OT: The ampersand invasion

Sometimes also referred to as "bang".

That is usually used in publishing to indicate a short excerpt of text that is repeated in a larger font and often boxed out - designed to draw attention to a part of the text (a paper analogue of "click bait" perhaps).

It is also a handy layout shortcut to help fill a page where the amount of text was not a precise fit.

I've just seen a good one on the Nextdoor social media app. A chap was warning about a deep pothole and said he was afraid of getting a 'puncher'!

Well that's not so far from the troof. Takes a big puncher to kink a rim.

Having lived there for many years, I find it very useful now I live back in the UK, but hardly anybody else understands it, so I just use it for my own purposes.

Where, IOW, they don't have platforms.

I shall have to re-read my "Murder must Advertise" and see if that makes sense.

They can be quite a bit better than cars particularly if you want to move around in the CBD of a major city, just because you don't need to park the car.

No evidence of anything called a horse pound in the USA.

Tell that to the huge numbers of people who use them to commute into London and all the other large cities/towns *every* day. Driving into central or indeed anywhere in London from 30 to 70+ miles out on a daily basis is simply impossible, apart from the cost.

You just live in a rural bubble that is about as far removed from the realities of UK life in general as it could be.

Not forgetting AufZug (meaning elevator/lift but literally something else)

What, nowhere?

I cant remember any high platforms

Even in massive termini

I'm talkin' about the places that consist of a hut and a cactus in the desert. If you have to climb up into the train, then there's no platform, obvs. A scenario common in the US, at least historically, and nowhere to be seen here.

but is seen in some European countries. I've nmet it in Germany.

You clearly never used the commuter trains or your Altzheimers is even worse than we thought.

Depreciated instead of deprecated.

ITYM Car break's, and there roll in stopping a car...

In message <20230110121448.11c69915@Mars>, Rob Morley snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com writes

Just this morning, I was discussing with some friends the vagaries of the English language - which must make life very difficult for foreigners. One example was "The building was held up by the scaffolding". Without knowing the context, this can have two quite different meanings.