A Modern Day BS Man/Liz Encounter

[caz]

What's the problem with “just a stone's throw“ that Caz doesn't like it? Too American for her? There's also “as a crow flies“. I think it's a Southern expression?
Dutfield's Yard as a location (especially with the gate in close proximity, as a quick escape route) is not just very similar, but almost identical to the C5 murder locations.

Oh for feck's sake, Maria. If you were not so tightly wedged up Tom W's bottom you might have seen the 'stone's throw' discussion and understood both the problem and that it wasn't only me sporting raised English eyebrows at the expression in the context Tom used it.

I know Hunter had no intention to cause me any grief over this one, but - as Rob Clack was even quicker than I was to observe - Berner St and Hanbury St are not now, and never have been, a 'stone's throw' from each other - not an English one in any case.

I should have known that everything in America is that much bigger and better, and that Tom's arms are undoubtedly as strong as a gorilla's, but at the time Rob and I were not the only ones to find it a verbal stretch.

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

Incidentally, I never knew it was an American expression. I thought it was used pretty much equally by those either side of the pond.

When we were at Blist's Hill Victorian Village near Ironbridge in Shropshire, earlier this year, we were led to believe by a lovely lady in Victorian clothes, in a tiny pauper's cottage, that a 'stone's throw' was traditionally the way a smallholder was able to establish the boundary of the property he occupied. It extended as far as he could throw a stone. Go figure. There, I can speak American too.

Inside the two-room cottage, the bedroom had a double bed, a single and a shelf higher up running round the room. The double bed was said to be for the two or more boy children, mum and dad would squeeze into the single, while the daughters would sleep on the shelf. Apparently that's where 'left on the shelf' comes from, if any of the girls had not found a husband and left home by the age of 21.

Love,

Caz
X

[tji]

Hi Caz

Inside the two-room cottage, the bedroom had a double bed, a single and a shelf higher up running round the room. The double bed was said to be for the two or more boy children, mum and dad would squeeze into the single, while the daughters would sleep on the shelf. Apparently that's where 'left on the shelf' comes from, if any of the girls had not found a husband and left home by the age of 21.


I did not know that, thanks (suppose it is self explanatory though, like a stone's throw, easy when you know the meaning)

I have read the word spinster is because unmarried women would live in the back room of their parents house and make a living by spinning thread...not sure how true it is though!

Tj

[lynn cates]

Caz goes bilingual

Hello Caz.

"There, I can speak American too."

Indeed? Then please articulate for me, "Awesome, dude!"

Cheers.
LC

[Hunter]

LOL...

Thanks for clarifying that Caz. Indeed, many American expressions have their base from English- Scotch - Irish origins. We do speak English (kind of). My comment was certainly a bit tongue-in-cheek... only to express the fact that 'Tiger Bay' was a 'real' stone's throw away from Berner St.

At least 'anbury St. ain't a 'country mile' from Berner St... more like a 'hop, skip and a jump' or maybe just a 'tad' more... to be precise.

Actually, here in the rural South, we don't consider a close neighbor to be a 'stone's throw' away but, in 'hollerin' distance'.

[mariab]

Caz wrote:
Oh for feck's sake, Maria. If you were not so tightly wedged up Tom W's bottom you might have seen the 'stone's throw' discussion and understood both the problem and that it wasn't only me sporting raised English eyebrows at the expression in the context Tom used it.
I was kidding, Caz! Although I must admit that “tightly wedged up Tom W's bottom“ makes for an interesting visual. Honestly, though, it's undeniable that Yankees are generally more or less in awe of the British, while the British react with a “stiff upper lip“. I witness this all the time. Incidentally, Yanks are a definite minority on casebook, and, all qualifications equal, I'll always go for the underdog. Your national hero Robin Hood would have done the same.

Lynn Cates wrote:
"There, I can speak American too."
Indeed? Then please articulate for me, "Awesome, dude!"
Lynn is, like, truly “bilingual“.

[caz]

I was kidding, Caz!

Ah, but when I do the kidding (which I must admit is most of the time) you tell me it's not scholarship. So I was caught unawares.

I'll always go for the underdog.

Yes, I had noticed you 'going' for me lately. You see how in English a phrase can have two opposite meanings? To 'go for' can also mean to 'hound' or to 'attack', so we brits tend to say we 'support' or 'side with' the underdog, just to make it clear.

As you know, from meeting me in the flesh at the recent conference, I am the underdog here. Just a sad old woman with a diary fixation. So I did wonder what I'd done to deserve my recent kicking from you over on another thread. I was the one who saw you sitting on your own in the King's Stores and came over to ask if you'd like to join our table. Not because I'm good hearted, but because I remember people doing the same for me at my first Cloak & Dagger meeting, when I was shi**ing myself with shyness.

