The ramblings of a slightly disgruntled, but mostly not, bleeding heart liberal academic.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Kickass or kickarse science?
In my last post I referred to "kickass science." My piratical big brother and PiT both asserted it should be "arse" not "ass." So, dear readers, is it kickass...
Now, now Nat. Some of us are blessed with an accent that many in this country swoon over. Not my fault I'm constantly asked to "say something" just so people can revel in my dulcet tones. There are many poseur wannabes in this country. People such as myself and PiT are what they want to be. And we're not poseurs. We just are what we are naturally.
Besides, we know how to speak (and spell) English correctly. :-)
I'm just a victim of my culturally hegemonic upbringing!
And those poseurs need a good kick in the arse from second coming of Noah Webster. These are probably the same dumbasses who'd compliment a Scot on his "English accent"
Seriously though, you really should all use "ass". And it's alumi-num, not -nium. Check the spelling. :)
I dunno, I enjoy the "Americahh, FUCK YEAHHH!" power of "kickass!!!"
"Arse" is kind of like the hesitant, workplace-appropriate version. "I can't be arsed" was thrown around so liberally in my grad department, by students and faculty alike, that I just can't take "arse" seriously as an expletive.
Any attempt enforce rules on the English language, which is intrinsically the mutt of the language poodle stand, makes me rofl. Everything in English had 100000 different spellings because people did it phonetically until a bunch of pretentious whatsits tried to lantinize the entire fucking thing so now Nothing Makes Any Goddamn Sense.
Arlenna, It's all in the tone of voice. It's as easy to use arsehole as a term of affection as it is to start a bar fight using the word. At least in Australia.
Hermitage, The English carefully crafted their language to be as nonsensical as possible, while still making sense to them, in order to keep foreigners in a constant state of confusion. :-)
Americans only spell everything incorrectly now because Mr Webster recognized that he and his countrymen could only handle very simple words. Dumbarse.
I think it's safe to say it's "arse" if you come from Australia and there is no way you would call an Aussie saying it a 'poseur'.....it doesn't sound posh and you'd get your teeth punched down your throat...:-)
Then he'd buy you a beer......and I mean a beer, not a Fosters!!
El Picador: Two reasons. One is that far more erudite bloggers than I are doing a great job of beating up NN. The other is the simple fact that the British, almost without exception*, end up being quite bad at those things they invent or try to pioneer or introduce to the world. Just take a look at history. Or think about sports. Soccer? Cricket? Rugby? England pretty much always sucks at these. It's my prediction that some other journal, most likely in a former British colony, will develop a far better implementation of Web 2.0.
* I do concede the British do have world mastery of being miserable buggers.
Why are Americans and Aussies fighting when there are real live Brits over at Nature Network to mess with?
Well, some of us don't care much anymore about fighting Brits. At least those of us with a head of state not named Elizabeth, and without a Union Jack on our flag.
16 comments:
Definitely kickass.
We had a revolution for a reason.
Besides, writing "arse" makes you read like Madonna sounds when she talks: a poseur wannabe.
Now, now Nat. Some of us are blessed with an accent that many in this country swoon over. Not my fault I'm constantly asked to "say something" just so people can revel in my dulcet tones. There are many poseur wannabes in this country. People such as myself and PiT are what they want to be. And we're not poseurs. We just are what we are naturally.
Besides, we know how to speak (and spell) English correctly. :-)
I'm just a victim of my culturally hegemonic upbringing!
And those poseurs need a good kick in the arse from second coming of Noah Webster. These are probably the same dumbasses who'd compliment a Scot on his "English accent"
Seriously though, you really should all use "ass". And it's alumi-num, not -nium. Check the spelling. :)
But why should we refer to someone's posterior as a donkey?
I dunno, I enjoy the "Americahh, FUCK YEAHHH!" power of "kickass!!!"
"Arse" is kind of like the hesitant, workplace-appropriate version. "I can't be arsed" was thrown around so liberally in my grad department, by students and faculty alike, that I just can't take "arse" seriously as an expletive.
It's arse and aluminium... enough said!
But why should we refer to someone's posterior as a donkey?
I think a better question is why are we referring to these poor donkeys by people's rears? Ponder that! :)
Any attempt enforce rules on the English language, which is intrinsically the mutt of the language poodle stand, makes me rofl. Everything in English had 100000 different spellings because people did it phonetically until a bunch of pretentious whatsits tried to lantinize the entire fucking thing so now Nothing Makes Any Goddamn Sense.
In short, use whichever makes you happy.
Arlenna,
It's all in the tone of voice. It's as easy to use arsehole as a term of affection as it is to start a bar fight using the word. At least in Australia.
Nat,
I do feel bad for the poor donkeys.
Hermitage,
The English carefully crafted their language to be as nonsensical as possible, while still making sense to them, in order to keep foreigners in a constant state of confusion. :-)
It's arse and aluminium... enough said!
Exactly right.
Americans only spell everything incorrectly now because Mr Webster recognized that he and his countrymen could only handle very simple words. Dumbarse.
I think it's safe to say it's "arse" if you come from Australia and there is no way you would call an Aussie saying it a 'poseur'.....it doesn't sound posh and you'd get your teeth punched down your throat...:-)
Then he'd buy you a beer......and I mean a beer, not a Fosters!!
I am confused. Why are Americans and Aussies fighting when there are real live Brits over at Nature Network to mess with?
El Picador:
Two reasons. One is that far more erudite bloggers than I are doing a great job of beating up NN. The other is the simple fact that the British, almost without exception*, end up being quite bad at those things they invent or try to pioneer or introduce to the world. Just take a look at history. Or think about sports. Soccer? Cricket? Rugby? England pretty much always sucks at these. It's my prediction that some other journal, most likely in a former British colony, will develop a far better implementation of Web 2.0.
* I do concede the British do have world mastery of being miserable buggers.
What Odyssey said.
Why are Americans and Aussies fighting when there are real live Brits over at Nature Network to mess with?
Well, some of us don't care much anymore about fighting Brits. At least those of us with a head of state not named Elizabeth, and without a Union Jack on our flag.
KICKASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:)
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