Tuesday, 26 November 2024

Hey guys, it's nearly 2025!



It's nearly 2025 and I'm STILL telling people how to create a thread by replying to their own tweets.

@Beardandcamera It’s 2024 and we’re back to hermaphroditic fish.

It's 2024 and people are still moaning that the COVID vaccine wasn't properly tested.

And others thinking that looking at Twitter isn't "using" it, heaven forbid.

@DavidNBrown619 It's 2024 and the UK is debating what a woman is. The insanity needs to end. ASAP. (Update: It's December 2024 and the US Supreme Court is doing much the same.)

It's 2024 – unmute! 

It's 2024 and Zoom doesn't make "controls visible" the default, let alone "original sound for musicians".

It's 2024 and you still keep all your tabs open and save everything to the desktop – don't you?

It's 2024 and the government still isn't ensuring all schoolchildren learn to touchtype properly.

It's 2024: Why doesn't Twitter make it obvious that a post/tweet is part of a long thread, with many previous messages? You just have to guess. Hey guys, its 2024!

It's 2024 and Facebook shows you “most important” comments as default, not having twigged that commenters create threads, and have long conversations.

It’s 2024 and sports kit is unisex – meaning that it fits boys, and doesn’t fit women and girls.

@JacksonWheat1 We still doing "evolution isn't true because it's a theory" in 2024?

More here, and links to the rest.


Monday, 25 November 2024

Reasons to Be Cheerful 2024: 33


WOMEN 

1823 Elizabeth Fry's Gaols Act is passed, mandating women-only prisons with women warders (pictured).


1872 Composer and chemistry professor Alexander Borodin establishes medical courses for women.

1880 November: The Isle of Man grants female suffrage in an amendment to the Manx Election Act of 1875.

1887 Susanna Salter becomes first woman elected mayor in the US. A group of men opposing the involvement of women in politics submitted her name hoping to humiliate all women. She won with a thumping majority and was an effective mayor.

1915 The Council of the Royal Astronomical Society unanimously agrees this motion: "That this meeting approves of the admission of women as Fellows and Associates of the Society and of all necessary steps being taken to render their election as soon as possible."

50 years ago, Dublin pubs refused to serve women pints of beer unless accompanied by a man. Nell
McCafferty led 30 women to a pub where each ordered a brandy and a pint of Guinness. The bartender refused the beer request, so they drank their brandies and walked out.

(@Katiadower)

1960s/1970s Laws requiring "active resistance" to rape were repealed.

1970 Leaders of the National Organization of Women spearhead a women’s strike in the US. At the time, American women were paid 59 cents for every dollar a man was paid for doing similar work, despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Women were barred from some universities such as Harvard (it only changed its mind in 1977).

1978 Hannah Dadds becomes the London Underground’s first woman Tube driver.

1990 Married women in the UK become independent entities for income tax purposes.

2018 Women receive equal prize money in surfing after years of lobbying by women.

2023 Shetland’s Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival admits women and girls into the procession for the first time. (It’s a Victorian “revival”.)

2023 Leicester Cathedral celebrates first all-female clergy team (first for England).

2024 Southern Baptists reject a proposal to ban churches with women pastors.



LIFE IN GENERAL

1612 Last person burned at the stake for heresy in England.

1677 Parliament repeals the writ De Heretico Comburendo, which made burning at the stake the punishment for heresy.

1824 Repeal of the Test Act abolished the requirement to assent to the 39 Articles for many professions.

1830 Last person pilloried in St Albans.

1855 Arthur de Gobineau’s Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines is published.

1871 The  Bank Holidays Act designates four holidays in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and five in Scotland.

1872 In St Alban's, the last person was condemned to punishment in the stocks.

1873 Jeannie Senior is the first woman in the UK to be appointed as a civil servant (outside the Post Office), as the first female inspector of the education of girls in pauper schools and workhouses.

1888 Brazil abolishes slavery.

1914-18 Queueing begins.

2013 The ban on royals marrying Catholics is abolished.

2008, 2021 The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were formally abolished in England and Wales in 2008 and Scotland in 2021.

2021 Legal age of consent (15) is made official in France.

2022 New legislation increasing the legal age of marriage to 18 has come into force in England and Wales. Under the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act, it is now a crime to exploit vulnerable children by arranging for them to marry, or enter a civil partnership, under any circumstances. Campaigners argued that a loophole allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to marry with parental consent was being exploited to coerce young people into child marriage. Those found guilty of arranging child marriages face up to seven years in prison. (The Week)

2022 Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch says  the government wants all new public buildings in England to have separate male and female toilets.

