Welcome to the Wednesday (EBD) SDA Late Nite Radio.
In The Adventure of English, Melvin Bragg’s fascinating and highly-readable book about the origins of our language, the author describes how an English speaker who hears someone speaking in Frisian, our nearest ancestral language, may get an odd, persistent feeling that he is this close to understanding what’s being said. Many of the words are almost identical (“goose” is goes, “butter” is buter, “sleep” is sliepe, “sea” is see, “cheese” is tsiis, and so on) but are simply pronounced a bit differently, and in that sense, he notes, Frisian is not so very different from England’s regional Geordie dialect, for example, and only slightly less comprehensible.
Stanley Unwin, tonight’s featured performer, was a British comedic actor with a peculiar and artful talent for speaking in a way that left listeners similarly hovering on the edge of comprehension. His unusual word constructions all sounded vaguely familiar, and he was so reassuringly English in his mannerisms and delivery that listeners who – inevitably, and by design, of course – could never quite parse the always convincing-sounding point he was making always felt that the shortfall must be their own fault, and that they would surely understand him if only they listened a bit more closely. Unwin traced the origins of his “strange but strangely comprehensible lexicon” to the day when his mother, who had tripped on the way home from work, told him that she’d “‘falolloped’ in front of a tram and grazed her ‘kneeclappers.'” His own use of language would later show that same sort of Joycean creativity: Elvis “wasp-waist and swivel-hippy” Presley, for example, was “tilty hibbers’n stick out the torso’n wobble both knee-clappers’n singit…”
Tonight’s selection, from the British film Carry On Regardless, is an excerpt of a scene in which Unwin’s baffling argot results in him being mistaken for a job applicant when he is in fact the business’ landlord trying to tell the owners that he has found another tenant. Watch the hilarious facial expressions of Miss Cooling at 2:37, as she hovers in a state of mild, diligence-induced torment: she doesn’t have the first clue as to what Unwin is saying, but his tone and cadence and and intonation are so eloquent-sounding as to leave her troubled by the possibility that he is speaking quite comprehensibly, and that she’s just not picking up on it – a self-doubt surely validated by Kenneth Williams’ character’s casual ability to precisely restate Unwin’s – apparently clear – position.
Here it is then, for your amusement: Stanley Unwin baffles the Carry On Team.
The thread is open for your Reader Tips.
Breaking National News!:
Tiffany and Amber are going to hang out at the mall after math class…
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/04/08/jaffer-pmo-access.html
Some drunk blowass brags and name drops and this is national news?
“Good meat and good cheese is good English and good Frise”, so the saying goes, IIRC
Al Gore’s Weather (AGW): Ah love mah swinebearpig Frauds.
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“Unused swine flu doses leave taxpayers facing a £150m loss
Almost 30 million doses of swine flu vaccine ordered by the Government could go unused, at an estimated cost of up to £150 million to the taxpayer.
Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, confirmed yesterday that he had cancelled contracts with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for up to 90 million doses of swine flu vaccine after cases of the illness plummeted. About 5.5 million people, including health workers, have received a vaccine against the H1N1 swine flu virus, but the NHS will still face a bill for more than 34.8 million doses that have been delivered or promised.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article7089601.ece
Mark Steyn has an article up on Canada’s diversity paradox.—
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/04/08/true-north-strong-not-free/
O’s Islam: “a man” = a Muslim.
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“Air Marshals Stop ‘Shoe Bomb’ Attempt On United Jet to Denver (Suspect is Qatari Diplomat)
Federal air marshals subdued a man who authorities say attempted to “light his shoes on fire” on a United flight from Washington Reagan to Denver Wednesday night, federal law enforcement officials told ABC News.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2488778/posts
Left TimesUK says, just a “joke”.
Cover-up for Allah-Moh.
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“Qatar diplomat Mohammed al-Modadi faces recall after ‘shoe bomb’ joke on airliner
Times Online – 11 minutes ago
A Qatari diplomat is likely to be recalled from the United States after causing a “shoe-bomb” scare on board an airliner by sneaking a smoke in the lavatory”
“Officials suggested later that the diplomat may have simply put out his cigarette on his shoe.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7092481.ece
‘Karzai using drugs, may be unstable‘
“A former UN ambassador to Afghanistan has questioned the ‘mental stability’ of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and suggested that he may be using drugs.
