Seeing as how most of us are in an uproar over social injustices lately, I thought I'd post something of a similar vein.
A little note: I'm not sure what the number 14 means here. It's not her age, and it's not the son's age, and its not the number of children she has. So I'm assuming 14 is the number of years she's been a mother. Trust the Associated Press to fumble up like that.
Anyway, here's the story:
It means she's had a total of 14 kids. See the paragraph below from the article:
So she has 10 at home, the other 4 are presumably grownups now.
Joe said (in response to posts from Nicole & Jeg7777):
I guess after 13 kids, she may have already gone through all the names on the official list!
Here in the southern US, there are 2 thigns I've noticed about girls' & women's names. First, you'll find just as many women named Billie, Bobbie, Johnnie, and Tommie as you will men. (Most women with those names are in the 40+ age group). Second, it is common for a girl or woman's first name to be an old family name, often the mother's or grandmother's maiden name. I went to college and law school with women named Ashton, Ansley, Holland, McLemore (a biggie here in this town )Peyton, Chambers and even Clark. Gender was not always a consideration. Many girls/women have these names as middle names, and will have the same first name as their mothers (and thereby go by their middle nmes to avoid confusion, at least at home). And when I look through the classifieds at birth announcemnets, I see just as many girls named Taylor and Hunter as boys.
My parents thought they could avoid the naming problems by naming my sisters & me Cheryl, Deborah, and Lori. However, the three of us have not been immune to problems of misspelling (i.e. Sheryl, Debra, Laurie) or mispronunciation (my name is pronounced CHE-rill, NOT SHURL, & I don't answer to anyone who mispronounces my name after I've told them how to say it at least twice).
Finally, if such a naming law were passed here, there are many frolks around here (mostly African -Americans, & poor whites) who would probably be jailed for giving their kids names like Quintronius, or LaSharminiqua, or D'Linell or Jesca or (as one of my schoolmates was named) Epluribus Unum (and he was named after his FATHER!). Kids around here are often branded with made-up names (ask the kids' parents what the names mean or what culture they come from -- they can't give an answer), or have common names with unusual spellings, so that the kids are frequently embarrassed throughout their school years. When my father taught here in the local public schools, he frequently came across students who were way too embarrassed to say their names in class, and some of them could not spell their names the same way twice. (And these were mostly junior high-school kids!)
I think this is what the Norway law was intended to prevent; however, I don't see how it could possibly be implemented here. Too many of the local politicians have some of the aformentioned names (our former first lady was named Bobbie -- and that's NOT short for Roberta or anything else). Politicians NEVER (intentionally) pass laws that could put them in jail, RIGHT? :)
Chirping Through the Night, Cricket (whose parents named her Cheryl Marie, b/c parents have to call you by 2 names when they're mad at you!)
Cricket said:
Heh ... I've always felt sorry for those black kids (around NY and NJ it is mostly black kids) who get these bizarre pseudo-African names.
could
Not being to spell your *own* name is pretty darn pathetic, especially by the 6th grade. That's getting into "mark" territory (as in "write your mark").
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
[email] (Jordan S. Bassior) wrote:
There's nothing sadder than doing a closing where the person signing all of the papers makes a mark rather than writes a signature.
rich.
Helen: Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality.
Jake: Jefferson!
Helen: Stalin.
On 14 Nov 1999 23:53:46 GMT, [email] (Jordan S. Bassior) wrote:
Pseudo-African names? How about "Mwanza Druzu"? MSB
Nicole Lee writes:
Maybe "14" was the name of her other child?
I did hear of this case before, and someone explained the rationale for the law, though I can't recall the details now. I think one reason is the protection of children against the capricious names that some parents dream up and which end up causing their children years of suffering at the hands of other children. (Paula Yates springs to mind in this respect, though I can't recall what outlandish names she gave her kids.) I suppose being called "Bridge" isn't necessarily all that bad though, I mean she could have chosen a lot worse, like the fabled case of the boy who was called "Two dogs fucking".
-Shez.
