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#1
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
In message , Wolf K
writes: On 2017-09-14 16:53, RH Draney wrote: On 9/14/2017 12:47 PM, NY wrote: 1. Near me there are two villages called Welburn, and they are about 10 miles apart. I always clarify which one I mean by reference to the nearest town ("The Welburn near Malton" or "The Welburn near Kirkbymoorside"). With postcodes, there's less scope for confusion, but before that, given that both are in the same county, there must have been a lot of problems with mis-delivered mail. They needn't be close together for that kind of confusion to arise...witness this conversation from the 1990s: Cow-orker:* "I may look into a job offer in Alexandria." Me:* "Virginia, or Egypt?" ....r I always specify that Austria is in Europe. I remember a pleasing crossword clue - something like "Take a left from one country to reach another". -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. -Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910) |
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:27:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote: In message , Wolf K writes: On 2017-09-14 16:53, RH Draney wrote: On 9/14/2017 12:47 PM, NY wrote: 1. Near me there are two villages called Welburn, and they are about 10 miles apart. I always clarify which one I mean by reference to the nearest town ("The Welburn near Malton" or "The Welburn near Kirkbymoorside"). With postcodes, there's less scope for confusion, but before that, given that both are in the same county, there must have been a lot of problems with mis-delivered mail. They needn't be close together for that kind of confusion to arise...witness this conversation from the 1990s: Cow-orker:* "I may look into a job offer in Alexandria." Me:* "Virginia, or Egypt?" ....r I always specify that Austria is in Europe. I remember a pleasing crossword clue - something like "Take a left from one country to reach another". Great! I had to read that a couple of times before I got it. I like British crosswords much more than American crosswords, so I finally understood it, but for most of the American here, you might want to explain what "a left" is in that clue. |
#3
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
In message , Ken Blake
writes: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:27:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Wolf K writes: On 2017-09-14 16:53, RH Draney wrote: On 9/14/2017 12:47 PM, NY wrote: 1. Near me there are two villages called Welburn, and they are about 10 miles apart. I always clarify which one I mean by reference to the nearest town ("The Welburn near Malton" or "The Welburn near Kirkbymoorside"). With postcodes, there's less scope for confusion, but before that, given that both are in the same county, there must have been a lot of problems with mis-delivered mail. They needn't be close together for that kind of confusion to arise...witness this conversation from the 1990s: Cow-orker:* "I may look into a job offer in Alexandria." Me:* "Virginia, or Egypt?" ....r I always specify that Austria is in Europe. I remember a pleasing crossword clue - something like "Take a left from one country to reach another". Great! I had to read that a couple of times before I got it. Glad you liked it! It wasn't mine - one I saw in a real crossword. I like British crosswords much more than American crosswords, so I finally understood it, but for most of the American here, you might want to explain what "a left" is in that clue. Really? I thought "take a left" as shorthand for "take a left turn" was something we'd imported from American English. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "OLTION'S COMPLETE, UNABRIDGED HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE Bang! ...crumple." - Jery Oltion |
#4
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 19:15:24 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote: In message , Ken Blake writes: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:27:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Wolf K writes: On 2017-09-14 16:53, RH Draney wrote: On 9/14/2017 12:47 PM, NY wrote: 1. Near me there are two villages called Welburn, and they are about 10 miles apart. I always clarify which one I mean by reference to the nearest town ("The Welburn near Malton" or "The Welburn near Kirkbymoorside"). With postcodes, there's less scope for confusion, but before that, given that both are in the same county, there must have been a lot of problems with mis-delivered mail. They needn't be close together for that kind of confusion to arise...witness this conversation from the 1990s: Cow-orker:* "I may look into a job offer in Alexandria." Me:* "Virginia, or Egypt?" ....r I always specify that Austria is in Europe. I remember a pleasing crossword clue - something like "Take a left from one country to reach another". Great! I had to read that a couple of times before I got it. Glad you liked it! It wasn't mine - one I saw in a real crossword. I hope you'll share the answer, if you remember it. From there, perhaps I could work backwards to figure out the clue. |
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
In message , Char Jackson
