So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[scottyrocks]

And attempting to pronounce the name of the country in the locals’ preferred way doesn’t count as a good deed, eh?

It ain’t an either/or.

Regional dialects can make the pronunciation of even a common language iffy, never mind 'foreign' words. As long as it's close I don't think anyone should get their panties in a bunch.

But then again, this is the trivial thread.

 

[tonyb]

Regional dialects can make the pronunciation of even a common language iffy, never mind 'foreign' words. As long as it's close I don't think anyone should get their panties in a bunch.

But then again, this is the trivial thread.

I really, really doubt Iraqi regional dialects vary so much that the very name of the country would sound anything like the way most American personnel there pronounce it, no matter where within those borders they may find themselves.

It’s a matter of cultural sensitivity. Or indifference thereto. Hardly trivial.

 

[MisterCairo]

Chain stores stocking a great range of products from an independent producer, then changing it to their own "store brand" that does not appear to be the "store" brand.

I.E. it has an independent sounding name rather than the store's name, but it's the store's line, i.e. you cannot get it anywhere else.

I am looking at you, Canadian Tire (bring back Libbey's Glassware!!!).

 

[GHT]

Yet we are supposed to smile, tolerate, and understand anyone who comes here and butchers our language.

More than once I've heard Americans say: "Can't you speak the Queen's English?" It never fails to amuse. Perhaps I should have put this in the things that make you smile thread.

 

[GHT]

I really, really doubt Iraqi regional dialects vary so much that the very name of the country would sound anything like the way most American personnel there pronounce it, no matter where within those borders they may find themselves.

It’s a matter of cultural sensitivity. Or indifference thereto. Hardly trivial.

In English speaking countries it's known and accepted that Americans emphasise the letter "I" as in Eye-raq. It's the way English evolved in the US. English can be so confusing to someone for whom it's not their mother tongue. For instance we all say Eye-rate but pronounce irritate differently. Chances are that those stationed in Iraq, that can speak Arabic, will pronounce the country's name as locals do.
Scotty speaks of butchering the language, but is it really so? Whilst the emphasis is strong on the letter "I" at the start of some words, American English has made the same letter almost silent in words like fertile or missile, it's just the way it's evolved Stateside. Nothing really to get hot under the collar about. Or am I over simplifying the argument?

 

[scottyrocks]

In English speaking countries it's known and accepted that Americans emphasise the letter "I" as in Eye-raq. It's the way English evolved in the US. English can be so confusing to someone for whom it's not their mother tongue. For instance we all say Eye-rate but pronounce irritate differently. Chances are that those stationed in Iraq, that can speak Arabic, will pronounce the country's name as locals do.
Scotty speaks of butchering the language, but is it really so? Whilst the emphasis is strong on the letter "I" at the start of some words, American English has made the same letter almost silent in words like fertile or missile, it's just the way it's evolved Stateside. Nothing really to get hot under the collar about. Or am I over simplifying the argument?

No, I don't think you are. I just think that cultural sensitivity either applies everywhere or nowhere - no double standards - and no one should be upset if someone mispronounces a word, especially not purposely.

 

[Zombie_61]

If someone were to build a car along the same lines as the original Beetle today -- simple air-cooled engine, manual transmission, hand-cranked windows, body with bolt-on fenders -- I'd buy it in a minute. The only drawback in the one I owned decades ago was the lack of a viable heater, and you can't tell me that they couldn't find a simple solution for that...

Getting the hot air from the engine to the passenger compartment was possibly the most complicated system on any air cooled Volkswagen. It required several components be in perfect or near-perfect order--engine seals, thermostat, air hoses, heater boxes, exhaust connections, properly operating vents, and the fan that kept the engine cool and pushed that hot air forward. If any one of those components was worn or broken, pffft, there goes your warmth. In it's 65 year production run you would think someone would have come up with a better idea, but that would likely have involved a drastic re-design of the beloved Beetle so...

