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

Posted 22 Minutes Ago by Mr. Dreadful, B.El.L (Keeper of Flawed Logic, the English Civil War and Heavy Metal... Ask Mr. Dreadful: A3473435)
I think that one comes under the classification of Great Big Porky Pies.
Quite wrong.
In 1960 we spent a camping holiday in Devon, on the edge of Dartmoor. My baby brother was under a year old and still in nappies (the proper sort that you washed and re-used). My mama, after washing the worst off the nappies, left them to soak in a plastic bucket, which had a tight fitting lid. We discovered that, not only could you throw this lid but that it had distinct aerodynamic qualities. It became a family game and we kicked ourselves when the Frisbee arrived some years later.
The result is that my brother (the one who was a baby at the time) now patents every good idea he has and lives comfortably off the proceeds.

The way your post was phrased, in combination with the nature of your previous posts on the useless facts thread, made it appear to be what people call 'made up'.

There's no need to get so uppity about it.

By the way, Devon isn't on the edge of Dartmoor.

Which patents does your brother hold by the way... you've piqued my interest.

Goodness – aren’t we pedantic – I should give up teaching English immediately. If I said(wrote) ‘I was in London, visiting the Tate’ does it mean that the London is in the Tate. I think not. I was born in Devon - on the edge of Dartmoor. Pedantic use of punctuation - but not flawed logic.
Uppity? If I have ‘piqued’ you interest sorry
"a feeling of resentment or irritation, as from having one's pride wounded piques piquing piqued" (Collins)
But to answer your question - mostly things for keeping things together.

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But y'see I was merely pointing out the vast possibilities for misunderstanding that the English language allows for. I know that you meant Dartmoor *in* Devon but the way it was phrased could allow for misunderstanding which is what happened in the useless facts thread. 'I was in London, visiting the Tate' allows for very little misunderstanding. 'Devon, on the edge of Dartmoor' can be misinterpreted as 'Devon which is on the edge of Dartmoor'.

It just so happens that I am a Grammar God. But not, it would seem, a Spelling God:

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Bugger. The one time I use an unfamiliar word which I haven't double checked to make sure it means what I think it does I encounter an English teacher... I'm going to assume that I mispelleed or substituted as similar as I have definitely heard the phrase spoken by other people buit have never seen it written down.

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"Mispelled or substituted a similar-sounding word"

And I am actually an architect - I also happen to English on the basis that I have always regarded English teachers as a bunch of monosyllabic morons. "Now I are one."

happen to teach
I'll never forgive Moroccan wine.

I'm a data monkey. I teach nothing but I learn a lot (currently learning Latin, starting Scots Gaelic soon).

You've obviously never met my English teacher... he was about as polysyllabic as they come (although I suspect this was mainly to confuse the less *ahem* gifted members of the class).

Fortunately not. Having spent 25+ years in nine countries, with 61 different nationalities, working and using English as a means of communication – my approach to teaching English is ‘different’. We never lined people up at the bar of the Gulf Hotel (or many others) "beginners on the left – advanced on the right" (except – of course for the Filipino flat-backers). We all talked different Englishes and when I talk to Fatima – my wife – I talk totally different English.
Read my entry ID A3848655 The Evolution of Written English
90% of the peer (or should it be pier) entries have been pedantic in the extreme and appear to be from English teachers.
I love English in all its shapes and forms, I do the Guardian crossword puzzle and do so because (English) crossword puzzles have an inherent sense of humour.

So you're just a wee bit well-travelled then... out of interest how broad is your mind nowadays?

I've just found a rather nice Entry about Frisbees A647831

About 10 emu's
Or should that go in Useless facts?

Sorry
encephalographic measurement unit – or, as my grandmother would have said ‘as broad as a hippo’s bum.
Not a useless fact

Read the thing on Frisbees – thanks - nice to see that Americans still see themselves as inventing the world – but the weird thing is that most of the REAL AMERICAN sports are bastardisations of English Public Girl’s School sports. The aereodynamics of the bucket lid were not that much less sophisticated then a ‘pay-for-name’ Frisbee – it just required a different technique.

Re earlier postings and your reference to them.
There is difference between ‘the bloke in the pub wot told me …’ and the IISBB’s (invisible internet saloon bar bores). If the average h2g2 ‘peer checker’ went to the Rat and Trumpets, he’d get his head filled in at best and the peanuts poured into his beer at worst. I like to see who has made the last remark and, if necessary, return to the privacy of the crossword. I am sorry I said anything. I think I'll change pubs.
Actually it's great here. The pubs (where I drink) are full of paralytic locals from about 10:30am to 10:00pm. There is rarely any trouble as drinking (for Moroccans) is illegal so if there is trouble, the drunks end up in chokey and the bar closes. Nobody speaks a single word of English so it is quite impossible to upset anybody other than a drunk (Moroccan) English teacher who shouts abusively in a sort of English.

Well that seems to have explored that argument in full.

Just done a quick internet search and it seems that 'piqued my interest' is a valid phrase after all... even Auntie Beeb uses it!

Auntie Beeb also insistes on "the African Cup of Nations".