 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / British English / July 2005Neilisms
Britain has a political journalist named Andrew Neil who continues to build a reputation for incompetence and bullying when conducting what are laughably described as "interviews". He does, however, compensate for this with a remarkable facility for cocked-up phrases and sayings. I ought to start collecting these for posteriority, but I can recall the most recent pair: 11 July: "That beggars the question, should we care?" 12th July: "We shouldn't be making a storm out of a teacup here." I'll report back with further developments. Matti In alt.usage.english, Matti Lamprhey wrote: >Britain has a political journalist named Andrew Neil who continues to >build a reputation for incompetence and bullying when conducting what [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > >I'll report back with further developments. It's his hair. You can tell just by looking at him that the roots go a long way into his brain.  SignatureMickwick "Something must be done, even if it doesn't work." - Sir Bob Geldof (Quoted in _The Scotsman_.) In alt.usage.english, Mickwick wrote: >It's his hair. You can tell just by looking at him that the roots go a >long way into his brain. Incidentally, a leading political cartoonist said recently (or was recently quoted as saying) that getting crinkly Neilite hair just right is the key to an efficient representation of the English upper-classes. True toffs crinkle - e.g. Douglas Hurd, er, Douglas Hurd etc. And yet Mr Andrew Neil is neither English nor a toff. Comments? SignatureMickwick An excellent resource: www.islamonline.net > In alt.usage.english, Mickwick wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Comments? I can't think of any other crinklies. I always thought toffs flopped, along the lines of Hezza, Boris, Hugh Grant and Bill Nighy. I could use some advice from any toff or toffess who might be tuning in. I have been invited to dinner at the Athenaeum and I'm told that the dress code is "reasonably posh". What does this mean these days? Should I get Grandma's diamonds out of the bank? SignatureLaura (emulate St. George for email) In alt.usage.english Laura F. Spira <laura@dragonspira.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote: >> In alt.usage.english, Mickwick wrote: >> [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] >> >> Comments? > I can't think of any other crinklies. I always thought toffs flopped, > along the lines of Hezza, Boris, Hugh Grant and Bill Nighy. Charles Medawar? Jonathan Miller? SignatureChris Malcolm cam@infirmatics.ed.ac.uk +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK [http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/] >In alt.usage.english Laura F. Spira <laura@dragonspira.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote: >> I can't think of any other crinklies. I always thought toffs flopped, >> along the lines of Hezza, Boris, Hugh Grant and Bill Nighy. > >Charles Medawar? Jonathan Miller? Hair or not, I don't think of either of these in the "toff" bracket. What, to you, constitutes toffness? SignatureKaty Jennison spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @ In alt.usage.english Wood Avens <woodavens@askjennison.com> wrote: >>In alt.usage.english Laura F. Spira <laura@dragonspira.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote: >>> I can't think of any other crinklies. I always thought toffs flopped, >>> along the lines of Hezza, Boris, Hugh Grant and Bill Nighy. >> >>Charles Medawar? Jonathan Miller? > Hair or not, I don't think of either of these in the "toff" bracket. > What, to you, constitutes toffness? The natural assumption, carefully inculcated by the best public schools, that one is a leader of men, and having an accent which the servile classes have been trained to recognise as the Voice of Authority. Of course if the Voice is all you have, then you will appear to be a buffoon. There is an inner circle of toffness which regards floppy hair, preferably blond, as being a good guarantee that one's ethnic roots are not tainted. It is also believed in some toff circles that being clever is a misfortune that one should conceal, although it can come in handy were one unfortunate enough to have to earn one's living. I guess your definition of toffness is more exclusive than mine. Mine is roughly a public schoolboy of the most expensive kind. Is George Melly a toff? I would say so. SignatureChris Malcolm cam@infirmatics.ed.ac.uk +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK [http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/] [-] >I guess your definition of toffness is more exclusive than mine. Mine >is roughly a public schoolboy of the most expensive kind. > >Is George Melly a toff? I would say so. Pico Iyer too? >In alt.usage.english, Mickwick wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > >Comments? Mull over Hugh Gaitskell, of the crinkliest hair and stiffest upper lip British politics has ever seen. SignaturePaul In bocca al Lupo! On Wednesday, in article <19Ie1+2ZwZ1CFwPd@fpwolff.demon.co.uk> > >In