Quick Fire Questions (A Place to Ask and Answer)

[Mouse]

Ah, I mean not using it as a brand name. As in: I'm going to go and hoover up cos there's dog hair all over the place. As opposed to: I'm going to go and vacuum the carpet cos the dog's walked dirt everywhere.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Ah, I mean not using it as a brand name. As in: I'm going to go and hoover up cos there's dog hair all over the place. As opposed to: I'm going to go and vacuum the carpet cos the dog's walked dirt everywhere.

Oh right. well, I'd question where the term 'hoover it up' came from.

Verb

hoover up (third-person singular simple present hoovers up, present participle hoovering up, simple past and past participle hoovered up)

(transitive) To suck (something) into a vacuum cleaner, irrespective of brand.
Don't worry about the mess on the carpet - I'll hoover it up later.

According to that it's 'irrespective of brand', which means no particular brand can lay claim for it, even if it represents a major brand.

It's like search engines on the internet. We don't say we are going to log onto google and do a web search. We say we are going to 'google it'

That's still using the brand name, but I believe it's acceptable to use it that way.

 

[Mouse]

Ah cool. Thought so but had a little niggling doubt. Ta Warren.

 

[Ursa major]

The use of the name, hoover, for vacuum cleaners is very restricted, geographically speaking. However, as your story is, I believe, set in the UK (and its our UK rather than one on an explicitly** parallel Earth), you should be able to use the noun, hoover, and the verb, to hoover.







** - Don't get too excited, Mouse.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Oooh, explicit use of hoovers, how could one not get excited. All those corners, and crevices, and ooh, all sorts. I'd have no probs, Mouse, just don't shake and vac, too.

 

[Ursa major]

Please don't put the freshness back. (At least not the sort of freshness that Mouse will probably be thinking of.)

 

[Warren_Paul]

Please don't put the freshness back. (At least not the sort of freshness that Mouse will probably be thinking of.)

Yes, it certainly is fresh in here...


@Springs you sure you don't need to read those paranormal romance books we are talking about in Mouse's thread?

 

[hopewrites]

I would assume yes because people are forever using Kleenex rather than handkerchiefs.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Can the idiom 'as the crow flies' be used in another tense? 'As the crow flew', maybe.

As long as you don't use it in the rather tense sense, as in, 'They call them 'crow flies' because they're flies, and they're as big as crows!'

 

[Mouse]

** - Don't get too excited, Mouse.

Right o, hoover it is then. 'Vacuum' always sounds American to me.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

In the airless Hoover of space, why do all those fighters, battleships and Death Stars make so much noise?

 

[HoopyFrood]

Please don't put the freshness back.

Gah, now I have that advert tune in my head!

In the airless Hoover of space, why do all those fighters, battleships and Death Stars make so much noise?

Nobody had the heart to fire the sound people.

 

[Warren_Paul]

In the airless Hoover of space, why do all those fighters, battleships and Death Stars make so much noise?

I think in Star Wars they were either ignorant or felt sound was more exciting then not. But then the remake of Battlestar Galactica game along and showed you have have exciting space action without sound.

well there still is a bit of sound, but its dampened, muffled. has good effect imo.



Frakking Cylons!

 

[David Evil Overlord]

I have a super hero crashing through a glass window, and the Muse is asleep at the wheel. The super hero is explaining how she hurt herself and ruined her costume.

How does this sound? I'm trying to avoid a repeat of the almost universally-despised chainsaw metaphor.

I’m tougher than a baseliner, so I went through the glass with just a couple of scratches. My super suit went through the glass like cheese through a grater.

 

[Warren_Paul]

I have a super hero crashing through a glass window, and the Muse is asleep at the wheel. The super hero is explaining how she hurt herself and ruined her costume.

How does this sound? I'm trying to avoid a repeat of the almost universally-despised chainsaw metaphor.

I’m tougher than a baseliner, so I went through the glass with just a couple of scratches. My super suit went through the glass like cheese through a grater.

Hmm, so the picture we are getting from that would be... don't get too excited now guys.

I'm not sure DEO, as one line it looks fine to me, but in the big picture it might look different.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

I should stress she does manage to get her arms up in front of her face before impact, so the part of her costume that gets cheese-grated is the arms. Mostly.

 

[crystal haven]

Have you thought of paper through a shredder.

 

[hopewrites]

Love the cheese grater, which automatically makes a baseliner bad-a$$ what ever it is.

 

[Vertigo]

It's a lovely image but I'm not sure that it would happen like that. Once the window has broken from the initial impact, any remaining bits catching on clothing would break away very easily probably before doing much damage to the clothing.

I would expect some torn bits of clothing but not "shredding". That said, in a superhero story I would have my suspension of disbelief at a fairly high setting so wouldn't be too worried by it

 

[David Evil Overlord]

@Vertigo - She is travelling quite fast when she hits. I'm thinking that the sleeves of her costume would be cut up quite a bit. In fact, I'm counting on it. The poor girl is on her way to testify in court, and her damaged costume is not going to make a good impression on the judge...

As for "shredded", well, she has been known to exaggerate just a little. Especially when she's talking to the person she blames for the crash. (Hint - she doesn't blame herself.)

@Hope - A baseliner is a baseline human, someone with no super powers.

@Crystal - I'll save the paper shredder for another metaphor. The life of a super hero is fraught with dangerousness.