Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)’s Comments (group member since Sep 20, 2013)

Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)’s comments from the Net Work Book Club group.

Good morning, hope you slept well!

I was raised in the Midwest myself, Mrbooks, and "bring" and "take" mean what they mean. Or at least they did. It's only i the last 15 yrs or so that they suddenly have swapped in people's mouths. The problem is lazy proofreading.

Don't be sorry about that...they gave me a name that I strongly disliked, which at that time in that place was just sooo unusual that people told me I was spelling or saying it wrong. This was way before the weird spellings and made-up names...in those days everyone was Chris and Melissa and Sue. Thank goodness that in the US it is two first names and one surname. The moment I went to college I reduced my first name to an initial, and went on my "normal" middle name. The family never accepted that, just as they never accepted me for what I was, instead of what they thought I should be. The moment I started being myself was the moment I stepped out of that group of people (I cannot call them a family).

My mom had her first girl when she was about 20; by the time I was born she was 38 and had been there, done that. She wanted another boy, and got me. When I stopped being an extension of her personality, she stopped being my mother.

But as you say, we are now grown, at peace, and have chosen those who surround us. Life is for living, not for wishing.

Mr Books--WHAT is the deal with Americans confusing "bring" and "take"? This one just cropped up in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. A published book! You "bring" something with you to where you are, as in "Bring your books to class tomorrow." You are in class, your book is not. You "take" something with you from where you are to where you are not, as in "Take this home and work on it." It is here with you, take it to where you are not. Again and again I hear "I brought my car to the mechanic." Unless you are sitting in the mechanic's garage at the time of speaking, you TOOK it there--and came away.

In the story of The Frog Prince, in the above book, the frog is downstairs in the dining room and tells the princess, "Bring me upstairs to your room." No, froggy, that would be "Take me upstairs" because you are both downstairs at the time.

aaaargh.
Here endeth the rant.

My parents never called me by the right name, but I thought it was because there were so many of us. As I was the last, I got called "David-Tony-Allan-John, YOU, come here." And I'm a girl!! So after awhile it was "babe" or "kiddo" or whatever the replacement word du jour happened to be. I finally realised years after I was married that my parents simply didn't care for girls. My mother always spoke of "my boys" with such pride, but it was "the girls". When I was growing up the older bunch were already independent, and there was one boy and two girls at home. When speaking to us, it was always my brother's proper name, but, "Girls, could you...." for both of us, or "Babe, do (whatever)..." for one. That's probably why "el niño/la niña" gets such a strong reaction from me.

Haha, I hear you! I remember a woman I dealt with who just hadda have a baby, you know? She subjected all and sundry to all the details of her pregnancy, doctor visits etc...and we won't even discuss her obsession with "the perfect name." And yet when her daughter was born, she consistently referred to her as "Baby", both in speaking and writing emails etc. I guess the poor scrap was a trophy, all right.

It's like that in a way here, too, Mr Books. People refer to their children as "the boy" or "the girl" (el niño, la niña) all the time. Didn't they give them names? But it's "I need to buy the boy some new shoes," or "The girl brought me a picture from school". "Where's The Girl?" Stuff like that.

That was an unwanted pregnancy, surely? O.o

HRHDogMatix ( [Former] King of the Month) wrote: "And to never answer a direct question with a direct answer"
Exactly!! And that's what "begging the question" really means--tapdancing around pretending to answer, while not adressing the question you were asked in the least.

Kath, it cracks me up when the radio presenter makes a statement or asks a very pointed question about policy as it effects Joe Public, and the politician replies, "I don't accept that." Well, hey, maybe that's it...they can't accept reality...

Anne wrote: "If you look up Perceforest on Wikipedia you can find details of a 14th century version in which the 'prince' rapes the 'beauty'. It fitted into the culture of courtly tales, rather than folk or fai..."

Now that you say it, the rape story does sound rather Morte D'Arthur! Thanks for the info, I'll put it to use.

I remember reading many books of fairytales as a kid, and some were pretty extreme, but even at age 6 or 8 I knew they were not real--you know, like fiction?? I never dreamed of witches or giants or dragons. Not one nightmare. (My home life, however, was nightmare enough!)

Don't worry, Groovy, this is just a bit of fun. You can post as many as you like--that's what the thread is here for.

Did you hear about the couple in NZ who actually tried to name their daughter Hashtag? The courts stepped in on that one...

One of my students is doing a paper on The Snow Queen (the fairytale). She asked her prof if she could do something about "the original version" of Sleeping Beauty. According to her, in the original the Handsome Prince--rapes Beauty while she's asleep?

I know that a lot of the old tales were grimmer in the past--Cinderella's sisters really cut their toes off with a carving knife to make the glass slipper fit, etc. Can someone direct me to a website where I can find some of these "original" fairytales??

Just started A Case of Two Cities. I hate to read a series I like too fast, because then there aren't any more. Some people are hard to please! ;)

Or when they are the ones who start a conversation and do that!! One of my students came in and started this way, "So I'm walking down the street..."

There's a similar "gambit" that makes me grind my teeth. You ask a person a question and they respond, "Here's the thing: blah blah blah..." or "The thing is this: blah blah blah..."

Yes, particularly people who insist that you agree with them and/or applaud their every move. The thirst for external validation is a terrible thing, because the more they get the more they demand.

One of my students told me hell is on the Internet. He's not far wrong.

True, it's like they think if they control a corner of the Internet they are somehow in control of their world.
I invented a term for it: Interknifed. Tried to submit it to the Urban Dictionary but they wouldn't take it.

When a person starts quibbling about your semantics instead of paying attention to what you're trying to say (unless it's in a language class), they have issues.

I've just been handed another example of a phrase that makes steam rise from my ears. When you post on a forum and someone administers what they fondly imagine to be a corrective smackdown, beginning with the phrase: "Sorry, no!"

They're not sorry at all. They're trying to show off their imagined superiority to you. People who just want to share information you don't have are more polite about it.

Ugh.

Hey Frenchie, good to see you post!

I've been enjoying/not enjoying Love Songs From A Shallow Grave. Very well written, better than some of the Paiboun novels, but a bit darker and more violence.