alt.usage.english, Mickwick wrote: > > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > Mull over Hugh Gaitskell, of the crinkliest hair and stiffest upper lip > British politics has ever seen. Ditto Arthur Scargill? SignatureBrian {Hamilton Kelly} bhk@dsl.co.uk "Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte." Blaise Pascal, /Lettres Provinciales/, 1657 In alt.usage.english, Brian {Hamilton Kelly} wrote: >> Mull over Hugh Gaitskell, of the crinkliest hair and stiffest upper lip >> British politics has ever seen. > >Ditto Arthur Scargill? There's crinkly and there's frizzy. I can see now that Mr Neil's hair is, like Mr Scargill's, frizzy. Prince Charles has crinkly hair. W ~ ~ ~ ~~ .. ~¬ 7 | / LJ ¬_ / '_/ See? It's not floppy because it's rigid. It's even too rigid to be wavy. It's a sort of ridged helmet: crinkly. * Have we done 'chinless wonder' and 'weak chin' here in AUE? I know what a chinless wonder is and I know that having a weak chin is supposed to be a Bad Thing; I just don't know what the chins in question are supposed to look like. Are they narrow? Short? Lacking a cleft? Do they slope backwards and merge with the neck? SignatureMickwick An irrelevant resource: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cath/congress/2002/programme/paper_index.shtml >In alt.usage.english, Brian {Hamilton Kelly} wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] >Are they narrow? Short? Lacking a cleft? Do they slope backwards and >merge with the neck? I think they're as you describe in your last sentence, but there's a sort of hee-haw voice and supercilious attitude to consider, too. SignatureRobin Hoddesdon, England > Britain has a political journalist named Andrew Neil who continues to > build a reputation for incompetence and bullying when conducting what [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Matti Send him to us ,we'll make him president. > Britain has a political journalist named Andrew Neil who continues to > build a reputation for incompetence and bullying when conducting what [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > 11 July: "That beggars the question, should we care?" "That buggers the question, should we care?" Maybe you misheard. > 12th July: "We shouldn't be making a storm out of a teacup here." > > I'll report back with further developments. > > Matti Signature"What do you value in your bulldogs? Gripping, is it not? It's their nature? It's why you breed them? It's so with men. I will not give in because I oppose it. Not my pride, not my spleen, nor any other of my appetites, but *I* do. Is there in the midst of all this muscle no single sinew that serves no appetite of Norfolk's but is just Norfolk? Give that some exercise. Because, as you stand, you'll go before your Maker ill-conditioned. He'll think that somewhere along your pedigree, a bitch got over the wall." -+Paul Scofield, "A Man For All Seasons" > > Britain has a political journalist named Andrew Neil who continues > > to build a reputation for incompetence and bullying when conducting [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > > "That buggers the question, should we care?" Maybe you misheard. Nope. And FGS stop putting all that CRAP in your come-on line up there. It fails to impress anyone, unless with the false conviction that you're a complete idiot. I refuse to believe it's out of your control, as I think you bleated on my previous eruption. Matti > > > Britain has a political journalist named Andrew Neil who continues > > > to build a reputation for incompetence and bullying when conducting [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Nope. And FGS stop putting all that CRAP in your come-on line up there. What crap? My name is a half line. You put all the rest in there, the e-mail address, the message ID, each with a newline. Me adding in a long name line is different in what way from someone editing the name line or adding in non-standard material around the attribution? If what I put there is under one line wide with anything reasonable added by someone attributing me, what's the problem? > It fails to impress anyone, unless with the false conviction that you're > a complete idiot. Why do you have "matti@official-totally-reversed.com" in your from line? Is that a real e-mail address or are you just adding in something for the fun of it? > I refuse to believe it's out of your control, as I > think you bleated on my previous eruption. Eruption? I never claimed I couldn't change what was in my From line. You might not be able to change what is quoted without deleting stuff, but that isn't my problem. Signature"What do you value in your bulldogs? Gripping, is it not? It's their nature? It's why you breed them? It's so with men. I will not give in because I oppose it. Not my pride, not my spleen, nor any other of my appetites, but *I* do. Is there in the midst of all this muscle no single sinew that serves no appetite of Norfolk's but is just Norfolk? Give that some exercise. Because, as you stand, you'll go before your Maker ill-conditioned. He'll think that somewhere along your pedigree, a bitch got over the wall." -+Paul