@pedant

“milk in first”

This is something I’ve never understood.

I understand a lot about beverages: the size of wine glasses for different alcohol types…the perfect shape and size of a good coffee cup (and the thickness and type of ceramic or china used) but “making tea with the correct number of spoons, milk type, sugar (or both) and when“…[Read more]

@pedant @mudlark

Thank you Mr P for linking to Fowler. Rather embarrassingly the reference explains how “everybody knows this household name.”  Oops.

Also, I found this particular reference used the word “inflexion” which is apparently “British” but the more common “inflection” is used. Generally, when Australians write and speak we use British…[Read more]

@thane16

It’s donkey’s years since I read the quartet, and your memory for the details is a far better than mine. What remains in my mind are chiefly the general impressions. Probably I read too much for my limited brain to retain everything, and/or I just have an inefficient memory. In any case it’s high time I read the books again as a…[Read more]

@pedant

Isn’t it a factoid? 😉

@pedant

I do find the wandering apostrophes a residual problem in my brain. Millions of apostrophes lost when the words “DONT WALK” replaced the red figure of a person standing, not walking, when crossing the street. I always preferred the figures in red or green… Actually, if I start writing like the above I just sound like Yoda. Whilst thi…

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@pedant

Agreed.

‘Could have’ and ‘should have’ are a losing battle. It IS taught – ‘could of’ vs ‘could have’ turns up regularly as ‘spot the grammatical error’ and in SATS grammar tests. But pronunciation has shifted both phrases into using the same neutral vowel. When kids hear ‘could’uv’ every day (for ‘could’ve’) and ‘of’ is also pronounced…[Read more]

@thane16

Well, see, that’s supposedly the gist of the argument: that all of them are like that… [Ichabod]

Ah, so that is their argument? Perhaps when writing “mouthy” I should have written “the companions had ideas, they were creative, they began to think like the Doctor but most importantly they already did speak like him, think like him…[Read more]

@pedant @mudlark @ichabod @JanetteB

I think it was here that I learned  less commas are better. In fact, yes! @jimthefish mentioned on the Buffy pages that as a journalist he was taught only to use commas when absolutely essential (@mudlark is it “learned” or “learnt”?).

I over-use commas: that I know for a fact.  🙂  Because, people, facts ar…[Read more]

@ mudlark  @pedant  Moffat didn’t cast Tennant, RTD did

Right, thanks for that correction.  I fell into the common trap of attributing everything about NuWho to Moffat, because as the latest show runner he sticks in the mind as the mover and shaker behind it all.  And it was, of course, all about expanding the viewership to keep the show succe…[Read more]

@pedant

 Moffat has stated repeatedly that the original intent was to cast someone older, but they were won over by Smith’s audition as old in a young body.

And how right they were!

I hadn’t come across any of Matt’s earlier work, and the initial publicity photos didn’t impress me: he looked so impossibly young. It just shows the folly of ju…[Read more]

@pedant

Care is needed. Many of the grammatical truths were taught were not, in fact, truths at all, but the consequence of 19th Century Oxbridge nobs applying Latin rules to a High Germanic language.

What you say is perfectly true, and I have no quarrel with it; but that is not really what I was writing about, and it doesn’t really reflect how I…[Read more]

@pedant  For some, women are only strong is they fulfil your expectations.]

Thanks for the reminder!  Yup, nailed it.

@tempusfugit  so these fans only watched because they fancied Tennant, when tennant left they didn’t give a fuck about the show.

Clearly; but Moffat let himself in for that, really, by setting Tennant, and then Smith, as bait…[Read more]

thane16  I think the small applause for Moffat -if that’s all it is – will eventually become a deafening roar

I agree.  Hysterical hate-rants aren’t going to have much staying power, IMO.  Moffat is too good a writer to be drowned by all that venomous envy and resentment.

By placing an actor of great note, who, I believe, understood the Doctor…[Read more]

@pedant

Clara was her own woman, who travelled on her own terms (that was established with Oswin). She chose to go on the adventure with eyes open,  though probably not quite aware enough of the risks (also foreshadowed by Oswin – and imbeciles call Moffat lazy). Even though that cost her, she did not regret it for a moment. She died where she st…[Read more]

@pedant

*respect*

@pedant @mudlark

SJW??

Puro

@pedant

Yeah, I saw that. Moffat’s tribute is wonderful. Pickwoad totally made his mark on the show, which I imagine is not that easy to do after 50+ years.

@tempusfugit

Welcome to the site.

@pedant

Ah, I didn’t clicky on your Olney car show & only now realised my error. Loved the MGBs etc…

@blenkinsopthebrave

I was suggesting we had proper cold weather -but it was barely a day of it. And if it’s 25c during the day it’s summer to me and even 16 degrees  maximum is bikini weather to many tourists.

Since you were last paying…[Read more]

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

@jimthefish @mudlark @missrori @pedant

I wish I had the prosaic and elegiac qualities of Mr P.

Donna a working class woman allowed to fly so close to the sun she had to have her wings clipped for her own protection. But sung about every night on a planet billions of light years away….And Clara…Who refused to be “saved” by Eleven, and ind…

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