Let's go racing, boys and girl

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Time to go to Daytona. Danica Patrick is the first woman driver to drive from the pole position for the Daytona 500.

Though Rick Carelli is shown in the truck series, he exudes the racing spirit.  Which is, "Please don't let me die on the track."

1997 Press Pass
Rick Carelli (card # 47)

Ah, it will be a fun, long season.  It starts in February and ends in November.  And as far as I know, NASCAR is the only professional sport that allows men and women to directly compete against each other.

Yes, there will be more racing cards this season.  For now, it is time to watch the race.

saying 'please' in restaurants

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I did a TEDx talk at Sussex University a few months ago, and now the video is on-line. The subject is being polite in the UK and US, and it focuses on British thanking and American complimenting. I'm teaching a new course on Intercultural Communication next term, and I think one of the first things I'll ask them to do is to critique my use of the word culture in that video (did I really use it that much?!). Of course, we can also critique my use of the terms British and American--as many people do when writing to me about the blog. And we will do that in my course too, though I don't do it much here just because I want to get on with the business of discussing the phenomena I want to discuss. (And if you're interested in my courses, here is the door in.)

The main, vain thing I want to say about the video is this: all the lighting on me is from below. You know, like you did with a (BrE) torch/(AmE) flashlight to yourself in order to tell scary stories at (AmE) slumber parties/(BrE) pyjama parties (also AmE pajama party--there is another blog post in this. I will do it next). I don't think I usually look this spooky. Please God, don't let me usually look this spooky.
(But if you want to see me looking spooky, I recommend watching this on YouTube, as the embedded version here cuts off the right side of the video.)




There's a lot more to say about thanking in particular, but what I mention at the beginning of the video, then never talk about at all, is please. There is a lot to say about please. There is a lot to research about please. I'm limiting myself here to talking about saying please when ordering in a restaurant--just because it's the place I notice it (and its absence) the most.

Now, when I first came to this country--and for a while after--I would hear British people claiming that Americans don't say please, and I would bristle. Of course we do! We are trained to add the magic word when we request things. We are nice people! I'm a nice person! And anyone who doesn't think so can have a sock in the eye.

But then I lived here a while and my family and friends started to come over and visit. They'd order food in restaurants and I'd hear how abrupt they sounded, leaving off the please. Then I noticed myself and my English friends at our weekly gossip pizza get-together. If I ordered first, then I'd notice that everyone else had said please and I hadn't. When my brother's family came to visit a few months ago, I couldn't stop myself adding please at the ends of their orders because they just sounded so terrible to me without them. And their orders were always without them. And my brother does not have a rude family.

(My bossy, corrective behavio(u)r was no doubt facilitated by being the parent of a preschooler--and the fact that I'm the big sister. As a parent, I try not to add the absent pleases, but to ask: Could you say that again in a nice way?)

But look, even on Sesame Street, where children are taught lessons about politeness, people order food without saying please. Mr Johnson here says I'd like a bowl of hot alphabet soup (with a bit of politeness marking in the I'd like). He could have instead said I'll have the alphabet soup.



Of course, it's not true that every British person always says please when they order food, but I definitely hear more pleases here. (On my visit to the US in July, I continued to add pleases after my brothers' restaurant orders, mostly in whispers to myself, just because it was driving me crazy.)

So, how can it be that Americans think of themselves as  polite when they fail to extend this common courtesy word?

Part of the story is touched upon in my TEDx talk. American interactions are generally aimed at creating/maintaining a sense of equality among the participants. My reading of what we're doing when we don't say please is that we don't really want to point out that we are making requests in these situations--to do so would be to acknowledge that the customer is in a more 'powerful' or 'statusful' position than the waiter. So instead of thinking of it as telling waiters what to do (here I'm quoting myself from Emphasis Writing's e-bulletin):

Americans regard ordering as providing the waiter withthe information he needs to do his job.

On the other hand,

The British say please when ordering food inrestaurants because they view the action as a personalrequest to the waiter.

Please unambiguously marks an utterance as a request (it is an IFID: Illocutionary Force Indicating Device). Other means of softening requests involve making the request less obviously a request. Could you bring me a salad? is literally a question about someone's ability; I'll have the salad is a statement of my intentions; I'd like the salad is a description of my mental state. They give the requestee a plausible way around dealing with the request (e.g. Could you...? Not in these heels; I'd like..., Ooh, so would I. ). Not that they would refuse. But hiding a request in another type of speech act is a way of being polite, and that hiding is kind of cancel(l)ed out if an IFID like please is added to say "Look at me! I'm ASKING YOU TO DO SOMETHING FOR ME!"  