Scofield, "A Man For All Seasons" On 12 Jul 2005, Bill Bonde ('by a commodius vicus of recirculation') wrote >> Nope. And FGS stop putting all that CRAP in your come-on line up >> there. >> > What crap? My name is a half line. But that extra bit in single quotes after your name is...well, naff. SignatureCheers, Harvey Canada for 30 years; S England since 1982. (for e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van) >I ought to start collecting these for posteriority, Oooh! I like it - posteriority somehow carries the semantic baggage of both posterity and arsefullness. I have to file that one. Jitze > Britain has a political journalist named Andrew Neil who continues to > build a reputation for incompetence and bullying when conducting what [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > I'll report back with further developments. Is it true that you have a picture of Andrew uttering one of his Neilisms in the company of an etymologist of sub-continental origin? Perhaps you could it publish it on-line for the benefit of our left-pondian readers? SignatureJohn "Is this the way to use a Brillo?" Dean Oxford > Britain has a political journalist named Andrew Neil who continues to > build a reputation for incompetence and bullying when conducting what > are laughably described as "interviews". I fear that he's about as good as we've got. The bullying is a definite plus. Adrian > > Britain has a political journalist named Andrew Neil who continues to > > build a reputation for incompetence and bullying when conducting what > > are laughably described as "interviews". > > I fear that he's about as good as we've got. The bullying is a definite > plus. Nobody bullies like Jeremy Paxman. Signature"What do you value in your bulldogs? Gripping, is it not? It's their nature? It's why you breed them? It's so with men. I will not give in because I oppose it. Not my pride, not my spleen, nor any other of my appetites, but *I* do. Is there in the midst of all this muscle no single sinew that serves no appetite of Norfolk's but is just Norfolk? Give that some exercise. Because, as you stand, you'll go before your Maker ill-conditioned. He'll think that somewhere along your pedigree, a bitch got over the wall." -+Paul Scofield, "A Man For All Seasons" > 11 July: "That beggars the question, should we care?" That's not only got the phrase wrong, but is using it incorrectly. To 'beg the question' is to make a statement that contains an assumed premiss, like "Stop prejudice- oppose the fox- hunting ban". Paul Burke >> 11 July: "That beggars the question, should we care?" > > That's not only got the phrase wrong, but is using it incorrectly. To > 'beg the question' is to make a statement that contains an assumed > premiss, like "Stop prejudice- oppose the fox- hunting ban". i thought that was the whole point of this thread - to point out the incorrect usage of a particular television commentator. A bit like the old "Colemanballs" column in Private Eye. Regardes, Einde O'Callaghan While recovering from a recent, uncomfortable transmembrification, Paul Burke (paul@scazon.com) was heard to remark... > > 11 July: "That beggars the question, should we care?" > > That's not only got the phrase wrong, but is using it incorrectly. To > 'beg the question' is to make a statement that contains an assumed > premiss, like "Stop prejudice- oppose the fox- hunting ban". "Premiss" is where the speaker is so off-base that he has in fact missed before making his statement? Signature"The [New York] Times is not a bad little newspaper in some ways. But when it comes to things like egg balancing, it is out of its depth." - Cecil Adams, /More of the Straight Dope/ > While recovering from a recent, uncomfortable transmembrification, > Paul Burke (paul@scazon.com) was heard to remark... [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > "Premiss" is where the speaker is so off-base that he has in fact > missed before making his statement? The spelling "premiss" is perfectly acceptable - for clarity if nothing else, although it is not one I would myself employ. SignatureJohn Briggs > "Premiss" is where the speaker is so off-base that he has in fact > missed before making his statement? Are you trying to tell me that my reasoning is faulty, being based on licensed premises? Paul Burke >> "Premiss" is where the speaker is so off-base that he has in fact >> missed before making his statement? > > Are you trying to tell me that my reasoning is faulty, being based on > licensed premises? As the Rev. Sydney Smith observed upon seeing two women haranging each other from opposite windows across an Edinburgh street: "I fear they will never agree, for they are arguing from different premises". SignatureJohn Briggs >>> "Premiss" is where the speaker is so off-base that he has in fact >>> missed before making his statement? [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > each other from opposite windows across an Edinburgh street: "I fear > they will never agree, for they are arguing from different premises". How very non-U. SignatureRay |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.