No fucking way this shit is going to fuck me up!
Simon R. Hughes
communication skills, according to a media watchdog Wednesday.'
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=583&ncid=583&e=4
&u=/nm/20030716/od_nm/life_swearing_dc>
Mediawatch UK claim that "Far from there being a natural evolution
in language, there has been a consistent effort to promote
obscenity, swearing and profanity against the wishes of most
people"
The effect is devastation on "educational standards and
communication skills".
The article doesn't tell us how swearing leads to diminished mental
capacity.
Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
--
Simon R. Hughes <!-- Kill "Kenny" for email. -->
<!-- 67 deg. 17' N; 14 deg. 23' E -->
tomca...@yanospamhoo.com
> Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is horny.
CyberCypher
news:MPG.197f83ecf...@news.online.no:
> 'Swearing on television is increasing fast and "devastating"
> communication skills, according to a media watchdog Wednesday.'
>
> <http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=583&ncid=583&e=4
> &u=/nm/20030716/od_nm/life_swearing_dc>
>
> Mediawatch UK claim that "Far from there being a natural evolution
> in language, there has been a consistent effort to promote
> obscenity, swearing and profanity against the wishes of most
> people"
>
> The effect is devastation on "educational standards and
> communication skills".
>
> The article doesn't tell us how swearing leads to diminished
> mental capacity.
It broadcasts the message that nobody really cares about how anyone
uses language or what language one uses. If that is true, then why
should anyone who hasn't already learned the value of using language
well bother themselves to improve their communication skills?
While I disagree that swearing, obscenity, and profanity
automatically lead to diminished mental capacity, overuse of the
lowest registers of the language certainly does not lead to
increased mental capacity or more precise and clear communication,
except in the most extreme circumstances.
This is one of those very sticky issues. While I am opposed to
censorship in principle, I recognize that what children and adults
see, hear, and read every day has an effect on them. It's no good to
argue that X always affects everyone the same way, because that is
not true. On the other hand, it is no good to argue that X has no
effect on anyone, because that simply is not true. The reality of
how X affects people is somewhere in the middle.
Mediawatch-UK is not my idea of an unbiased group of judges. They
have their own moral, religious, and political agendae.
Unfortunately, they use all these meaningless words to describe what
they want to see in the media: "decent" and "tasteful" programs.
Their definitions of these terms is never made explicit, but it's
clear that what exists now on TV and in the movies is any but decent
and tasteful. One of them did mention how horrified she was when _Lady
Chatterley's Lover_ was made into a film.
I know that many times my son will complain that he doesn't want to see
what is offered on TV. He's too young to fully understand the sex, and
I frankly would rather not have to watch TV erotica either--I just
don't get excited watching movie stars trying to swallow each other's
tongues. I usually turn away or change the channel during those scenes.
If I want to watch graphic sex, then I will watch some hardcore porn. I
will do the same for a lot of the violence in movies as well. I don't
think there is any need to be so graphic. It never bothered me that
old-time gangster and cowboy movies had a lot of gunfire but no blood.
The action was about good versus evil not what does it look like when
someone's head is cut off or how far does blood spurt from a major
artery when it's severed. I find most of the sex and violence
gratuitous, except in movies like _Mad Max 2_.
To get back to my son. He's a sensible little boy. He doesn't overeat
and he doesn't like to watch graphically violent movies. But that's
just about all there is on TV. He gets his taste from his own inner
sense of values, not from anything his parents have specifically taught
him. I suppose that will fall by the wayside the older he gets, though.
I think my son has more good sense than most of the people I know. He
has no moral hangups about overeating or sex and vilence on TV. He just
doesn't like either one. He knows intuitively that they are both bad.
Why can't most people figure that out for themselves?
But we know from many decades of public television in the USA that most
Americans are unwilling to pay for for quality programming on TV or the
radio. They are satisfied enough with the mediocrity, imbecility, and
tastelessness of mass culture. More power to them. One becomes what one
ingests, and a steady diet of trash turns one into trash. Mass
communications is trash communications, by definition. But what the
Mediawatch people would have us watch is undoubtedly only stuff that
would pass muster in Sunday school. How boring.