Shez wrote in message ...
14 - what a crap name. "Seven" : now THAT is a name.
One of those poor bastards is called Heavenly Hiraana Tiger Lilly Hutchence.
Anyone else starting to come around to the Scandinavian way of thinking?
Will. (ok, my real name's Joey Joe Joe Biapshibidoo.)
On Tue, 9 Nov 1999 00:19:34 +0000, Shez wrote:
In Germany we have a name law, too and the main issue is not only whether the name is something bad like "asshole" but that the gender of the child must be clear from them name. Naming a girl "John" would be illegal here and I perfectly agree with that. A child's name should not be a way for parents to express their wishes, expectations, feelings or dreams. If someone wants to express himself with a name he can choose an alias for himself. Why doesn't the mother in question name herself Gesher. There is no law that bans using an alias so she could tell everyone to call her Gesher if that's what her dream tells her. Or she can tell her child about the dream when it's old enough and leave it to the child to have people use the name Gesher or the real name. After all, the name in question is just the official tag used to refer to a person. Inofficially you can do whatever you want with names. I had a classmate whose name was Wolfgang but we all called him Willy. Don't ask me why. MSB
On Wed, 10 Nov 1999 01:20:40 GMT, [email] (Matthias Benkmann) wrote:
I'm not certain.
I can see the pluses to it, but IMO it's a (relatively petty) manner of enforcing gender roles. Or more to the point, it's an attack on androgeny. Names like "Robin" go away; and it sort of kills the growth of the name stock (nontraditional names aren't typically gender-identifiable.)
In the end, I guess the teasing that the child would suffer outweigh those concerns, but it still irks me.
Better it be a meaningless identifier...
Let's just number everyone, and kill the confusion. Girls get even numbers, boys get odd.
[email] wrote:
i think it's really stupid. both my first name and surname are feminine (ie my dad and brother have a different surname to me), but of course nobody understood the surname thing (it's *foreign*) and my first name is usually shortened to "alex" so i used to get teased for having a boys' name when i was a kid. however, being *unfeminine* has never bothered me in the slightest and i don't think gender-indentifiable names should be forced on people. it seems to be a way of forming an opinion about someone before you've even met them.
what about transexuals? ;)
In article , [email] wrote:
They get fractions.
Bear wrote:
ROFL! Only on ATD... ;-)
rich.
Jane: You're a twisted little cruller, ain't'cha?
On Wed, 10 Nov 1999 17:27:57 GMT, Bear wrote:
*clap* *clap* You should become a diplomat. You have a 6th sense for compromises. MSB (who has recently psychoanalysed him/herself and now thinks (s)he's a lesbian transsexual but believes God loves him/her anyway)
On Wed, 10 Nov 1999 16:06:36 +0000, "endless, nameless" wrote:
We get inherently meaningless symbols, kinda like that Prince dude.
I got dibs on the infinity sign...
[email] wrote:
Fine then...I get pi :)
Lesley
"Every turkey dies, not every turkey truly lives." - Chef
The troublesome one wrote:
Can I have "e"?
(No, there's nothing inherently unusual about my gender--I'm a regular ol' female, although I do confess that I don't identify much with my fellow gender members beyond that simple fact...)
--J.
In article , [email] wrote:
Is Alex short for Alexandra or something else? Just curious, because Alexandra is the name of my 16 month old niece.
They get square roots, or fractions as others have said:-)
A.J.
[email] wrote:
alexandra, yep.
cool. alexandra #1 is 16 years old and alexandra #2 is 16 months old. and in about a month, alexandra #1 will be 17 years old, and alexandra #2 will be 17 months old. after that it kinda stops working, though. :)
Thats cool, I don't think you or her would keep it that way, you would age 1 year per month, or she'd age 1 month every year, you would have a 50 year old teenager or eventually a 5 year old senior citizen:-).
It's the only name I agreed with my sister on. If she had a boy she would've named it after the father, Alfred, no offense to him, but how many young kids today are named Alfred? A few, perhaps but not many. Thank God for a girl in this case, Alexandra sounds much better than Alfred:-)
The proud uncle, A.J.
