Some years ago, we wanted some bread (won't say where we were yet). I stayed outside the shop, and SWMBO went in. Through the window I witnessed all the miscommunication. She had several goes before she got the right word for the kind of load she wanted. Paying then became another entertainment. In the end, she held out a handful of coins and the shop assistant took what they needed.
Where were we?
Gateshead.
My dad had a colleague at work who came from somewhere in the North East, though I didn't know that at the time. She came to our house one day (I was in my early teens) and after she'd been talking for a while I was intrigued by her accent. Luckily I waited till after she'd gone before I said to dad "She's foreign, isn't she - but which country does she come from?"
She wanted my money for the bread. And it wasn't Paris, it was the Alps.
That was the second event in France for me. I asked for one pancake. Un crepe. Apparently it's une crepe. Like a pancake can have a gender. The seller actually looked very confused, then raised his eyebrows and held up one finger and said "une?"
That would have made them ask, "Wünschst du dir einen schlag job?"
A strong accent is indicative of a low intelligence.
Carpenters aren't that bright.
Where I lived as kid, our house had underground wires, but next door was a very old house which had electricity added later, above ground. It was a single insulated wire, same as goes underground, one of those armour plated things. As a teenager I did his gardening, and I once pointed out the bracket to the eaves had come loose. He said he didn't care, that was the electricity board's problem. 6 months later, short circuit in the attic, no fuse as the electricity board are thick as f*ck, roof caught fire in the middle of the night. Fire brigade had no access to turn off the power and had no idea how to put out a live electrical fire. The whole roof burnt down.
I vaguely remember saying the birds weren't grounded and vaguely remember his marking me wrong on the only electric test, but I got an A in the course so I didn't argue with him.
Not just carpenters.
When I was about 8, my mother would listen to the radio while I had breakfast before school, and they had a "Bible scholar" on for 5 or 10 minutes, And he was discussing a line from Psalms, "And the right hand of the Lord doeth valiently." Why did it say "the right hand", he asked. Because Hebrew was a "primitive language" and it didn't have words for non-tangible things like strength. And I thought this was strange because I was only 8 years old and in the 3rd grade and I already knew two words for strength. But he was on the radio, so he must know what he's talking about, I felt.
It took me quite a while to realize he didn't know what he was talking about, and he didn't recognize poetry when he saw it. Even though he called himself a Bible scholar.
PS, there are 20 or more words for strength of one sort or another, and there are words for all the other intangibles too.
Of course. Haven't you seen a boy crepe meet a girl crepe?
I've always wondered why many languages (Latin, Greek, French, German are the ones I know about) have the concept of gender for inanimate objects (as opposed to for male/female people/animals). English chose to dispense with gender (if it ever had it), and it's one less thing to learn.
Where I used to work, we had quite a few French people who were on work exchange schemes. I asked one of them whether French people sometimes made mistakes with gender, and how other people regarded mistakes like that. He said it sounded slightly uneducated, but it was regarded as a very minor mistake, like dropping an H in English. Apart from a very small number of words which were identical (or sounded identical) but one was male and one was female (*), it didn't affect intelligibility at all.
He said the thing which really *did* sound "theek as peegsheet" (his phrase) was Belgians and Swiss who used their own words for "seventy", "eighty" and "ninety" - septante, huitante, nonante instead of the cack-handed French soixante-dix, quatre-vignts, quatre-vignts-dix. French people apparently regard septante, huitante, nonante as "baby words".
(*) For example:
Le mer = sea La mère = mother
What you mean he doesn't ramble naked over hills in -5°C weather? Or drive with a .05 second gap between him and the car in front ? or... ?
Some boy crepes grow up to be crepey old men.
I read the label.
What newsgroup would serve me better?
For goodness sake, I learned teachers were thick in primary 1 (that's 5 years old for those with a different school system). My teacher stared going on about god, which I knew didn't exist. I used to piss her off by drawing Jesus as non-human.
In America, 911 puts you on hold.
Just imagine you've done that. You can control your own body right?
Thanks for your reasoned argument.
Thanks for your reasoned argument.
The primary risk of inducing vomiting after ingesting a poison or even just an overdose of most oral medications is for aspiration pneumonia. The complications of that are often substantially greater than the physiological effects of the overdose. If you don't know the best treatment (both first aid and definitive treatment) call the national poison control number (1-800-222-1222) which is staffed with experts 24/7.
Of course, if you have good reason to suspect an opioid overdose, whether oral or by injection, narcan (naloxone) or a generic equivalent should be administered ASAP. You won't make things worse and you might just save a life. Call or have someone nearby call 911 to request an ambulance, monitor rate of breathing and pulse (either at the neck or at the wrist) and start CPR if there is no pulse. Turn the patient on their side to minimize aspiration pneumonia in the event of vomiting and try to ensure an open airway by keeping the chin forward and the head back.
Pah, too complicated. Puke it up then rinse with some water if it's stinging your throat. Actually digesting the poison has to be the worst thing.
You mean making a phone call is too complicated for you?
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