2022 Dominic Raab intends to ban transgender prisoners from women’s jails.

Singapore will repeal its ban on sex between men, said Lee Hsien Loong, the country’s prime minister. In 2018, India’s highest court also scrapped a colonial-era ban on gay sex, while Thailand has recently moved closer to legalising same-sex unions. (The Week 2022-08-21)

2022 We are thrilled to announce that the word "woman" will not be removed from our Maternity Protection Act 1994. The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 has been amended, and the word "woman" has been reinstated (in the US). (@TheCountessIE. She points out that “inclusivity” means “excluding half the human race”.)

2022 Florida bans puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex reassignment surgery for minors.

2022 Mermaids sued the LGB Alliance for being an inadequate charity. Now Mermaids is under investigation by the Charity Commission.

2023 UK to ban single-use cutlery and plates. (Sales of collapsible cutlery soar as café goers are faced with the problem of eating large lettuce leaves with one, fragile wooden fork.)

2023 Illinois bans assault weapons.

2023 Scots police disassociate themselves from Stonewall.

2023-02-20 Sadiq Khan promises free school meals for all London primary school children.

2023 Eli Lily agrees to cap insulin at $35, dropping the price by up to 70%.

2023 World Athletics votes to exclude transgender athletes (presumably from women’s sports).

2023 Italy makes going abroad to acquire a baby born to a “surrogate mother” a crime.

2023-05-03 Essex pub that hanged racist dolls from the rafters closes after boycott . (The golliwogs were taken down, but the pub owners replaced them.)

2023-05-12 Wind is main source of UK electricity for first time. (bbc.com)

2023 The NHS has banned puberty blockers for children outside of clinical research.

2023 Oxfam chief leaving after anti-trans 'villain' cartoon resembling JK Rowling (Express)

2023 Japan has raised the age of consent (established in 1907) from 13 to 16.

1993 Leeds Supertram Act passed. Since 1993 France has constructed and put into service a total of 22 tram systems.

2023-07-06 Alcohol sales are going down, sales of healthy alternatives are going up. (Expert on BBC Breakfast.)

2024 Lia Thompson loses a legal battle to compete in the Olympics as a woman.


LESS THAN CHEERFUL

Universities in Japan have lowered women's exam scores for years to deny them entrance.

1753 Jewish naturalisation bill, repealed in December the same year.

1929-1973 7,600 people were forcibly sterilised in North Carolina.

2022 Primark is reinstating single-sex changing rooms – but allowing anyone in the women’s who “identifies as a woman”. Booths don’t have doors, but curtains that don’t reach the floor. Staff say they’ve been told they “must” allow in men who claim to be women. (Self-ID is not law.)

2023 Merrythought sell 10,000 Golliwogs a year.

2024: Young women are being diagnosed with alcoholic liver damage.

Thanks to @TheAttagirls.

More here, and links to the rest.

Sunday, 24 November 2024

Grammar: Howlers 27



Write to me, and I will send you some brieflets to browse through and a brass badge to wear in your loophole.
(Gerald Wiley)

You'd better battle down the hatchets. Once a poly time. Have a pupcake. Gone off on a tandem. On a petty stool. Windshield factor. Rod iron gate. Wheel barrel. Valentime’s Day. French benefits. Condominimum.
(via Twitter. Batten down the hatches, once upon a time, cupcake, tangent, pedestal, wind-chill factor, wrought-iron, wheelbarrow, Valentine's, fringe benefits, condominium. And "heart-rending" has irretrievably become "heart-wrenching".)


We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it!

Joanna Cherry sadly loses her seat. Tonight’s SNP defeat was sewn by Nicola Sturgeon and Ian Blackford. (@PhantomPower14. They mean “the seeds of defeat were sown”.)
sew division: sow division

sails from:
hails from
metaphorical: metaphysical
sloncho: cilantro
crowned jewel: crown jewels (The royal regalia that belong to the monarch.)
crassonts: croissants
paramount for "more important": It means "most important".
ultraviolent lamp: ultraviolet
Caucuses: Caucasus

aniquilate:
annihilate/liquidate
marywania: marijuana
chicken coup: coop
Solomon Gomorrah: Sodom and Gomorrah were notoriously sinful cities, according to the Bible.
slathering:
slavering (You slather whipped cream onto a cake, and your guests slaver over it.)
Don't confuse deem (consider) for deign (lower yourself to answer the door etc)

