Dr Attercop

Yes, absolutely! I am going to ask every Irish person I meet from now on...

Ahhh, interesting! Possibly! But I might also be wrong about the Irish pronunciation. The Dubliners used /kiː/ in their cover of the song, and there is this too: youglish.com/pronounce/qu...

So it's only Oscar Wilde and the Pogues so far!

Well, Oscar Wilde is with you, even if I am not!

You are going to be very unhappy to find out how we pronounce "cinque" in the case of the (five) historic "cinque ports" of Kent...

I think I've solved the Oscar WIlde 'quay' mystery. My partner remembered that Shane MacGowan sings /keɪ/ in "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda". But (Scottish) Sean Bogle originally sang /kiː/. So does 'quay' rhyme with 'hay' in Hinberno-English? #linguistics
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsXE....

My job is under threat of redundancy because student numbers were forecast to fall. Turns out, the forecasts were wrong, and now we are understaffed because so many people have taken voluntary severance. We are now being asked to work extra hours whilst still under threat of redundancy. 🫠

British English /kiː/ kee U.S. English /ki/ kee

😆

What does MW know that the OED does not?

Symphony in Yellow An omnibus across the bridge Crawls like a yellow butterfly, And, here and there, a passer-by Shows like a little restless midge. Big barges full of yellow hay Are moored against the shadowy wharf, And, like a yellow silken scarf, The thick fog hangs along the quay. The yellow leaves begin to fade And flutter from the Temple elms, And at my feet the pale green Thames Lies like a rod of rippled jade. Oscar Wilde 1889

I thought I knew how to pronounce "quay" until I read Oscar Wilde's Symphony in Yellow. Or perhaps those barges are actually full of yellow hee?

(More seriously, did the Victorians say /keɪ/ instead of /kiː/? I simply cannot believe that Oscar would have said /kweɪ/! [shudder])

#linguistics

"HORNY WASN'T EVEN A CONCEPT" 😂

Sophy Ridge @SophyRidgeSky My conversation with new Green Leader Zack Polanski about the St George's Cross: Zack Polanski: What does it mean to me? Wel, I think it depends on the context. So during an England football game, 1'Il paint my face in a Saint George's Cross quite happily. At another time though, where we don't nave a football tournament, I think it's quite imported from America this idea that we wave flags outside our house. If people want to do that then think that's up to them. But I think at times of heightened tensions, I would say patriotism is actually about loving your neighbour, whether they're from this country or not. Patriotism is about building cohesive communities. I'm really proud today to be an elected Jewish leader of the Green Party. My deputy leader is a Muslim man. I think that's patriotism. When we recognize that antisemitism and Islamophobia are two sides of the same coin, and actually communities are so much better when we're more creative and work together in solidarity. SR: It's interesting to listen tO what you're saying there -s so do you think that flying a St George's Cross outside your house at a time, as you put it, of heightened tension could be intimidating for some communities? Zack Polanski: I think people can experience as intimidation. And I think if those communities are intimidated, again the patriotic thing to do would be to have those conversations with your neighbours, have those conversations with the communities.

Look at this response from Polanski to Sophie Ridge's attempted gotcha on flags

To *finally* have a mainstream political voice standing up for racialised & minoritised communities being intimidated by the violent fash on our streets

It's really not that hard, is it?

I enjoyed this! It's absolutely my favourite Potter. The mices' behaviour is just WILD, even by modern standards, and the sweeping and paying for it afterwards just seems like an afterthought to placate parents to me!

Miserable. I cannot understand how so many people are blind to this.

Thank you for saying that! That is why my mother's family claimed asylum in the UK (many decades ago) rather than anywhere else, so it's very annoying when they don't even mention it. It erases refugees' real lives and personal stories.

Ha ha! The difference there is that women actually *did* fight for the right to vote. "Women" was already a perfectly ordinary word in general usage when the suffragetts were using it, and no one had to fight for it!

Congratulations! And yes, the idea that "people" and "women" are mutually exclusive categories is the most ridiculous nonsense and the idea that anything thinks it passes for feminism is bizarre.

No one who thinks that it is offensive to think of women as people needs to be taken seriously.

Women have not "fought hard" to be labelled as women! Other people have labelled me as a woman ever since I hit adulthood. It's not exactly been a struggle! When I was pregnant, I was a pregnant woman AND I was a pregnant person. Because women are people!

A woman with CAIS is not "on a pathway" to producing large gametes- she will have testes, not ovaries.

beecome ungovernable

Don't let @patricknessbooks.bsky.social walk it.

"Those plums are *not* for you, William"

YouTube video by Peter Karsten Armstrong & Miller RAF pilot with yellow trousers

Like this...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4pn...

I emailed Juliet Campbell (Lab) and she did not reply. She's known for ignoring emails, so this isn't a surprise. I'm going to try posting letters instead.

Really enjoyed this interview! It was interesting to hear about @juliansimpson.bsky.social's move from TV that I have no interest in to audio dramas that I absolutely CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF. When he pulled The Hermit card, all became clear - creative people need freedom to produce the good stuff!

The question remains - why would a Reform voter switch to Labour if Labour offer nothing except agreement with Farage? Why vote for the whisper if you can vote for the shout?

Was lovely to hear about your badges in Beeston! You gently touched a few of my sore spots which lead to a few tears. But I know better than to apologise, of course!

📌

I didn't see your posts, but you are right, and I don't really understand why that would be controversial. You are such a tremendous warrior for your community and the work you're doing is wonderful. I'm sorry you had a hard time for this unfairly.

Ha ha, "the first 30 minutes of Bound" was a frequent opener for conversation in my university LGBT society in the late 90s!

I said actors had to kiss people they didn't fancy a lot, so prob wasn't a big deal, and ACTUALLY "aren't we all a bit bisexual?" (I KNOW I'M SORRY) to which they were clear that they were at least 99.9% straight, and I said, hmmm, I think maybe I am 60/40 to which there was a lot of "oh. right. 😳"

IKR? This was the 90s, so there really wasn't a lot of sapphic kissing to be seen if you weren't recording late night Channel 4. I remember them talking about how GROSS it was that an actor might have to do a gay kiss, much giggling etc.