The Decline Of Civilisation

[Nick Armstrong]

I just mutter 'Shan't!' under my breath, and then feel much better and start with a mental clean slate, thus enjoying the dish, or not, as I think fit.

Top class grumping, Don!

By the way there have been two things I haven't understood earlier in this thread.

Ammy, could you explain:

"No thanks, I've just put one out"

and Chris, I think I might regret asking you to explain:

A PC relation to the nurses' "small scratch".

or can you do so politely?

[teamsaint]

last I looked , you could only"undertake" when traffic is moving slowly in lanes.

[amateur51]

It is, Amsy ..'jings' is an expletive almost solely used by the Broons and Oor Wullie and has never been part of the Glaswegian 'vernacular'... .the correct, if decidedly more blasphemous, utterance was, I believe .. 'Oh Christ!'. ... and, of course, very much more credible!

Ah well, now then when I was a student in London I had a neighbour who was a Glaswegian accountancy student and he spent some effort in teaching me Glaswegian, including how to say 'Millions and millions of gallons of milk' and 'Jings!' which to my ears came out as 'Jungs!'

It was Ken Dodd, not an English comedian but a Scouser () who observed in a Guardian interview long ago that "Bergson's theory is that comedy is the perception of incongruity, or Leacock's is that it is based on aggression and superiority, or Freud's is that a laugh is a conservation of psychic humour; though, as he usually adds, none of them had to play the Glasgow Empire, second house, on a Saturday night when both Celtic and Rangers had lost".

[Panjandrum]

[COLOR="#0000FF"]
- 'Undertaking' because cars in the faster lanes aren't going fast enough: mercia & ahinton! No no no! So dangerous! Occasionally - very occasionally - if the fast lane is nose-to-tail with morons in Mercedes and going very slowly, it makes sense to keep some sort of traffic flow by 'undertaking' with extreme caution.

Article 268 of the Highway Code: "In congested conditions, where adjacent lanes of traffic are moving at similar speeds, traffic in left-hand lanes may sometimes be moving faster than traffic to the right. In these conditions you may keep up with the traffic in your lane even if this means passing traffic in the lane to your right. Do not weave in and out of lanes to overtake."

[Panjandrum]

The driving aspect to this thread pushes quite a few of my buttons.

- 'Sanctimoniously' (I think that was the adverb) returning to the 'slow lane' only to pull out to overtake a second car almost immediately: much less indicative of a lack of civilisation or indeed intelligence than sitting endlessly in the centre lane. (To this extent - and I wasn't sure I would ever say this - I agree with Panjandrum).

I congratulate you on finally achieving enlightenment.

[Flosshilde]

Anyway, I rather doubt that such things would take place at the Fat Duck ...

No, you just get food poisoning

[Panjandrum]

- Numbskull drivers not indicating to leave a roundabout, change lanes etc: IS illegal (aka driving without due care) and makes me fume and bellow, esp when I am on my bike.

I second that and raise you motorists who rush to overtake cyclists in towns and then are forced to pull in (e.g. behind parked vehicles) to allow oncoming traffic its right of way to pass, thereby blocking the cyclist from continuing; and then express bafflement at the earful of abuse, which through their actions they bring down on themselves.

[Panjandrum]

I bet whoever it is has always dreamed of nothing in life but the opportunity to serve you a meal. So they put the thing down accompanied by a little, routine, phrase, a formulaic pleasantry, and with your wit you make their day.

I just make a mental note to reduce the amount of the gratuity I may or may not have been going to bestow whenever I hear the "E" word.

[french frank]

One has to recognise the game the BBC is playing with these questionnaires, and be savvy enough to play them at their own game. If they ask whether DOGs are useful for identifying the channel, one has to answer "No".

And then try to keep a straight face. They stick
BBC
FOUR
in the top left corner of the screen and ask whether it helps you to recognise that you're watching BBC FOUR ...
"No."

[John Skelton]

I just make a mental note to reduce the amount of the gratuity I may or may not have been going to bestow whenever I hear the "E" word.

Well jolly good for you. I hope whatever it is you've got it's only indigestion.

[teamsaint]

at the risk of being overly upbeat, I think the term "enjoy" fills a little gap in the language quite well. It may be American, and open to overuse, but it doesn't seem to be a feature of the decline of civilisation to me. The opposite , if anything.

[teamsaint]

and this is true. A friend of mine was recently told that he had to have a CRB check if he wanted to stand behind the goal at an under 13 football cup match.(apparently he isn't a danger on the sideline).

That , in some way, marks a decline in civilisation.

[John Skelton]

at the risk of being overly upbeat, I think the term "enjoy" fills a little gap in the language quite well. It may be American, and open to overuse, but it doesn't seem to be a feature of the decline of civilisation to me. The opposite , if anything.

Indeed. If a decline in civilisation (if there ever was much in the first place) is apparent, perhaps evidence for it can be found in patrons of restaurants taking delight in putting 'waiters' in their place or making little mental notes to "reduce the amount of the gratuity."

Just my opinion .

[ahinton]

No, you just get food poisoning

Not every day, methinks, otherwise the place would have been closed down long ago.

[ahinton]

I just make a mental note to reduce the amount of the gratuity I may or may not have been going to bestow whenever I hear the "E" word.

But is your decision in such matters also influenced by whether a cover charge and or/service charge will be aded to your bill in any case?