Please thus ends up not feeling right in some American contexts. Ben Trawick-Smith discussed this at his Dialect Blog:

while ‘thank you‘ is still important to civilized discourse, I find that ‘please‘ has almost the opposite effect in American English. It can make a question sound urgent, blunt, and even downright rude.

I'm sure people working in service industries in touristy places will have tales of cross-cultural request behaviour. Please let us know about them!

P.S. I've remembered that I've written about something related, so (please) see also: making suggestions. 

P.P.S. (12 September) Various pictures of signs like this are making their way round Facebook. Maybe this is what's needed in the UK, so that tourists learn the lingo without some of the rude interventions described in the comments section!

 

crosswords

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I've just come out from under several painful deadlines and am ready to do some blogging. And the note that I've written to myself is: crosswords. I wrote this note on 11 January, the day that one of the most famous British crossword compilers announced, via his puzzle, that he had terminal cancer. This is why the other deadlines were painful. I could have been writing about crossword puzzles, but I had other stuff to do. Oh, the misery.

But more to the point: crossword (puzzle). This word/expression can refer to the same thing in BrE and AmE, but it usually doesn't.

In the UK, the bare term crossword most usually refers to cryptic crossword puzzles. These exist in the US, but not as much as in the UK, where each of the (mainly BrE) broadsheet newspapers has a daily cryptic crossword. Now, these were not the original type of crossword puzzles, and everyone here knows they are cryptic crosswords, but if we look at the adjectives that come before crossword in the British National Corpus, cryptic crossword only occurs once in 100 million words. The most frequent adjective before crossword in the BNC is quick, which names the other kind of crossword that's found in the UK. The reason why quick crossword occurs more than cryptic crossword is not because people write about cryptic crosswords more. It's because when they do write about them, they tend to just say crossword.  (Take for example, the Guardian's Crossword Blog, cited again below, which pretty much only discusses the cryptic sort.)


In the US, the word crossword tends to refer to a different animal than is seen in the UK. If one were to talk about those ones in the UK, they'd have to be called American-style crosswords or something like that. If a puzzle is a cryptic one, Americans will call it a cryptic crossword or sometimes a British-style crossword puzzle. Among those in the know, though, British-style crossword refers to a grid style, as opposed to American-style grids. This picture comes from an eHow page on how to make crossword grids. The one on the left, with less white space is British-style. The one on the right is American-style.



Both cryptic crosswords and quick crosswords in the UK are in the British-style grid. (In the US, you might see British-style grids in school exercises, but not usually in newspapers.) The British-style grid means that you pretty much need to be able to determine the answer for every clue. If you don't know the answer for one of the across items in the leftmost puzzle above, knowing all the other answers will get you just a small proportion of the letters in the one you don't know. If all you've figured out is that they want a five-letter musical instrument whose second letter is I, you won't know until the answer is published whether it's a PIANO or a VIOLA (or some other instrument I haven't thought of).

In the American-style one, you can get the answer in a roundabout way. Since each of the letters of the five-letter musical instrument intersects with another word, you can build the word one letter at a time from other clues. But because of this, American clues are much more ambiguous than British ones. For instance, the clues in British crosswords of both types tell you how many letters are in the answer, and how the string breaks down into words. American ones don't give you that information, though the easiest ones might tell you that the answer has multiple words. American clues are sometime jokey (more so than UK Quick ones) and the puzzle itself often has a running theme (so can the other types, but this is a (mostly AmE in this figurative sense) calling card of American puzzles. Because there are so many short words in an American-style puzzle (and they need to line up nicely), any American puzzle-solver has a good vocabulary of three-letter combinations that somehow mean something--including compass points and acronyms.

A quick tour of clues--which won't do any of the puzzles justice:

Cryptic (The Independent Cryptic Crossword 7768 by ANAX as discussed in the Guardian Crossword blog):

26ac What can you get for 20p? Oddly, silver key (4)

The answer is ISLE (as in the Florida Keys); the first bit of the wordplay is a plug for the Independent's sister paper i, which belatedly started including a cryptic crossword - one that's as good as any broadsheet's and which we'll look at here in more detail before long.

The Guardian blogger saw fit to explain the I, but have you got the SLE? Oddly is the clue to tell you to look for--the odd-numbered letters in the following word, silver.  (The key is there to make it rhyme. is the definition, of course--see Owen's comment correcting my original mistake! But it's still true that UK cryptics are more likely to allow extraneous words: See  Wikipedia tells me that this kind of thing is more allowable in British cryptic crosswords than in North American ones. Click on the link to see for more UK/North American differences.)  A guide to types of cryptic clues can be found here.)