John Dean
> 'Swearing on television is increasing fast and "devastating"
> communication skills, according to a media watchdog Wednesday.'
>
You can go BLIND?
Uh-Oh
--
John 'now I see but through a glass darkly' Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply
Marion Gevers
> Simon R. Hughes wrote:
>> Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
>
> You can go BLIND?
> Uh-Oh
See that hair on the palms of your hands?
What do you mean, you can't see it?
--
Peter Moylan http://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au
Newcastle, NSW, Australia
John Dean
> Le Wed, 16 Jul 2003 17:15:09 +0100, John Dean a écrit :
>> Simon R. Hughes wrote:
>
>>> Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
>>
>> You can go BLIND?
>> Uh-Oh
>
> See that hair on the palms of your hands?
>
> What do you mean, you can't see it?
omigod! I thought I had a cat on my lap...
--
John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply
Christopher Johnson
> Simon R. Hughes wrote:
> > 'Swearing on television is increasing fast and "devastating"
> > communication skills, according to a media watchdog Wednesday.'
> >
> > Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
>
> You can go BLIND?
> Uh-Oh
Does "wanking" mean "drinking" (alcohol)? I've never heard
this word before. What does it mean?
--
Christopher
Jacqui
> John Dean wrote:
>> Simon R. Hughes wrote:
>> > 'Swearing on television is increasing fast and "devastating"
>> > communication skills, according to a media watchdog Wednesday.'
>> >
>> > Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
>>
>> You can go BLIND?
>> Uh-Oh
>
> Does "wanking" mean "drinking" (alcohol)? I've never heard
> this word before. What does it mean?
No, masturbating. Which is why we Brits find it funny to have
characters called Wanker appearing on US TV shows (Peggy Bundy nee
Wanker in Married With Children, Arnold Wanker in Mork and Mindy, and
so on).
Jac
Laura F Spira
> Marion Gevers wrote:
>
>>Le Wed, 16 Jul 2003 17:15:09 +0100, John Dean a écrit :
>>
>>>Simon R. Hughes wrote:
>>
>>>>Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
>>>
>>>You can go BLIND?
>>>Uh-Oh
>>
>>See that hair on the palms of your hands?
>>
>>What do you mean, you can't see it?
>
>
> omigod! I thought I had a cat on my lap...
Fear not, Australian scientists have discovered that it's good for you:
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=3102088
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email)
Garry J. Vass
news:3F15B610...@DRAGONspira.fsbusiness.co.uk...
Laura, still bouncing!
Can anybody send email to Spira Towers???
Despite spam dragon killings, it is bouncing.....
:(
Call me please......
Laura F Spira
through OK.
Try my work address: lfs...@brookes.ac.uk
tomca...@yanospamhoo.com
> Fear not, Australian scientists have discovered that it's good for you:
> http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=3102088
Next step is to get my HMO to pay for treatments ...
Garry J. Vass
> This is very odd, Garry, all my normal correspondents are getting
> through OK.
> Try my work address: lfs...@brookes.ac.uk
>
Done, still trying.....
Padraig Breathnach
>This is very odd, Garry, all my normal correspondents are getting
>through OK.
You have normal correspondents?
PB
Joe Fineman
> You can go BLIND?
At Caltech in the '50s, the story (conceivably true) was that a
professor said, in a lecture, "An important thing to know about
masturbation is..." and then lowered his voice to an inaudible mumble,
so that a student raised his hand and asked what he had said. "It
makes you DEAF" was the very audible reply. The result was that you
couldn't ask an undergraduate "What?" without getting that answer.
--
--- Joe Fineman j...@TheWorld.com
||: Prose: Earth is turning us into its shadow. :||
||: Poetry: The sun is setting. :||
Spehro Pefhany
Most of them are probably not named as such.
Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
sp...@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
Simon R. Hughes
Sorry, Jacqui, but I don't think there is any hope for you.
John Dean
Wrong tenses. It *would* have been good fro me *if*, between the ages of 20
and 50 ... oh, wait...
Skitt
See:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030716/ts_nm/health_masturbation_dc_6
Seems, wanking is the thing to do. Often.
--
Skitt (in SF Bay Area) http://www.geocities.com/opus731/
I speak English well -- I learn it from a book!
-- Manuel (Fawlty Towers)
Dr Robin Bignall
<john...@frag.lineone.net> wrote:
>Marion Gevers wrote:
>> Le Wed, 16 Jul 2003 17:15:09 +0100, John Dean a écrit :
>>> Simon R. Hughes wrote:
>>
>>>> Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
>>>
>>> You can go BLIND?
>>> Uh-Oh
>>
>> See that hair on the palms of your hands?
>>
>> What do you mean, you can't see it?
>
>omigod! I thought I had a cat on my lap...
Does it miaow?
--
wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Quiet part of Hertfordshire
England
Tony Cooper
<la...@DRAGONspira.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote:
>Garry J. Vass wrote:
>> "Laura F Spira" <la...@DRAGONspira.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote in message
>> news:3F15B610...@DRAGONspira.fsbusiness.co.uk...
>>
>>
>> Laura, still bouncing!
>>
>> Can anybody send email to Spira Towers???
>>
>> Despite spam dragon killings, it is bouncing.....
>>
>> :(
>>
>> Call me please......
>>
>>
>>
>This is very odd, Garry, all my normal correspondents are getting
>through OK.
You saw that, didn't you Garry? The implied "Garry is not normal"?
--
Tony Cooper aka: tony_co...@yahoo.com
Provider of Jots, Tittles, and Oy!s
mickwick
[...]
>To get back to my son. He's a sensible little boy. He doesn't overeat
>and he doesn't like to watch graphically violent movies. But that's
>just about all there is on TV. He gets his taste from his own inner
>sense of values, not from anything his parents have specifically taught
>him. I suppose that will fall by the wayside the older he gets, though.
[...]
All good stuff, Franke.
Has your son picked up on the helicopter thing yet? A good rule of thumb
is that if there's a helicopter on the screen, blood and gore and
burning warehouses are probably not too far behind.
--
Mickwick
CyberCypher
news:+oJKRBBbbmF$Ew...@shropshire.plus.com:
I don't think so. He's fascinated by helicopters, but I can't
remember if he's watched many movies with helicopters in them.
Mike Ellwood
We also had a collective sharp intake of breath at the news
of the then revolutionary Wankel rotary engine. Mercifully, it
appears to have sunk without trace, and maiden ladies from
Maida Vale to Myrthr Tydvil are able to remove the doylies from
their ears when discussing motoring matters with mechanics.
On the other hand, they would be perfectly happy to beat their
meat as a way of tenderising it.
Marion Gevers
> We also had a collective sharp intake of breath at the news
> of the then revolutionary Wankel rotary engine.
You don't need a 'then' in that sentence. It was always
revolutionary. That was a necessary attribute of the design.
> On the other hand, they would be perfectly happy to beat their
> meat as a way of tenderising it.
There used to be a bottled tomato sauce (ketchup, for those who
call it that) called "Leggo's tomato relish". Perhaps it still
exists; I haven't bothered to check. Anyway, there was for a
while a radio ad that said something like "Always remember, Mum,
when Dad brings the meat home you have to open up the Leggo's."
The two announcers on that show were finally sacked. Not, I
think, for that ad, but for what they said about a truck that
crashed outside the house of Mr and Mrs Ball.
Only recently I noticed a butcher's shop with a sign outside
saying "You can't beat our meat".
John Dean
> On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 19:52:27 +0100, "John Dean"
> <john...@frag.lineone.net> wrote:
>
>> Marion Gevers wrote:
>>> Le Wed, 16 Jul 2003 17:15:09 +0100, John Dean a écrit :
>>>> Simon R. Hughes wrote:
>>>
>>>>> Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
>>>>
>>>> You can go BLIND?
