Discussion Groups / English Usage / June 2008

Morse tapping on a wall

Suppose you are a prisoner for a day and want to tap a message
to your friend that you believe is on the other side of
the 12 inch thick concrete wall.  How do you encode your message?
You can only make dits and not dahs.  Is there a standard method,
such as adding a tap at the end of each letter?
 S -- tap tap tap tap
 O -- tap   tap   tap   tap

--                       ---------------------------------------------
Richard Maurer              To reply, remove half
Sunnyvale, California       of a homonym of a synonym for also.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[subthread of Morse vocalization]

[...]

Since John Moschitta's shtick is to talk as fast as
possible, I doubt that he would say "ditditditdit" if he
knew about ['dId@l@dit].

Speaking of moschittas, I've read that there have recently
been a couple of cases of West-Nile virus in Los Angeles. We
need to look around our yards and make sure there are no
breeding places for moschittas.

} Note: I've changed the order from the source posting to put
} the more significant material first.

("[M]ore significant material" snipped as irrelevant and off-topic, though
on-Subject for the latest change, which is now irelevant.  For those
following along, we're now back to "Dawdle a bit", which follows
"Eddadit".)

}> On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:38:16 +0000 (UTC), R J Valentine
}> <rj@TheWorld.com> wrote:
}>
}> >
}> >> On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:08:58 +0000 (UTC), R J Valentine
}> >> <rj@TheWorld.com> said:
}> >...
}> >>> But still faster than some might think an old guy could do anything.
}> >>
}> >> That's Valentine, rude as ever.  
}
} [...]
}
}> >> Let me be rude in return: Drop dead, RJ.
}> >
}> >I'm not even sure that that's rude, what with the inevitability of it and
}> >all.  But I certainly forgive you for whatever offence you might have
}> >intended.
}
} There's really something wrong with Valentine's headbone if
} he thinks I would want forgiveness from an insufferable
} whatever like him.  And incredible as it seems, I think he
} may actually not know what's rude and what isn't.  That
} would help to explain his rudeness, but it wouldn't make it
} acceptable.
}
} If I cared about his apparent ignorance, I might explain to
} him that it's unimaginably rude to taunt an old person about
} their age, but I don't care how ignorant he is, so I won't.

As a matter of English usage, I challenge the use of the word "taunt".  
The posting immediately preceding the allegedly rude sentence quoted above
contained the statement posted by Bob Cunningham, but later snipped by
him, apparently to obscure the context:

  "Conventional"?  Whose convention?  Whose authority am I
  supposed to bend before to do something differently that I
  learned to do 70 years ago?

The proficiency of Mr. Cunningham with radiotelegraphy has never been an
issue.  He raised the issue of age by asserting that he learned it 70
years ago.  In my follow-up, I allowed for the opinion of some that
certain proficiencies tended to decline with age, but clearly supported
the idea that Mr. Cunningham was in full possession of at least that
proficiency, as he demonstrated in his recording of his vocalization of
the Morse code for his name.  If mentioning age is bad, then it was Mr.  
Cunningham that mentioned it, and I merely commented on his mention.  The
rest of his sentence went to his humility about the speed not being as
high as he had thought, whereupon I opined that it was plenty fast enough
after the 70 years that he brought up.

The point of the subthread is that Mr. Cunningham is proficient enough at
vocalizing Morse code, but that his spelling of the vocalization as an ad
hoc pronunciation spelling falls short, because it introduces confusion
with the a's conventionally used for dashes and the í's conventionally
used for dots in written forms of Morse-code vocalization.  (In short
form, the convention is to use "dah" for the dashes and "di" for the dots"
except for a terminal "di" in a character, which is rendered as "dit".)

He can go into a snit about people taunting him with his advanced age, and
he can snip relevant context, and he can fail to admit his introduction of
confusion with ad hoc pronunciation spelling schemes.  Heck, he could even
stomp on the floor and quit AUE yet again, as it lately seems fashionable
to do when called on a point.  But claiming touchines about his age isn't
his most productive talent.

} --
} Bob Cunningham      | Pidgin for "piano":
} Southern Califonria | "Big fella box; you hit him he cry."
} USofA               |                 -- Apocryphal?

If I wanted to be rude, I'd call Mr. Cunningham a piano.  But far be it
from me to be rude to a guy who tells me to "Drop dead".  I merely
forgive him for any rudeness he imagines himself guilty of (see above),
whether he wants it or not.  He needn't beg my forgiveness for whatever
faults he may find in himself.  I freely give it to him.