UK Quick (from Guardian quick crossword 13353):

16 Be transferred by contact or association (3,3)  (RUB OFF)

American-style (New York Times, via Rex Parker's blog):

42D: What the Beatles never did  (REUNITE)

44A: 1970 hit by Sugarloaf (GREEN-EYED LADY)

The last of these was part of a theme (left for the solver to discover) of songs with eye colo(u)rs in their titles.


I love to do the New York Times crossword whenever I get the chance (which isn't much, because when I visit the US all the crossword puzzles in the newspaper are spoken for, and you do NOT do someone ELSE's crossword puzzle. Not if you know what's good for you).*

But I am a fan of the British cryptics--by which I mean that I admire them and like to read about them, but I don't do them myself. (Whenever I convince myself I've got the patience for the clues, I become undone by the inclusion of bits of British cultural knowledge that I don't have--such as anything to do with cricket.) I'm not sure if anyone else sees crossword puzzles as a spectator sport, but it's a good one. And so when Araucaria's cancer puzzle came to light, I was saddened and appreciative [that he wanted to communicate with his fans in this way] as a long-time spectator-fan. As far as I can tell (there's not a lot of data in the corpora), the term crossword compiler is used in both US and UK, but perhaps more in the US, since in the UK crossword setter seems more common. (Recall our discussion of exam-setting too.)

Finally if, like me, you're an crossword spectating expatriate in the UK with South African connections, I recommend Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose [8], South-African-expat-in-UK Sandy Balfour's memoir of falling in love over puzzles.  You might even like it if you're just some of those things.


*Yes, yes, I could download an app or something. But have I mentioned that I have a job with DEADLINES?! In my life crossword puzzles are for (BrE) holidays/(AmE) vacations or hospital stays. And now that my holidays/vacations involve a child, they're not really for those either.

Thousands 'to miss out on university degree'

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I thought this was a strange BBC News headline:



First, there are two orders of magnitude between "thousands" (headline) and "hundreds of thousands" (body copy). A quick play with Firebug suggests that "Hundreds of thousands 'to miss out on university degree'" would fit - just - as a headline, although I grant you that it's not particularly catchy.

Second, the story isn't that people will miss out on degrees - it's that they will miss out on university places altogether (although one tends to follow the other). To me, the headline as stands suggests that thousands of people currently at university will miss out on a degree. And while that's probably true, it's not reflective of the story.

What do you call it when... someone's visual identity is unknown?

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This query has been emailed into The Engine Room:

Is there a word which means that a person's visual identity is unknown? For example, the West End Whingers are often referred to as "anonymous" as people don't know what they look like. However, they are not anonymous as they really are called Phil and Andrew [the names given on the WEW website]. Is there a word for use in these circumstances?

Well, 'anonymous' comes from the Greek for 'nameless', whereas Phil and Andrew, I suppose, are faceless rather than nameless. However the OED defines faceless as "remote and impersonal", which isn't really what we're driving at. And whether it's true of the West End Whingers I wouldn't like to say!

Lots of other 'in-' or 'un-' words also spring to mind, such as 'incognito' or 'undisclosed', but none of them seem quite right. I imagine we're looking for another 'a-' word.

Any suggestions?

So, so, so much joy!!!

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"Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep". Romans 12:15We so rejoice and are thrilled with these dear lovies!We are so and so happy for our dear beloved ones!

I`m very excited to share with you second part of our incredible blessed day.
Usually we have a Bible lesson with these little ones also, when we come to older girls.During a day 2 meetings.But I knew it will be very heavy physically for us to have 4 meetings during 3 days.As we were going to visit other children.And we needed be ready for orphanages as well.We decided to share about God`s love next time.At this time just visited them, give our hugs and give beautiful blessing what the Lord sent them.So, after meeting with older girls we visited the little kids.
When we came into, they had nap time.Some children slept, some no.Oh, my!You would see how they were happy and thrilled  to see us!They huged, kissed, jumped, clapped!Who slept, when they woke up, they jumped from a bed that to hug. :) It was so and so sweet!

 God blessed and sent to the girls the beautiful blessings, warm and cute socks.


 They were so much impressed!
 Oh, how they thrilled!I even can not express to you, dear friends!
It was just amazing blessing to see their happiness!

A minute later.So happy by new socks. :)

Children sleep on mattresses that BOM brought, pillows and warm blankets. Workers again warmly thanked for this blessing. You so helped out and it is big pleasure for us, they said.


Then we gave to girls beautiful flannel pajamas and long-sleeved knit tops.Tell you  that it was the right decision to came there, when they had nap time.It is sad certainly, but we saw in what condition of their pajamas and a bed-clothes. If I had a child, I never in life would allow him to dress this clothes or would put to sleep in this bed! Probably on a photo it isn't so visible well as it to reality. But their pajamas and a bed-clothes, look simply awfully! It is very worn-out and in holes. Therefore this double blessing for girls. We changed clothes at once that they would be in new pajamas.

