The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[robbo1874]

Can we please just keep this thread going until the next takeover after Tony X. It's 'been all round the Wrekin' about 500 times! Would be a shame to see it locked when / if the deal gets approved.

[mike]

A friend recently told me that what is sometimes is known as American English is actually traditional English as exported back whenever, it is older than what we Englanders speak/ write. For example we used to use recognize rather than recognise. Not sure how true this is?

There's a strong argument that you're half right but it's a bit more complicated.

The Victorians did alter some spellings to make the language look better in type but those changes didn't get adopted by the americans because they were independant.  That accounts for differences such as the s and z (unionised and unionized for example), z was used previously because it was easier to do.

The other major differences were down to an American general in about 1900 (I think, without looking it up I'm going by my slightly ropey memory) who decided that the language would be easier if it were more phonetic so he created a new dictionary where, amongst other changes, he removed all the silent characters.  Most of his changes were rejected pretty quickly and his dictionary disappeared within a couple of years but losing the u's stuck along with some others.  Other spellings that he changed have hung around as alternatives (nite is one and I'm fairly sure skool was as well).

It is, indeed complicated. A mixture of the Americans retaining old spellings and useages (eg 'gotten', we have retained 'forgotten') that we've changed since they invaded what is now the US, mad and varied spelling used in Elizabethan times and deliberate attempts to rationalise and standardise spelling. We may spell glamour, but we also spell glamorous and glamorise.

I'm with Dave on the use of English. It drives me mad when people say 'prOject and prIvacy'. Don't get me started on the impact of Neighbours and Friends. Until the former, no one ended every sentence as if it was a question and until the latter, no conversations in Birmingham went along the lines of 'I'm, like, 'I'm so not into that' and he's like 'fuck off you're from the Hawkesley not fucking Manhattan', which is like, so uncool.

Guardian reader in every other aspect of life. Metaphorically, that is.

[oldtimernow]

Fucking hell - watermelons are racist now?  Wtf?

I thought of myself as one, green on the outside but red in the middle 

[Dave]

(eg 'gotten', we have retained 'forgotten')

Also survives in certain linguistic flourishes - ill-gotten gains for examples.

[not3bad]

Fucking hell - watermelons are racist now?  Wtf?

I thought of myself as one, green on the outside but red in the middle 

Anti environmentalists call Greens Watermelons in the US - green on the outside but red (stinkin commies) in the middle.

The most obvious racist use of the term I know of recently is by Boris Johnson - Africans and their "watermelon smiles".

[JD]

If you go to the OS then click on the Chinese flag at the top when it loads in Chinese scroll down to a video of Luc Nillis scoring against Chelsea apart from it being an excellent goal and a reminder of what we lost due to his injury I can't understand what it's doing on there.

What a goal that was. I would have loved to have seen more of Nillis it's such a shame he got a career ending injury.

[fredm]

If you go to the OS then click on the Chinese flag at the top when it loads in Chinese scroll down to a video of Luc Nillis scoring against Chelsea apart from it being an excellent goal and a reminder of what we lost due to his injury I can't understand what it's doing on there.

What a goal that was. I would have loved to have seen more of Nillis it's such a shame he got a career ending injury.

Possibly one of the "future defining" moments for the Villa (along with numerous others).  If he had played the full season I often wonder what his full impact on the club would have been, not only his goal scoring but his bringing on the young players at the club.  A really, really cruel moment for him that afternoon at Ipswich.

[SashasGrandad]

Fucking hell - watermelons are racist now?  Wtf?

I thought of myself as one, green on the outside but red in the middle 

I like a nice pair of big melons - or is that sexist?

[brian green]

How times have changed so much for the better.  The Beano, no less, had a masthead with a large cartoon of a black African boy smiling over a large slice of watermelon.  No wonder racism became so marbled through British society when children were being exposed to such racial stereotyping.

[chrisw1]

If you go to the OS then click on the Chinese flag at the top when it loads in Chinese scroll down to a video of Luc Nillis scoring against Chelsea apart from it being an excellent goal and a reminder of what we lost due to his injury I can't understand what it's doing on there.

What a goal that was. I would have loved to have seen more of Nillis it's such a shame he got a career ending injury.