writes: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 19:15:24 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Ken Blake writes: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:27:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Wolf K writes: On 2017-09-14 16:53, RH Draney wrote: On 9/14/2017 12:47 PM, NY wrote: 1. Near me there are two villages called Welburn, and they are about 10 miles apart. I always clarify which one I mean by reference to the nearest town ("The Welburn near Malton" or "The Welburn near Kirkbymoorside"). With postcodes, there's less scope for confusion, but before that, given that both are in the same county, there must have been a lot of problems with mis-delivered mail. They needn't be close together for that kind of confusion to arise...witness this conversation from the 1990s: Cow-orker:* "I may look into a job offer in Alexandria." Me:* "Virginia, or Egypt?" ....r I always specify that Austria is in Europe. I remember a pleasing crossword clue - something like "Take a left from one country to reach another". Great! I had to read that a couple of times before I got it. Glad you liked it! It wasn't mine - one I saw in a real crossword. I hope you'll share the answer, if you remember it. From there, perhaps I could work backwards to figure out the clue. Austria. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you. - Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear |
#6
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 15:28:57 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 19:15:24 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Ken Blake writes: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:27:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Wolf K writes: On 2017-09-14 16:53, RH Draney wrote: On 9/14/2017 12:47 PM, NY wrote: 1. Near me there are two villages called Welburn, and they are about 10 miles apart. I always clarify which one I mean by reference to the nearest town ("The Welburn near Malton" or "The Welburn near Kirkbymoorside"). With postcodes, there's less scope for confusion, but before that, given that both are in the same county, there must have been a lot of problems with mis-delivered mail. They needn't be close together for that kind of confusion to arise...witness this conversation from the 1990s: Cow-orker:* "I may look into a job offer in Alexandria." Me:* "Virginia, or Egypt?" ....r I always specify that Austria is in Europe. I remember a pleasing crossword clue - something like "Take a left from one country to reach another". Great! I had to read that a couple of times before I got it. Glad you liked it! It wasn't mine - one I saw in a real crossword. I hope you'll share the answer, if you remember it. From there, perhaps I could work backwards to figure out the clue. J. P. Gilliver's mention of the crossword clue "Take a left from one country to reach another" was triggered by Wolf K's mention of Austria. -- Peter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) |
#7
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
On 2017-09-15, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Ken Blake writes: I like British crosswords much more than American crosswords, so I finally understood it, but for most of the American here, you might want to explain what "a left" is in that clue. Really? I thought "take a left" as shorthand for "take a left turn" was something we'd imported from American English. Isn't there a song with a chorus (or even the title) like "two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do"? -- A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing What he Reads. _Principia Discordia_ |
#8
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
On 9/15/2017 2:13 PM, Peter Duncanson [BrE] wrote:
On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 15:28:57 -0500, Char Jackson wrote: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 19:15:24 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Ken Blake writes: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:27:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Wolf K writes: I remember a pleasing crossword clue - something like "Take a left from one country to reach another". Great! I had to read that a couple of times before I got it. Glad you liked it! It wasn't mine - one I saw in a real crossword. I hope you'll share the answer, if you remember it. From there, perhaps I could work backwards to figure out the clue. J. P. Gilliver's mention of the crossword clue "Take a left from one country to reach another" was triggered by Wolf K's mention of Austria. A couple of years ago, a Jeopardy! final clue went something like "apart from Austria/Australia, the only pair of countries whose names differ by the inclusion or omission of two letters"...only one of the contestants was able to come up with the response "Niger/Nigeria" which Alex accepted.... I sat there staring at the TV afterwards wondering why he hadn't said anything about my own immediate response upon hearing the clue: "Mali/Malawi"....r |
#9
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
J. P. Gilliver (John) explained :
In message , Ken Blake writes: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:27:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Wolf K writes: On 2017-09-14 16:53, RH Draney wrote: On 9/14/2017 12:47 PM, NY wrote: 1. Near me there are two villages called Welburn, and they are about 10 miles apart. I always clarify which one I mean by reference to the nearest town ("The Welburn near Malton" or "The Welburn near Kirkbymoorside"). With postcodes, there's less scope for confusion, but before that, given that both are in the same county, there must have been a lot of problems with mis-delivered mail. They needn't be close together for that kind of confusion to arise...witness this conversation from the 1990s: Cow-orker:* "I may look into a job offer in Alexandria." Me:* "Virginia, or Egypt?" ....r I always specify that Austria is in Europe. I remember a pleasing crossword clue - something like "Take a left from one country to reach another". Great! I had to read that a couple of times before I got it. Glad you liked it! It wasn't mine - one I saw in a real crossword. I like British crosswords much more than American crosswords, so I finally understood it, but for most of the American here, you might want to explain what "a left" is in that clue. Really? I thought "take a left" as shorthand for "take a left turn" was something we'd imported from American English. It's applying the eft to Oz that's my sticking point. /dps -- Rule #0: Don't be on fire. In case of fire, exit the building before tweeting about it. (Sighting reported by Adam F) |