 Beautiful princess! :)

Aren`t they cute in new pajamas?
  Oh, how they were amazed! There was such impression that for the first time in life they received new things. How they rejoiced, embraced, kissed and clapped!

 It`s their wardrobe for 4-5 girls...
 Love her smile
Probably, someone would love to bless these precious lives by new pajamas? ... We have all their sizes. It would be such pleasure for these poor children. Administration of the orphanage asked us to help more than once with underwear for children and a bed-clothes. We think probably, some day.... to help orphanage to get a new bed clothes, if God will allow.
When we left, children so unexpected, warmly and heartly kissed us with such pleasure and delight. They asked us not to leave them...                                               Tanechka having strongly huged me spoke, I won't unhand you, I won't let you go, stay with us...They are so dear to our hearts...

 We had so amazing time with these precious lovies!We are so thankful to God that He blessed with these such wonderful blessings to them.Thank you very much, Susan to bring so much joy, impression and admiration to lives of these souls!God bless you!

Vova needs the help and prayers

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Vova is one of the sweet guys, whom BOM supports.We love him for his kind heart and a desire always to help when he can.
Right now Vova is in hospital and he needs our help and prayers for his health and that the Holy Spirit strengthen him.

 The matter is that many teens having been "age out" from orphanages, have bad teeth. BOM helps them to treat and resolve this issue. Vova has not good teeth also. Some can still be treated and some need to pul  out already. He suffers every day with a toothache. Thus we learned that the dentist can't treat his teeth, because Vova can't breathe by nose. He breathes through the mouth all the time!When we asked him, why he did not tell us earlier.He just gave a shrug of the shoulders. 
We learned that this sweet guy has this problem for a long time since the childhood. Someone beat him in a orphanage and he has an internal trauma in a nose. He many times asked employees of the orphanage to help him. He was surveyed and there had to be an surgery. But years went and he didn't have it... Therefore he still suffers, can not breathe and because of it can't treat teeth which hurt to him. He can't sleep, can't eat. All he can do, it  suffer from the pain.

Vova volunteers in an orphanage 

About half the year ago the state worker that works with orphans, had to help Vova with it. We spoke and reminded many times. But everything is ineffectual. Time goes but the guy suffers... Therefore BOM decided to take an initiative and to help him. We prayed and the Lord met the need! We found the doctor that agreed to do a surgery for Vova. And the next, during a one day Vova made all necessary tests, was examined by doctors and made everything that was necessary for him during a one day. And in the same day he was put in hospital! Wow! Honestly, we  absolutely didn't expect that so everything very quickly will occur. Even some people (the state workers in work with orphans) were surprised that staff of BOM made everything during one day. Undoubtedly, in it the God's hand is visible!
Thus, tomorrow in 8.30-9.00 AM morning on the Ukrainian time. Vova will have the surgery.Please, will you pray for him, the surgery will be successful and Holy Spirit give peace in his heart?He is worry much and almost cries.Poor guy...
Tomorrow in the morning we can visit him, the doctor let us know.
But there is a small problem. We have to pay for everything. We explained to the doctor that Vova is the orphan, etc. But the doctor explained that in this hospital department has no meaning, either the orphan, or poor or rich, all have to pay. Thus, we kindly ask you to help this sweet guy with it. God already started to bless and showed His hand.We need to pay $400.We already have $175 for Vova.It necessary $225 more.You can send your gift of love to Vova through the chip-in on the right side of our blog.Thank you so much!
After surgery when Vova will pass small rehabilitation and becomes healthy. We will need to help him with teeth. We don't know how much it will cost. But it isn't expensive, it`s exactly.For example BOM paid around $30.00 to treat 5-6 teeth to one of our guys before.But for Vova we do not know yet.
                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Also we ask you to pray concerning Vova's registration. It`s one more big trouble this guy has!
The state worker that works with orphans, promised to us that will register Vova and everything will be good. We were glad. BOM helped Vova will get trade school, where he studies now. Every month he got a stipend. But this month he didn't receive. We were shocked that Vova didn't get a stipend, because he still not registrated! It was a miracle that Vova without having a registration, got a stipend before. That person, who had and is his duty, absolutely made nothing!It made us unhappy! Besides this, the  person also threatened him, that Vova remains on the street, if speaks much. We spoke with the director of trade school, where Vova studies, concerning a stipend. That they would resolve somehow this issue. 
It make us unhappy and upset.It screaming of soul! That government workers, who should to do their work with orphans. They do absolutely nothing! So, so sad...It breaks our hearts...
We ask you to pray that Vova would have a registration and God stood up for him.That God protect orphans and give a fear to government workers with regard to the orphaned children.Thank you!