at9

A few years ago I linked to this excellent high-heeled performance on the piano. It's good enough to repeat on this thread:

Or for a very different genre of music being played in HH:

A least one of the comments in Youtube refers to her high heels. Quite incredible the way she dances over the pedalboard.

Another video of her, in higher heels, with rather different repertoire:

1 hour ago, Pierre1961 said:

The second one is probably the one Darwin would have preferred.

 

I don't think Darwin was a eugenicist. Although his theories have been abused by eugenicists.

I joined in 2006. No idea how I found it. Probably while googling for HH footwear.

I've been to 1, maybe 2, HH meets in London and met a few of the "names", past and present. Including Tech himself.

Ultimately there are combined boots and trousers/pants such as: https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/tamar-mellon

I've seen others in leather throughout (possibly synthetic leather) but can't find the links at the moment..

i think there was a complete "boot suit" in the past made by Atomage. All the way from boots up to the neck. Effectively a cat suit with intgerated boots.

The headline: "Nuts screws washers and bolts" may well be apocryphal.

Writing headlines for tabloid papers is a highly skilled job. Though as Shyheels has found, the "quality" press has its moments too.

1 hour ago, SF said:

Maybe this will help???     sf

http://www.workableweb.com/_pages/tips_how_to_write_good.htm

A warning to any civilians who wandered in: That article is satirical. The title tells you that immediately.

And now for something completely different.

I hate seeing monstrosities like: "She would of gone to the shops". It's a consequence of how you hear: "She would've gone to the shops" but that doesn't make it any less horrible. Unfortunately we may be fighting a losing battle against this one. Language changes through usage.

"For free" seems to have become established. "Free" would be entirely adequate. Alternatively "for nothing".

Compared to French, English, a language with a very rich vocabulary, actually lacks here. We use "free" in two senses: "beer" and "freedom". The French have "gratuit" and "libre" to make the distinction clear.           

"I'm free!" Or at least not too expensive.

Not forgettng Raspberry Pi.

58 minutes ago, Shyheels said:

Some of the things I write on my Apple turn out to be lemons. 

Other fruits are available.

How many fruity brands can you think of? Apricot used to be a maker of computers. Mango are a fashion company. Orange are (in the UK they were, don't know about elsewhere) a mobile phone company.

Long before Apple computers, the Beatles used Apple as a brand for their records.

If you use fruity computers you'll get greengrocers' apostrophes!

You're reminding me of this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Penguins-Stopped-Play-Village-Cricketers/dp/0719563461

If you try walking like that with a stilletto boot on one foot and a loafer on the other it will be very uncomfortable:)

Do it in public and people will, reasonably, think you're crazy:)

The online article is slightly different to the paper version. The paper version has a photo of Johannes Radebe, Rylan Clarke and Kelvin Fletcher (google them, I don't know them either). 2 are wearing 4" or so stiletto boots, the 3rd about 3" block heel boots.

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/jan/03/high-fashion-the-rise-of-heels-for-men

Stealing is an interesting concept when you distinguish between bits and atoms. If you steal atoms (cars, books, wives etc) you deprive the previous owner of their use. If you steal bits this is done by copying (text, music, ideas etc) the original owner still has them. They may be of reduced value but the original owner can still play the music, read the document on a computer etc.

I'm no bible scholar but I don't think the concept of intellectual property is well covered.

I saw that recently too. Not to be confused with allusion or illusion.

As the OP for this thread I'm very happy for it to meander anywhere down the byways of English (Latin and possibly Greek also allowed, where vaguely relevant to English. Lesser tongues also welcome on the same basis).

There is often much wisdom in comedy.

The late great comedian, Dave Allen, always signed off his TV shows: "Goodnight, thank you, and may your God go with you "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Allen_(comedian)

Tom Lehrer (who was Jewish but not practising) wrote the wonderful "Vatican Rag":

The story has had much wider exposure than in The Guardian. There are many examples, but the Daily Mail, whose politics are very different to The Guardian has the story, as does the BBC. There are loads more both in the UK and worldwide.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7776691/In-Mexico-effeminate-Zapata-painting-draws-fury.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-50740323

Work fine here. They aren't clickable, you need to copy and paste them into your browser's address bar.

I really don't know what to make of this one. A portrait of Zapata, the Mexican hero, naked except for sombrero and high heels. It has caused controversy. I know that HH were created for horse riding as they helped feet to stay in the stirrups but these are very different and there are no stirrups in the picture.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/11/emiliano-zapata-nude-painting-mexico

"I seen..." may well be standard in West Country* dialect. Along with "I be..." instead of "I am....". Other parts of the UK may still use "I are..." and "I is...." in their dialect.

*For the benefit of foreigners, the West Country in England is Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset. Cornwall often likes to consider itself a place apart from England.

In the grand scheme of the routes of English, from Beowulf through Chaucer and Shakespeare to the present day our current evolution of the language seems quite modest. Though perhaps it's happening faster now than ever before. In Shakespeare's time, new words were frequently coined and spelling was very variable. Most people can't read Chaucer, let alone Beowulf, without interpretative notes. Even Shakespeare can be tricky though it's largely recognisable. We can still understand most writings from the past 100+ years. Though you need to watch out for words that have changed their meaning, eg "shampoo". This is from Hindi, and originally meant "massage".

There's a nice balance to be struck between a healthy, living, evolving language and good quality writing.

Spoken and written language influence each other. Elision is common in spoken language, some of this finds its way into written text. Hence "would of" and other such monstrosities.  For a language where the writers were at war with the speakers look at Irish Gaelic. I believe that Welsh is phonetic, even if it looks like a serious accident with a Scrabble set.

I once knew a Polish guy whose nickname was "Scrabble", because his name looked like an accident with a Scrabble set.

An incredibly useful online resource is: https://www.etymonline.com/

I believe it's all about the study of insects:-)

It also provides one more use of the letter "W", something very rare in French. ISTR the French Scrabble set allocates 10 points to W.

Mais en France vous avez l'Academie Francaise!

In English we have no such formal  authority over the language. The Academie tries to fight a (usually) losing battle against anlicisms. "Le weekend" is part of normal French.

English borrows, no steals, shamelessly from all quarters and may the best words win. Linguistic purity be damned, English is a mongrel tongue and all the better for it.