>>>> Uh-Oh
>>>
>>> See that hair on the palms of your hands?
>>>
>>> What do you mean, you can't see it?
>>
>> omigod! I thought I had a cat on my lap...
>
> Does it miaow?
Not only does it miaow, it regurgitates its milk.
Sam Nelson
Mike Ellwood <mi...@ellwoods.org.uk> writes:
> On Wed, 16 Jul 2003, Jacqui wrote:
>
> > Christopher Johnson wibbled
> > > John Dean wrote:
> > >> Simon R. Hughes wrote:
> > >> > 'Swearing on television is increasing fast and "devastating"
> > >> > communication skills, according to a media watchdog Wednesday.'
> > >> >
> > >> > Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
> > >>
> > >> You can go BLIND?
> > >> Uh-Oh
> > >
> > > Does "wanking" mean "drinking" (alcohol)? I've never heard
> > > this word before. What does it mean?
> >
> > No, masturbating. Which is why we Brits find it funny to have
> > characters called Wanker appearing on US TV shows
>
> of the then revolutionary Wankel rotary engine. Mercifully, it
> appears to have sunk without trace
Apart from appearing in various Mazda cars over the years, including the
brand new RX-8.
Latest news: wanking may make you blind, but it also protects you from
cancer - http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993942
--
SAm.
Jacqui
> Latest news: wanking may make you blind, but it also protects you
> from cancer -
> http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993942
As a (male) friend said: is it news to encourage people to do something
they're doing already? How much persuasion will it take to get people
to up their level of activity in this area?
(Seriously, it is an interesting study, with at least one surprising
result, and hopefully might help some people. But it sounds rather
silly in abstract...)
Jac
Sam Nelson
Jacqui <sirlawren...@hotmail.com> writes:
> Sam Nelson wibbled
> > Latest news: wanking may make you blind, but it also protects you
> > from cancer - http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993942
>
> As a (male) friend said: is it news to encourage people to do something
> they're doing already?
It appears to be news, day in day out, that eating a healthy diet helps you
stay healthy.
> (Seriously, it is an interesting study, with at least one surprising
> result, and hopefully might help some people. But it sounds rather
> silly in abstract...)
I'm just wondering if the reason old men are getting prostate cancer so
much at the moment is partly because they were born and brought up in an
era in which masturbation was frowned upon _and_ they've lived long and
otherwise-healthy lives because they've grown up in an era in which
healthcare has advanced astonishingly. Nothing else much has got to them,
but eventually prostate cancer catches up with them because they didn't
spend enough time wanking half a century or more ago because they were
scared of it, in other words.
But this is all a bit off-topic. Sorry.
--
SAm.
Mike Ellwood
I thought that the situation was that just about every male gets
prostate cancer if they live long enough, but the majority die of
something else before the prostate cancer gets them. Given the
nature and possible consquences of the treatment, it seems almost
better to pretend its not happening (in most cases).
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor.
Don't do this at home.
Except that, you can do that now, it seems it was ok after all.
Garry J. Vass
news:3c2chv0i9e20mmk94...@4ax.com...
>
> You saw that, didn't you Garry? The implied "Garry is not normal"?
>
Yes. I have more kurtosis than the normal.
Christopher Johnson
I've learned a lot more in the past couple of days than
I ever thought possible. Once I looked up the word
'masturbation' (the meaning of which, in addition to
'wanking', I did not know), I understood *a whole lot of
things*!
Off-topic is OK here - carry on!
--
Christopher
Martin Ambuhl
2003) in news:bf6qs3$bt639$1...@ID-134717.news.uni-berlin.de /
alt.usage.english:
> Yes. I have more kurtosis than the normal.
We knew you were a sharp cookie.
