2024 The Smile for Today

[Serinde]

I remember watching the launch with my step-grandmother (tho I always forgot the "step" part), who commented that she never thought she'd live to see this day because when she was my age, it was still the era of horse and buggy. This is the same woman who went to university to study sciences, carrying her two dresses in her suitcase. What a woman!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Ahhhh Blake's 7! And particularly Avon! (And wobbly sets...)

[richardandtracy]

I remember watching the launch with my step-grandmother (tho I always forgot the "step" part), who commented that she never thought she'd live to see this day because when she was my age, it was still the era of horse and buggy. This is the same woman who went to university to study sciences, carrying her two dresses in her suitcase. What a woman!

My grandmother was a History teacher having been in the first cohort of women to get degrees in the University of London in (I think) 1912. My grandmother got the degree despite being prevented from attending any lecture or seminar, and while financing herself during that time as a teacher she actually taught my other grandmother - as they found out in 1960 after my parents were married when they met for the 'first' time. Even more remarkable being the fact that she taught in S London despite growing up in a mining town in Cornwall. Anyway, in the late 1940's in her school in Exeter, my Grandmother was laughed at when she said that she expected that men would walk on the moon in the lifetime of her students. It actually happened 20 years before the end of her lifetime...

Regards,

Richard.

[Roland]

Came across this, and I had to share.

[Serinde]

So far, they've made it to the end of their yard, and have found rocks

That's my favourite bit. (With the added alien point: will this discourage them? Eh, nah. But they might throw rocks at one another.)

[Mabel Figworthy]

[richardandtracy]

Love it.

[Serinde]

Oh, Mabel, that's a bit close to home for me!!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Shared by a friend and fellow-pedant this morning:

[Serinde]

Yup. Pesky apostrophes.

[richardandtracy]

Eldest daughter has had exactly the same problem on a Star Trek fandom site, much to her mortification..

Regards.

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

That's hilarious Richard, I hadn't thought it would happen in real life! Poor her though, she must have felt very uncomfortable about being misunderstood.

[richardandtracy]

She's also a very strong proponent of the Oxford comma, and the Thorn character (a bit like a Greek Theta) to be used instead of 'th' in words like 'the', 'their' etc. Oh yes, she also has her own views on the formality or otherwise of 'Thee' and 'you' in late mediaeval English. I wish I'd had time to listen, but was cooking at the time..

But Enya's 'done history', and specialized in early mediaeval history for her Masters degree, where the Thorn character and many other oddities were in use in a lot of writing. The biggest problem she finds with reading Anglo Saxon based Old English appears to be the handwriting rather than the language. As a near monoglot speaker of English, I find this astonishing. I have tried to read Beowulf, but it was just out of grasp, felt I should have understood it, but couldn't quite. I struggled through, taking aid from a century old translation into 19th Century English by a professor at the University of Paderborn in Germany, but eventually gave up. Then Chaucer, his writing seemed to be just on the other side of the comprehensibility divide as the language evolved a little closer to the current iteration of English. Strange world we live in.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

I did enjoy Old English, sometimes it was like a puzzle trying to work it out I'm by no means a fluent reader but I occasionally try and struggle through bits of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (an intriguing work) to keep up what knowledge I have of it. Yes, "you" was the more formal variant even though "thou" sounds much more formal to us nowadays.

[fccs]

I'm a fan of the Oxford comma as well.

[Serinde]

As an editor of books, I HATE the Oxford comma. Pretentious and old-fashioned thing, and generally unnecessary for sense. But I dutifully include it when working for OUP or an American publisher. Grrr.

Scots language used a thorn symbol for quite a while after being dropped in English. I always felt that Chaucer and Shakespeare are so much more comprehensible when read out loud, but Beowulf was one step beyond. But then, my period was the 14th century, mostly -- a very curious time. I absolutely loved palaeography!

[richardandtracy]

https://cheezburger.com/9874361344/good-luck
Bath time... [snigger]

Regards,

Richard

[fccs]

Oh my, I can only imagine!

[Serinde]

[richardandtracy]

Frighteningly true..!

Regards,

Richard