You're both right. Sometimes we Anglophones are too lazy to spell French words correctly when we've appropriated them for our own use. And in this case rightly so—can you picture someone in a "longue suit"? *grin*

Sorry to pick on you, Magda! I make plenty of mistakes myself even when I know better too.

So it's actually pronounced 'lounge' as in lounge suit in the States? I didn't know that . . . you learn something new every day (actually on the fforum you tend to learn quite a lot of new things every day) -- presumably this is why the spelling has changed.

Here it's still pronounced 'long' and spelled the French way, but my copy of Chambers dictionary does give lounge as an alternative (usu. Amer. it says)

Actually, by and large it's not a word you hear very much at all in British Enlgish any more, except in historical contexts . . .



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

I hear it all the time, but only because a theatre club I have friends in has a running joke of a red chaise longue which has been in every single one of their productions for years. We borrowed it off them when we did Rocky Horror, and then at the last minute we borrowed it again for Maskerade... it's the best travelled chaise in Scotland!

I sometimes find when I'm at work, pretty much audio-typing, I type the wrong spelling of the word, eg the pair/pare/pear thing. It's very strange, it seems to be that the words are going straight from my ears to my fingers without being filtered through the language centres of the brain...



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Do something pretty while you can...

I can spell 'committee', and 'necessary' without any problem but I have a mental block on 'restaurant' (I think that's right - it was the second attempt). Sometimes it's got so bad I can't even find 'restaurant' in the dictionary.

I only discovered recently that "restaurater" doesn't have an N in it. I feel it should, really.



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Do something pretty while you can...

With me it's simele simile, you know that thing...



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If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.

I have a complete mental block about the word 'address' -- I'm OK if I just write it without thinking, but if I stop and look at it, I think "Oh that can't be right. It looks weird. So I change it (it's the number of Ds I can't get right.) . And then I think 'Oh that looks weirder.' So I change it back. And then I think . . .

It can keep me occupied for hours.



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

During the last round of local elections, I decided that as each of the 16 candidates had the same set of promises (schools, elderly, hospitals etc) I would vote for the one with the least spelling or grammatical mistakes on their fliers. I finally gave up and didn't vote.

'Desperate' always gets me. It's from despair so should be 'desparate', surely ??

Aaah, but it's actually from Latin despero/desperare, which explains it . . . the joys of a classical education.

Whereas despair came to us via French, and the spelling got mangled on the way.

I'll stop showing off now.



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

I know exactly what you mean, KT. I don't claim to be perfect by any means, but I get irrationally annoyed, irritated and upset by things like that (especially documents sent home from school for the parents to read which were mis-spelled - I mean, hello? Aren't schools supposed to be setting a good example?) To be honest though I became so buried by the avalanche that I basically ended up rolling over onto my back and accepting that sloppy grammar and spelling is simply a fact of life - and moreover a sign that I'm getting old even caring about it :(

My one relapse so far this month has been a seven page document from my bank setting out the terms and conditions of an agreement between ourselves (I sell my soul to them, they do whatever they like with it in return for a 51% share in it - you know the kind of thing...) A letter attached asked me to sign it in various places if I "agred to the terms herein". I'm afraid I red-lined every damned error throughout (26 in all) and returned it unsigned, refusing to comply until they got it right.

Well, I mean....

Don't blame you in the least bit. How about this one:


The letter to a bank below is an actual letter sent to a bank in the United States. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times.

Dear Sir:

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations some 30 minutes must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire salary, an arrangement which, I admit, has only been in place for eight years. You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account by $50 by way of penalty for the inconvenience I caused to your bank. My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. You have set me on the path of fiscal righteousness. No more will our relationship be blighted by these unpleasant incidents, for I am restructuring my affairs in 2003, taking as my model the procedures, attitudes and conduct of your very bank. I can think of no greater compliment and I know you will be excited and proud to hear it.

To this end, please be advised of the following changes:
I have noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, ever-changing, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.

My mortgage and loan repayments will, therefore and hereafter, no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your branch whom you must nominate. You will be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative. Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she just quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Let me level the playing field even further by introducing you to my new telephone system, which you will notice, is very much like yours. My Authorised Contact at your bank, the only person with whom I will have any dealings, may call me at any time and will be answered by an automated voice service:

Press buttons as follows:

1. To make an appointment to see me.

2. To query a missing payment.

3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated at a later date to the Authorised
Contact.

8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7.

9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may on occasion involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call. This month I've chosen a refrain from "The Best of Woodie Guthrie": "Oh, the banks are made of marble, With a guard at every door, And the vaults are filled with silver, That the miners sweated for."

On a more serious note, we come to the matter of cost. As your bank has often pointed out, the ongoing drive for greater efficiency comes at a cost which you have always been quick to pass on to me. Let me repay our kindness by passing some costs back. First, there is a matter of advertising material you send me. This I will read for a fee of $20 per page. Inquiries from the Authorised Contact will be billed at $5 per minute of my time spent in response. New phone service runs at 75 cents a minute. You will be well advised to keep your inquiries brief and to the point. Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

May I wish you a happy, if ever-so-slightly less prosperous, New Year?

Your Humble Client,

(Name Withheld)



Post Edited (07-22-03 13:00)

Now that is just sheer class. :-D



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

hehehehehahahahahahohohohohohowooohoohoohoo

(See next mesage...)

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Warning! Product may contain Newts!



Post Edited (07-22-03 13:29)

Lovely! Did the bank manager apologise to the customer, and refund the money that their system had debited from his account?

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Warning! Product may contain Newts!

Unfortunately I don't know, but since it was the bank manager who sent the letter to the newpaper, I reckon he did somehting of the sort

That's absolutely wonderful - talk about playing the system at its own game...



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If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.

Brilliant - I want to share that with my non-virtual friends. Who says Americans don't have a sense of irony :)