Subtle differences between the US and the UK that baffle me/you/us. - by SubJeff
faetal on 24/1/2013 at 12:25
You need to see the New Forest.
gunsmoke on 24/1/2013 at 18:13
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
I'd love a wilderness road trip in the USA. I don't mean walking the mountains, but driving close to the wilderness and then taking a trek, maybe an overnight stay, out in the wilderness. The only thing is you guys have dangerous animals,
I cannot count the number of times I have done this. Amazingly fun, especially with little-to-no preparation.
On the animal point, I have met coyotes, bears, snakes, jellyfish, and deer. The scariest? A buck. By far. Have you ever had a huge trophy buck slam its antlers into a tree, snort and stamp at you? Being a hunter, I know how to deal with most animals (nonviolently), but fuck those goddamn male deer in rut/protecting its family.
nickie on 24/1/2013 at 19:05
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
That TF38 drive is through some of the most bizarre and beautiful scenery I've seen, and I've been to some pretty interesting places. Black lava rocks and soil all around you, pines everywhere with nearly nothing (really, nothing) else growing, clouds below you and then the sea, other islands peeking up above the clouds in the distance. It feels like you're flying.
I've done that TF38 drive joining it from Los Gigantes and going on to Teide. Long time ago now but I haven't forgotten how stunning it was. Completely different from anything I've seen before or since.
SubJeff on 24/1/2013 at 20:30
I was going the other way, but yeah was great.
Herbivores don't bother me. I've been chased by both elephants and hippos and unnamed bok type horned things. They aren't as smart or relentless as things that want to eat you, like bears, and you see them coming, unlike goddamn snakes.
gunsmoke on 26/1/2013 at 09:33
I have to admit, Subjective Effect starts some excellent threads from time to time! :thumb:
Pyrian on 28/1/2013 at 21:18
When I first heard
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in its original radio format, I was rather midled by a portion where "man" disproves the existence of god (god is nothing without faith, faith requires doubt, the existence of the babelfish proves god exists, so therefore he doesn't), and then goes on to prove that black is white and gets run over at the next zebra crossing.
Having no idea what a (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_crossing) zebra crossing referred to, I thought he was run over by a (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra) zebra. Which, at my age at the time, was probably quite a bit more amusing.
faetal on 15/4/2013 at 15:54
An odd word I cam across the other day "gubernatorial", referring to the election of governors in the US.
Isn't that a bit like presibidential instead of presidential? I'm sure it has some hidden origin, but such a bizarre one.
Though admittedly, I still can't understand why in the UK, lieutenant is pronounced leftenant, especially given how lieu is clearly French in origin, precluding a harder pronunciation, and we can't blame our teutonic cousins, since they pronounce leutnant as softly as German allows.
demagogue on 15/4/2013 at 16:07
I guess we hear it so often, and usually by straight-laced CNN reporter types, that it's lost its funny sound... But when you write it like that, it does indeed look and sound very funny, like an idiot getting tongue twisted trying to turn governor into an adjective.
Right now I'm often reading about the local districts in Arab states, which are called governorates, or sometimes gobernorate, and that has a similar kind of funny look & sound to me.
The pronunciation of colonel as 'kernel' always struck me as very odd, and pushing the boundaries of English phonetics past its breaking point. After studying German, it looks a little better; I can imagine the "ol" like "ö" and figure how the "er" gets in there, and it's like the spelling of Cologne with the pronunciation of Köln. But English is practically German + French anyway.
faetal on 15/4/2013 at 16:12
English is a crazy mongrel language, but beautiful for its amazing amount of redundancy allowing for a lexicon which allows for super-varied ways of saying the exact same thing.
nickie on 15/4/2013 at 16:38
Quote Posted by faetal
Though admittedly, I still can't understand why in the UK, lieutenant is pronounced leftenant, especially given how lieu is clearly French in origin . . .
I like this explanation from the (
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-19576,00.html) Guardian.
Quote:
In medieval times during a battle The Lord of the manor was in the middle, the head knight on the right and the head tenant was on the left. As the head tenant became richer he was able to pay for a knight to stand in lieu of him. Thereafter his designate was known as the "leftenant"