[email] wrote:
Besides, just think of all of the possible "Batman" jokes on poor little Alfred. *Shudder* You know, that X chromosome prolly saved that kid's sanity. ;-)
rich.
Jake: The horror, the *horror* ...
In article , [email] wrote:
I'd have to agree. Either that or he'd be teased with Alfred E. Newman(sp?) of Mad magazine fame, as those 2 are the only people named Alfred most people think of. I immediately thought of those two when I met my future brother in-law for the first time, I thought of those again while my sister was pregnant. You're right, that X probably saved years of therapy later on down the line. To paraphrase: "I'm proud she's not the home of a Y chromosome"
He who is now covering his ears because he can now hear little Alexandra screaming because her room is directly above his:-)
You got that right, brother! (Just kidding, I love her to death no matter what),
A.J.
[email] wrote:
I love my nephew to death as well, but I like being 150 miles away... that way, I can't hear him start screaming at 5 AM. ;-)
rich.
Jane: You know, I don't know why people say we have a bad attitude.
Daria: Screw 'em.
In article , [email] wrote:
But how often do you see him? Being right upstairs I can see her whenever they're home. Being 150 miles away you have to plan a visit in advance, being so close we can do it spontaneously. As far as the screaming, it usually doesn't bother me, I'm a very deep sleeper:-) Seriously before she met Alfred, she was going out with a guy named Chris. They had a fight in the kitchen, which was right next to my bedroom, they threw furniture, broke glasses, etc. I slept through it all, so a screaming baby girl isn't likely to wake me, and even if it did, thats what earplugs are for:-)
A.J.
[email] wrote:
when i was about 10 my school took us all on a week-long trip up to york. we were staying in an army barracks, and one night the soldiers started shooting outside, at 4am. i don't know what they were shooting, because i was the only one not to be woken up by the racket.
On Fri, 12 Nov 1999 21:09:42 GMT, [email] wrote:
Hitchcock? MSB
In article ,
Missed that one. never really was a big fan of his films with the exception of "Psycho", the sequels do no justice to the original, "Strangers on a Train" wasn't too bad, either.
A.J.
On Wed, 17 Nov 1999 06:20:46 GMT, [email] wrote:
I saw Psycho for the first time recently. It was so boooooring. And it's not just because it's old-fashioned and not fast paced like today's movies. The Miss Marple movies are old, too, but they're still good today. But Psycho? Gets just a yawn from me. MSB
It's much better in The Bates' video of Billie Jean - they manage to fit the whole plot of Psycho into a 4 minute rock video, along with a great rendition of the Michael Jackson hit.
-Shez.
On Fri, 19 Nov 1999 00:44:50 +0000, Shez wrote:
On that point, I can only agree with you. MSB
Matthias Benkmann said:
This would never work in America: quite aside from the First Amendment issues, we just have too many nationalities here, with new ones constantly arriving. The regulators would go nuts trying to keep up with it. Then we have so many eccentric little splinter faiths and social movements, some of whom have odd naming practices ...
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
Matthias Benkmann wrote:
France also has a name law. Apparently the theory is, schoolkids won't be able to pick on fellow classmates with unusual names, because there *are* no unusual names. Do all European countries have name laws? Austria? Switzerland? I know most South American countries don't, as, like North Americans, parents there often take pride in their children's unusual names.
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
make GEORYN disappear to reply
"'Thin Thighs For Your Man.' But I don't *like* men with thin thighs" --Daria
N.P.:"Nuvole di Vetro"- M a l i b r a n / L a C i t t � s u l L a g o
That would have to be impossible here, and probably struch down as racist when they would tell like Quynh Nu Vu she has to change her name to Katie (gah! we have too many Katies already!) and Ha sounds too much like a laugh we'll have to name him... Mike. So they can fit in with all the other little Dutch kids. Wait...