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
On 16/09/17 17:04, Snidely wrote:
J. P. Gilliver (John) explained : In message , Ken Blake writes: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:27:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Wolf K writes: On 2017-09-14 16:53, RH Draney wrote: On 9/14/2017 12:47 PM, NY wrote: 1. Near me there are two villages called Welburn, and they are about 10 miles apart. I always clarify which one I mean by reference to the nearest town ("The Welburn near Malton" or "The Welburn near Kirkbymoorside"). With postcodes, there's less scope for confusion, but before that, given that both are in the same county, there must have been a lot of problems with mis-delivered mail. They needn't be close together for that kind of confusion to arise...witness this conversation from the 1990s: Cow-orker: "I may look into a job offer in Alexandria." Me: "Virginia, or Egypt?" ....r I always specify that Austria is in Europe. I remember a pleasing crossword clue - something like "Take a left from one country to reach another". Great! I had to read that a couple of times before I got it. Glad you liked it! It wasn't mine - one I saw in a real crossword. I like British crosswords much more than American crosswords, so I finally understood it, but for most of the American here, you might want to explain what "a left" is in that clue. Really? I thought "take a left" as shorthand for "take a left turn" was something we'd imported from American English. It's applying the eft to Oz that's my sticking point. It's common in crosswords to let a clue stand for an abbreviation of some kind. For example, a reference to a medico might give you the substring DR or MO as part of the solution, and "cardinal" might end up meaning one of the letters N, S, E, W. Using "right" to mean R or "left" to mean L is going a bit too far, in my opinion, although it's true that L and R are sometimes used with these meanings. (When painting hints on shoes, for example, when you can't remember which shoe goes on which foot.) Still, it's done, so "a left" can refer to the letter sequence AL. In this clue "take" has one of its usual meanings: remove. -- Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org Newcastle, NSW, Australia |
#11
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 21:58:05 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote: In message , Char Jackson writes: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 19:15:24 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Ken Blake writes: On Fri, 15 Sep 2017 10:27:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: In message , Wolf K writes: On 2017-09-14 16:53, RH Draney wrote: On 9/14/2017 12:47 PM, NY wrote: 1. Near me there are two villages called Welburn, and they are about 10 miles apart. I always clarify which one I mean by reference to the nearest town ("The Welburn near Malton" or "The Welburn near Kirkbymoorside"). With postcodes, there's less scope for confusion, but before that, given that both are in the same county, there must have been a lot of problems with mis-delivered mail. They needn't be close together for that kind of confusion to arise...witness this conversation from the 1990s: Cow-orker:* "I may look into a job offer in Alexandria." Me:* "Virginia, or Egypt?" ....r I always specify that Austria is in Europe. I remember a pleasing crossword clue - something like "Take a left from one country to reach another". Great! I had to read that a couple of times before I got it. Glad you liked it! It wasn't mine - one I saw in a real crossword. I hope you'll share the answer, if you remember it. From there, perhaps I could work backwards to figure out the clue. Austria. Thanks, John. In that case, I'm puzzled by the folks who thought the clue was creative. I think it's awful. |
#12
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
"Wolf K" wrote in message
... Thanks, John. In that case, I'm puzzled by the folks who thought the clue was creative. I think it's awful. "Awful" meaning "trite"? Or "trivially easy to decode"? How about "Scrambled brains for Scottish babies?"? Nice one. The one I saw in a gardening crossword was "Sounds like there's a bony mother kept in reserve". |
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
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#14
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
In article ,
UnsteadyKen wrote: One of the best clues I ever saw was... hijklmno 5 Letters They include the following eight (8) -- Richard |
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Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)
UnsteadyKen wrote:
One of the best clues I ever saw was... hijklmno 5 Letters Now I don't normally 'get' crosswords, but v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v water (h to o) |
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