Possibly one of the "future defining" moments for the Villa (along with numerous others).  If he had played the full season I often wonder what his full impact on the club would have been, not only his goal scoring but his bringing on the young players at the club.  A really, really cruel moment for him that afternoon at Ipswich.

Absolutely.  Always wondered what could have been.  Same for Bouma and also if Laursen could have been fit for longer.  The other 'what if' for me is if Collymore could have got his head right.

[JD]

If you go to the OS then click on the Chinese flag at the top when it loads in Chinese scroll down to a video of Luc Nillis scoring against Chelsea apart from it being an excellent goal and a reminder of what we lost due to his injury I can't understand what it's doing on there.

What a goal that was. I would have loved to have seen more of Nillis it's such a shame he got a career ending injury.

Possibly one of the "future defining" moments for the Villa (along with numerous others).  If he had played the full season I often wonder what his full impact on the club would have been, not only his goal scoring but his bringing on the young players at the club.  A really, really cruel moment for him that afternoon at Ipswich.

Absolutely.  Always wondered what could have been.  Same for Bouma and also if Laursen could have been fit for longer.  The other 'what if' for me is if Collymore could have got his head right.

I really think Luc Nillis could have been a big inspiration for Villa. From the brief time i saw him I thought we had signed a very special player. It was a cruel and sad day at Ipswich. 

[The Laughing Policeman]

How times have changed so much for the better.  The Beano, no less, had a masthead with a large cartoon of a black African boy smiling over a large slice of watermelon.  No wonder racism became so marbled through British society when children were being exposed to such racial stereotyping.

When I was a little kid I remember Mom working at a hosiery factory and she'd bring home bits of wool for my sisters to play with and one of the colours was n***** brown. Back then it seemed quite all right to use racial stereotypes to sell stuff, Robertsons jam was another offender.

[Chico Hamilton III]

How times have changed so much for the better.  The Beano, no less, had a masthead with a large cartoon of a black African boy smiling over a large slice of watermelon.  No wonder racism became so marbled through British society when children were being exposed to such racial stereotyping.

When I was a little kid I remember Mom working at a hosiery factory and she'd bring home bits of wool for my sisters to play with and one of the colours was n***** brown. Back then it seemed quite all right to use racial stereotypes to sell stuff, Robertsons jam was another offender.

Mate of mine, from Wicklow, had a dog called N****r in the early 70s. It was allowed to roam the streets all day and at night time my mate used to have to shout the dog to come in. Imagine shouting that word repeatedly these days?

[The Laughing Policeman]

How times have changed so much for the better.  The Beano, no less, had a masthead with a large cartoon of a black African boy smiling over a large slice of watermelon.  No wonder racism became so marbled through British society when children were being exposed to such racial stereotyping.

When I was a little kid I remember Mom working at a hosiery factory and she'd bring home bits of wool for my sisters to play with and one of the colours was n***** brown. Back then it seemed quite all right to use racial stereotypes to sell stuff, Robertsons jam was another offender.

Mate of mine, from Wicklow, had a dog called N****r in the early 70s. It was allowed to roam the streets all day and at night time my mate used to have to shout the dog to come in. Imagine shouting that word repeatedly these days?

Wing Commander Guy Gibson of Dam Busters fame had a black Labrador called by the same name and was portrayed in the film with that name.

[Chris Smith]

How times have changed so much for the better.  The Beano, no less, had a masthead with a large cartoon of a black African boy smiling over a large slice of watermelon.  No wonder racism became so marbled through British society when children were being exposed to such racial stereotyping.

When I was a little kid I remember Mom working at a hosiery factory and she'd bring home bits of wool for my sisters to play with and one of the colours was n***** brown. Back then it seemed quite all right to use racial stereotypes to sell stuff, Robertsons jam was another offender.

I remember a watercolour paint set I had when I was a kid with had the same name for the  black square of paint.

I also remember being on a course from work once, this would have been about 1986, and a Robertsons Golliwog badge sported by one woman causing a big argument. She was told it was offensive by another woman which caused a 50/50 split between those who regarded it as a harmless relic of their childhood and those of us who by then had become more enlightened. Ricky Gervais got this argument spot on with his line about racism not being bad in the 50s.