  Over here, the two words have somewhat different meanings, with a pie usually being larger and deeper, and a tart usually being smaller and/or shallower (and often fancier and more expensive).  The photos in those two Wikipedia articles seem consistent with the American meanings.

 

What is the different (if any) in the UK?

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Moved here from the "Whose Death Could You Tolerate?" thread:
 

... for series 4, I am trying to reign in my anticipation as much as possible....

Sounds like the prudent course!

You've accidentally tripped one of my current pet peeves, though -- it's "rein in" -- like you might do with a horse -- and likewise "free rein." (Everyone seems to be writing "reign" these days, though, and it does make a certain amount of sense, so presumably it'll be the accepted version in another hundred years.)

[Arcadia]

You've accidentally tripped one of my current pet peeves, though -- it's "rein in" -- like you might do with a horse -- and likewise "free rein." (Everyone seems to be writing "reign" these days, though, and it does make a certain amount of sense, so presumably it'll be the accepted version in another hundred years.)

Oooooh, look at you go all Sherlock with the grammar! Actually, I'll join in .... one of my current pet peeves is it seems nearly everyone is now using loose when they mean lose. Drives me nutz. "I'm loosing my mind...." Urk.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Well, in either case the spellchecker approves it, and even highly respected publications don't seem to have human proofreaders anymore.  I saw "free reign" in Harvard Magazine (yes, as in Harvard University) not too long ago.

 

[Arcadia]

Not like!

[Carol the Dabbler]

So you're saying you'd find it hard to tolerate the death of the English language as we know it?

 

(See -- we're still on topic!)

 

[Arcadia]

Death I could tolerate ... racially offensive words.

 

Death I couldn't take ... the correct usage of lose and loose.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'm afraid you can blame most of the latter on spellcheckers and (especially!) autocorrect.

 

These days, people are encouraged to trust anything that comes out of a computer.  What they may not realize is that a computer is a very simple-minded machine -- all it knows on its own is the difference between 0 and 1.  Absolutely everything else comes from the programming and the data input.  So if you trust computer output, that really means you trust the programmers and the input clerks.

 

Admittedly, most of the time it all works fine, because most decisions are pretty straightforward.  But it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on what comes out of the computer.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I've just re-read my last few posts, and would like to apologize to anyone whom I may have offended with my comments.

 

I don't think I made it sufficiently clear that I'm not intending to criticize individuals who have trouble spelling -- God knows I'd be lost without a spellchecker (or at least a dictionary).  What I'm meaning to rant against is the whole computer-dependent culture that encourages us to stop thinking for ourselves.  But that would be a whole 'nother thread, wouldn't it?

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

It probably would be Carol but you know how we like to randomly go on tangents and hijack threads.

[Arcadia]

I'm afraid you can blame most of the latter on spellcheckers and (especially!) autocorrect.

Nice try, but neither of those will change lose to loose if you type the right word in the first place! And it's not just a typo, or sometimes it would come out dose or lore or lost instead of always loose.

 

I should talk, however; yesterday I was so brain dead that "win" came out "when" and "blew" came out "blue". Apparently when I'm tired my mind starts playing with homophones, how weird is that?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh my God, don't tell me you're actually human!? 

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I do homophones all the time with here and hear, usually substituting the former with the latter and then catching myself to get it corrected.

[Arcadia]

Oh my God, don't tell me you're actually human!? 

Shhhhh, it's supposed to be a secret!   

[Arcadia]

I do homophones all the time with here and hear, usually substituting the former with the latter and then catching myself to get it corrected.

I don't think I do that too often (?) but I have a few pet words that I simply cannot spell without double checking them. Like "occasion". One c and two esses? Or the other way around? Or two of each? I have to go thru the whole rigmarole every time.

 

It's funny, I never noticed that "reign/rein" thing before but now that Carol's mentioned it I'm seeing it all over the place..... gleep!

[Bendydoodle Cantaloupe]

I'm that one person who almost always notices spelling and grammar and even formatting errors in books. It usually goes in stages, my response -- 1.) Stare angrily at offending word/phrase/sentence, 2.) Stare more angrily, 3.) Continue reading like normal.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

When I see grammar issues I go "aaaaahhhhhhh" then try to suppress my inner "grammarian" as I call it and continue on.

[Arcadia]

I actually threw a book across the room once, it had so many typos and grammatical errors. I paid good money for that thing! But usually, yeh ... just glare and move on!

[Carol the Dabbler]

My worst word is niece (which I just spelled wrong again, but the spellchecker caught it and I corrected it).  Yeah, I know, "I before E" -- but there are exceptions, and somehow that word never looks right, no matter how I spell it.

 

I rarely glare at books.  I do sometimes yell at them, though.

 

OK, I'm moving this to the Language Thread!

 

[Arcadia]

Too late, we're done talking about it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

You've got a new favorite emotie, don't you?