Dagny
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/
"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot
On 11 Nov 1999 22:40:09 GMT, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from [email] (Dagny Scott), and it said:
A name law? That strikes me as a bit... despotic, or opressive, or whatver. Whatever it is, it seems as pointless as the banning of various articles of clothing. No unusual names will result in less teasing? Like hell. They'll just find another thing to tease about. Much in the same way that if you ban jackets with sports logos, the gangs will just find another "uniform."
I absolutely love the variety of names we have here. It makes life so much more... challenging, when it comes to saying people's names. And I _love_ a verbal challenge. :)
Due to his present occupation, the author doesn't often read messages. If you want him to actually see the reply, please e-mail it to him.
Dagny said:
Wait...
And you, Dagny, would have to be renamed too. Howabout "Sally"? Or "Jane?" Nice, bland names ...
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
[email] (Matthias Benkmann) wrote:
I don't know if this custom is followed in Germany, but what would you think about the practice of J. Harrison Piltdown III naming his eldest son J. Harrison Piltdown IV? Talk about expectations! A naming law could not stop that unless it specifically forbade naming a child after a parent. And I think even German legislators would agree that this would be an unreasonable infringement on personal freedom.
As an American I don't think I have the right to pass moral judgment on a German law, but this one rubs me the wrong way, and all of the justifications I've heard strike me as inadequate. - - Jonathan Sachs Send email to jonathan at dnai dot com. To email me, replace the 'x' with an 'a'.
Matthias Benkmann wrote in message ...
to me it's a civil rights issue. (that's the first time i've ever said that - i guess i really do take a greater interest in trivial stuff)
people should be able to call their kid whatever they want. legislating against undesirable names is crazy.
expectations,
ok, i agree there are better ways for people to express themselves, but by having a set list of acceptable, good old fashioned german names, you're in effect employing a policy of racial assimilation, albeit only a name-related one.
not that i'm implying the legislature's motivation was race-related.
and i don't want to go overboard here, but it reminds me of two things:
a) until the 60's you basically had to be white to be allowed to move to australia, the logic being: even though this generation can't speak english (most immigrants were from western europe) their kids will, and because they're white, australia won't lose its cultural identity.
b) George Orwell's 1984. By restricting vocabulary they rstricted thought.
ok, clearly these two analogies are pretty different from the present issue, but restricting trivial stuff like names is pointless, and it just might lead to restrictions on other less trivial stuff.
oh, and mathias: are you an ossie or wessie? (apologies for spelling mistakes) cos i hear a "democratic socialist" party recently captured 40% of the ossie vote, so what's the deal with that? let's face it, democratic socialist parties don't have too great a track-record in germany.
Will. ... from the land of wide streets and narrow minds.
ossie
I always thought that the Social Democrats were the good guys... a certain undemocratic, supposedy socialist party were the bad guys. But I may be wrong...
Greg Pallis wrote in message ...
to my understanding (and let's face it- it doesn't really matter how a party labels itself), the current incarnation of socialists are not good guys.
as i'm sure mathias could tell you much better than i could, basically, there's a fair bit of unemployment, inequality and east / west conflict in germany at the moment, so the socialists are playing on everyone's insecurities (sound familiar?) and are allegedly, um, well, shall we say ... not very tolerant when it comes to civil rights, race relations, immigrants etc.
not that i'm comparing them to the NAZI Party. they were a sort of Workers' Party i think.
Will.
</lurk>
There are several "socialist" parties in Germany. The "Social Democrats" are the formerly west german center-left party and currently hold power in coalition with the Greens. The Party of Democratic Socialism is from the east, and is made up of the former communist party. These are the bad guys.
I'd say the social democrats have had a pretty good track record of protecting workers rights, the environment, and encouraging things like universal healthcare, the best primary education system in the world, etc. Anyway, I hope this clarifies things...
