English is from England, not elsewhere

Anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, and is NON CH related - chat about the weather, or anything else that takes your fancy.

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sejintenej
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Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
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English is from England, not elsewhere

Post by sejintenej »

I am in a consant battle with our cousins on the other side of the pond about misuse of our language and then David Taplin enters the fray.

In fact I didn't fault his proper English but for one short inclusion in:
The British Columbia Old Blues (BCOB) founded in 1930 via an initiative of HM Sir William Hamilton Fyfe and remarkably active ever since with several distinguished OBSRA's as members (Terry Bate - Media Entreprenueur, Timothy Parsons - Japan Laureate & Marine Biologist, Sir John Daniel OC - Metallurgist, Engineer & Educationalist) has launched a book project on the story of Old Blues in Canada and USA 1617-2017 which is designed around about twelve "essay" chapters by some twelve Old Blues who generally have made part of their careers and lives in North America.

Oh, poor John Daniel. I had to look him up on Google - an Old Carthusian or Chigwellian or even Colchestrian, heaven forbid, hardly an early version of Oral Contraceptive or an RC member of the Order of Carmelites, Officer Commanding (sounds appropriate). There are not less than twenty OCs in the US of A, just one in Canada and one in Wales the possibilities boggeleth.

In case you think I am being flippant, before I conducted a search I took a guess but it took for ever (but not quite a day) to find Order of Canada.

As for the gist of David's post I was pleasantly surprised at the number of worthy OBs he mentioned including some names I hadn't realised to be OBs. We may hear the names but not connect them with CH. What a pity the Times Educational Supplement (TES) in its article "When exclusive is inclusive" could not run a list of such names to illustrate the ability of schools such as CH to help those from underpriveledged backgrounds to shine.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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LongGone
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Re: English is from England, not elsewhere

Post by LongGone »

Considering this was in reference to the British Columbia Old Blues it seems a bit parochial to find it hard to associate OC with something Canadian as a first guess.
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sejintenej
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Real Name: David Brown ColA '52-'61
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Re: English is from England, not elsewhere

Post by sejintenej »

LongGone wrote: Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:15 am Considering this was in reference to the British Columbia Old Blues it seems a bit parochial to find it hard to associate OC with something Canadian as a first guess.
Yes, Mike! I had guessed at what turned out to be the final answer but there must be well over a hundred listed ansers to OC. Of course many were clearly irrelevant but quite a few could have applied in Canada. As a sarki example, Wolff was an OC in Canada but never got an Order of Canada.
The point I was trying to make is that in this day and age it is becoming more and more problematical to use such abbreviations. For example the day before your comment I had been reading about Judi Dench who was said to be a DCBE. Wrong! Apparently she is a DBE which is a Dame Commander of the British Empire if you look it up from the other direction.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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