[TheForge] autodarkening helmet and other OT thoughts

[Bruce Freeman]

Nice to know I'm not the only semantically oral compulsive in the
group.  (I figure "semantic" fits with "oral" but  not the other end.)

Ever notice how letters and syllables are disappearing - or being
inserted - into our words.

Real-A-tor (an invented word, anyway), daylight savingS time, tin[NED]
can (poor example, I admit.  Sad headache today and can't think of a
better one, except, perhaps, for duc[T] (aka duck) tape.

My real pet peeve is the destruction of our grammar due to ignorant PC
forces.  I've probably spoken of this before in this forum because it
is a pet peeve.  Preface:  I am proudly a feminist (though male),
which is to say I consider women to be the complete political equals
of men.  (This is  not to say men and women are in any way the same.
"Viva la difference.")  Furthermore, despite the multiple uses of the
words, "masculine" and "feminine," in the GRAMMATICAL sense, have
NOTHING to do with "male" and "female" (which are biological
referents).  English speakers, especially Americans, most of whom have
never studied a foreign language, just can't grasp that concept.  But
in German, "das maedchen," means "the young woman," yet is NEUTER.
Nobody in his right mind would consider "ein maedchen" to be neuter -
it is the WORD that is neuter.  Only one of many possible examples.
The consequence of this is that the PC construction "he/she" is
bullshit, and nothing more.  The use of "they" for "he" is worse,
though sometimes a sentence can be rewritten to make it acceptable.
"He" is proper to refer to persons of unspecified sex, because "he" is
masculine gender and implies nothing about sex.  Animals and (strictly
speaking) babies should be referred to as "it."  It, however, is not a
personal pronoun, but an impersonal pronoun, hence our use of "he" and
"she" for animals and babies we hold dear.  (I think few would object
to calling a rat or lawyer "it".)

Oh, and by the way, "gender" is a grammatical concept, not a
biological one.  The proper word is "sex" when asking whether one is
male or female.  Funny how folks are shying away from that now.  I
suspect that's because some think "sex" is a verb, or at least that it
describes the act.  Even in Victorian time, "sex" was very commonly
used correctly.

[Stepping down from soapbox.}

On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 3:18 AM, terry l. ridder <terrylr at blauedonau.com> wrote:
>
> hello dave;
>
<snip>
>>
>
> i totally agree.
>
> several years ago i was on a one man crusade to bring back the use of
> 'may' in place of 'can' as in 'may i have a piece of candy?'
> as in 'may i have a cup of coffee?' instead of 'can i have a piece of
> candy?' and 'can i have a cup of coffee?'
>
>>
>> I realize that even the folks that make the product have begun to call
>> it a "helmet" but a helmet it is not. A lot like "duck tape" rather
>> than "duct tape" it is a misnomer.
>>
<snip>
>
>>
>> So please, if not for the sake of proper English then for respect of
>> the tens of thousands of welders that have gone before you, call it
>> a "shield".
>>
>
> i will call it a shield when you are within earshot range. ;-)
><snip>


-- 
Bruce
NJ

The total lack of evidence is the surest sign that the conspiracy is working.