Naw, I don't believe you. I googled that address you posted and the
first line in the blurb says

"Seru Boca Marina offers floating slips for 128 vessels up to 150
feet"

Don't say nothing about no grottie old cruising boat, sounds like if
you're not at least 100 ft. they probably don't want you. How did you
get in? Sneak in and tie up at the dinghy dock?

Regarding your colonial English I'll have you know that I received an
initial supplemental education in Proper English by a British educated
Singapore Lady Office Manager who used to correct my Americanisms by
telegram, and later by a former Officer of the Gurkas, graduate of
Sandhurst, graduate of the School of Asian and African Studies, London
University, where he majored in Malay/Indonesian - have you ever heard
anyone speak absolutely impeccable Indonesian with a fully blown
Sandhurst accent? And most recently by a hereditary Lord of the Realm
who corrects my pronunciation at every opportunity. I also have a mate
raised on a sheep station in Western Australia just so I don't get too
toffey nosed.

By the way, what is this Sidney business. I thought you were a Kiwi.

Cartagena de Indias? I thought you British chappies were persona non
grata since Sir Francis Drake burned the place? But I suppose with the
new economy that can't afford to overlook any market.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)

Hi Bruce,
I see that in mixing with colonials and other civilised peoples you
have definitely developed a non American sense of humour and recognise
that what may appear as offensive to others is actually a mark of
friendliness (don't understand it quite myself).

I am so pleased that so many people took the trouble to correct your
"Americanisms" and taught you to speak in a civilised manner. There is
an excellent new DVD and book called "The Adventure of English" which
describes the history and spread of the English language and its
variations. When I get back I shall make you a copy and snailmail it
to you if you send me your postal address by email.

Actually, I love the Americanisms such as "I'll fix dinner" - what's
wrong with it? and the various references to the latrine - Little
girl's room", "powder my nose" and so on. Nothing as basic as our
"Where are the toilets?" or "I have to go".

Actually in this marina there is only one large motor boat. The rest
of us are the standard 40 odd feet sailboats from all over. Many
people leave their boats here in complete security and fly back home
for a while such as I am doing. Whereas in the more windward islands
from Trinidad up to the Virgins (where you send your wife for
recycling), US registered sailboats make up for at least 80 to 90%.
Here which is a little harder to get back from, we are a mixed bunch;
predominantly Dutch, but also French, American, English, German and
Australian. They are generally cruising types and consequently the
behaviour is different to the ones you seem to find further east on
the "water winnebagos".

An example is that nobody asks in initial conversation what you do or
did for a living, whether you have children, or any other of the
personal fact finding questions that are usually asked in an attempt
to put a status ranking upon you. Last night at the bar for example
where I took my dinner (no, I drank only orange juice), conversation
was about cheese eating etiquette whereby one shows that one is a
barbarian or not by the way one cuts the cheese and which varies
according to its shape and type. I had never heard of this and had
that moment of truth whereby I realised my barbarian status til now.
Other topics were bits of history such as that Germans still pay a 7%
tax to the church if they are Christian, which tax is collected by the
government on the churches' behalf - law was put in place byHitler in
1935 as part of the pacxt with the Vatican.

There was not a single word about crass things such as assets,
investments, "when I was General Manager", how much people spent on
new gear and so on. Europeans seem to be so much more mature in that
way.

There is an interesting lady here, Patricia, who grew up on a farm in
Texas and spent most of her life as an academic at Washington State, A
widow, she has only recently bought a sailboat and sailed it down from
San Diego to here with crew. As she was a professor of behavourial
science with an emphasis on business she can answer my questions as to
why Americans do this or that. Great lady, strong personality.

Sorry, I got carried away. Being of Greek origin we tend to be
verbose.

Yes I am a Kiwi, but I also have Australian and Malaysian citizenship.
Sydney is where the "owner" and son reside whilst he is at highschool.

Asalaam,
Peter

snip
Actually, I love the Americanisms such as "I'll fix dinner" - what's
wrong with it? and the various references to the latrine - Little
girl's room", "powder my nose" and so on. Nothing as basic as our
"Where are the toilets?" or "I have to go".

LOL...if you find *those* amusing, you really must get out (in the US)
more. There are more gems than you could imagine. My favorite came
from a 'gent' I was forced to work with who, when asked about the status
of a task he had already completed, replied with "I done did that there
bud, it's done done". With a straight face...

