Pedants' Paradise

[smittims]

Yes, that's worth remembering. I love Sir Thomas Beecham's recordings but I don't think I'd have enjoyed working for him.

[oddoneout]

Pappano's Greatest Arias
Really? I wasn't aware that he either composed or sang but perhaps that's just my ignorance.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002w72

[Ein Heldenleben]

Pappano's Greatest Arias
Really? I wasn't aware that he either composed or sang but perhaps that's just my ignorance.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002w72

He does sing from time to time. He took a bit part in a Royal House Gala performance singing (I think ) one line - the jailer from Andrea Chenier final act. He was on stage conducting as the same time. He has a (very ) light baritone without the volume of a professional singer. However unlike a lot of conductors he can sing in tune.
One thing he can also do is play the piano very , very well .

[french frank]

Pappano's Greatest Arias
Really? I wasn't aware that he either composed or sang but perhaps that's just my ignorance.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002w72

Just look at that photo: you can see he's just about to break into E lucevan le stelle.

[kernelbogey]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/06/i-love-history-programmes-but-theres-one-trend-that-makes-my-blood-boil-

I don't usually read Adrian Chiles but there have been some letters following this piece, which regrets the habitual use of the present tense in history programmes (in a fit of rage Beethoven tears the title page out of the score...): I too find this custom irritating and the justifications weasely. One justification, from Professor John O’Regan, is that this makes sense when it's for voice-over commentary on events 'seen on screen' - by which I assume he means the equally loathsome custom of dressing up actors to look like ninth-century monks (or whatever) to add immediacy. Well they can stop doing that too.

[oddoneout]

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...my-blood-boil-
I don't usually read Adrian Chiles but there have been some letters following this piece, which regrets the habitual use of the present tense in history programmes (in a fit of rage Beethoven tears the title page out of the score...): I too find this custom irritating and the justifications weasely. One justification, from Professor John O’Regan, is that this makes sense when it's for voice-over commentary on events 'seen on screen' - by which I assume he means the equally loathsome custom of dressing up actors to look like ninth-century monks (or whatever) to add immediacy. Well they can stop doing that too.

A version of it used to be used occasionally years ago for describing things like battle scenes, but it would be set up as "Imagine the scene - the rebel forces..." etc etc. possibly with a bit of playacting/special effects/graphics. The drama over, the narration would revert to either historic, or a discussion/evaluation of the event.
My dislike of the current iteration is not just the contrivance and pseudo-drama, but the false impression it gives of veracity to things which are, or may be, simply conjecture. It's why I don't like the CGI dinosaur "natural history" programmes. There will be those who swallow such things as fact, and I feel that sets a dangerous precedent. I suppose though that in a world that takes the Sun as gospel truth it is inevitable that few see it as problematic.

[smittims]

Our changing English language : this afternoon I saw a notice in a train encouraging me to claim if my train was late : 'Keep a hold of your ticket'. In my day it would have said 'please retain your ticket'. The difference, of course, is that 'retain' is from Latin, whereas 'a hold of' is Anglo-Saxon. Is it dumbing-down or are they catering for a population where fewer people than before were educated in England?

[french frank]

Our changing English language : this afternoon I saw a notice in a train encouraging me to claim if my train was late : 'Keep a hold of your ticket'. In my day it would have said 'please retain your ticket'. The difference, of course, is that 'retain' is from Latin, whereas 'a hold of' is Anglo-Saxon. Is it dumbing-down or are they catering for a population where fewer people than before were educated in England?

I've never come across "keep a hold of". Why not just "keep" if "retain" is deemed incomprehensible?

[kernelbogey]

I've never come across "keep a hold of"....

'Samerican.

[french frank]

'Samerican.

I've just checked with the OED. It seems it should properly be written as one word 'ahold' (of), and is an adverb. The usage seems to be informal rather than what one would expect on an official notice. The alternative to using 'retain' would be simply 'keep': Please keep your ticket.

[oddoneout]

I've just checked with the OED. It seems it should properly be written as one word 'ahold' (of), and is an adverb. The usage seems to be informal rather than what one would expect on an official notice. The alternative to using 'retain' would be simply 'keep': Please keep your ticket.

The phrase is very much something I associate with my years of parent/young children interaction, but as such it was always verbal. I suspect it wasn't the form my own parents used,(or more accurately my mother, who was a bit of a stickler for correct use of language, since my father, in common with many in those days, wasn't much involved) so may have been something I picked it up from those around me during child-rearing years.

[kernelbogey]

'Welsh mansion that inspired Wordsworth and Coleridge on the verge of collapse' - Guardian

I knew Coleridge had become an Opium addict, but had always thought Wordsworth was basically ok.

[Sir Velo]

this afternoon I saw a notice in a train encouraging me to claim if my train was late : 'Keep a hold of your ticket'.

Was that while yourself was stood?

[kernelbogey]

I've just checked with the OED. It seems it should properly be written as one word 'ahold' (of), and is an adverb...

That's interesting - thanks ff! I associate it with such conversational contexts as the following fiction:
A: I'm just thrilled to have met Mary-Jo - she's a wonderful woman!
B: Well, son, you'd better keep ahold of her!

[french frank]

That's interesting - thanks ff! I associate it with such conversational contexts as the following fiction:
A: I'm just thrilled to have met Mary-Jo - she's a wonderful woman!
B: Well, son, you'd better keep ahold of her!

Yes, the dictionary left me with the impression that was the kind of context where it would be used, kinda folksy. (Have to repeat here the PAIN it causes to try and look anything up on the new 'reversioned' OED site. First I have to open my stickies and copy my library card number, then back on the site write in the name of my library and paste in the number (formerly I just clicked in the card number field and my browser did the rest, and the number identified the library anyway). Then the content is a complete mess.