Is it me?

This is the place for any magazine-related discussions that don't fit in any of the column discussion boards below.
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Dave Dixon
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Is it me?

Post by Dave Dixon »

Hi group, I was reading this month's issue of Avionics Magazine. This is a pretty respectable publication. I realize that I won't always agree with the editorial posted at the front of the magazine, but was really alarmed when I saw this sentence: "Their many civilian uses - for border patrol, law enforcement, pipeline monitoring and whatnot - are only now taking shape."
WHATNOT?????
WHATNOT?????

Is it me, or should I feel like this guy belongs doing commentary of Nascar races (no offense GoingFastTurningLeft!), or working the pig races at a state fair somewhere? I feel as though his credibility is totally shot.

Most of the members here are fairly educated, and some have even written technical articles. Should this term be deemed acceptable in these changing times? Or would you be floored to read this as well?

Thanks, Dave
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Chris Smith
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Post by Chris Smith »

At best you could rate his word as a "poor choice".

Our language has been going down hill for decades now. Pretty much anything is accepted, especially the slang.

Is it proper that is it “BADâ€
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philba
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Post by philba »

I'd say relax - the guy was probably being sloppy. "What not" really means "I'm too lazy to go research this but I'm sure there must be other uses".
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jollyrgr
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Post by jollyrgr »

Without knowing the full context of the sentence, I am more concerned about the use of "Their". Should this have been "There're" or better "There are"?
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Dave Dixon
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Post by Dave Dixon »

I just double checked. "Their" is correct in the context of the paragraph. Jeez - I was afraid at first that I had missed it, else made a sloppy typo! I didn't loose any sleep last night over this - I guess I felt better after venting!
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GoingFastTurningLeft
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Post by GoingFastTurningLeft »

I have never once heard a commentator use the phrase "and whatnot" :x

There's a huge difference between today's nascar and state fair pig contests.

"and whatnot" is a lower form of "et cetera" anyway.
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frhrwa
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Post by frhrwa »

In The Land That Made Me Me

Long ago and far away, In a land that time forgot,
Before the days of Dylan, Or the dawn of Camelot.
There lived a race of innocents, And they were you and me,
Long ago and far away, In the Land That Made Me Me.

Oh, there was truth and goodness… In that land where we were born,
Where navels were for oranges, And Peyton Place was ####3.
For Ike was in the White House, And Hoss was on TV,
And God was in His heaven… In the Land That Made Me Me..

We learned to gut a muffler, We washed our hair at dawn,
We spread our crinolines in circles, to dry out on the lawn.
And they could hear us coming All the way to Tennessee,
All starched and sprayed and rumbling, In the Land That Made Me Me.

We longed for love and romance, And waited for the prince,
And Eddie Fisher married Liz, And no one's seen him since.
We danced to "Little Darlin'", And Sang to "Stagger Lee"….
And cried for Buddy Holly…. In the Land That Made Me Me.

Only girls wore earrings then, And three was one too many,
And only boys wore flat-top cuts, Except for Jean McKinney
And only in our wildest dreams Did we expect to see
A boy named George with Lipstick In the Land That Made Me Me.

We fell for Frankie Avalon, Annette was oh, so nice,
And when they made a movie, They never made it twice.
We didn't have a Star Trek Five, Or Psycho Two and Three,
Or Rocky-Rambo Twenty In the Land That Made Me Me.



Miss Kitty had a heart of gold, And Chester had a limp,
And Reagan was a Democrat Whose co-star was a chimp.
We had a Mr Wizard, But not a Mr T,
And Oprah couldn't talk yet, In the Land That Made Me Me.

We had our share of heroes, we never thought they'd go,
At least not Bobby Darin, Or Marilyn Monroe.
For youth was still eternal, and life was yet to be,
And Elvis was forever, In the Land That Made Me Me.

We'd never seen the rock band That was Grateful to be Dead,
And Airplanes weren't named Jefferson, And Zeppelins weren't called Led.
And Beatles lived in gardens then, and Monkeys in a tree,
Madonna was a virgin, In the Land That Made Me Me.

We'd never heard of Microwaves, Or telephones in cars,
And babies might be bottle-fed, But they weren't grown in jars.
And pumping iron got wrinkles out, And "gay" meant fancy-free,
And dorms were never coed, In the Land That Made Me Me.

We hadn't seen enough of jets To talk about the lag,
And microchips were what was left at The bottom of the bag.
And Hardware was a box of nails, and bytes came from a flea,
And rocket ships were fiction, In the Land That Made Me Me.

