Pedants' Paradise

[kernelbogey]

'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.

[LMcD]

'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.

'Largest IT outage so far' might prove to be more accurate.

[oddoneout]

'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.

My brain keeps processing "outage" as "outrage"...
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.

[AuntDaisy]

'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"

[Padraig]

Perhaps if they went on strike? "What do want? Better scrolls & pens! When do we want it? Now"

Ah!Ah! Auntie. You're giving Paradise a good name.

[kernelbogey]

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).

[Pulcinella]

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.

COD says OE folc, of Germanic origin.

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

[vinteuil]

... I take it to be part of an attempt to connect with ornery people...

... 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'...

[kernelbogey]

... 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'...

Grateful for this as I misused it ('misspoke' as Dubya used to say).

[Pulcinella]

Grateful for this as I misused it ('misspoke' as Dubya used to say).

Me too, though (possibly from this misuse) the Century Dictionary here gives 'ordinary' as a meaning:

https://www.wordnik.com/words/ornery

[smittims]

Clearly 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'.

[french frank]

Clearly 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?

[Pulcinella]

Clearly 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'.

My childhood was Look and Learn, and Knowledge!
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.

[LMcD]

Ornery galoots were ten-a dime back then. 'Riders of the Range', p 3?

The radio series 'Riders Of The Range' was followed - after just a couple of months, I believe - by the first episode of 'Journey Into Space', on 21st September 1953. The title was intoned by the future host of Juke Box Jury and the part of Jet Morgan played by a future Labour MP.

[kernelbogey]

'Journey Into Space': have I remembered correctly that was on Radio Luxembourg?