 

[scottyrocks]

Driving backwards solves all those issues.

 

[tonyb]

Getting the hot air from the engine to the passenger compartment was possibly the most complicated system on any air cooled Volkswagen. It required several components be in perfect or near-perfect order--engine seals, thermostat, air hoses, heater boxes, exhaust connections, properly operating vents, and the fan that kept the engine cool and pushed that hot air forward. If any one of those components was worn or broken, pffft, there goes your warmth. In it's 65 year production run you would think someone would have come up with a better idea, but that would likely have involved a drastic re-design of the beloved Beetle so...

I recall gasoline-burning aftermarket heaters for air-cooled VWs. Never had such a heater myself, though.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Electric hunting socks were a good solution for me.

 

[tonyb]

We still order "Eye-talian" sandwiches at deli counters across my state.

The pronunciation that makes me want to lash out violently is "Amurrica," especially when it issues from the mouth of someone trying to shove a flag down my throat.

In line with me at an airport fast-food place was a young man — 25 years old, tops — wearing a T-shirt with “American as F*ck” (but with a “u” in place of the asterisk) boldly printed across the front.

There might be a time and place for such things, I suppose, but the airport at 4 p.m. on a weekday is neither.

 

[tonyb]

Electric hunting socks were a good solution for me.

In the Wisconsin of 50-plus years ago, when I lived there, pocketable hand warmers using some kind of liquid fuel were a common enough item that even I had one. I recall it being more trouble than it was worth. Sure got cold there in January, though, which had people attempting all kinds of things to survive it in reasonable comfort.

 

[tonyb]

No, I don't think you are. I just think that cultural sensitivity either applies everywhere or nowhere - no double standards - and no one should be upset if someone mispronounces a word, especially not purposely.

And two wrongs make a right.

Mistakenly mispronouncing the name of a country is one thing. Not caring that you are mispronouncing that name, especially when those doing that mispronouncing are members of what a large percentage of the native population views as an occupying force, is counterproductive at best.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Not just e-sellers. I still remember the good ol' days where you had ads in comics and magazines that bore absolutely no resemblance to what you actually received if you were dumb enough to send off for them. One I got caught out on were the Sea Monkey little folk you could make friends with! One I didn't thankfully send off for was the German WWII helmet for $19.95 for sale in my Boy Scout magazines. Somebody did and got a crappy Spanish copy made out of tin or other thin metal. As back then, as now: buyer beware!

The Classic Footlocker of Toy Soldiers

The Hype

The Reality

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you're going to learn a painful lesson about How The System Works, you might as well learn it when you're eight.

But I do love the "Imaginary Battle Scene." All hell is breaking loose, death rains from the skies, and there's that one lame second lieutenant standing around trying to make time with the WACs. Tell me some embittered middle-aged ETO vet didn't draw that picture.

 

[vitanola]

In English speaking countries it's known and accepted that Americans emphasise the letter "I" as in Eye-raq. It's the way English evolved in the US. English can be so confusing to someone for whom it's not their mother tongue. For instance we all say Eye-rate but pronounce irritate differently. Chances are that those stationed in Iraq, that can speak Arabic, will pronounce the country's name as locals do.
Scotty speaks of butchering the language, but is it really so? Whilst the emphasis is strong on the letter "I" at the start of some words, American English has made the same letter almost silent in words like fertile or missile, it's just the way it's evolved Stateside. Nothing really to get hot under the collar about. Or am I over simplifying the argument?

I don't know. I still get het up at folks who don't differentiate the pronunciations of the words "merry", "marry", and "Mary", so "Eye-rack", "Eye-Ran", and "Eye-talian" seem to be pretty extreme mispronunciations to my ear. An accidental slip which can be chalked up to simple ignorance is of course excusable, but the pointed, intentional mispronunciation of a country's name is quite as boorish as the pointed mangling of a surname. Then, of course, we do see so many folks these days who seem to positively revel in their apparent ignorance and boorishness.