Keith Hughes

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:22:14 -0700, wrote:

snip
Actually, I love the Americanisms such as "I'll fix dinner" - what's
wrong with it? and the various references to the latrine - Little
girl's room", "powder my nose" and so on. Nothing as basic as our
"Where are the toilets?" or "I have to go".

LOL...if you find *those* amusing, you really must get out (in the US)
more. There are more gems than you could imagine. My favorite came
from a 'gent' I was forced to work with who, when asked about the status
of a task he had already completed, replied with "I done did that there
bud, it's done done". With a straight face...

Keith Hughes

All jokes aside, that's the wonderful thing about the English
language. It is so varied and the different useages of words and terms
are so interesting. I often wonder if there is any "correct English"
so long as the meaning is not ambiguous and misleading. Even the
Americanism "fix" also means to prepare or make something in the
Oxford dictionary as well as the only useage we put on it which is to
repair. In the US, I often feel like replying to the question "Would
you like to use the washroom?" with "No thanks, I had a shower this
morning" I just love those euphemisms for a common toilet which all
have the need to use, anything but what it is.

The only word I object to is the Americanism "dude" which is creeping
into Antipodean language and used by those who wish to be seen as hip.
I cannot but object verbally or walk out of a shop when I am addressed
as such.

cheers

Herodotus wrote:
On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:22:14 -0700, wrote:

snip
Actually, I love the Americanisms such as "I'll fix dinner" - what's
wrong with it? and the various references to the latrine - Little
girl's room", "powder my nose" and so on. Nothing as basic as our
"Where are the toilets?" or "I have to go".
LOL...if you find *those* amusing, you really must get out (in the US)
more. There are more gems than you could imagine. My favorite came
from a 'gent' I was forced to work with who, when asked about the status
of a task he had already completed, replied with "I done did that there
bud, it's done done". With a straight face...

Keith Hughes

All jokes aside, that's the wonderful thing about the English
language. It is so varied and the different useages of words and terms
are so interesting. I often wonder if there is any "correct English"
so long as the meaning is not ambiguous and misleading.

I would agree that there is a great deal of stylistic leeway in "correct
English" construction. However, I review many thousands of pages of,
shall we say, "text" each year, written by college graduates, and
ambiguity and lack of concision seem to be fairly rampant these days.
The rapid rise of text messaging, with the concomitant mangling of
spelling, grammar, and syntax is also quite clearly not going to help
matters.

Even the
Americanism "fix" also means to prepare or make something in the
Oxford dictionary as well as the only useage we put on it which is to
repair.

Well, one can hardly fault the use of such an easily conjugated verb:

"I's a fixin to..."
"He's a fixin to..."
"They's a fixin to..."

And the ever popular; "We's a fixing to too..." :-)

But, do you not also use it relative to Nitrogen fixation? I had
assumed that was a universal (for English speakers) usage.

The only word I object to is the Americanism "dude" which is creeping
into Antipodean language and used by those who wish to be seen as hip.
I cannot but object verbally or walk out of a shop when I am addressed
as such.

I understand your aversion, and in deference to the desire for cordial
antipodean relations, I shall refrain from the rejoinder "Yo, chill dude".

Cheers,

Keith Hughes

On 21 Apr 2008 11:49:01 -0500, Dave wrote:

On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:58:52 +1000, Herodotus said:

The only word I object to is the Americanism "dude" which is creeping
into Antipodean language and used by those who wish to be seen as hip.
I cannot but object verbally or walk out of a shop when I am addressed
as such.

Have you so far avoided the "like" epidemic-- "I'm like ..... and she's
like.... I'm like....""

I'm often tempted to ask one of those under 30's whether she can complete a
single sentence without using the word "like."

Yes!!!! the bloody term is widespread in Australia these days. It can
be used many times within the same sentence and is often preceded with
"you know" and used as a sentence ending as well. "You know, like...."

Hate it. It grates. shows mu age and growing intolerance

cheers
Peter

"Herodotus" wrote in message
...
On 21 Apr 2008 11:49:01 -0500, Dave wrote:

On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:58:52 +1000, Herodotus
said:

The only word I object to is the Americanism "dude" which is creeping
into Antipodean language and used by those who wish to be seen as hip.
I cannot but object verbally or walk out of a shop when I am addressed
as such.

Have you so far avoided the "like" epidemic-- "I'm like ..... and she's
like.... I'm like....""

I'm often tempted to ask one of those under 30's whether she can complete
a
single sentence without using the word "like."

