2024 The Smile for Today

[richardandtracy]

Just so cat...

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

That is too funny

[fccs]

That is too funny

It is funny...and so true!!

[Serinde]

Since cats seem to be the order of the week, here is a very happy ending story from Ireland.

[Mabel Figworthy]

That is so sweet! Nice to have good news rather than all the depressing stuff.

[richardandtracy]

Lovely story.

Regards,

Richard

[richardandtracy]

I love how obtuse the answer is. A perfectly correct response to the grammar of the first statement, but utterly obtuse. And exactly what I'd expect of my eldest daughter.
https://www.reddit.com/r/technicallythe ... _and_cats/

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Sent this to a Christian friend of mine. Her reply was along the panicky lines of "I've always been a cat person... has my entire life been a SHAM??" To which I reassured her by saying that, in truth, the cat owned her.

Without inflections in the language, you have to add verbs to make sure the correct meaning is gained!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Like your friend DH and I buck the trend of being Christian cat people.

And as far as I know we've never been owned by an atheist

[richardandtracy]

I suspect we're owned by our cat Squeaky.

And he's a monotheist. In his view, he's the God and we're his worshippers.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

[richardandtracy]

Yep, that sums the differences up perfectly.

Regards,

Richard

[fccs]

Yep, that sums the differences up perfectly.

Regards,

Richard

Yep!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Inflicted on me recently by a friend:

"Just found out that A Tale of Two Cities was originally serialised in two local newspapers.

It was The Bicester Times, it was the Worcester Times."

[Serinde]

[fccs]

(I stayed with friends in Bicester, otherwise I wouldn’t know how to pronounce it which means this would have gone right over my head.)

[Mabel Figworthy]

Yes, I'm afraid it is a bit UK-centric... One of my favourite bits in an opera called (I kid you not) Elisabetta al Castello di Kenilworth, is a character singing "Lie-chester, Lie-chester" when calling out to the Earl of Leicester.

On the subject of unlikely opera settings, Donizetti once wrote Emilia di Liverpool. Yes, really.

[richardandtracy]

English pronunciation is nuts.

Looking at Leicester why wouldn't you pronounce it Lie-Cester? The actual pronunciation of 'Lester' seems irrational.
Why would you pronounce 'Woolfardisworthy' (Devon) as 'Wool-sery'? Or Trottiscliffe (Kent) as 'Tros-lee'?

And it's so weird hearing Kevin Kostner in 'Robin Hood Prince of Thieves' talk about Notting-HAM when locals pronounce it closer to 'Notting-gum'. [Not to mention the fact it takes him 1 day on a horse to start at Dover, go past Nottingham, and continue to Hadrian's wall, then return 100 miles back on himself to get to Nottingham. 400 miles on one horse in a day is a most startling feat. It's hard enough in a car in the UK with the current state of the roads, 30 miles a day in mediaeval times would have been hard to achieve.]

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Indeed, Richard. There is a very good reason why the abbey at St Albans was so rich: it was the favoured first stop outside London for any king or nobleman heading north: 19 miles, and that was a push.

Re pronunciations: In my early years here last century, I often was tripped up by the way place names were spoken. When one has only read the name, well, let's say Lie-chester wasn't the worst possible crime! Scotland has a few, too; one is Drymen along the West Highland Way. Nope: Drimmon (probably originally something to do with the Drummond family). And let's not even try to sort out -burg, -burgh, ok?

[Mabel Figworthy]

In one episode of the 1970s American sitcom Nanny & The Professor Nanny's fiancé arrives from England. He rejoices in the name Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh, pronounced Chumley Fanshaw.

Edited: Apparently at least some people blessed with that last name insist that pronunciation is a myth, and pronounce it as spelled