h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You bunch of British weenies, I think all y'all have weird accents....

Seriously, it's worse in the states. I'm from the midwest and am often guilty of the same thing. One of my favorites is some people who say "warsh" instead of wash. Plus over here we have to put up with texans, and i really do know some who say "all y'all"... Now as i look back over the thread I see that some people have already said this. I admit that i enjoy saying "that don't make sense" and "i don't want no *something*", maybe im just a hick...


Pence is plural? What is one pence supposed to be, anyway? Over here we have pennies or just one penny.

<<<<<<<<< Excerpt from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
In the great and glorious days of the former Galactic Empire, life was wild, rich and largely tax free....In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry cratures from ALpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infiniives that no man had split before-- and thus was the Empire forged>>>>>>>>>>>>
-Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Well remembered, Norman - a brilliant quote and relevant too!

Deb

>> Pence is plural? What is one pence supposed to be, anyway? Over here we have pennies or just one penny. <<

But you have never had a change of currency Norman where 2.5 pence was worth one penny.

Donald

I've just remembered seeing something on TV about decimalisation, it featured a lot of little old ladies not understanding why they couldn't pay with thru'penny bits anymore.

Rains, I have a great book called 'Mrs Thistlebottom's Hobgoblins', written by Theodore M. Bernstein, a long-time editor of the New York Times. Mrs Thistlebottom was an imaginary super-pedantic teacher who rigorously enforced numerous rules that really weren't rules at all, such as the one against splitting infinitives. This was perfectly proper from the 14th to the 18th centuries, when it became improper for reasons unknown. Today even the pedants must allow it where an auxiliary verb is involved (eg, to be fully briefed) and most of the rest of us iggerunt colonials cheerfully ignore it.

We had decimilisation in 1967, and in 1971, when I was a teenager and working in a supermarket, I came across little old ladies who would translate the prices I told them, and ask "Oh, that's 15 shillings, is it, dear?"
I remember one old lady holding out a gloved hand with her money in and I took the required amount, showed her and gave her change. I hope she did eventually master it. Sigh..

Tis a funny thing...if you're making a grammatical error yourself (I'm guilty of muddling my first and third persons and mixing my active/passive voices) it's easy to retort "Well if people understand what I mean then there's no problem". However, if you know a grammatical rule well and see someone else abusing the rule it's infuriating. (I think we can all guess I'm talking apostrophe abuse here).




(*thinks*: Tis, or 'Tis?)

It's 'Tis.

>>old lady holding out a gloved hand with her money in and I took the required amount<<

This was a common sight after the switch to Euros. Poor old people, must be annoying.

<>

Oh, must they? What a pity!

Old people here still don't know which coin is which, especially the two and five cent coins seem to make difficulties. So they all have wallets that burst with coins.

Today is the twenty-sixth of March. sic-s-th. Not sick, as I just heard on the BBC news. Neither is it March twenty-sixth, unless you're an American.

Feel better now.

<>

The other day I went into a shop to get an estimate on getting some window blinds made and was told the price in pesetas. Quite a few people here in Spain (not just old people) still refer to the cost of things in pesetas, especially things like house and car prices.

az

At least decimalisationof British money didn't involve a change to the pound, so people still had a benchmark. Switching to the euro (if it ever happens) will be harder (although quite a few will at least have encountered it on their travels).

Noggin

At least it would still be a case of going from one decimal system to another. So you've one Euro, broken up into hundredths like pennies. If you know a Euro's worth about 70p (or whatever it is at the time) then it isn't too complicated.

I sometimes wonder about the confusion there would have been if the move had been from decimal to shillings etc. The old system would seem to be even more confusing to a newcomer.