Jejune does not mean naïve or callow – it means "dried-up".
blue a casket: blow a gasket
a manevelant presence: malevolent
hiding go seek: hide and go seek
make due: make do
crushing bore: crashing bore
dye-sected: dissected
Chock it up: Chalk it up.

cheese lounge:
chaise longue
insightment: for incitement
It was a different seriniro: scenario
I'm just about to tug into some American pancakes and bacon. (@eyre_ann. Tuck into.)
media barrens: barons
All-timers’ disease: Alzheimer''s
Crimes including assault, fraud and purgery: perjury

mired by scandal:
stained by, marked by (You can be "mired in" a situation, like a car stuck in the mud.)

pass mustard:
pass muster
wonderlust: wanderlust
I'm biting my time: biding
You’ll be in for a ruffled time: rough old time
He got off scotch free: scot free
Low and behold!: Lo and behold.

Pity The Times is a burnt flush. (@SimonD555. That’s “busted flush”. Poker, probably.)
white as a sheep: sheet (Common in the US - where sheets are coloured or patterned?)
down to brass tracks: tacks
dorma window: dormer
ludacris:
ludicrous
Bastille burner: pastille burner (producing incense)
straddled with debt: saddled

jumped up charges:
trumped up. (A parvenu or johnny-come-laterly is a jumped-up temporary gentleman.)

Amphibious pitcher makes debut: Venditte becomes first pitcher in 20 years to pitch with both arms in MLB game. (ambidextrous)

nerve-wrecking: nerve-racking (wrack [wreck] and rack [torture on a rack] are terminally confused.)

foul-weather friend
for false friend (A foul-weather friend would stick to you through thick and thin)

I was a laughing stalk:
laughing stock
Old history was drudged up: dredged up
Rebuff his arguments if you can! rebut
This guy is the epitome of evil in carnet! evil incarnate (evil personified)
He was a wolf in cheap clothing: It was sheep's clothing in the fable by Aesop
Have we taken on more than we can chew? bitten off more than we can chew
wholly pledged: fully fledged

You can’t just pander or be fodder. You have to pander to something or be fodder for something, like soldiers are "cannon fodder". "Fodder" means "animal feed".

A slight woman, her hair perfectly quaffed... (British Journal of Photography. That's "coiffed".)

However, Farage poured damp water on the idea last night: Even Nigel can't get his hands on any dry water.

prophetic fallacy: pathetic fallacy (Ascribing emotions to inanimate objects eg "Angry storm clouds hung over the city." "The glacier's approach was remorseless". Try "unstoppable".)

Where can I buy combustible compost bags?: compostable

Avoid writing "yield" when you mean "wield". You yield to a stronger foe – you give in. You wield power or a sword.

There is a title wave of truth that is about to start coming out. (Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene)

M&S clothes division has been a “thorn in the shoe” for the company, says a spokesperson. (stone in the shoe, thorn in the side

A stiff and upper-lipped Victorian (Daily Telegraph, stiff-upper-lipped)

Typo of the day America has become a vessel state of Israel.
(tonythorne007, vassal)

You’re going to have to cut your cloth accordingly. (Wes Streeting)
Lord Moylan may have made an excellent point about the North of England needing to understand that its low population density and small cities mean it can't expect transport as good as London's. We need to cut our cloth and settle for something like the Low Countries. (@thomasforth. The proverb goes: You must cut your coat according to your cloth.)

The Mexicans recognise the upper crust on their tortilla when they see it. (The Times on Lady Susan Hussey receiving a Mexican order – the Sash of Special Category of the Order of the Aztec Eagle.  Tortillas don’t have crusts. They’re so thin there is hardly an “upper”. The upper crust is the top crust of a loaf of bread. It would be clean, unlike the bottom crust which might have picked up some ashes and dirt from the brick bread oven. Well, it’s no sillier than some explanations!)

Old-tie network: old-school-tie network, sometimes called the Old Boy network. (Your fellow Etonians, identifiable by their school ties, give you a helping hand or leg-up.)

Someone was ticked off for talking about Sunak’s “cortege” (funeral procession). Perhaps cavalcade, convoy or motorcade would be better.

Quasimodo predicted all this! (The Sopranos, Nostradamus)

As one of our longest-reining staff members, Andy joined us in 1982 and never looked back. (Reigning. The monarch reigns, you rein in a horse. The Farplants Group)

All around the backwaters of Europe, the common lot of people were still engaging in folk practices of which the church could make no sense, and for which it had no room. (the-hinternet.com “The common lot of humanity” means “the common fate of humanity”, ie death or suffering. “The common ruck of humanity” is meant. How about “People were still engaging...”?)