 

[Edward]

E-commerce sellers advertising their item with buzzwords that have nothing to do with what they're selling. "Rat Pack" for 1960's hats, "Art Deco" for literally anything from the 30's and 40's, "mod", "gangster". This extends beyond vintage garb, and it's very annoying. It almost makes titles like these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1940s-Men-Suit/253510202634?_trkparms=aid=111001&algo=REC.SEED&ao=1&asc=20160908131621&meid=37e8143678aa4659b831d5c37ea6173e&pid=100678&rk=5&rkt=7&sd=153047424988&itm=253510202634&_trksid=p2481888.c100678.m3607&_trkparms=pageci:6364f33f-72b4-11e8-a4f1-74dbd1808f94|parentrq:11432bc81640aa47e51c720fffed1991|iid:1

Feel really weird.

My favourite is still "1950s Al Capone Gangster suit rockabilly Mad Men Gay Interest? Rocky Horror" .

Not just e-sellers. I still remember the good ol' days where you had ads in comics and magazines that bore absolutely no resemblance to what you actually received if you were dumb enough to send off for them. One I got caught out on were the Sea Monkey little folk you could make friends with! One I didn't thankfully send off for was the German WWII helmet for $19.95 for sale in my Boy Scout magazines. Somebody did and got a crappy Spanish copy made out of tin or other thin metal. As back then, as now: buyer beware!

If they were Spanish made, then it's possible that at least they were pressed on the original machines; if memory serves, the ones supplied by Nazi Germany to Franco's army were mostly pressed up on machines imported to Spain.

In that case, never trust a fart.

Ah, the eternal, fearful question - is it a trump, or is it a dump?

I still have mine around here somewhere. I got a laugh out of the little "Care and Training of Your Pet Rock" booklet that came with it, so it was worth whatever I paid for it.

I've always loved that kind of stuff, though as I got older I did get better at learning to be amused by it in the store without having to buy it.

A Subaru is what the new Beetles shoulda been. Stick those flat-4s in the trunk, driving the rear wheels before slapping those vaguely Beetle-like bods on there.

Mn, as opposed to a Golf in a party dress..... I knew they were wrong way back when they put the prototype out there in 1991, and they said they'd moved the engine to the front and made it water-cooled!

Yeah, it’s downright fugly, ain’t it? Viewed from any angle, it’s just a failure.

But, somebody must like it. I see ‘em every now and then.

The irony is that they're very significantly closer to the shape and dimensions of the original than the previous "new Beetle".

I'm one of the few (probably) who prefers the "new" New Beetle over the previous New Beetle. Regardless, I read the new New Beetle is already going out of production because Volkswagen wants to focus their efforts on the New Microbus which will be all electric, ridiculously overpriced, and probably not available in the U.S. because it won't meet the safety standards.

I'm sure it will - at least initially - be crazy money, but yes.... I'd loved an electric vehicle like that were I to be in the position of running a car again. (I've been lucky enough not to need one for twenty odd years now.)

If someone were to build a car along the same lines as the original Beetle today -- simple air-cooled engine, manual transmission, hand-cranked windows, body with bolt-on fenders -- I'd buy it in a minute. The only drawback in the one I owned decades ago was the lack of a viable heater, and you can't tell me that they couldn't find a simple solution for that.

If somebody could turn out either an original Beetle or a Morris Minor to original spec but with an electric motor of decent performance, it'd be quite a seller with the right marketing imo.

Ever notice the deevolution of the American cereal box?

From simple and tasteful to sensory-overload in eight easy decades. And notice Pop now wears his hat turned around backwards like the streetwise skater-punk-rapper that he obviously is.

TBH, I'm rather more concerned about the de-evolution of the contents of said boxes!

I owned several air-cooled VWs back in the day — buses, bugs, a Karmann-Ghia. Wish I still had them all. They’d bring a combined six-figure sum today, easily, considering the ‘56 sunroof Beetle in that collection.