Jubal
On Thu, 11 Nov 1999 00:10:24 +1030, "Bert Newton" wrote:
The civil rights argument does not apply here. You're not talking about the parents' rights here. A child is not an item of property that the parents can do whatever they want with. It's a civil rights issue that every adult be allowed to name HIM/HERSELF and his/her property whatever he/she wants and in fact there is no law that forbids giving your car any name you want but a kid is not a car. Parents do NOT have the RIGHT to raise their kids, they have the RESPONSIBILITY. That's a difference. They do NOT have the right to raise kids as they please, they do NOT have the right to take decisions for the child as they please. They have to look after the child's well-being first. Personal desires are secondary. Applied to the name issue they have to choose a name that is good (or not bad) for the child. Parents don't name the child because it's their right. They do it only because its their responsibility since the baby can't do it. In fact there are cultures where it's natural to consider the parent-given name temporary. Once the child comes of age, (s)he choses her/his own name. I think that's the way it should be.
German names are nearly extinct in Germany (at least here in the south, I think they are more popular along the northern coasts). If you have a good old-fashioned German name today you could be teased by your classmates. The law is about recognizing the gender, it's not about having a name with German etymological background. That should be obvious from my name. "Matthias" is Hebrew, not German (Hebrew names have always been very popular. Even Hitler's beloved "Eva" had one) The English name Kevin was very popular, too at a time (when the "Home Alone" movies were in theaters, argh!). So this legislation is definitely NOT a policy of racial assimilation, especially if you consider the fact that the name law allows people from foreign (meaning non-western) backgrounds to choose a name from their cultural heritage.
That's France you're talking about, not Germany. They have those restrictions, so if you ever encounter a download page on the Internet that says a zip file is 2Mo in size (happened to me once), that's not a spelling mistake, it's a page done by a Frenchman. "Octet" is the French word for "Byte". Just recently on comp.arch.hobbyist (which is about electronics) someone talked about 64ko and it took me a while till I realized that it was a Frenchman that was talking. "Computer" is called "ordinateur" in French, "walkman" is "balladeur" and so on. It's illegal for scientists to publish their works in English before they have been published in French, product names have to be in French,.... The Germans go the opposite direction. If we invent a new term it's hip (we use that word, too) to do it in English. A good example is the German word for "cellular phone" which is "Handy". So if you ever meet someone who says he's talking on his handy, he's from Germany and means his cell phone. BTW, this new language is called Neudeutsch (new-German) by those who are in favor of this development or Denglisch by those who hate it. Another example for how extreme this development has become is the following example in Neudeutsch: "Was soll der Bullshit! Ich hab diese Software downgeloadet und dann merk ich, das ist alles nur gefaket. Das ist voll uncool." (note that the "un" in "uncool" is a German one so the "u" is pronounced like in "bush") I especially like "gefaket" and "downgeloadet" (some people use a 'd' instead of a 't' at the end and some say "GEdownloadet" instead of "downGEloadet") which are the result of transforming the English verbs "fake" and "download" into German past participles. I do have to mention, though, that the German term "runtergeladen" (runter=down, laden=load, so it's a literal translation) is very popular, too.
ARGH! "Matthias" has TWO 'T's. You quoted the name so there's no excuse for misspelling it (ever heard of cut'n'paste?). BTW, I prefer MSB anyway. And I am wessie, a proud inhabitant of Munich, Bavaria, home of the one and only real Oktoberfest (called Wiesn by locals, where we give 14-year olds liters of beer, only that we say 'a mass' instead of 'one liter' when speaking of beer). I need to mention that I neither drink beer nor own a lederhosen. And my Bavarian is not half as good as my English.
The PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) was formed from the remnants of the SED (the ruling party in the GDR before the reunion). Several GDR-biwigs have high positions in the PDS (most notably Gregor Gysi who was a lawyer who spied on his clients for the Stasi, but he is for abolishing mandatory service in the armed forces so I like him :-) which is often used to discredit the party as a whole but of course most members are just average people from East Germany. They are called communists but of course they don't want to bring back communism/socialism. They are just a far-left party. Because of the high unemployment rate and rather desolate situation in East Germany even now after 10 years of being reunited they are very susceptible to "work for everyone", "high taxes for the rich and social security for the poor" propaganda. Another major reason (maybe the biggest) for the popularity of the PDS in east Germany is of course that it is the only party controlled by East Germans. If they don't want to be run by the west, they have to vote for the PDS. I'm sure that Texans would vote for a communist governor who is from Texas, too, if the only alternative was voting for a New York lawyer. MSB
MSB wrote in message ...
