'Largest IT outage in history' amused me. As I recall, widespread commercial use of computers (mainframes) dated from the late 1960s: that's less than sixty years.
Pedants' Paradise
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Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post'Largest IT outage in history' amused me. As I recall, widespread commercial use of computers (mainframes) dated from the late 1960s: that's less than sixty years.
The disruption to payrolls has the potential to heap yet more misery on those poor souls already coping with the vagaries of Universal Credit and the DWP in general.
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Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post'Largest IT outage in history' amused me. As I recall, widespread commercial use of computers (mainframes) dated from the late 1960s: that's less than sixty years.
But a Computer goes back much further than that...
Perhaps if they went on strike? "What do want? Better scrolls & pens! When do we want it? Now"
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Curiosity rather than pedantry: ...our nation, as it always has, is counting on you to energize, to organize, and to mobilize; to register folks to vote. - Kamala Harris,
'Folks' was often in Joe Biden's public utterances, and I take it to be part of an attempt to connect with ornery* people; a trope used by US politicians.
Part of my curiosity is to what extent it originates in the German 'Volk'. I recall reading that at one point (in the 19th century) German was proposed as the official language of the United States.
* Edit: by which I meant 'ordinary', but have been corrected (below).Last edited by kernelbogey; 27-07-24, 12:18.
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Originally posted by kernelbogey View PostCuriosity rather than pedantry: ...our nation, as it always has, is counting on you to energize, to organize, and to mobilize; to register folks to vote. - Kamala Harris,
'Folks' was often in Joe Biden's public utterances, and I take it to be part of an attempt to connect with ornery people; a trope used by US politicians.
Part of my curiosity is to what extent it originates in the German 'Volk'. I recall reading that at one point (in the 19th century) German was proposed as the official language of the United States.
The plural form folks (given as an 'also' in COD) is certainly more prevalent in the US.
My Merriam-Webster gives, specifically for folks:
a certain kind, class, or group of people (old folks, just plain folks, country folks, media folks)
people generally
the persons of one's own family; especially parents
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Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post... I take it to be part of an attempt to connect with ornery people...
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Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
... for a long time I used to think that 'ornery' was just an americanism for 'ordinary' - it took me quite a while to realize it meant 'bad-tempered, difficult to get on with'...
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Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
Grateful for this as I misused it ('misspoke' as Dubya used to say).
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Originally posted by smittims View PostClearly you didn't spend your childhood reading cowboy stories in the Eagle comic . I was quite used to the expression he's 'an ornery galoot' originally used to label a steer who wouldn't go with the herd, but trasferable to humans ,as 'a difficult customer'.Ornery galoots were ten-a dime back then. 'Riders of the Range', p 3?
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by smittims View PostClearly you didn't spend your childhood reading cowboy stories in the Eagle comic . I was quite used to the expression he's 'an ornery galoot' originally used to label a steer who wouldn't go with the herd, but trasferable to humans ,as 'a difficult customer'.
But I devoured all the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Billy Bunter, and Biggles too!
The occasional Beano, I suspect, maybe at the barber's (something for the weekend, Sir?), but not Eagle that I recall.
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Originally posted by french frank View Post
Ornery galoots were ten-a dime back then. 'Riders of the Range', p 3?
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