Obsolete & Archaic

John Watt

Member
Ya'know Ella Beck, I was thinking too much and trying to hard with my previous reply.
After more recent thought I have to admit I over-looked what got me going in the first place.
By far, the majority of people don't greet each other or talk while waiting in public.
Some of that is people with earbuds on, using a device, or just keeping to themselves.
I always have a greeting for anyone in my presence,
and I can always get someone going in a conversational way while waiting in line,
if not get some group thing happening. And then wattch out, because I might start singing.

I'll be cool and not tell a story about an RBC bank machine line-up I was in yesterday...
yesterday... all my deposits were there to take away... no... no... stop that...
Hey! It's not illegal to harmonize with indoor sound systems, even in a financial institution.
Okay, I have to say, what I ask is, if I was doing this song when it was out in the sixties or seventies,
does that me cool or elevator music. I have to say, everyone says I'm still cool.
I... typed... something wrong, now I have... to push re-set...... (descending notes)
here's my pay... money I earned the easy way...
 

John Watt

Member
I'm surprised you say "the loo" was posh for you.
When I think of that, the first thing that comes to me,
is some English woman with some kind of accent, probably Cockney,
shouting at someone about going to the loo.

When I think about lavatory, English movies with professors and scientists,
such as Hammer films, vampires and such, used this more technical word.

Okay, I have to ask. Don't you say "going to the john", or "porta-john"?
 

Ella Beck

Member
The language used about Race, like that about gender, is another minefield and particularly subject to change as dictated by the moods of the Zeitgeist.

When I was young, it was polite to talk about people of Afro-Caribbean origin as 'coloured', and it was considered racist to describe them as 'black'.

Now, it is the reverse - though maybe not so much downright racist to talk about 'coloured people' as somehow patronising.

I have made the change without problem, but only recently a UK politician got into trouble for describing a British black person as 'coloured'.
 
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