My wife and I played a lot of Scrabble in our early days when baby was asleep. We had to stop. She says it's because she always won. I say it's because she always cheated. I think we're both right.
I also love Scrabble stories. Never hesitate to post them. I am a sick freak, so before continuing with your post after the first paragraph, I had to try and figure out a better word with your starting letters. I did come up with "biplane," but I'm sure I was influenced by your "plane" mention there.
I also enjoy Scrabble stories. English is my second language, and I'm terrible at Scrabble. Not sure why. Maybe it's because the Scrabble rules don't let me look up a word (or a synonym) before trying it out on the board. Yes, the word plebeian has two 'e's. When I googled it, only one website (yourdictionary.com) out of nine spells it with one 'e'. The other eight spell it with two, so I'd go with that spelling, 'cos that's democracy. Graham, you might have got confused because of the both "plebe" and "pleb" are apparently acceptable words; plebe is US Navy slang for an officer cadet, and pleb is a derogatory term for an ordinary person (especially lower-class). So a Navy Officer in civvies, walking down the street, might bump into me and say "Watch where you're going, plebe!" And I'd say, "You watch where you're going, chump. I'm not in the Navy, and right now, neither are you. I'm not a plebe, I'm a pleb, and so are you."
This doesn't annoy me, per se, but it might annoy someone (especially someone without a sense of humour) ... but it shouldn't!
our butcher once had a sign in his window that said, Watership Down. You’ve read the book, you’ve seen the film. Now eat the cast I thought it was hilarious but he got a bunch of complaints
I'll bet they were from people who've never read the book. It's quite a dark, violent story, the cute bunny rabbits notwithstanding - at least, so I'm told. I've never read it either.
Hmph. some people have got nothing better to do than complain. Let's see ... Dear Cornish & Devon Post, There are far too many people complaining about all kinds of things these days. And frankly, they are getting on my NERVES! Please call up MI6 and eliminate fifty of them, pour encourage ... pour encouragoo ... to make the other ones sit up and bloody well take notice. Ever Yours, Disgusted of Darthmouth P.S. I am NOT a crackpot!!! Well ... (quoting from wikipedia): Obviously I'm too young to have experienced that firsthand, but I read about what happened during Market Garden and it sounds awful. So yes, I wouldn't be surprised if the story was dark and violent.
And for those who can't be bothered to google - here's the article: https://babylonbee.com/news/ai-to-be-trained-on-reddit-to-make-sure-it-never-becomes-too-intelligent I'm a little confused, though. Surely Facebook or Twitter (or YouTube comments in general) would be a more fertile field? There are some -- not many, but some -- areas of Reddit that are, indeed, very intelligent ... such as this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/ A tool is only as stupid as the people using it.
Last Wednesday, leaving a day's work in Cork for the 90 minute drive home, I decided I'd try an audio book on Spotify rather than music. The very first suggestion on the list was 1984. Funny that. It's years since I read it, so gave it a go. I remembered it being much more a cautionary tale than the blueprint it resembles now, but I've persisted with it on usually shorter commutes to work. Not a bad rendition, though I'm not sure I'm keen on audio books. Too inclined to let my mind drift. I mentioned this to two colleagues as a fairly mundane but something to say kind of exchange. Blank looks. Neither had ever heard of 1984. Both in their 30's, at least one of them reads quite a bit, and they'd never heard of one of the most seminal books of the 20th Century. Flabbergasted, I couldn't contain my bewilderment and they suggested I ask my daughter if she's ever heard of it. I answered that I raised her better than that. For my sanity, two other colleagues, both even younger, had heard of, and read, 1984. My daughter, however, hadn't. As a parent, I'm a failure, though I will check with my son before I settle on that assessment. There's a few things that occur to me after this, one of which: if Orwell's 1984, one of the most powerful, pertinent and terrifying books that's ever been put in print is so easily set to the margins and/or forgotten, then what's the point? On the plus side, I can now access WF on laptop, so can more easily vent my exasperation.
If it makes a difference, B.E., I once had a 20-something colleague who had never heard of John Lennon. *shrug* When I asked if he'd heard of the Beatles, he said "Volkswagen, right?" Then again, I'm pretty sure he was taking the pi-- 'extracting the urine'. More recently, I was on the train on the way to work a few days ago, and I overheard two high-school kids discussing history. One of them was sure that Copernicus "discovered the moon", and another argued that Einstein "created nuclear missiles so he could use them to fly to Mars". Luckily, my station was coming up, otherwise I'd have put them in detention myself ...
