I will horrify you with just one solecism (amongst many) from the BBC today: "...they were less busier than...".

Captioned on the TV a few minutes ago 'ROWERS WIN SUPRISE GOLD'

' .. light grey leopard skinned leggings '

Going through photos on my new iPad I found one I had taken of a tourist board when I visited Wales a few years ago.

It stated that a particular bird of prey was 'one of Wale's rarest'.

From the history section of the BBC website: "Discover facts about the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun who's tomb was unearthed completely intact in the Valley of the Kings."

I've been told by a (school) teacher in the family, that my use of 'students' is wrong and that I should be saying 'pupils' as I teach privately. Is this true? What's the difference between them?

(Excuse my ignorance.. )

From abrsm.org last night - "abrsm.org is currently undergoing schedule maintenance until 23:45 BST on the 8 August, please check back later. "

(Is its schedule OK now?)



No idea if you're wrong, but if you are, then every teacher of mine has been wrong as I have always been referred to as a "student", sometimes a "private student".

My little students like being 'students' rather than 'pupils' because they think it's more grown up!

I suppose it depends how you're using them. If you're getting them to vacuum your carpet, do your ironing and cook you dinner that's probably not right.

Surely a student is simply "one who studies"?

What's wrong with students?

...Clevedon Beach in North Summerset ....

( from a national newspaper online) .

So when does a student, or a pupil for that matter, become a scholar?

According to my dictionary, all three are more or less synonymous.

SB

Never mind pupils and scholars....

Don't get me started on the current fad for calling FE students 'learners'.



It's like calling diners 'eaters'!

Well it's a bit like the line between someone being murdered and instead being assassinated...

Bahh..I've been rumbled!

Well, I like the term 'students' so that's what they are as far as I'm concerned. So there!

*Now all I need to do is to get my students to study... *

When they learn how to schol properly, of course.

Or fast food outlets referring to their delectable morsals as "meals" (presumably because it would be dishonest to refer to them as breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea or supper).

One of my students babysits and cuts the grass - for reduced rate singing lessons of course. And not at the same time I might add.

I agree that students is a more grown-up sounding term. I call everyone students, whether at school, privately, adults or children. Incidentally, one of my adult students won't even refer to lessons as lessons but "sessions".

I thought only 'important' people were assassinated. Ordinary people are murdered.





I also detest the practice of calling waiters and waitresses 'servers'. I remember it started in Little Chef restaurants some years ago, but now seems to have spread to [ostensibly] higher class establishments.

At one such restaurant (a Copthrne Hotel) I waited ages for a menu, and when I asked if I could place an order it was if the staff were not communicating with customers. I eventually asked one of the 'servers' for her IP address and domain name, but judging by the blank looks I got I suspect my rather warped sense of humour fell on stony ground.

SB

Correct, but how important do you need to be to be in the upgraded category?

Is there also a political or similar motive for assassination? If the king of X was killed by his queen in a crime of passion, is that assassination or murder?

Ah; so do you get triple air miles if you upgrade to 'assassination'?

SB

My dictionary seems to indicate that a student is at an establishment of higher learning..... I think historically a pupil studied with a master, as still happens with barristers. But, I agree that in general there is little distinction made these days.


Today on Radio 4 PM an NHS manager kept referring to patients as "customers".

My Chambers dictionary defines "to assassinate" as "to murder, especially for political or religious reasons"

The railway industry started that one at least ten years ago - about the same time as 'Second Class' passengers became 'Standard Class', but First Class is still First Class.

Presumably, if passengers or patients become 'customers', the managers concerned don't need to think about operating on them, or transporting them anywhere.

SB

Quite.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: We don't have railway stations any more; they are now called 'train stations'.

Why? What harm did railway stations do to anyone?

SB

Someone must have thought railway had become antiquated. Like wireless, which thanks to IT has been revived.

My wife and I went on a walk through a village this afternoon and found a planning notice outside a building which used to be a Baptist Church but has recently changed hands and the new owners want to do something to it. The application was for "The XY Community Hall (Formally known as the XY Baptist Hall)"..........

Some planning officer needs to understand the difference bewteen "formally" and "formerly".

Man charged with murder of heoric husband.

Local press online. Took me a few moments to get what they were on about.

Daily Telegraph reports today that the 'Dandy' was introduced in 1937 at a price of 2p !!

"repoerts"?

Oops, have corrected my misprunt !

Misprunt?

Ha Ha! Misprunt was deliberate !

2p I think, in 1937 it was 2d

...... which makes it less than 1p in decimal money.

There were 12d in a Shilling, (now 5p), so 2d in old money would be 0.833p in new money.

SB

Given that decimalisation took place one day before my 11th birthday, I found myself thinking in a supermarket recently: "One pound seventeen shillings for a loaf?" For those of a more recent vintage, that's GBP1.85.

I remember being in John Lewis with my mother once, and we were in haberdashery where she was searching for a snazzy button. The jacket/cardi/thing she had made just needed a single button, so she could go for whatever she liked, and the one she chose was one pound and five pence. The man at the counter said something like 'my goodness, one button for one guinea' and my mother agreed. I was born post-decimalisation but the two of them were sufficiently shocked (in a light-hearted pretend kind of way) that I will never be able to forget what one guinea is

From the annual report for members of the LPFA pension fund.

Pensioners should note that the changes in 2014 do not impact their pensions.

Well I've worked here years and only just properly read this notice:

"It is not the responsibility of the Fire Marshall's to check comms room......"

I wouldn't expect fire marshalls to have access to the comms room. As an IT engineer I know that the vast majority of comms rooms have systems that emit a load of smoke, co2 I belive, as soon as fire is detected as if the servers in a comms room burnt down vast quantites of data would be lost.

I read a post on facebook tonight which said,

'She will be a fab edition to the show...'

I was commenting on the greengrocer's apostrophe, not the fact that the Fire Marshalls don't check the comms rooms.

I realised this. I was just giving you a typical IT response to the statement you posted.

As relevant and useful as a chocolate teapot? About as typical as IT responses get

Kidding

Ok now we are going .

Plus I can think of 2 uses for a chocolate teapot but I won't go into that now.

....and I would rather hope they don't use smoke to put out fires.

Trust me, as an IT engineer, smoke is used to protect valuable servers full of data in the event of a fire. This is not to put out the fire but to protect the contents of the comms room.

Smoke?