Writing Challenge Discussion -- January 2011

[Perpetual Man]

Parson, you're not saying it has you a bit stumped?

(Sorry I seem to be branching out into an Ursa direction today)

 

[nixie]

Leave it out or they'll think we're barking

 

[Perpetual Man]

I'll try to leaf it alone now

 

[chrispenycate]

Tuigim = twigged -------------- English thou art forever changing and stealing thy neighbor's words.

Moonbat -- I had to read that story 4 times until I started to understand it. I'm still not sure I've twigged it.

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that the English language is as pure as a crib-house whore. It not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary.
—James Nicoll, can.general, March 21, 1992

Actually, I'm sure the quote (or at least the essential meaning of it) is older than that (in fact, I'm sure I read it before the change of millennia) but that's the earliest I could Google.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I guess it must be the stuff I read -- I didn't know "twigged" wasn't an American thing! I think it's found in detective stories, crime fiction, generally used by the riffraff and blue-collar types, or the hard-boiled detectives. I can't think of any specific examples, because my memory sucks.

 

[Ursa major]

Whereas those of us over here who use that verb are the crème de la crème....







By the way, the word for a bundle of twigs seems to have been banned in Canada, on CBC, according to the following Chrons thread:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/530206-money-for-nothing-lyrics-banned-in-not-so.html
​

 

[The Judge]

... rich and thick...?

 

[Ursa major]

* Has trouble recalling who first used the verb in this thread.... *

 

[The Judge]

... and very desirable...


And back on thread, is Moonbat's title a quote or something? It feels as if it should be a song -- probably one the Canadian authorities might try and ban.

 

[Parson]

Everybody here is a comedian.

I had to look back at Moonbat's post before I was aware that there was a title. I'm guessing that the first line I read was a title. But even allowing that knowledge it still has me stumped, and since I haven't twigged it. I must be a wooden head.

 

[The Judge]

Well, if it's not a title, Parson, Moonbat is waaaay over word count...

I think I know what is going on in his story (it sounds like the authorities there could have done with some of Ursa's mini-roundabouts) but if we're confessing to being stumped** there are a number of others which have got me puzzled, yours not least, Parson. Don't explain it now, as I shall continue to muse on it, but if I'm still bemused by the time voting is over I may have to ask for the answer to the riddle.


** I shall have to bail out of any arboreal puns...

 

[chrispenycate]

... and very desirable...


And back on thread, is Moonbat's title a quote or something? It feels as if it should be a song -- probably one the Canadian authorities might try and ban.

Beatles ; Blackbird.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings, and learn to fly…

All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

 

[The Judge]

Ah-ha! My suspicions were correct! Very clever, too.

 

[chrispenycate]

And on the White Album, which also had "Revolution"

Mind you, it would be a touch late for Canadian authorities to ban a 1968 track now.

Although when did "Money for nothing" come out? Not all that recently.

 

[Precise Calibre]

I'm a huge fan of Ursa's.

I decided to make mine straightforward this time. Tired of trying to hide something.. at least for this month.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Surprisingly, because I lost interest in popular music long before the Beatles performed that song, I caught the reference in Moonbat's title on my first reading.

I'm still pretty hazy on what the story means, though. But there are a lot of stories that puzzle me this month, and if other people don't ask them first, I'm going to have a lot of questions after the voting is done.

It's something about the theme, perhaps, and the fact that a lot of people are trying not to interpret it too literally, or we'd have a whole series of stories about revolutionaries manning the barricades. I thought the blood would flow in rivers this month, but so far that hasn't been the case. (Where are the guillotines? Where are the tumbrils? Back in my day, when we stormed the Bastille ...)

However, despite the paucity of gore, I think the stories have been wonderful this month.

 

[J Riff]

Well I don't really know what a mini-roundabout is... a car or a little turnaround road thingie...?

 

[sloweye]

Roundabout - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Our answer to your 'far to many trafic light' system

My uncle couldn't belive there were no roundabouts out there when he moved over. He felt lost without them.

 

[J Riff]

Right. The Keystone Kops used to go around and around those things.
Maybe would have saved the 17-yr. old run down and killed at the corner here yesterday, maybe not.

Paucity of gore indeed..where is the blood and sex?... oh wait, Mouse hasn't posted yet. )

 

[sloweye]

Roundabouts make us Brits shout... a lot.