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

*UK viewers only*
I just noticed Melvyn Bragg has done another TV series on English (I'm taping the first episode from ITV right now) which I *think* is some kind of follow-up to the 'Routes Of English' programmes.

TC,

Yes it's the real Eeyore - U112242 - author of the best Christmas story since A Christmas Carol.
He has been unable to re-establish contact hereabouts, perhaps because Pooh was helping him.
He pops into n2g2 occasionally to ensure that there is not too much levity. I believe he also casts a jaundiced eye in this direction. You have been warned.

He absence is a sad loss to h2g2.

Whilst checking out the Miriam Webster online dictionary for an unrelated issue, I found the following in their new words section:-

trichotillomania . . . . noun [New Latin, from trich- + Greek tillein to pull, pluck + New Latin mania] (ca. 1903) : an abnormal desire to pull out one's hair

Which begs the question, what is the word for a *normal* desire to pull out one's hair?

But you won't have seen the McJob entry, refering to a low-paid dead-end job.

which is what I was looking for, of course

Having had a look there (and at the source code for the page ) I see there is in the international english section 'Dog's Breakfast' to bring this thread back to near the starting topic (of thread 1, all those posts ago).

A renowned researcher compares and contrasts McJob and McJOBS in his own inimitable style at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/n2g2/message/15328

You may have to register to read it but, over all, it's probably worth the effort.

Registering with Yahoo is never worth the effort. As I can't read it without registering then sorry but it won't get read.
Which renowned researcher is it?

He has a separate identity for each site.
Other than that, my lips are sealed.
But I'll narrow it down - it is not I.

>> Registering with Yahoo is never worth the effort. <<

I would never argue with such conviction but if the objection is the 'spam' that results from registering with them, the solution is easy. Don't give them a valid e-mail address. Open a Yahoo e-mail account and only register with that e-dress.

My own Yahoo e-email account draws approx 50 unwanted emails every day but automatically filters 95% of it to a bulk/spam folder that is deleted with a single click. The 2 or three that do get thru the filters are easily ignored and disposed of.

In any case, the entry was a cut and paste of a newspaper article referring to McDonalds' threat to sue the dictionary that listed McJob. Big Mac claims it violates their copyright on 'McJobs', a training program for the disabled and handicapped.

The 'famous researcher' in question added the comment:
"...the inability of these idiots to realize the irony of their statement will resonate hollowly throughout the universe...."


~jwf~

PS:
And it was not "I" either.
Nor any regular to this thread.
At least not in his usual h2g2 nickname.


~jwf~

..and moving right along, and remaining faithful to the topic of words and dictionaries...

I am pleased to inform you all that h2g2 is mentioned as the source for a brand new word, and 2legs, a famous h2g2 Researcher in his own write, has been credited by urbandictionary.com with creating the new word:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nighthoover


~jwf~

But he didn't create it - Nighthoover ( U183456 ) did. I was there at the time.

F19585?thread=143046

Credit where credit's due! But as nobody knows where Nighthoover is (although a couple of people have tried to impersonate him since) ... 2legs does have a right to some of the glory!

Hey TC,
If you haven't checked in for the Eeyore update, you absolutely must take a look. Really.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/n2g2/message/15332

>> ...2legs does have a right to some of the glory! <<

Indeedy-do, he do!

For it is that second meaning listed, 'a diety', which 2legs created, not from a rib, not from the dust of the earth, but out of an evacuated cyberspace. He has created a 'god'.

God is one of those little three letter words that have so many meanings for so many different people, at different times, in different places.

Even those of us who now call ourselves 'followers' of this new diety have different interpretations of the true meaning, usually applying whatever attributes our own souls require that a god must have.

Uniquely, nighthoover is an unabashed recognition of these 'realities and delusions' that are at the heart of all Religions. For this 'the nighthoover' rises high in my pantheon.

And 2legs joins the illustrious ranks of John Milton (pandemonium) and Saint Sir Thomas More (utopia) for creating a new word in English to describe an old idea in a new ideal.


~jwf~

For a minute there, I thought that 2legs had coined the word 'diety' for a lightweight or insubstantial god, then I realised it was just a typo.
Or was it?...

Potholer, saw Mr. Bragg's proggy last night, or some of it at least. Was indeed a continuation from the previous. Interesting hor Mr. Johnsons (he of dictionary fame) were berating the upper classes for using shortened forms of words instead of the full word, like incog, mob and others.

I missed it - had set the video to tape it, since I was away caving, but unfortunately someone tried to record a programme on it manually earlier in the evening and left the video on, so it didn't record.

I find them both daunting.

The good doctor declared that he would produce his dictionary in three years. Someone called Adams enquired:
How can you do this in three years?
JOHNSON. Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years.
ADAMS. But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years to compile their Dictionary.
JOHNSON. Sir, thus it is. This is the proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.

It took him 4 years, but I reckon his calculation was pretty close to the truth.
That's without reference to a recent sporting encounter when one J. Wilkinson scored all the *valid* points.

Oops,
Forgot to mention that - acording to M. Bragg - Dr. J. had the help of six scribes.