--
Martin Ambuhl
Returning soon to the
Fourth Largest City in America
Jon and Mary Miller
>"Kurtosis" is one word the good-ole-unflappable AMH gets twisted in its
>knickers:
>
>kurtosis (ker-to´sîs) noun
>The general form or a quantity indicative of the general form of a
>statistical frequency curve near the mean of the distribution.
>
>
Well, the standard deviation (or variance) is a measure of the spread of
a distribution. The kurtosis was supposed to give information about the
shape.
It's the third central moment. The idea was, if it's zero, the
distribution ought to be symmetric, or nearly so. At least for commonly
encountered distributions.
Didn't work, so it disappeared from use.
Jon Miller
Jon and Mary Miller
>I've learned a lot more in the past couple of days than
>I ever thought possible. Once I looked up the word
>'masturbation' (the meaning of which, in addition to
>'wanking', I did not know), I understood *a whole lot of
>things*!
>
>Off-topic is OK here - carry on!
>
>
Kids these days. Amazing.
Although, as an aside, my wife thought she had misunderstood the meaning
of wanking, because surely a whole stadium of fans *couldn't* be so rude
as to shout in unison, "The referee's a wanker!" Therefore it must mean
something else, right?
Jon miller
R H Draney
>
>Murray Arnow wrote:
>
>>"Kurtosis" is one word the good-ole-unflappable AMH gets twisted in its
>>knickers:
>>
>>kurtosis (ker-to´sîs) noun
>>The general form or a quantity indicative of the general form of a
>>statistical frequency curve near the mean of the distribution.
>>
>>
>Well, the standard deviation (or variance) is a measure of the spread of
>a distribution. The kurtosis was supposed to give information about the
>shape.
>
>It's the third central moment. The idea was, if it's zero, the
>distribution ought to be symmetric, or nearly so. At least for commonly
>encountered distributions.
>
>Didn't work, so it disappeared from use.
You sure you're not describing "skewness"?...I thought kurtosis involved the
*fourth* moment, and described the relative flatness or pointiness of the top of
the bell curve....
That dictionary definition is so vague as to be almost meaningless....r
Mike Ellwood
Well, to my mind, in those contexts, "wanker" became devalued, perhaps
through overuse, which is why I was surprised it got bleeped on BBC
Radio.
BTW, in AmE, does "jerk" have a similar connotation? I am sure I have
heard "jerk" used in situations, and by people, who probably would not
dream of saying "jerk-off" lightly.
Raymond S. Wise
news:Pine.WNT.4.50.0307180820490.-564093@oemcomputer...
I was under the impression that the etymology of "jerk," meaning
"contemptible person" did have a connection to "jerk off." However, the
other day I heard it used by Andy Devine, playing "Wally Davis," when
referring to the manager of a banana plantation in the 1940 movie *Torrid
Zone.*
There's another possible origin. *The Century Dictionary*
www.century-dictionary.com ) has the following definition for "jerker":
[quote]
jerker 1 [...], _n._ [< _jerk_ 1 + _-er_1.] [...] 2. One who makes quick,
spasmodic motions ; especially, one who suffers from involuntary spasmodic
movements of the limbs or features.
[end quote]
It then gives a cite in which "jerkers" is used for certain religious
people, which is reminiscent of the terms "Quaker" and "Shaker." Under the
entry for the noun "jerk 1" is the expression "the jerks," said to be a
"Western and southern U. S." term for such movements associated with
religious services
(In several decades of the 20th century there was also the job of the "soda
jerk," whose job involved "jerking" motions.)
--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com
dcw
R H Draney <dado...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>You sure you're not describing "skewness"?...I thought kurtosis involved the
>*fourth* moment, and described the relative flatness or pointiness of the top of
>the bell curve....
The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics agrees with you. It's
mu_4/mu_2^2 - 3
where mu_i is the i-th moment about the mean. I guess the 3 is to make it
zero for a normal distribution.
David
Mike Ellwood
Thanks for that. So, is the soda jerk now confined to old or nostalgia
movies?
BTW, I have remembered that "off" can be used, and at one time was more
frequently used, with "wank"/"wanking", in a similar way to
"jerk"/"jerking". For some reason the "off" is heard less frequently now.
