"what the ZX seller got his negative for"
I didn't, but I have now! He seems to buy photos of buses, too - it takes all sorts...
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And exactly what's wrong with buying a photo of a bus ???
:-)
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Mrs Kettle, there are several people going by the name Pot on the line for you...
Welshlad, you may sneer at the spellings of others (benefit, not benifit, by the way) but is there any particular reason your contributions are totally devoid of punctuation?
Can't, isn't and that's have apostrophes.
The words English and Indian are always capitalised.
"you cant even assume that its because english isnt their first language"
Give me strength.
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I dislike public mocking of those almost certainly less fortunate that most on here.
We can blame many for the state of spelling [but remember that most couldn't even write until 100 years ago - I believe], but it's probably not the fault of the victim IMHO, even though are blessed with the gumption / drive / character to do something about their education after they have left skule.
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I don't dislike public mocking - I made the effort to learn English and even earned my living using it. It isn't rocket science...
Meanwhile, back on eBay I've just tripped over the following:
tinyurl.com/3vxsbv
Would you want this moron at your daughter's wedding?
This is the first time I've tried a tiny url so can you make it work, PU, if I haven't been able to? Thanks.
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It all depends. It's one thing to tease PU for his typos because he's grown-up enough to take it. But to sneer at some dyslexic or semi-literate type who's doing his or her best to form some sort of rational discourse is unkind in my opinion. OK, you are bright enough, or expensively educated enough, to have learned grammar and spelling. Isn't it a bit caddish to rub other people's noses in the fact that they haven't, unless they are being offensively pretentious?
By the way, this isn't meant as a criticism of anyone else here. Just a general view.
Edited by Lud on 15/05/2008 at 15:43
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He is selling a "wedding car", and I doubt he expects to go to all the weddings it's used for. Then again, white is a bit old hat for weddings IMHO. A smart dark blue over cream would look good, and flatter the complexion rather better. Large white cars do look like washing machines I reckon.
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People can be very sensitive about this sort of thing. Literacy doesn't indicate high intellectual attainments, and its absence doesn't indicate stupidity.
Alf was a fellow minicab driver at the firm I worked for briefly, twice, in the seventies. He was a Londoner from somewhere like Erith, and may have been part Romany. After he had got completely lost, sometimes for more than an hour, in the West End several times, it became apparent that he couldn't understand the A-Z because he couldn't actually read. One day the controller got so irked by this - bad for the firm's reputation you see - that he gave Alf a contemptuous flood of verbal on his return to the office, and ended up with a black eye and a couple of cuts. This Alf didn't even twig really that he could have been run in for assault, but of course he was fired. A bit sad all round I thought.
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Probably the most amusing and articulate car advertisement I have ever seen was on Ebay. It had the promising title of "VW Golf - a bit rubbish" and was an absolute eye-waterer. I don't recall the exact text as it was very long, but there was a highly amusing description of an air brake to assist with left hand turns, which might actually be the fuel flap not latching securely, as well as brakes which are probably less effective than if you were to push the sole of your shoe onto the wheel rim. It was a work of genius.
Naturally, the seller was inundated with questions and comments. One chap, presumably jokingly asked if the seller would help him fit some neons to the car if he were to win. The seller replied that the only thing he would do if the buyer turned up with neons would be to beat the guy to death with them.
I agree by the way that literacy and intellect are not necessarily linked. Einstein was apparently dyslexic, and struggled badly with grammar and spelling, yet was an intellectual genius.
Cheers
DP
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I have spent a fair amount of time in places where most people are illiterate or barely literate, but where wisdom and thoroughly decent, moral comportment are if anything more the norm and more apparent than they are in society at large here.
Edited by Lud on 15/05/2008 at 16:55
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I find many of them amusing, especially when it's obvious they haven't bothered to use a spell checker. I know they aren't foolproof (I recall a mod. providing a good example).
I'm acquainted with a dyslexic, and have a good deal of time for them, but only because I know they're not too lazy to check their spelling.
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I don't think anyone would argue that we live in the 'information society' so it is down to all of us to learn how to communicate effectively or get left behind (in whatever way).
Maybe I am a bit harsh on people who don't, or can't, but I can only speak for myself. I didn't question the fact that when I was past 50 and moved to a foreign country I would have to set to and learn the language and how to use it if I wanted to live successfully in someone else's society.
Presumably the eBay example I quoted is a guy who has been doing weddings with this sad old blown-over Bentley. If he hasn't and he's just 'dealing', all the more reason to 'give him a wide berth' (once-common English idiom from our seafaring past...). :-)
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Quite mh... but it isn't the guy's discourse that puts one off, it's the Bentley itself... You couldn't make that one sound good even if you were Byron, not without lying anyway. None of the pix were good enough to see, but I bet it had some filler, they rusted like anything. A fellow minicabber had a silver one in the 70s that he used for weddings, and it was absolutely horrible looking to anyone with an eye, but I think he thought it was OK.
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Yes indeed, they were iffy. And anyone who pays 20-30k for one now should be aware of that.
When I was a lad a doctor in Taunton had a Silver Cloud 1 that was in a dreadful state after about six years. Years later I saw it again and it was very straight and shiny. Wouldn't have liked to run a magnet in a sock over it though.
Weren't the bodies pressed up at somewhere like Fisher and Ludlow, alongside the Austins, etc?
Anyway, if I wanted a Bentley - ;-) - the seller would have to sound and write like a gent, know what I mean, Guv?
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There was a silver Silver Cloud around here in the seventies whose back wings looked as if they had been cut away for racing or something, but the cutaway edge was all lacy and rusty.
To fit in with PU's thread theme, it looked like Chanterelle lace and could have done with some filter, like Plastic Paddy or something...
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Well, my original post was about malapropisms not spelling really, it wasn't meant to mock anyone, it was a bit of light hearted humour really.
Whilst talking about spelling, I don't think its hard to spell properly these days even if you opt out of what is, arguably, one of the best education systems in the world (free a the point of delivery) you can still use spell-checking technology to correct documents before posting to an universal audience.
As I say this thread was never directly about spelling, but still it provided a bit of a laugh. Put it like this much as I dislike spelling and grammatical errors I am happy to be laughed at when
I make the occasional typo.
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I've just been watching the local BBC news about the west coast main rail line signalling fault today. It showed a notice at Milton Keynes station "apologising for the faliure".
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Ebay item 300224058557
Bid now!
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