Yes!!!! the bloody term is widespread in Australia these days. It can
be used many times within the same sentence and is often preceded with
"you know" and used as a sentence ending as well. "You know, like...."

Hate it. It grates. shows mu age and growing intolerance

cheers
Peter


"You know, like ... you know."

I heard that once... very short sentence, so I said, "No, I don't know. Like
what?" And, he couldn't explain. So, I said, "then don't say 'you know'
unless I do know."


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

wrote in message
...
snip
Actually, I love the Americanisms such as "I'll fix dinner" - what's
wrong with it? and the various references to the latrine - Little
girl's room", "powder my nose" and so on. Nothing as basic as our
"Where are the toilets?" or "I have to go".

LOL...if you find *those* amusing, you really must get out (in the US)
more. There are more gems than you could imagine. My favorite came from
a 'gent' I was forced to work with who, when asked about the status of a
task he had already completed, replied with "I done did that there bud,
it's done done". With a straight face...

Keith Hughes


We regularly use "get 'er done" when in asking employees to do something.
(We don't have to tell them what exactly, because it's obvious. If it isn't
obvious, they they can expect to be fired.)

When they're finished, they report back with "done did it... goodly too."
Bud is a bit too familiar for an employee to use with a boss. "Sir" is
acceptable.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Herodotus" wrote in message
...

Actually, I love the Americanisms such as "I'll fix dinner" - what's
wrong with it? and the various references to the latrine - Little
girl's room", "powder my nose" and so on. Nothing as basic as our
"Where are the toilets?" or "I have to go".

That is reasonably polite, not basic.
Basic is 'Where's the bog'

In article ,
"Edgar" wrote:

"Herodotus" wrote in message
...

Actually, I love the Americanisms such as "I'll fix dinner" - what's
wrong with it? and the various references to the latrine - Little
girl's room", "powder my nose" and so on. Nothing as basic as our
"Where are the toilets?" or "I have to go".

That is reasonably polite, not basic.
Basic is 'Where's the bog'

'I'm dying for a slash'

LOL

--
Molesworth

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:36:00 +0200, "Edgar"
wrote:


"Herodotus" wrote in message
.. .

Actually, I love the Americanisms such as "I'll fix dinner" - what's
wrong with it? and the various references to the latrine - Little
girl's room", "powder my nose" and so on. Nothing as basic as our
"Where are the toilets?" or "I have to go".

That is reasonably polite, not basic.
Basic is 'Where's the bog'

Here that may be "Where's the crapper?"
Don't know, but the original premise about toilet vs washroom could
well be wrong. Colloquialisms are tricky unless one is very
well-traveled and then paying attention to different groups within the
local population.
There was that "furor" about Jack Paar's WC joke back in the '60's,
and it's possible that many American viewers assumed from it that
Brits might commonly ask "Where's the water closet?"
That they did was probably never true, but I won't say so as I don't
know.
If I were air dropped into England I'd probably start with "Where's
the loo?" and work things out from there.
Again, my perception from reading only - I am prone to doing as the
Romans do, so rapidly adjust.
Here in the Chicago area, bathroom is more common than washroom, but
that may just be my perception, and is also influenced by family.
I certainly haven't studied it closely.
I still often call a refrigerator an icebox.
Oddly enough, my meaning is never lost. Likewise with communicating
with anybody from anywhere about the need of a bathroom.
A quick squat or clutching of one's crotch will always work if
language fails, paying attention to gender of course.
There was a quiz I took when I was about 12 that asked what word you
used for certain devices/appliances. Its purpose was to estimate your
age. The results indicated I was about 50 years old.
I spent many of my formative years with my grandparents, which quickly
explained that discrepancy.
Toilet is obviously French, but always works well anyplace I've been.
Crapper or can usually suffice in comfortable American company, and
porcelain throne also has its use.
If I'm being positively polite and "thoughtful,", I would however pose
the question as "Where is the washroom?"
So back to square one, Peter probably had that right.
He also has cogent views on coffee.
Orwell wrote some interesting essays on language, and I generally
agree with him, unless something works better for me, and this
sentence certainly proves I don't go far out of my way to eliminate
the latinate. Just too much damn work.
Had a lit prof early on who thought "lift" was so much more elegant
than "elevator." Well.........maybe, if you intend to use either word
in verse aimed at Anglo Saxon followers of Orwell.
Anyway, I remember his comment, which is just as important
as its gist.

--Vic