HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: chem91@Elroy.UH.EDU ("Bill Harrison (713)-743-2789")
Subject: Re: Help seeking flat in London
Reply-To: chem91@Elroy.UH.EDU
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 14:54:52 GMT

>3.  What are the advantages/disadvantages to using a letting
>    agency such as Runyards?  Are there any specific agencies
                    ^^^^^^^^

Andrew -- imagine the sleaziest street in College Station, and the sleaziest
second hand car dealer/pawn shop in that street. Then you're at the Runyard's
level. They're slumlords... There are probably 2,000,000 dwellings in London;
you'll find a nice(ish) one somewhere, but expect to pay an outrageous rent
(remember "tradition" -- bad or no heating, leaky pipes, squalid kitchen etc. 
costs money, squire...).

Bill

>    to hire or avoid?
>
>Many thanks for any help.
>-- 
>Andrew Chin    Dept. of Math.    Texas A&M U.    College Station, TX 77843
>achin@math.tamu.edu   Probably not TAMU's exact opinions.   (409) 845-0261
>                * Fighting racism is not a special interest *
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\               /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
| Bill Harrison,            \             /       "Be as radical as... |
| University of Houston, TX  >-----------<         reality itself"     |
| CHEM91@JETSON.BITNET      /             \                V. I. Lenin |
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/               \~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.books
From: thorntn@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Duncan Peter G. Thornton)
Subject: Re: Enforced Shakespeare?
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 13:42:58 GMT

In <1992Sep29.212802.4550@epas.toronto.edu> sfysh@epas.utoronto.ca (Stephanie Moskal Fysh) writes:

>It's bonkers because Shakespeare's English is now 375 or so years old.
>Why should we be expecting 14-year-olds to comprehend it?  It's no
>wonder so many people dislike reading, and never go to the theatre.
>Personally, I'd be quite happy to see Shakespeare completely taken out
>of high school curricula, except for advanced (special) classes and -
>perhaps - university-qualification level senior classes.

>Stephanie Fysh
>Dept. of English
>Univ. of Toronto
>(sfysh@epas.utoronto.ca)

Cripes. Don't you think there's been an interesting correlation
between increasing efforts to provide student with texts that
aren't too hard for them and decreasing reading skills?

But even if Shakespeare just was too hard (and I'm not sure 
_Chaucer_ is too hard), it's an argument for using modern
translations of Shakespeare, not removal from the curriculum.

- Duncan

                    
Duncan Thornton          | "Post-modernism is a relic from the recent past
thorntn@ccu.umanitoba.ca | that is already quaint and dated, like toe-socks
  *GKC rules ok*         |          or Marcuse."    - T.S. Casaubon

Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey)
Subject: Re: Is Clinton Wilson?
Organization: sgi
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 92 04:14:29 GMT

In article <1992Oct2.125057.12684@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>, cthorne@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Charles E Thorne) writes:
>
> I don't disagree that these people need health insurance, and 
> that the government probably needs to supply it.  The problem 
> is how to come up with the additional $100 billion per year to 
> pay for it.

Well, it would probably be a start to cut defence spending and 
Agricultural subsidies.     Unfortunately, the way the US
political system is set up, neither of the two main parties
is likely, in the forseeable future, to come up with a 
Presidential candidate who can address either of these issues.

jon.
From: gray@rz-berlin.mpg.de
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Some of my best friends are speculators
Date: 1 Oct 92 17:09:59 +0100
Organization: Rechenzentrum MPG Berlin

Tim Streater asks:

>>>> 4) Why are we unable to break this boom'n'bust cycle when others can?

I reply:

>>>  Because the British Electorate, for a multitude of reasons, refuse to
>>>vote for anyone who points out that a little national belt-tightening
>>>might be in order.

Tim agrees:

>>This I can well believe. They have the same trouble over here. Once they have
>>been told that they can have something for nothing, the punters are loath to
>>give it up. Mebbe Perot can hold their feet to the fire.