However, "off" _is_ heard with "toss"/"tossing" in the same context except
that "toss" is more frequently used transitively (reflexively or
non-reflexively), whereas "wank" is always (I think) intransitive.
Matti Lamprhey
>
> [...] I have remembered that "off" can be used, and at one time was
> more frequently used, with "wank"/"wanking", in a similar way to
> "jerk"/"jerking". For some reason the "off" is heard less frequently
> now.
> However, "off" _is_ heard with "toss"/"tossing" in the same context
> except
> that "toss" is more frequently used transitively (reflexively or
> non-reflexively), whereas "wank" is always (I think) intransitive.
No -- the word has plenty of transitive uses. You can wank people and
you can wank cum, for a start. (Or possibly a finish.)
Matti
Marion Gevers
> BTW, I have remembered that "off" can be used, and at one time was more
> frequently used, with "wank"/"wanking", in a similar way to
> "jerk"/"jerking". For some reason the "off" is heard less frequently now.
> However, "off" _is_ heard with "toss"/"tossing" in the same context except
> that "toss" is more frequently used transitively (reflexively or
> non-reflexively), whereas "wank" is always (I think) intransitive.
This discussion reminds me of a limerick, of WWII vintage I
believe, that contains the lines
"She would wink you and blink you"
which suggests that, for some people at least, "wank" used to be
pronounced "wink". Sorry, but I've completely forgotten the
other four lines.
While searching through my copy of "The Limerick" in a fruitless
attempt to find the source, I came across an index entry that
jumped out at me because of a match with the name of one of
the aue respected regulars. Here, for what it's worth, it is.
I hope this won't turn out to be yet another failure of diplomacy.
Es giebt ein Arbeiter von Tinz,
Er schläft mit ein Mädel von Linz.
Sie sagt, "Halt sein' plummen,
Ich höre Mann kommen."
"Jacht, jacht," sagt der Plummer, "Ich binz."
That one is dated 1952. It appears to be an adaptation of a
similar limerick in English dated 1927-28.
I have seen very few limericks that weren't in English,
and those that were seem either to have been translations
(loosely speaking) of limericks that already existed in
English. Are there any genuinely non-English limericks
out there?
Sam Nelson
Marion Gevers <mar...@marion.newcastle.edu.au> writes:
> This discussion reminds me of a limerick, of WWII vintage I
> believe, that contains the lines
> "She would wink you and blink you"
> which suggests that, for some people at least, "wank" used to be
> pronounced "wink". Sorry, but I've completely forgotten the
> other four lines.
And we're back to `The Winker's Song (Misprint)'.
--
SAm.
Dr Robin Bignall
<john...@frag.lineone.net> wrote:
>Dr Robin Bignall wrote:
>> On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 19:52:27 +0100, "John Dean"
>> <john...@frag.lineone.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Marion Gevers wrote:
>>>> Le Wed, 16 Jul 2003 17:15:09 +0100, John Dean a écrit :
>>>>> Simon R. Hughes wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>> Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
>>>>>
>>>>> You can go BLIND?
>>>>> Uh-Oh
>>>>
>>>> See that hair on the palms of your hands?
>>>>
>>>> What do you mean, you can't see it?
>>>
>>> omigod! I thought I had a cat on my lap...
>>
>> Does it miaow?
>
>Not only does it miaow, it regurgitates its milk.
I'd keep that away from your cornflakes, although I'm led to believe it's
wholesome. The stuff has got into some holes, too, often with unwelcome
results.
Dr Robin Bignall
wrote:
>On Wed, 16 Jul 2003, Jacqui wrote:
>
>> Christopher Johnson wibbled
>> > John Dean wrote:
>> >> Simon R. Hughes wrote:
>> >> > 'Swearing on television is increasing fast and "devastating"
>> >> > communication skills, according to a media watchdog Wednesday.'
>> >> >
>> >> > Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
>> >>
>> >> You can go BLIND?