But if you are saying that Tom is the 'underdog' you are defending, then all power to your elbow - or boot. I never thought of him as one, and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't see himself that way. But you could be right.

And yes, in this post I have mostly been kidding - probably. Life's too short to be serious for more than a few minutes at a time.

Love,

Caz
X

[mariab]

Hello Caz,
Caz wrote:
As you know, from meeting me in the flesh at the recent conference, I am the underdog here. Just a sad old woman with a diary fixation.
By any means NOT the definition of you. And, as people have often commented, you're very elegant and very chic!
Caz wrote:
I was the one who saw you sitting on your own in the King's Stores and came over to ask if you'd like to join our table. Not because I'm good hearted, but because I remember people doing the same for me at my first Cloak & Dagger meeting, when I was shi**ing myself with shyness.
Yes, I remember that, and I thought it was very generous and very kind. So thank you very much.
Caz wrote:
Life's too short to be serious for more than a few minutes at a time.
Completely with you on this.
Have a very nice afternoon, Caz.

[Tom_Wescott]

I am absolutely not an underdog. But Ripperology is certainly Anglocentric, and perhaps understandably so, since the crimes are English. Ripperana editor, Nick Warren, feels that Americans should not publish on the Ripper crimes. I think Paul Begg agrees with him, but would not be so bold to say that outright. You never see Americans in Riipper docs, unless it's an American production. But I personally have not felt like a 'minority' and certainly not an underdog. And here I thought Maria had my back because she admired my work and my sexy 'take no prisoners' attitude.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

Tom,
when I said “underdog“ it wasn't in the sense of “weakling“ or “looser“, but in the sense of national minority, as an American among English and Anglophiles.
“Admiring“ is possibly too strong a word, but I definitely enjoy and have a very high regard for your work, and I find the conditions in which you're currently working (with internet availability only briefly at work) truly heroic. (Which will most probably inspire Caz to more catty remarks about “hero worship“ and whatnot.)
As for “sexy take no prisoners“ attitude, I thought that was a characteristic of mine, but you can have some of it too, if you want.
And I happen to know that, unlike what Caz thinks, your arms are not as strong as a gorilla's (so as to be able to throw a stone from Berner Street to Hanbury Street), but incidentally MINE are. Surfer here, and a surfer who's never met a suitcase she can't carry or a (big) guy she couldn't beat up if inclined. (OK, Mike Thyson nonwithstanding.) And who enters the water on Berner Street but get spit out at Miller's Court in a single session.

Tom Wescott wrote:
Ripperana editor, Nick Warren, feels that Americans should not publish on the Ripper crimes. I think Paul Begg agrees with him, but would not be so bold to say that outright.
If that isn't xenophoby and racial prejudice, I don't know what is. Someone should submit this case to the UN.

What are “Ripper docs“? DVD documentaries, or Ripperpods?

[caz]

Maria,

I thought we had a truce going on. Didn't last long on your part, did it?

You know what inspired my tongue-in-cheek 'hero worship' remarks. You launched an unprovoked and sustained attack on me elsewhere because you didn't read the relevant threads properly and falsely accused me of being grossly unfair to poor Tom by commenting on an article of his before I'd even read it. You didn't apologise, you didn't admit your mistake, you just kept on saying you were right, making me out to be not only brain dead but a liar to boot. I didn't appreciate it, I still don't understand it (because I had you down as a more careful reader than that), but I did agree to drop it.

So if it wasn't all for Tom, and you won't tell me what it was for, I can only assume that you wanted a cat fight with me for some other reason and couldn't find a better excuse to start one. This time, I'd quite like to know what that reason was, because I would like the chance to make amends so you will tolerate my presence a bit more in future. I can't do that unless I know why you had a problem with me. We were totally fine before the conference, so what changed?

Love,

Caz
X

[mariab]

Caz,
nothing happened after the conference. It's simply possible that we have a different sense of humour or a different understanding of how to approach criticizing of other people's work. But it's completely normal for different people to have a different approach on things. I most obviously misunderstood your humorous intentions, and I promise not to mention anything else pertaining to this matter in the future. For real now.
Have a very-very nice evening, and I'm going back to taking care of a couple of things. Sorry for being brief, but I'm already exhausted, as it's been a very long day.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Maria. There's no shame in admiring and worshipping me, and you're certainly not alone on these boards in that regard. As for angocentricity, that wouldn't count as racism, since it's not race biased and Ripperology is 98% white. British people just don't like Americans, but want to be like us, so they tend to get a little confused sometimes. LOL. But we're all cousins and world dominators so I think we get along great on the boards.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[sleekviper]

98% Tom? There is someone else besides me here?

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Sleek. Yes, Eduardo Zinna. What's your race? You might be white and not know it. LOL.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott