Tinfoil hats, really!

[vilakins]

Greg had mild cold symptoms last week so he had to get tested, and we both had to self-isolate until he got his results (which were negative). It's the first time I've ever used click-and-collect for a supermarket shop, picked up by a neighbour. I hope it wasn't a dry run for actual covid, which is indeed in town and "rife" in Dunedin, the city closest to us.

Have a small selection of the remaining February questions.

What makes you roll your eyes every time you hear or see it?
Off the cuff:

• Anti-vaxxers and anarchist protesters shouting about their "freedom" and shitting on the majority of us who just want to get on with our lives as well as we can. An aside: some of the protesters at parliament have got covid and blame the government for beaming it at them - and are wearing tinfoil hats. Seriously. I thought it was a joke, but they're even more moronic than I thought.
• "With all due respect" = "with no respect whatsoever".
• "To be honest" - so you haven't been so far?

When was the last time you told someone, "I told you so!"?
About three weeks ago on Waitangi Day when Greg thought we could drive to Hampden and have their excellent fish and chips on the beach. I said it's 1) Monday and most eating places close on Mondays, and 2) it was a public holiday, so even more so. "They're open seven days." he said. Nope. Oh well, the beach was still there.

Is there something that you're interested in that most people aren't?
Lots, probably. I'll pick languages.

What really needs to be modernised?
The search function on streaming services. Laboriously moving right and left to select individual letters in a linear alphabet is a really crap way to enter text.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

I always thought those phrases translated as:
"With all due respect" - you're owed none.
"To be honest" - the gloves of social niceties are off.

And yeah, I thought they were kidding about the tinfoil hats on the news, or wearing them ironically... but no, the anti-vaxxers really are that dumb.

See, that's the thing about Covid, apparently you lose about 15% of cognitive function or more due to lack of oxygen getting to the brain... and a lot of those people don't have much to start with.

[vilakins]

Yep, it's morona virus.

I've always heard "to be honest" used as emphasis, not bluntness.

[siliconshaman]

There are some phrases in British-english that are basically the equivalent of opening the gun ports and hoisting the black flag... only politely. That would be one of them, but it is used more for emphasis nowadays... once again, we can thank the Americans for over-use cheapening it.

[vilakins]

I blame them for snuck (now sneaking into UK writers' work), baby-words movie and cookie which are taking over from films and biscuits here (I'm hanging on grimly) and too many non-language things to name.

[siliconshaman]

and that abomination drugg.. as in the past participle of drag.

[vilakins]

I'm so glad I haven't come across that one! But dove instead of dived is another one; oy. I always wondered if US fanfic readers would think I'd made mistakes just for using UK English; it's a bit of a minefield for writers. And lay instead of lie! My Canadian friends here just looked at me blankly when I tried to explain that one was transitive, the other intransitive.

[siliconshaman]

Eh.. I got someone giving me a bit bother about that... I replied in Klingon.

Unless the character is American, I stick to Uk english. I try to do my research and use language that the character would use, so regional variations of soda, cola, pop etc.. for fizzy drinks and so on and so forth.

[vilakins]

Yes, I'll write in US English for US characters, but the narrative stays in my English, which pretty much UK except for trucks instead of lorries, not that I've written about any of those.

Lately I've come across e-books set in England, but written by Americans, with glaring errors that aren't just dialect; they obviously don't even bother to google. Random examples:
- writing about aristocrats without knowing how titles work
- thinking Londoners send their children to summer camp
- a character setting a padlock to their December birthday: 1214

I tell them in reviews, too. I wouldn't dare write a book set in the US (or UK) without lots of research and then thorough checking from someone who lives there.

[siliconshaman]

Wouldn't be the first time I've Brit-checked for a friend. I had one who was convinced that there were Mountains in the New Forest.. (by the description, something like the Rockies.)

[vilakins]

Ha! Maybe they got that idea from a book? When I was at primary school, I read one about cavalier children living in the New Forest (called IIRC Children of the New Forest) and assumed they were living in a house hidden in dense woods, like the forests here.

[gwendraith]

Boggles at the anti-vaxxers and anarchist protesters, how do these people become so detached from reality?

[vilakins]

It seems to be: "Ooh, I'm going to join this group, it will make me feel sooo important." Basically what appealed so much to members of the nazi party.

[watervole]

Beaming it at them... Oh Gosh.

I think it was one of Heinlein's characters who said "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity"

Then again, perhaps we should be saying "Never misunderstand the damage caused by poor education, low wages, lack of social mobility and fear, all whipped up by people who have something to gain from instability or bring down the government."

[vilakins]

There's a lot of overseas money behind it. The protesters are being provided with food and mass-produced signs obviously originating in the US. This happened after the mosque massacre when gun groups there stirred up trouble here with American placards about our new gun laws but didn't realise we don't have a constitution (one example). However I can't see why the current government of the US or Canada (where these redneck convoys are also happening) would want to bring us down. I suspect Russia.

[imhilien]

Sorry to hear you had to self-isolate for a while.

[vilakins]

It was only four days, so not so bad!