GQ

[denimini]

It is good that men are wearing skorts as they still look like skirts or mini skirts and if the wearers need some psychological comfort at the expense of physical comfort so be it. I assume the "danger" of mini skirts is the chance of flashing .............. just don't worry, it is not a high powered laser under there.
Even the photo of the shorts part of the skort showing below the hem does not faze me as I consider it an aesthetic improvement over bicycle shorts.

[geron]

Nowadays, if it passes the spell chequer it goes to press.

I'm sure you're right, crfriend. But your characteristic politeness has allowed you to over-anglicize your reply for me: we use spell-checkers over here too! Cheques are confined to financial transactions, and they are a species nearing extinction.

[crfriend]

I'm sure you're right, crfriend. But your characteristic politeness has allowed you to over-anglicize your reply for me: we use spell-checkers over here too! Cheques are confined to financial transactions, and they are a species nearing extinction.

I know precisely what I did, and I did it to prove the point. What one gets when one uses spell-checkers is poor grammar because many of those don't detect the use of an incorrect homonym, e.g. the classic there/their/they're problem.

See An Owed to the Spelling Checker" for a good, if somewhat painful, laugh.

Then there's the one that always winds me into the stratosphere, and that's where people confuse "lose" and "loose". That's just incompetence or inattention -- and either of those can make me lose my temper and loose the dogs of war in response.

[Kirbstone]

Ghotiing....Fishing... I'll explain: Trough (for water) The gh is pronounced 'f'. Women, the o is pronounced 'i'. Quotient. The ti is pronounced 'sh'.

Add these letters together: gh o ti, pronounced 'fish'

Shure 'twould dhruive yeh mad, it would ! The greatest gift inadvertently given the Irish people round the turn of the 19th-20th Century by the British was their language.

Tom

[geron]

Shure 'twould dhruive yeh mad, it would ! The greatest gift inadvertently given the Irish people round the turn of the 19th-20th Century by the British was their language.

But the 26-letter English alphabet is a poor fit for Gaelic languages, judging by the number of extra letters it takes to write anything....

[Fear i Sciorta Dubh]

But the 26-letter English alphabet is a poor fit for Gaelic languages, judging by the number of extra letters it takes to write anything....

Interestingly there are only 18 letters in the traditional Irish alphabet as we don’t use j, k, q, v, w, x, y, or z. Though we sometimes shorten words by using a dot over a letter to indicate a h as the following letter. Thus the word ‘dubh’ (meaning black) would be written dub with a dot over the b though this is rarely used nowadays.

[Kirbstone]

Indeed, FSD. I'm of a generation brought up on fadas and buailtes and when Roman type with 'h's came in my reading of Irish texts slowed down a lot and to this day I'm not comfortable with it.

Next time you meet a Dub, How do you go about putting a dot over his bee? Buy him a pint, I suppose.

Tom

[Fear i Sciorta Dubh]

Indeed, FSD. I'm of a generation brought up on fadas and buailtes and when Roman type with 'h's came in my reading of Irish texts slowed down a lot and to this day I'm not comfortable with it.

Next time you meet a Dub, How do you go about putting a dot over his bee? Buy him a pint, I suppose.

Tom

Hi Tom

I did all my Irish lessons in the 1960’s and 1970’s using Roman type and so despite being a Dub, never really came across a dub with a dot, only the more recent ‘dubh’.

I’m always open to having a pint bought for me mind.

I hope all this isn’t too confusing for our non-Irish friends!

[Kirbstone]

FSD,
Now I'd gladly buy you a pint for yer mind, but I'd suggest you try it with your taste buds and stomach, first.

I doubt if even foreigners would be confused by having a pint bought for them.

By the 60s I was heavily involved with a leggy Surbiton Sasannach lass whose education didn't include Irish, but she'd played Ladies' Lacrosse for England and G.B. and 55 years later she still plays a mean game of tennis for a great grandmother.

Tom

[Fear i Sciorta Dubh]

FSD,
Now I'd gladly buy you a pint for yer mind, but I'd suggest you try it with your taste buds and stomach, first.

I doubt if even foreigners would be confused by having a pint bought for them.

By the 60s I was heavily involved with a leggy Surbiton Sasannach lass whose education didn't include Irish, but she'd played Ladies' Lacrosse for England and G.B. and 55 years later she still plays a mean game of tennis for a great grandmother.

Tom

As in the classic ‘Eats shoots and leaves’, methinks the absence of a humble comma has created some confusion here. I should have said

‘I’m always open to having a pint bought for me, mind’

And regarding your leggy, Sassanach missus’s very impressive tennis playing, there is obviously a pair of you in it given your own exploits with oars on the water. You must make a great couple!