Financial circumstances were such that I either fixed my cars myself or I walked. An engine in one of those cars in the morning might be in another come afternoon. (A floor jack was a common weapon in the young VW owner’s arsenal back then.)

However, those cars just weren’t made for the uses they were put to by many American drivers. Good thing it was easy to pull those engines and pop off the cylinder heads, cuz if you got 40K miles between valve jobs, you were doing well. And forget about keeping up with traffic on mountain pass highways. Eighteen wheelers with heavy loads traveling at walking speeds up the far right lane passed 40-horsepower microbuses crawling up the shoulder.

The busses were drastically under powered.... most anyone I've ever known with one here in the UK, the first thing they do is pop in a 1600cc engine.

Yeah, it’s a sore point with me, too, and not a trivial one. It’s not just media figures using those mispronunciations. Political leaders and military personnel almost uniformly say “EYE-rack” rather than something more like “ear-ROCK.”

It’s understandable that we non-Arabic speakers might have difficulty with the pronunciation, but if the aim is to win hearts and minds, we might at least make to effort.

It seems to me the question is indeed one of intent; there's a world of differenced between those who have switched to calling Beijing Beijing, and those who still insist on calling it Peking because why should they change....

More than once I've heard Americans say: "Can't you speak the Queen's English?" It never fails to amuse. Perhaps I should have put this in the things that make you smile thread.

Having been to NYC, I've encountered Queens English, which I don't believe is the same language, let alone dialect...

(Though I don't consider myself a native speaker of either. )

No, I don't think you are. I just think that cultural sensitivity either applies everywhere or nowhere - no double standards - and no one should be upset if someone mispronounces a word, especially not purposely.

The key, of course, being willingness to learn what is correct, and to try to take it on board going forward.

Driving backwards solves all those issues.

Electric hunting socks were a good solution for me.

I get how those work in a vehicle..... but where on earth do you plug them in when out hunting in the wilds?

In line with me at an airport fast-food place was a young man — 25 years old, tops — wearing a T-shirt with “American as F*ck” (but with a “u” in place of the asterisk) boldly printed across the front.

There might be a time and place for such things, I suppose, but the airport at 4 p.m. on a weekday is neither.

Personally, I'm rather fond of the Banksy Principle - "people who enjoy waving flgs don't deserve to have one." I did, of course, grow up in Northern Ireland....

 

[GHT]

If somebody could turn out either an original Beetle or a Morris Minor to original spec but with an electric motor of decent performance, it'd be quite a seller with the right marketing imo.

Agreed, although it would have to be The Morris Minor Traveller. I don't know if this model is well known outside of the UK. It came in three variations, hard top, soft top and woody. One even appeared in a Bond film.

 

[Edward]

Agreed, although it would have to be The Morris Minor Traveller. I don't know if this model is well known outside of the UK. It came in three variations, hard top, soft top and woody. One even appeared in a Bond film.
View attachment 123494

I think you mean the Morris Minor 1000; the Traveller was the model name for the woody version specifically. Cracking range of cars, though - if I had the money, the time and the space I'd have one of each. The Traveller is particularly practical.
There was a guy somewhere in England building new ones (based around Indian-made new steel shells and chassis) for around the price of a new Fiesta some years ago, no idea if that's still operational. Would be great to have an electric version. The closest we'll probaly see to that will be - as I'm sure will happen in due course - an electric version of the Indian made Hindustan, basically a Morris Oxford / Austin Cambridge. That would be nice too.

 

[BobHufford]

I recall gasoline-burning aftermarket heaters for air-cooled VWs. Never had such a heater myself, though.

I had a factory one in an air-cooled Vanagon. It was wonderful. Could turn it on five or ten minutes prior to starting the car and I was nice and toasty.

At one point I thought of having hand towels embroidered with the VW logo and selling them as "defrosters" -- you could hang them from the grab-handle on the dash.