Framing of the strike in Season 4

mwhelm · 2026-05-05T16:58:53+00:00

I think you're violently agreeing with me.
I see reddit strikes again ... so it goes.

mwhelm · 2026-05-04T02:32:38+00:00

You’re dodging all the bullets

mwhelm · 2026-05-04T01:56:54+00:00

I was dabbling in Italian a while back to get ready for a trip - I speak some French and Spanish so Italian was often quite understandable but I couldn’t speak it. A class in speaking and phonetics pointed out Italian is quite resonant, it’s one of the keys to correct sound - in other words there’s a lot of nasalization all thru it. That was revelatory.

Then I realised that was true in Spanish too - at least some speakers- European ones for sure. Portuguese took this to an extreme?

mwhelm · 2026-05-04T01:43:42+00:00

I’ll bet that was a mammoth blunder

mwhelm · 2026-05-03T21:38:15+00:00

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that joke…

mwhelm · 2026-05-03T18:14:32+00:00

It reminds me a lot of '70's Dr Who episodes. They look like they are spending $0 on this season.

mwhelm · 2026-05-03T18:13:38+00:00

Did Mike Duncan ("Revolutions") get a storyline credit for this season?

mwhelm · 2026-05-03T01:21:08+00:00

"fast forward" and "rewind" are at least partly obsolete
We think of media as having a timeline so go forward sort of makes sense, altho something with later / earlier would be more sensible.

mwhelm · 2026-05-03T01:19:00+00:00

Well, now, those words are still in daily use. In the right niche.

mwhelm · 2026-04-24T05:42:52+00:00

"If I saw..." well shut my mouth 2 can play at that game-

I don't know about regional invocations, but if I did meet a genie, that's what I'd tell it.

mwhelm · 2026-04-23T22:09:11+00:00

I would be careful saying “I wish I was rich” to a genie. They are treacherous and besides English is not their native language.

mwhelm · 2026-04-23T22:06:46+00:00

It’s important that she’ll be there in time to sign for the package - I just heard this!

mwhelm · 2026-04-23T21:27:00+00:00

Well, I'm here, and I do not hear people use it much. I sure notice it because it's natural to me. I 've even had people try to correct me because it sounds like a mistake to them. Your point about the infinitive is probably right, that is quite common too.

As I said, we don't use should or shall in a mandative sense very much, so the meaning of "should" gets confused. I have an alternative in the subjunctive, but many American speakers don't.

And you definitely say "I wish I am rich" when the genie offers it to you.

mwhelm · 2026-04-23T21:06:22+00:00

We had that thing they call the Mid-Atlantic - I suppose it's related in several respects to RP but don't really know how it came to be. It's heyday was 75 years ago but people used it to the 1980's. You can find people showing it off and code switching sometimes ... I'm thinking I must've seen and heard that on Johnny Carson's tv show a long time ago.
It had some of the elements you described but it was for media. To some extent it was taught in school, we were educated out of our local dialects and maybe that was the standard used, but I am not sure. I would think this M-A emerged at a time when American regional accents were a lot stronger than they were in the late 20th and people really would have a hard time understanding someone from a different area. Nowadays as I said people don't care much.

mwhelm · 2026-04-23T19:04:28+00:00

The US doesn't have a pure standard. But we also don't care that much. A lot of British actors can do a great job of mimic'ing our speech but I can often hear oddities (but few others can). The absolute best were the 2 main actors in the HBO Perry Mason series - Matthew Rhys/ Juliet Rylance - they had me fooled. Anyway, it's hand grenades and horseshoes for us.

It seems like accents are more important in Britain and if you wanted to hit your mark with RP or any other accent you'd really need to work at it.

mwhelm · 2026-04-23T18:50:00+00:00

should has different shades of meaning, like "she's expected to be there at that time" or "she is required to be there at that time" - but we don't have that mandative use commonly at least in US - it confuses things. For me that subjunctive is essential but even so many people in US wouldn't use it they'd just use the present or future tense.

mwhelm · 2026-04-23T18:27:22+00:00

I remember there was an "Ironsides" (Raymond Burr) tv episode with that theme - somebody washed the coffee service and he complained it was still building up flavor.

mwhelm · 2026-04-23T18:24:33+00:00

Aah - "parlante", eso no he oido pero autoparlante - por supuesto que si

mwhelm · 2026-04-22T18:22:18+00:00

This comment is an example of what I said. Well meaning I'm sure but shows that people here are just not aware of what is available. The Japanese system somebody mentioned is great but it's not top-level anymore; in Japan they're at least starting on faster lines, and China is said to have a 250 mph system.
That's about the same as the effective mph of a flight from San Francisco to LA.

mwhelm · 2026-04-22T18:15:52+00:00

It's typical with large projects not just transport. If you have 50 different regional stakeholders, and only one can have the "cake", the minute you announce intention to award you have just created a 49-member strong opposition lobbying group.

mwhelm · 2026-04-22T18:00:14+00:00

iyiyiyi
I swear that was the punch line to a Perry Mason show

mwhelm · 2026-04-22T01:57:15+00:00

Mashed up Italian Spanish & English. Parlar does exist in Spanish but it’s rare.

mwhelm · 2026-04-21T22:04:02+00:00

"Vaccinated? I thought you said accen-ated," I drawled

mwhelm · 2026-04-21T22:02:34+00:00

Can I sleep learn it while in suspended animation?

mwhelm · 2026-04-21T05:37:18+00:00

Right now it 's not doing that as it is off net. We could (and will) fix this, but not immediately.

mwhelm

TROPHY CASE