>> >> Uh-Oh
>> >
>> > Does "wanking" mean "drinking" (alcohol)? I've never heard
>> > this word before. What does it mean?
>>
>> No, masturbating. Which is why we Brits find it funny to have
>> characters called Wanker appearing on US TV shows (Peggy Bundy nee
>> Wanker in Married With Children, Arnold Wanker in Mork and Mindy, and
>> so on).
>
>We also had a collective sharp intake of breath at the news
>of the then revolutionary Wankel rotary engine. Mercifully, it
>appears to have sunk without trace, and maiden ladies from
>Maida Vale to Myrthr Tydvil are able to remove the doylies from
>their ears when discussing motoring matters with mechanics.
>
Heh! I think it's still available in Mazda cars.
Garry J. Vass
news:Xns93BBCE21AF875m...@207.217.77.21...
> "Garry J. Vass" <garry-...@totally-official.com> wrote (17 Jul
> 2003) in news:bf6qs3$bt639$1...@ID-134717.news.uni-berlin.de /
> alt.usage.english:
>
> > Yes. I have more kurtosis than the normal.
>
> We knew you were a sharp cookie.
>
TIP: A good, stringent mouthwash is vital to keeping kurtosis from becoming
a social impediment...
Robert Bannister
> Next week, I suppose, the report will be on wanking oneself blind.
A recently published medical report claims that regular masturbation may
prevent prostate cancer in males. While it is true I don't have prostate
cancer, my eyesight has been deteriorating for years. Whom do I believe?
--
Rob Bannister
Skitt
Seems like you're living proof of both theories.
--
Skitt (in SF Bay Area) http://www.geocities.com/opus731/
I speak English well -- I learn it from a book!
-- Manuel (Fawlty Towers)
Jon and Mary Miller
>You sure you're not describing "skewness"?...I thought kurtosis involved the
>*fourth* moment, and described the relative flatness or pointiness of the top of
>the bell curve....
>
Yeah, listen to what I mean, not to what I say. I described skewness.
It's still worthless.
Jon Miller
Jon and Mary Miller
>On Thu, 17 Jul 2003, Jon and Mary Miller wrote:
>
>
>>Although, as an aside, my wife thought she had misunderstood the meaning
>>of wanking, because surely a whole stadium of fans *couldn't* be so rude
>>as to shout in unison, "The referee's a wanker!" Therefore it must mean
>>something else, right?
>>
>>
>Well, to my mind, in those contexts, "wanker" became devalued, perhaps
>through overuse, which is why I was surprised it got bleeped on BBC
>Radio.
>
I feel the same way about most crudities/profanities. (Weaseling
because maybe there's one I don't think that way about, I just can't
think of in right now.) I don't have a problem with the words, but
mostly people use them for their shock value, which of course they don't
have.
Maybe they never did, but maybe they did. There's a story that some
tourists were on the set one day when he farted. They were aghast, and
he said, "Well, what did they expect? Flute music?" I couldn't imagine
anyone making up that story, except for the fact that I've met people.
>BTW, in AmE, does "jerk" have a similar connotation? I am sure I have
>heard "jerk" used in situations, and by people, who probably would not
>dream of saying "jerk-off" lightly.
>
>
It can, but I think the historical connection is the other way. Jerking
on something to pull it over/off/on/whatever is a well-established
usage. Similarly, nobody blinks an when someone on the Cooking Channel
tells you to beat your meat.
A couple of years ago (more or less), George Carlin had a comedy routine
on words, and part of it involved what he called "two-way words." It's
okay to prick your finger, but you'd better not finger your prick. Hee hee.
Jon Miller
david56
> A couple of years ago (more or less), George Carlin had a comedy routine
> on words, and part of it involved what he called "two-way words." It's
> okay to prick your finger, but you'd better not finger your prick. Hee hee.
No, Nurse, I told you to prick his boil!
--
David
I say what it occurs to me to say.
=====
The address is valid today, but I change it periodically.