the semantics of right v resposibility are irrelevant to my main point, however;
parents have a RESPONSIBILITY to clothe their kids, but i say they also have a RIGHT to dress them in pretty much whatever clothes they want. the distinction being; one is necessary for the well being of the kid, the other is not. so, yeah, ok parents do have a responsibilty to raise their kids, but that responsibility brings with it, RIGHTS.
as all people have RIGHTS, but kids can't exercise their RIGHTS, i think their parents have a RIGHT to exercise their kids' RIGHTS for them. obviously. right? (i'm actually trying to make a serious point there, i think.)
The RIGHT/ RESPONSIBILTY distinction isn't that important, what is important is that laws generally are made to provide a stable and just society. what annoys me about naming-laws is that there's no real need. as other people have said, kids are still going to be teased. and there's no administrative necessity to it, IMO.
so it just pisses me off that they restrict peoples' freedom for no good reason.
yeah, actually that'd be pretty cool, but, of the current generation of 13 y.o. girls, 95% of them would call themselves either Britanny, Mariah or Shania.
legislation is
ok, i didn't mean to imply that was necessarily the reason behind the legislation, what i'm saying is, i don't like the way it has the potential to do that. it just seems, something as arbitrary as a law saying what names are allowed can easily turn into something equally arbitrary, but not as trivial.
i didn't mean to refer to either, actuallly. i was just pointing out that a needless restriction on freedom is inherently a bad thing.
English. A good
in australia, we call them "mobile phones". and apparently we have the second highest user-rate in the world. not because we're high-tech or anything, it's cos we're just a damn lazy people. we figure, why walk all the way over to the phone to order a pizza, when if we had a "mobile", we could do it from right here, on the couch.
actually, the "apologies for spelling mistakes" was directed at my spelling of "ossie" and "wessie", not your name. but, anyway, sorry for mispelling your name, won't happen again, MBS.
probably right, too.
Will.
and thanks Jubal (note the correct spelling) for clearing up the actual names of the socialist parties.
On Fri, 12 Nov 1999 19:24:04 +1030, "Bert Newton" wrote:
Hey, that would be great. You could just ask a girl for her name and if she says "Britanny", "Mariah" or "Shania" you'll know that she ain't worth talking to. But if she says "Daria" you can propose to her instantly. And finally creating a name-based horoscope would make sense because the name would be related to the personality. MSB
Matthias Benkmann wrote in message news:[email]...
Not necessarily, you can't really go by the name. It's HOW she tells you her name that would make the difference. You can usually tell in less than five minutes of conversation whether you're talking to a Brittany or a Daria, regardless of the name they actually go by. Over the years I've passed on a lot of women for just that reason. There just aren't that many Darias around, and they're usually already married.
In article , [email] (Matthias Benkmann) wrote:
...of the parents (maybe).
i thought he was talking about where the people chooses their own name.
In article ,
That does it. I'm officially changing my name to Daria.
Does pronunciation count? ;) ((Darry-uh)) --Daria<br> http://welcome.to/loonietoon.com<br> a more-than-personal site, includes...<p> http://onlywords.cjb.net<br> Deborah Gibson: Only Words OnlyUpdates: The Only Words Update List!
same in the UK. is "cellular phone" the US word?
which country has highest?
they're, like, the height of fashion over here. one in 3 people has one. i have one, although that wasn't to be fashionable, it was because i kept going out and not telling my parents where i was, and stuff, so they bought me one. i don't use it much, and unlike everyone else i don't take it to school. i don't think mine has the text message function, and if it does i haven't worked out how to use it and i don't care to do so. :) it doesn't have any games on it, and i have left the ring as normal, instead of making it play some silly song every time someone calls me. anyway, mobiles can give you cancer. i'm going to get a headset thingie for mine, so i can use it without the radiation frying my brain.
