Cold Ale - The Blokes' Thread!

[prendrelemick]

I'd get Croft and Perry if I was you.

[Paulclem]

There's a movie in this: The Milton Street Secession.

I see Rushdie writing the screenplay. I'm thinking Scorsese for director, to really get us in there amongst the runner beans. I have Timothy Spall in mind to play you, Paul. I have no idea if there's any physical resemblance, but I feel he could express your spade-wielding insouciance.

Excellent idea. Timothy Spall would be good - he's got an allotmenteer's stature. We might have to import the runner beans this year depending on the shooting schedule, as they're rather late.

[prendrelemick]

How about "50 Sheds of Grey" for a title?

[MarkBastable]

How about "50 Sheds of Grey" for a title?

Not bad, actually.

Or Midnight in the Garden Shed of Good and Evil.

Or Blade Runner Bean

Or Westward Hoe!

Or Salem's Allotment.

[prendrelemick]

Not bad.

Citizen Kale?

Peas Please Me? for opening credits song.

Should be a 24 carrot hit.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Brilliant, we're on a good runner with ideas.

Perhaps
No Allotment For Old Men
Spade Runner
The Spuds of Wrath


Something I just realized as I was adding fabric softener to the wash, I'm an "Alfalfa Male".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8fyk...eature=related

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[Sancho]

How about, Insouciance. That’d be a good title. It’s a ten-dollar word and appropriately pretentious.

[Calidore]

The Corn Supremacy

[prendrelemick]

A Cubby Broccoli production.

[Paulclem]

Marvellous

The Once and Future King Edward

[MarkBastable]

How about, Insouciance. That’d be a good title. It’s a ten-dollar word and appropriately pretentious.

This is very odd. On another forum, an American made exactly this point about exactly this word - that it was pretentious - though I think they valued it at five bucks. Other Americans agreed. And all the Brits went, "Huh? I mean, not a word that's going to turn up in a Justin Bieber song, admittedly - but certanly not unusual."

As the Yanks were well-read and the Brits were unpretentious, and all of them were in love with the English language, I sort of concluded that the word just isn't used much in the States.

But then the question became, "Why does this word provoke such a scornful reaction when so many other little-used words don't?"

And I think it might be because it sounds a bit French. And I have actually heard an American pronounce it as if it were very recently French, with a nasal '-ance'.

Now that's pretentious.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

I had to look it up and listen to a recorded pronunciation.
The voice sounded like a pretentious Yank and I'm guessing he was paid about ten bucks by M Webster.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbk81X6WHA4

.

[Sancho]

This is very odd. On another forum, an American made exactly this point about exactly this word - that it was pretentious - though I think they valued it at five bucks. Other Americans agreed. And all the Brits went, "Huh? I mean, not a word that's going to turn up in a Justin Bieber song, admittedly - but certanly not unusual."

As the Yanks were well-read and the Brits were unpretentious, and all of them were in love with the English language, I sort of concluded that the word just isn't used much in the States.

But then the question became, "Why does this word provoke such a scornful reaction when so many other little-used words don't?"

And I think it might be because it sounds a bit French. And I have actually heard an American pronounce it as if it were very recently French, with a nasal '-ance'.

Now that's pretentious.

Insouciance…Insouciance…Insouciance, Just the sound of it, the way it rolls off my tongue, makes me want to tilt my head slightly back, put my eyelids at half-mast, swirl my snifter of cognac, and look right down the ridge of my nose at whoever it is I’m talking to. Ah-hem, pah-don moi, whomever.

I have no idea why that word evokes such a sharply negative reaction when it falls on American ears, and I can’t speak for all of them, but when it enters one of the two attached to my head, my first reaction is usually: Insouciance!? Who the hell’re you trying to impress?

Ah well, I may have been hasty in my judgment. I’ll try harder to like the word. And you’re probably right: it’s only a 5-dollar word. I’m willing to take my change in shillings. I have always thought of it as a fun word if artfully delivered by a precocious youth. Speaking of which, I’m not all that familiar with his music, but I’m sure The Bieb’ made a wise business decision by not using it in a lyric. Besides, I think he’s Canadian, and while Canada is in North America, I’ve found that the people there prefer to be called Canadians rather than North Americans. I mean, back in 1776 we did give them the option to throw in with us and bail on the crown, but they had a loyalty streak a mile wide. Also the cooler clime’ up there doesn’t lend itself to the hot-headedness we have down south, I think.

Whoa, veered off track there.

You and I have chatted before about tacking on an overly French pronunciation to an Anglicized French word (homage, I think), and I know your feelings on the subject. I tried to tune in to how much that happens around here, and I’ve concluded: not much. I have noticed more and more people pronouncing croissant qua-son rather than cra-sant. But around my house, given half a chance, we’ll cut that sucker in two and slap some meat and cheese between the slices, and call it a Cra-sand-wich, not a Qua-son-wotch.

Anyway, I think I tend to lean away from French pronunciation. A couple of months ago I was standing in a customs line (queue) behind an Air France Flight Crew. So naturally I’m trying to chat up the Stew’s. They would visibly cringe every time I said 'Air France' (rhymes with their pants). They, of course, said 'Air Fronce' (rhymes with bare schwance). What fun. I think the girls kind of liked me.

But lately I am hearing more people using Latin American Spanish pronunciation for names and places. I know a woman named: Maria Cecilia Flavianna Garcia de la Rosa. Go ahead, try it. It’s fun to say. Roll those Rs.

[MarkBastable]

It's fine. I suspect your attitude to the use of words is much the same as mine and everyone else's. To wit....


Anyone who uses a word I don't like is a pretentious arse.
And anyone who doesn't like a word I use is an illiterate pig.

[prendrelemick]

Here's one Justin might like to cover .


Girl with your insouciance
Girl you got such confidence
(You say that with a french nuance)
Let us go upon Vacance
we can fly upon Air Fronce.
You'll get to laugh at my bare schwance.
So au revoir et bon, bon chance.