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IdleRich

IdleRich
Or as I put it before...

Another distinction that is fast disappearing but that would be a shame as I think it's quite useful... as also forbear and forebear where it's clearer.

I understand that usage trumps all but it seems a pity when useful distinctions such as disinterested and uninterested - which are now used virtually interchangeably - are flattened out removing some of the subtlety and nuance from the language.

Go to the bottom here

 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
Yeah why is “I missed the meeting which I received no notice of” wrong where “I missed the meeting of which I received no notice” is right? In that case, I actually think the latter sounds better, but I’d hesitate the generalize that reasoning to all such cases.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I think it was invented by 18th century grammarians (don't see many of those these days, do you?). The same guys who decided it was really bad to "split infinitives", since infinitives in Latin are a single word, not "to" followed by a verb stem, and English, despite being a Germanic language, ought to conform as closely as possible to a Latin template.

Which is exactly as stupid as it sounds.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah why is “I missed the meeting which I received no notice of” wrong where “I missed the meeting of which I received no notice” is right? In that case, I actually think the latter sounds better, but I’d hesitate the generalize that reasoning to all such cases.
I really don't think it is. Even in the case of notoriously flexible rules of language which are subject to change, I think the thing about prepositions was more of an aesthetic suggestion than anything else, as far as I know it never graduated to the status of an actual full-blown rule.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
While we're on the topic, I found this

One of daftest and dustiest old grammar myths is the unfounded rule against ending a sentence with a preposition. This fake proscription seems to have been invented by a Latin-loving John Dryden in 1672 and, like an indestructible demonic meme, continues to gnaw at people’s minds centuries later. Some even believe it.
Avoiding preposition-stranding (as it’s known) can have deliberately comical results, famously in not-Churchill’s ‘arrant nonsense up with which I will not put’.

I found that while I was looking for that famous sentence which is almost all preposition - or, having found it, apparently it ends with 15 prepositions in a row, except some of them are a con as you will see...

What did you bring me the magazine I didn’t want to be read to out of about “‘Over Under Sideways Down’ up from Down Under” up around for?

Cos surely, in that sentence "down under" is being used in the sense of a nickname for Australia so it's not really a preposition is it? If someone's name was About, then in sentence such as "Hello About, how are you doing?" - About is surely a proper noun, not a preposition... isn't it?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Reminds me of an interview that I once read with Christian Bale, he described shadowing (which I suppose is a fancy word for "hanging about with") traders or hedge fund managers and so on in preparation to play Patrick Bateman, the part of it that stuck in my mind was when one of the guys insisted that Bale accompany him to the cashpoint while he withdrew some money cos "you simply won't believe the balance".
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Interesting seeing the widespread ruthless jokes about the submersible on social sites.

Obviously these jokes have always done the round about the most tragic events (9/11 jokes the day after, if even that late, for example) but I get the feeling that this is less acceptable now at least in public, whereas this one is permitted to joke about because half the people onboard were mega rich.

I guess there's also the "Darwin award," aspect where they were asking for it, they volunteered to get on it, but I think the billionaire aspect is most important.

I wonder if the reason this got so much attention wasn't so much that they were rich and the world wanted to see them saved - it was because they were rich and the world wanted to see them die. (Whereas many are saying, probably justifiably, that a boatload of poor migrants dying didn't get coverage because nobody cares if poor people die. That's probably true, too, a different withdrawal of empathy.)
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Interesting seeing the widespread ruthless jokes about the submersible on social sites.

Obviously these jokes have always done the round about the most tragic events (9/11 jokes the day after, if even that late, for example) but I get the feeling that this is less acceptable now at least in public, whereas this one is permitted to joke about because half the people onboard were mega rich.

I guess there's also the "Darwin award," aspect where they were asking for it, they volunteered to get on it, but I think the billionaire aspect is most important.

I wonder if the reason this got so much attention wasn't so much that they were rich and the world wanted to see them saved - it was because they were rich and the world wanted to see them die. (Whereas many are saying, probably justifiably, that a boatload of poor migrants dying didn't get coverage because nobody cares if poor people die. That's probably true, too, a different withdrawal of empathy.)

Icarus, isn't it?
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I spend a worrying amount of time these days hoping to see the rich and famous come a cropper.

I think cos the internet algorithm is constantly dangling the rich and famous in my face and it fills me with bitter ire.

Nothing makes me happier than discovering some piece of gossip online about a rich person that suggests they're a sexual deviant, abuser etc.

The pleasures of hating, as Hazlitt pointed out
 

craner

Beast of Burden
You mean we like to see the adventurous laid low?

There is a lot of pleasure taken in the consequences of hubris. Particularly when it is libertarian billionaires gloating about the very thing that will sink them. The responses were as fascinating as the event itself: conspiracies, class war, human tragedy, morality tale.

 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Hubris figures in the sinking of the Titanic itself, of course, at least mythically - the "unsinkable" boat etc.
 

Leo

Well-known member
There is a lot of pleasure taken in the consequences of hubris. Particularly when it is libertarian billionaires gloating about the very thing that will sink them.

this is it, really. being rich brings the hubris, they are smarter than everyone else, not bothered by regulations and laws governing the little people. unfortunately, the laws of nature and science don't give a shit how much money you have, their justice is blind.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
As far as hatred of rich people goes, just think of all of the generations ahead of us that not only will be alive but will have staggering quality of life. We should do the very best to make things at least a little tricky for them.
 
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