Mastodawn

Holdfast Aug 2, 2024

@rorystewartuk
I imagine that the prime minister can blame the mental health of this 17 year old who did all those stabbings upon cutbacks by his predecessors any possible drug connection on the loss of experienced police officers.
When I heard that he was the child for immigrants, my first thought was the EDL and Nigek Farage would have a "good" time stirring up hatred. It seems that I was right.
Other than stand up and point out ars***les, which I do, what can we do as a society?

Holdfast Aug 1, 2024

When I heard of those stabbings, my first thought was about the mental health of whoever did it.
Is it a result of all the people who used to look after young people being fired by the Conservatives?
When I heard more, I wondered what he was on. Many experienced police officers were made redundant. Is this another result of that?
Then I heard that, although he was born here, his parents weren't. My final worry was the EDL, Farage and the like - sadly, that came true. What should we do?

Holdfast Apr 13, 2024

@smashingsecurity
I have been a happy listener to your podcast for a while now.
You may have explained it before I tuned in but what is the story behind Twitter not allowing you a G in your name there?

Holdfast Mar 9, 2024

@grammargirl
2 years ago we started to get Ukrainian refugees. I was able to help either practically with things like develop CVs (resumes) or help them learn better English. There was a proper teacher there. I was helping her.
I decided to learn their language.
Despite them being at the other end of Europe, I've been impressed by words we share in common - not just 20th century things. I suspect I'm seeing echoes of the indo-european language that was in use thousands of years ago somewhere.

@grammargirl
Back to "civvy" life, as well as gadgets, we also have gizmos and widgets. The latter were small devices that were put it into cans of beer to make them nicer. They now mean any gadget you don't actually see.

And as for words from UK TV, my favourite is "cromulent". I have been known to use this one myself to explain that something is perfectly satisfactory and functional. I haven't had anyone admit to never having watched Blackadder yet!

Show thread

Holdfast Nov 9, 2023

@grammargirl I heard an example of the US military not understanding our slang. One of the things armies do is go and have a look at something and report back. The term is "reconaissance". It gets shortened to "recce".
In Afghanistan some british soldiers on a road bwere usure how safe it was further along.
They asked a B52 above to "have a recce up the road and let them know."
Shortly, it told them that it had wrecked the entire area and were now leaving as they'd used all their bombs!

Holdfast Nov 9, 2023

@grammargirl I am just back from walking my dog and listening to Episode 953

I think one of the reasons that nobody else uses "gotten" if because it doesn't seem to mean the same as "got" and we are not quite sure when to use it.
For example, I could say "I've got a bit of money in my pocket" but I think using gotten there wouldn't mean quite the same. Is this something you could explain to those of us outside the USA please?

Holdfast Aug 20, 2023

@smashingsecurity
I am a little bit behind with my podcasts and just finished one where you extolled the usefulness of eSims.
My experience differs
I have had dualSIM phones for ages. 1 for work and 1 for me. I decided to get a Pixel 7. I checked that my work provider (Vodafone) did eSims. To get their SIM "converted" was complicated, took a couple of hours and had me sitting at a WebChat forces long time.
My previous change with physical Sims took under 30 seconds.

Holdfast May 10, 2023

@grammargirl
When I was listening to your recent podcast, I was walking our dog.

I think whoever coined the phrase "dogged determination" had a dog like mine.

Professional	IT Support (Retiring/ed)
Political Party	None!
NHS	Worker and supporter
Origin	Orkney