Buicks came with portholes, And a side show came with freaks,
And bathing suits came big enough to cover both your cheeks.
And Coke came just in bottles, and skirts came to the knee,
And Castro came to power, In the Land That Made Me Me.

We had no Crest with Fluoride, We had no Hill Street Blues,
We all wore superstructure bras… Designed by Howard Hughes.
We had no patterned panty hose, Or Lipton herbal tea,
Or prime-time ads for condoms, In the Land That Made Me Me.

There were no golden arches, No Perrier to chill,
And fish were not called Wanda, And cats were not called Bill.
And middle-aged was thirty-five And old was forty-three,
And ancient was our parents, In the Land That Made Me Me.

But all things have a season, Or so we've heard them say,
And now instead of Maybelline, We swear by Retin-A.
And they send us invitations To join A A R P,
We've come a long way baby, From the Land That Made Me Me.

So now we face a brave new world, In slightly larger jeans,
And wonder why its Smaller print in all the magazines.
And we tell our children's children Of the way it used to be,
“Long ago and far away, In the Land That Made Me Meâ€
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Bob Scott
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Post by Bob Scott »

Dave, I think you are overreacting. I think conversational English is OK.

As long as we're off topic and looking at the past with rose colored glasses, don't forget the world had leaded gas, DDT, Carbon Tetrachlodide, 2-4-5-T agent orange, smallpox, polio and KKK cross burnings and lynchings.

This email below is making the rounds. It seems to have been lengthened along the way because the context of the last couple of lines does not logically follow the bulk of the message:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1920's, 30's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a Ute on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Red Rooster.
Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn't open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy fruit tingles and some fire-crackers to blow up frogs with.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in creek beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no videogames at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, nosurround sound,no mobilephones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no Lawsuits from these accidents

Only girls had pierced ears!

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Crossed Buns at Easter time.......no really!

We were given BB guns and sling shots for our 10th birthdays,

We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing at Maralinga in 1956.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

Footy had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather staps and bully's always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.They actually sided with the law!

Our parents got married before they had children and didn't invent stupid names for their kids like "Kiora" and "Blade"

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 70 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Reed
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Post by Robert Reed »

My god, I'm glad I spent my youth and growing up period in those years - wouldn't trade it for the world. And although it was a little before my time - Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" has always had My ultimate respect.
bodgy
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Post by bodgy »

Well, being the Englander on this board, I can say that form a UK perspective, 'whatnot' is a used as a conversational phrase.

It can be used in print as a sort of derisory comment, but most often used if someone is writing in a 'paly' (that doesn't look right) gossipy sort of way.

Perhaps your NASCAR man, has been heavily influenced by 'English wot like she ought to be spoke proper like', in other words he/she has become ANGLO'D ! :)


Colin
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philba
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Post by philba »

"whatnot" is common in the US as well. I don't think it has quite the base connotation, though. I think of it as being used when discussing things of lesser import. Like "the drawer was filled with pens, paper, buttons and whatnot."

Interestingly, the American Heritage Dictionary gives this definition:
what·not (hwÅ
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MrAl
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Post by MrAl »

Hi,

Sometimes this sort of thing 'hits' you the wrong way and then all
of a sudden it seems inappropriate, but taking a good look like Philba
tried to do shows that maybe the intent was actually much better than
it came across to you. Chances are that if it came across negatively to
you then it will to others too, but i guess that's life. We will all have to
learn to look at the many possible interpretations of another persons
writings i guess.

But wow, did this thread at one point get so melancholy or what??
I dont know about anyone else, but i've had enough melancholy-ness
for one lifetime <small insincere chuckle>.
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Chris Smith
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Post by Chris Smith »

1. A minor or unspecified object or article.
2. A set of light, open shelves for ornaments.


I'd never heard of the second definition.


2. A set of light, open shelves for ornaments......[second definition].....as in ...For Bric a Brac.

Stuff. Informal.
bodgy
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Post by bodgy »

Chris Smith wrote:1. A minor or unspecified object or article.
2. A set of light, open shelves for ornaments.


I'd never heard of the second definition.


2. A set of light, open shelves for ornaments......[second definition].....as in ...For Bric a Brac.

Stuff. Informal.
Hence the phrase, 'shelves full of whatnots'

Colin
On a clear disk you can seek forever.
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Chris Smith
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Post by Chris Smith »

Bodgy, ...in the Eastern US they use more phrases like this, old [New England] ] English and all.

To any one who has read it normaly, its just super informal, archaic, quaint, odd ball.

I got a lot of my languages from the Australians, India’s Proper Queens English, and the Brits so it tends to be more familiar for me.

But, I hear We invented the "English Muffin" not the Brits!
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