Cussing / Rowling / Words / Golden Rule / Golden Syrup /Vanity Faur /CastOr

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

bdclark wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/35733>:

<< When you hear a conversation that is so heavily diluted with
vulgarity and cuss words, the power of those words also becomes
diluted. >>

I read someplace that revered anthropologist Ned Hall wrote that that
was precisely the purpose of all that cussing in the armed forces -
that putting the f-word two or three times per sentence signaled that
everything was normal, while a sentence without the f-word signaled
that this is URGENT.

Montims wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/35741>:

<< I just read the BBC news article saying that JKR had suicidal
thoughts when her first marriage finished, and only her daughter and
the counselling she received put an end to her thoughts of suicide.
She recommends counselling for others in that situation.  >>

I saw that interview 
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7310534.stm>. In it she
said: "The funny thing is, I have never been remotely ashamed of
having been depressed. Never. I think I'm abnormally shameless on that
account because what's to be ashamed of?" 

I think she IS ashamed of having experienced clinical depression,
because she has kept saying she isn't ashamed, through years of
interviews.

<http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/0700-hottype-solomon.htm>

<< Um, I was depressed, um, I'd say - would it be 1994 - I did suffer
a spell of what I was told was clinical depression. I don't know, I
was told it was. Yeah, I was depressed for a while. I'm not ashamed of
that, plenty of people get depressed and I've never suffered from it
again and I got through it. >> 

I'm sure I've read quotes in which she sounded even more defensive
about it than that one, but unfortunately I don't have hours to search
Accio Quote.

bdclark wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/35746>:

<< Someone we're both familiar with reminds us of this power: 'The
fear of a name, only increases the thing for itself' >>

And lack of fear of the name gets you caught by the Taboo and captured
by the DE Ministry (it's hard to distinguish between them at that
point). I keep wondering if the Taboo were already in effect during
Vold War I, and was responsible for so many members of the Order of
the Phoenix (trained by DD not to fear a name) being killed.

I hope not. Despite DD's flaws, I think he's good enough at magic to
have detected the Taboo, and I hate to think he'd throw his followers'
lives away for something that didn't even advance his plans.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/35748>:

<< it's much easier to base your conduct on the way you wish to be
treated than it is to know or assume or guess how the other person
wishes to be treated. >>

But presumably part of how you wish to be treated is that people
interacting with you should make a little bit of effort to find out
how you want to be treated. One hears of intercultural problems, such
as people from a culture in which one shows respect to an elder or an
employer by gazing downward are felt by an American potential employer
to be showing DISrespect by not looking him/her in the eye. 

One may think that a potential employee should take some effort to
find out what the employer wants in order to do it, or one may think
that the employer should take a little effort to find out if the
potential employee really intends to be disrespectful rather than
jumping to a conclusion. Either way, the relationship is less
unpleasant if the people know a little more about what the other
person intends.

There is a similar conflict within our one culture about first-naming.
Letters to advice and etiquette columnists used to be full of people
complaining about receptionists, bank tellers, wait staff, etc,
calling them by their first name instead of Mr, Mrs, Miss, or Ms. I
suspect the other people were just trying to be civil and courteous,
and treat the customers as they themselves wanted to be treated, not
trying to be disrespectful. Now that the employers seem to have made
rules about calling the customers Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, I know women who
feel offended at being called Ms and women who feel offended at being
called other than Ms.

Hillel said: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to others." In
some ways, that has the same problem: it is hateful to the potential
employee to be looked straight in the eye by a subordinate, it is
hateful to this woman I know to be called Ms. In other ways, there are
a lot more things that almost all humans agree are hateful than that
almost all humans agree are desirable, such as secretly being poisoned.

Ali wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/35759>:

<< Doesn't treacle tart require golden syrup, a product generally
unavailable state-side? (Of course, the replacement of corn syrup can
always be made.) >>

Didn't OT begin with discussions of treacle tarts, in which Americans
were told to use 'light molasses' in place of 'golden syrup' and
presented recipies resembling pecan pie or shoo-fly pie?

Goddlefrood wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/35811>:

<< Vanity Fair I read when I was about 14. My brother had it as his
school project, took it with him on a family holiday, couldn't read
it, so I did. I remember it being the longest book I'd read up to that
time, which didn't make it any less enjoyable. I finished it in two
sittings, iirc, liked it a great deal. A superb portrait of
mid-Victorian life, and funny too. >>

Mid-Victorian? I may be terribly confused. My recollection is that
Vanity Fair, by Thackery, is largely about one Becky Sharpe but also
is one of the books with a depiction of the Battle of Waterloo? Early
19th century rather than late 19th century? Bustles far from being
invented yet?

Ali wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/35824>:

<< I have no idea whether it's castor or caster, having seen
both used. >>

Caster, as Lee Storm indicated, is one who or that which casts, while
Castor is a beaver who is a charioteer.