Williams attempting to seduce Hattie Jacques while Charles Hawtrey is hiding in a cupboard is pure drawer room farce. (Imdb comment. Drawing-room comedies were very genteel and the opposite of farce.)

They don't deserve to be raked over the coals. (It’s “hauled over the coals”. You rake over the embers of a fire.)

Tarnishing the whole service (the NHS) with one sorry brush invalidates those of us doing a great job. (Dr Ellie Cannon. You apply tar to a fence with a brush. Silver gets tarnished if you just leave it in a box or on the sideboard, due to oxidisation.)

dead to the wide: It's a garbled cliché. A Victorian girl who has a child out of wedlock is “dead to the world”. She’s still alive, but she’s dead to “the world”, ie “society” ie people like her parents and their friends.

Thank you to Marjorie Hutchins for her steadfast approach to child safeguarding without the likes of which we will all be treading water in service of the men who groomed these kids. (What does she think “treading water” means?)

It is a problem – when parts of the humanities sacrifice the scholarly ‘moral ground’ and descend into ideology, what value do they have that can be defended to anyone other than like-minded ideologues? (@ianpacemain. Moral high ground.)

In 2018, when I won a journalism prize, Pink News published a scree of of outrage. (Janice Turner, Times. She means "screed".)


Mixed metaphors

The fact that I guessed the murderer in Mrs. Christie’s book only shows how easy it is to miss a cog, through dropping one of the threads. Having forgotten the right explanation of a small incident, I smelt a rat that wasn’t there, and found a mare’s nest which ought to have held a cuckoo’s egg. (Charles William, 1931)

These new developments reinstate the historic street scheme and knit back together the urban grain. (Mixed metaphor. You can't knit a grain.)

Thankfulness is the daylight that crushes the mouldy power of sin. (@Eric_Conn)

Sex and the City smashed that tedious Bridget Jones learning curve of trying to work men out like a complicated jigsaw puzzle to the wall and said, “Let’s start again.” Evening Standard, June 2023

It’s intelligent. It’s left-wing. It’s pathbreaking. (Theconversation.com. Trail-blazing? Ground-breaking?)

The heat poured down upon the narrow deserted streets like a scourge. (An early work by Margery Allingham)

Don’t gloss over the cracks. (You paper over cracks in plaster to hide them. You gloss over a flaw – with paint?)

The victim’s name rang a weird bell in the flea market in the back of my brain. (Martin Ross)

This book treads “well-tilled terrain”. (Anthony Cummins, Observer. Treads a well-worn path? Digs over well-tilled fields?)

Rishi Sunak’s presence in No. 10 is a “groundbreaking milestone”, and John Prescott was a "towering pillar" of the Labour Party.

More here, and links to the rest.

Friday, 22 November 2024

Goldwynisms


Film mogul Samuel Goldwyn was known for garbling the English language.

Only 12 apostles? Go out and get me thousands!

Give me a couple of years and I'll make that actress an overnight success.

I don't care if it (his new picture) doesn't make a nickel. I just want every man woman and child in America to see it.

I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong.

I read part of it all the way through.

When I want your opinion I will give it to you.

I don't want yes men around me. I want everyone to tell the truth, even if it costs them their jobs.

An oral contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Go see that turkey, and see for yourself why you shouldn't see it.

I'm giving you a definite maybe.

Gentlemen, include me out.

That's the trouble with directors. Always biting the hand that lays the golden egg.

Never make forecasts, especially about the future.

You fail to overlook the crucial point.

Put it out of your mind. In no time, it will be a forgotten memory.

I never liked you and I always will.

In two words: im-possible.

My wife's hands are so beautiful I'm going to have a bust made of them.

If you can't give me your word of honour, will you give me your promise?

When told he couldn't film Radclyffe Hall's "The Well of Loneliness" because it dealt with lesbians, he replied: All right, where they got lesbians, we'll use Austrians.

More jokes here, and links to the rest.

Even More Corny Old Jokes



Stop me if you've heard this one – or save it to put in a cracker.

Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, we need everyone to believe in God, because then they'll be good and not steal my last farthing. But how to persuade them?

Baldrick: Sir, I have a cunning plan.

Blackadder: What's that, Baldrick?

