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What sound really drives you up the wall? | Have you heard about The earthquake in Peru?

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#31 (permalink) Tue Aug 21, 2007 22:09 pm A good question?

Ralf wrote:

Jamie (K) wrote:

I just threw out a wild guess, but I think Alex's guess was probably the correct one and that the leaves were probably on the tracks.

Who's Alex? Was it so hard to say Alan was probably right? In case Alan was meant, I find it curious that (in your previous comment) you touched upon a topic pretty close to the British heart after he (Alan) had admitted to deficiencies of British public transport.

What would be the point of saying Alan was "probably" right? Alan was the only one of us not guessing, so OF COURSE he was right! It was so obvious it didn't even require mentioning.

You have to admit that the whole idea of falling leaves shutting down the transit system is quite bizarre, and must certainly be peculiar to the UK. I can't imagine it happening in the US, Canada or Germany, or even in France, where it's usually the unions who shut down the transport system. I don't think it ever happens in Eastern Europe.

Jamie (K)
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#32 (permalink) Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:37 am A good question?

Jamie (K) wrote:

You have to admit that the whole idea of falling leaves shutting down the transit system is quite bizarre, and must certainly be peculiar to the UK. I can't imagine it happening in the US, Canada or Germany, or even in France, where it's usually the unions who shut down the transport system. I don't think it ever happens in Eastern Europe.

You are quite right, the idea of leaves derailing (please excuse this pun, too tempting) the British railway system is rather bizarre. Much as I know, it could well happen in Ireland. In Germany, where I've been living for the last 6 years, the potential irony in this comment poses (apart from inherent problems with irony as such) great diffculties since people are too efficient.

What we can only guess by reading the transcript is that there is irony involved. The irony was quite distinguished in the audio version. It is quite hard to read irony from writing, as discussing this transcript and other topics on this forum show. Ironic remarks that are quite endemic in some places are alien to the nature of other cultural systems.
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#33 (permalink) Wed Aug 22, 2007 14:49 pm A good question?

Ralf wrote:

Btw, how do you pronounce scone? In Ireland people say "skoun", whereas in England i've heard people say "skon".

We don't actually pronounce it very often at all since it isn't something that people typically have in the US. But, it would rhyme with the word 'cornpone' here. Cool

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.

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