“Peter Galbraith, the former deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, has made the allegations concerning Karzai in a classified UN report about life in the presidential palace in Kabul.
“The report was compiled by Western analysts at the instigation of Galbraith. ‘He’s prone to tirades. He can be very emotional, act impulsively,’ the Times quoted Galbraith, as saying. ‘In fact, some of the palace insiders say that he has a certain fondness for some of Afghanistan’s most profitable exports,’ he added in an apparent reference to opium.”
Rank hypocrisy exposed, for your viewing pleasure:
Sting gets mauled by Jeremy Paxman.
Bravo Sara Green.
More, please.
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“Queen of the cull: Pageant winner defiant as seal hunt begins
As the seal cull gets underway north of Newfoundland and Labrador, one of its most gutsy champions returns home in support of the beleaguered hunt.
And she admits, it’s an odd weight to carry when you’re a 19-year-old pageant queen.
In January, Sara Green, Miss Newfoundland and Labrador, found herself as poster girl in the war on the hunt – dragged into the fray after anti-sealing zealots altered her picture to place her bloody and smiling in the middle of a kill.
It was all because she dared to wear a borrowed seal-pelt coat during a small town parade.
As the season kicked slowly off Thursday – against a backdrop of poor ice conditions and pitiful prices – Sara returned to the front lines.
Coming home to her small Newfoundland community of Winterton, from her dental assistant job in Nova Scotia, she brought words of encouragement and assurances she’s ready for the hunt.
“If I’m home and get the opportunity to (take part) I’m going to grab it,” she told QMI Agency. “I’m proud to say that.” While only home for the weekend, the tenacious teen plans to return to Newfoundland for a week later in April, hoping to head out to take part in a tradition that’s in her DNA.”
http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/thane_burnett/2010/04/08/13517781-qmi.html
Wear Blue Fridays.
Lest We Forget.
Stand with PM Harper and Newfoundland.
Wear Blue Fridays.
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“Ottawa prepares for Great War tribute on Vimy anniversary
It will be a ceremony befitting the “end of an era” Friday as Canadians mark the passing of this country’s final First World War veteran on the 93rd anniversary of the pivotal Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Long considered a defining moment for Canada, which was thrust onto the international stage following that wartime victory, Vimy Ridge commemorations are usually more low key than Remembrance Day ceremonies in November.
But this year, organizers expect as many as 30,000 people will descend on the War Memorial in Ottawa to mark the occasion, which comes less than two months after the death of John Babcock.
This First World War veteran died at age 109 and while he didn’t want a formal state funeral, he agreed Canada ought to commemorate the contribution of all those who served in that war.
“What was most important was not to pay tribute to one individual who was the last, but rather to honour collectively a generation of Canadians who put their lives on hold in order to serve Canada and to defend the interests of Canadians during the First World War,” Veterans Affairs director general Derek Sullivan said Wednesday before unveiling details of Friday’s ceremony.”
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2775031
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“Huge crowd expected in Ottawa for tribute to First World War vets”
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/homing+pigeons+hand+mark+passing+last+First+World/2774642/story.html#ixzz0kYEMwHkE
Al’s GW Report with H/T PET Cemetery:
“Zap. You’re frozen.”.
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“Freeze to Follow Record Warmth in Eastern U.S.
Apr 8, 2010; 2:00 PM ET
The air coming in behind the storms this evening will be cold enough for a frost or freeze in much of the interior Northeast and part of the South this weekend.
The air was cold enough to make it snow in parts of Wisconsin and northern Michigan Thursday morning. People in Green Bay had to get out their shovels and snow brushes.
The chill will penetrate into the South as well. Record-challenging cold is anticipated in portions of Texas tonight.”
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/27203/freeze-to-follow-record-warmth.asp
ET sorry I don’t have the link but I read there were 10,000 NGO’s in Haiti before the quake. That figure was not workers, it was NGO’s. I wondered at the film of people wandering the streets with no attempts being made to dig people out. Now I know why. Someone else will do it and it is not me.
EBD @5:35 – Oh, that was goooood! Sting cried himself to sleep that night.