Trouble at t'Proms

[Chris Newman]

I would hope that the Irani National Orchestra should it come to Britain would be treated with the sort of respect that the IPO as musicians SHOULD have attracted this week. I have never heard the INO but if they are like the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra whom I have heard on TV they should be given all of our support. After years of oppressive treatment by Saddam's regime the INSO sound like a poor English school orchestra but these now very elderly players tried to keep going, are rebuilding and attract the likes of Yo Yo Ma as soloists.

[Lateralthinking1]

I agree Chris. Much as I hate the idea of music largely being forbidden in a country - my idea of hell on earth - I would respect the musicians for who they were. In other words, I would try not to see them as being wholly analogous with their country's policy on music, whatever the name of the Orchestra or the country's involvement in the music being played.

And while some of the musicians might share the rigid views of their country on music, and others not, I would personally choose to see it as a stepping stone towards greater common sense and humanity. This would be the case whatever mileage the Iranian regime tried to get out of it.

[Al R Gando]

And while some of the musicians might share the rigid views of their country on music, and others not, I would personally choose to see it as a stepping stone towards greater common sense and humanity. This would be the case whatever mileage the Iranian regime tried to get out of it.

Turkmenistan - a secretive country with a truly shocking human rights record - has similarly tried to ban music, under its former leader. The new leader who has taken over (the former Health Minister, a former dentist by profession) repealed the ban, but the concert-halls, opera-house and ballet theatre remain firmly locked and barred... except for State celebrations celebrating the achievements (ehem) of the government.

[BetweenTheStaves]

Re.the pair of you. Still, who was is who commented that "right wing intellectual" was a contradiction in terms.

If you are going to try and be a smart-arse then make sure you get your grammar and punctuation correct. Your second sentence makes no sense even though you may think it twee.

[Vile Consort]

Iran bans virtually all music. Should there be a protest to stop the Irani National Orchestra from performing if it is ever permitted to play here on the basis of Iran's policy on music?

You mean in the same way that you try to stop people getting an abortion clinic as a way of demanding the right to abortion?

I hadn't realised the concept of a protest was such a difficult one to grasp. But there I go again with my grammar school attitudes.

[Mr Pee]

but Russian operas just a few years later are about.... bumblebees!

Well, I'd pretty much worked out that you'd just copied and pasted all that earlier irrelevant info, but I would have thought you'd at least have the basic knowledge to know that the bumblebee makes but a fleeting appearance in "The Tale of Tsar Saltan." So the opera is not- repeat NOT -about bumblebees.

Back to Wikipedia for you, I think.

If you are going to try and be a smart-arse then make sure you get your grammar and punctuation correct. Your second sentence makes no sense even though you may think it twee.

Indeed. I make no claims to be an intellectual, but I do know gobbledegook when I read it........

[Serial_Apologist]

Well, I'd pretty much worked out that you'd just copied and pasted all that earlier irrelevant info, but I would have thought you'd at least have the basic knowledge to know that the bumblebee makes but a fleeting appearance in "The Tale of Tsar Saltan." So the opera is not- repeat NOT -about bumblebees.

Back to Wikipedia for you, I think.



Indeed. I make no claims to be an intellectual, but I do know gobbledegook when I read it........

Shouldn't that be "gobbledygook"?

[Mr Pee]

Shouldn't that be "gobbledygook"?

Nope:-

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Gobbledegook

[Bryn]

If you are going to try and be a smart-arse then make sure you get your grammar and punctuation correct. Your second sentence makes no sense even though you may think it twee.

Indeed, the question mark was missing, but I suppose that made it far to difficult for the pair of you to get your heads around it.

[Serial_Apologist]

Nope:-

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Gobbledegook

Ah - I see I should get my education from... Harry Potter.

[Bryn]

Using Google, it would appear that "gobbledygook" is only a little more commonly used in U.K. English than is "gobbledegook". However, the original Maverick spelling, from March 30, 1944, was "gobbledygook".

[Serial_Apologist]

Using Google, it would appear that "gobbledygook" is only a little more commonly used in U.K. English than is "gobbledegook". However, the original Maverick spelling, from March 30, 1944, was "gobbledygook".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYXHeP9PydQ

[Chris Newman]

The OED says it can be either gobbledygook or gobbledegook but that gobbledygook is to be preferred as that was how it originated.

Origin: The word gobbledygook was coined in 1944 by Texas lawyer Maury Maverick, who expressed disdain for the "gobbledygook language" of his colleagues. The word was inspired by the turkey, "always gobbledy gobbling and strutting with ludicrous pomposity."

The word was accepted by the Oxford Dictionary after its use was discovered to have been made during the Watergate investigations: "To the ordinary guy, all this is a bunch of gobbledygook. But out of the gobbledygook comes a very clear thing: you can't trust the government; you can't believe what they say, and you can't rely on their judgment."
(H.R. Haldeman, recording made in the Oval Office, June 14, 1971)

The Plain English Campaign, who should know more than anyone about how officialdom abuses and confuses with the English language, has settled upon gobbledygook http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/exampl...generator.html
and that is what I taught for many years.

H.R. Rowlings usage seems to be a literary whim that suited her goblins.

Sorry!! Can't stay to argue. I am off to hear Beethoven's Missa Solemnis which is much more uplifting than all this airy persiflage.

[scottycelt]

Shouldn't that be "gobbledygook"?

Surely currently absent member Vinteuil might be requested to finally arbitrate on this matter ... ?

It was solely thanks to him that the mercifully now very rare, bitter war of words that once threatened to rage between amateur51 and my good self over the validity of either 'dabnabbit' or 'dagnabbit' was very quickly nipped in the bud.

However, using the methodology applied in the making of that famous landmark decision, I strongly suspect that Mr Newman may well be proved correct ...

[Al R Gando]

Well, I'd pretty much worked out that you'd just copied and pasted all that earlier irrelevant info,

Living up to your name, I see, Mr Pee? Such a pity when the pubs shut, isn't it?