Mobile phone is a generic term, cellular is a specific technology where the country is divided into transmission "cells". I think most mobile phones are cellular ones these days. I thought people usually referred to their phones as cellphones actually, but then what would I know, I hate phones.
Hey I finally updated my TV pages, <URL: http://www.xerez.demon.co.uk/TVguide.html> it's only taken me two and a half months to get round to it. Number of shows listed has fallen to three in toto, but there's more depth, with revised entries for Daria and Microsoap, which I've finally decided I like. The update page is even sparser, currently just a mention of Dr Who night, and the BBC's brilliant slogan, "Behind the sofa, no-one can hear you scream!"
-Shez.
people i know call them mobiles.. as a fashion accessory i find them abhorrent, but they are very practical. i like phones.
lol.... cool. :)
Now that the night has happened I've been able to grab and add a Cyberman picture to the page. <URL: http://www.xerez.demon.co.uk/TVupdate.html> Weird to look at them now and think how I used to be totally petrified of them -- I really did hide behind the sofa. (Also weird to see how the early cybermen looked rather more like ordinary people with stockings on their heads.) I wonder how it is that it used to be ok for the BBC to frighten children witless at teatimes but these days they have to cut the scary bits out of shows such as Buffy (and indeed don't even show Buffy totally uncut at the Sunday midnight showing!)
I thought it was a nice touch that they had Peter Jones ("The Book") narrating the Doctor Who story.
You know, Daria would have made a good Dr Who assistant.
-Shez.
On Sat, 13 Nov 1999 17:00:01 +0000, "endless, nameless" wrote:
I think that's why we call them "Handy". MSB
think it's finland or denmark. anyway, it's some place in scandinavia where you probably couldn't call your kid "cellphone" if u wanted to. tell me that's not a gross invasion of civil rights.
they used to be over here too, but now cos everyone has one, they're kinda passe.
hogwash, that's like saying phone-lines give people cancer. and second-hand smoke gives people cancer. and drinking pure lard for breakfast is in some way bad for your health. hogwash, i say.
Will.
do phone-lines give people cancer? second hand smoke obviously increases the risk of cancer.. and pure lard probably makes you vomit if nothing else. ;)
MSB (see, I read the post) wrote:
Hey, I could go to Germany and fit in? (In a yclept sense). Well, if I were about 25 years younger, I guess. Any Kevins among the 40+ set?
Peace Kevin
On 13 Nov 1999 01:36:17 GMT, [email] (KTrick45) wrote:
Doubtful. That would be the generation whose parents went to movie theaters to see F�hrer-speeches. MSB
<snip jacked up story>
That is just about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. How can a *name* hurt anyone? I mean if would offend anyone, it would probably be the kid. They woul have *real* problems with me, I go for really exotic and out there names.
cheryl
Nicole Lee writes:
Since my first reply a few minutes ago I actually looked this up, it originally turned up on alt.folklore.urban, though it is apparently a true story. It seems that all Nordic countries have similar naming laws; it's basically a cultural norm for this part of the world. Someone posted a translation of the Finnish one, which reads:
"An infant child must be given a first name, no more than three. Let not be given a boy's name to a girl or vice versa. The first name may not be a patronyme, only as a second or a third name. Also the first name may not be shared with siblings. The name must not conflict with the grammatical standards of the Finnish language nor the Finnish tradition. The name is also regarded illegal if it is unseeming and the child may be expected to suffer from it during some part of his life. A name that does not adhere to these standards can be accepted only if the child has such family, or other ties to a foreign nation, and the first name is according to the standards of that nation, or due to religious reasons."
I am sure there must be many children in the world who wish their parents had been bound by such a law. Incidentally I recall Mitchell Kriegman stating that his reasoning in calling the children in his TV series "Clarissa" and "Ferguson" was that he considered them to be "burden names": basically he felt the characters should suffer for his art.
-Shez.