Baldrick: [cunningly] We attack a 19th century biologist. (Pictured.)


You know what's odd? Numbers that can't be divided by two.

Archaeology: a career in ruins.

Autocorrect is my worst enema. (Jim Devlin)

The future is certain; it is only the past that is unpredictable. (Old Soviet joke)
 
All mushrooms are edible, some only once.

I pleaded an urgent subsequent engagement. (Oscar Wilde)

Dates are important, ask any camel.



School inspector knocks on door of progressive school. Door is opened by a naked child.

Inspector: My God!
Child: We don't believe in him here. (Shuts door.)

Can you keep a secret?
Yes, what is it?
Well, so can I!

If you pour water on a duck's back, it runs off.
I'm not surprised - I would too!


Census Taker: Does Willie Handler live here?

Me: No.

CT: Well, then, what is your name?

Me: Willie Handler.

CT: Wait a minute–didn’t you just tell me that Willie Handler doesn’t live here?

Me: You call this living?

(Via Willie Handler)

 

Scene: Berwick Street market.

Stallholder: Pahnd a pahnd, pahnd a pahnd, bananas!

Man in pinstripe suit: My good man, it's a "pound a pound!"

Stallholder: Pahnd a pahnd! Pahnd a pahnd!

Pinstripe: Dad!

Stallholder: Son!

(They hug.)


Interviewer: Mr Gandhi, what do you think of Western civilisation?
Gandhi: I think it would be a very good idea.


In the Bayeux Tapestry, the Normans are literally in bits on the floor.
Helpful Anglo-Saxon: Hast thou tried a myndfulnesse seminar?

Social workers happen upon a beaten and bloody man lying groaning on the pavement. One turns to the other and says, "My God, whoever did this urgently needs our help." (@DavidBennun)


I'm reminded of the story that, when John Prescott, Margaret Beckett and Tony Blair were contesting the Labour leadership in 1994, they were referred to at the BBC as the lion, the witch and the wardrobe.
(Jonathan Calder @lordbonkers)

Explorer: Ah, the lost tribe of the Amazon!
Tribe: We're not lost, but are you?

Many years ago I visited North Wales in November, and asked for the time of the next bus from Bangor to Capel Curig. "May", was the response. (Richard Gray)

There’s a lot of denominational friction: Catholics vs. Orthodox, Protestants vs. Catholics, Reformed vs. Evangelical, Mainline vs. Non-Denominational. My brothers in Christ, we should not be attacking each other. We should be ganging up on the Unitarians. (@aelfred_D)


Two Ancient Egyptians are carving an inscription.
How many times do I have to tell you! It’s eagle before snake, except after feather!

I had a terrifying experience last night. I was alone in the house having a bath, when all of a sudden, I felt a tap on my shoulder…


Lisa: My halo sometimes slips around my neck. Actually, on a bad day, my waist!!!
Tiffer: Lisa, don't worry until it's an anklet.


Scientists build a supercomputer to solve the world’s problems.

Scientists: Is there a God?
Computer: There is now.


When I took my ‘structures’ exam as part of my architectural training my viva examiner said “Well I’ll pass you but if you were going to be a doctor half your patients would die.” (Barry Richard Joyce)

During the storms of 1953 when the sea was about to breach the sea walls, the conversation in one house went.

Should we warn the neighbours?
No, they didn't warn us when the Vikings came.
 

I’ll let you know if nothing happens! (Maigret)

If you’re a dreg, be a proud dreg! (Stagecoach)

Rizzo: Why are you whispering?
Gonzo: It’s for dramatic emphasis!


Doctor, doctor, I’ve got a red rash that forms circles and spreads outwards!

Ah, you’ve got erythemata annulare centrifugum!

What does that mean, doctor? Is it bad?

It means you’ve got a red rash that forms circles and spreads outwards.

(Rob Buckman)

 

Interviewer: So where are you from then?

Lenny Henry: Dudley.

I: No, where are you really from?

LH: (puzzled) Dudley

I: OK then, where is your father from?

LH: Dudley.

I: So where is your grandfather from?

LH: Ah that's different, he's from Wolverhampton.


It’s World War Two and the Yanks have arrived. They’re sitting on the steps of their hotel ready to wolf whistle at two girls who are approaching.

Girl One: Remember, do a casual wave and say “How ya doin’, guys?”

(Punch)


1st debutante: How was your honeymoon? What was it like? You know...
2nd debutante: It's much too good for the working classes.

More here, and links to the rest.