And Matthew Huntbach adds:

> The British Electorate has for the past four general elections
> voted in a party whose main platform is belt-tightening. It
> ought to be obvious after this latest crisis that the loony
> right are part of the problem not part of the solution.

  Are you disagreeing with Tim and me?  This is a serious question.

  My whole point (way back in my original post) was that the Torys have
persistantly sold themselves as the party of fiscal rectitude whilst
indulging in conjuring tricks such as living off capital, giving income
tax cuts with one hand but raising the overall tax base with the other,
and devaluing the pound after months of pretending it would never happen.

  No one should be surprised that politicians indulge in hypocracy, but I
am amazed at how often the media concentrates on the day to day details
and not on the self-contradictory overall picture.


Struan
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:13540 talk.religion.misc:17625 soc.culture.europe:8777
From: godfrey@sscvx1.ssc.gov (LAURENCE GODFREY)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,talk.religion.misc,soc.culture.europe
Subject: Re: France, je vous remercie pour l'election d'Anti-Christ
Date: 4 Oct 92 15:44:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: sscvx1.4OCT199209442125
Organization: Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1

In article <1992Oct4.002130.8658@philmtl.philips.ca>, ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Ray Dunn)         writes...
> 
>His counter example, which attempts to equate jurors' unbiased
>deliberations with his bigoted pronouncements, isn't at all comparable.
>Neither were the gratuitous insults against Canadians he responded by
>email - I fully expected him to follow his usual habits and post them, but
>unfortunately you were spared that pleasure.
> 

They were not gratuitous insults against Canadians - I intend to bill you
for them.  If i neglected to post them, here they are again:

I think I said that Canada was the country that gave us "differently-abled"
as a euphemism for disabled, a phrase that is extremely patronising to
those whose feelings it pretends to protect, the country in which the
full stop (period) at the end of a sentence is actually verbalised - 
pronounced "aye".  I said I didn't like Canada at all when I lived there
in 84 - 87 but I think I must have misjudged it, as I cannot believe that
1000 ex-Nazi war criminals could have been wrong in choosing it as their
home.  If you think those are insults, let me tell you that I haven't even
started on the banana-republic government you have over there, the mediocre
scientists, the racisim and hypocrisy, the pathetic attempts of the Canadians
to distinguish themselves from the USA by taking the worst of the British
culture and the worst of the American and attempting to call the resulting
distillate their own culture.  The only saving grace is the existence of
French Canada, whose attempts to divorce itself from the rest of the
country I fully endorse.

Laurence
From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: My wife's gon to the West Indies
Keywords: joke
Date: 2 Oct 92 07:56:16 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

From: roy@willow.ccsf.caltech.edu
>Can anyone think of any more of these? How about Cuba, Durban, Djibouti?

My wife's gone to Italy.
Genoa?
Of course I do, she's my wife.

Hmm, I seem to remember the punch line was a bit funnier than
this, can anyone else recall it better?

Matthew Huntbach
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.celtic
From: zhenggr@vxcrna.cern.ch (ZHENG,guo)
Subject: Re: Getting some intelligent discussion going.
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 11:08:00 GMT

In article <1992Sep26.221705.6259@rdg.dec.com>, cockburn@edieng.enet.dec.com (Craig Cockburn) writes...
> 
>In article <Bv6KMr.45I@dunaad.co.uk>, ah@dunaad.co.uk (Alan Hunter) writes...
>>In article <1992Sep25.204030.3346@news.clarkson.edu>
>>walker@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Graham Walker, 227 West Old Main,268-3847,)
>>writes: 
>>>From article <44887@skye.dcs.ed.ac.uk>, by gsut@dcs.ed.ac.uk
>>(Giles Sutherland): 
>>>> Anyone out interested in a soc.culture.scottish newsgroup, or dare I
>>>> say discussion forum? >> 
>> 
>>>What is wrong with discussing these topics in this news group? 
>> 
>Assume that we were debating the creation of soc.culture.british.
>There were already two groups, soc.culture.europe, and 
>soc.culture.commonwealth.   British subjects were debating in both.
>Would anyone doubt the creation of a soc.culture.british group?
> 
>Is the creation of a scotland group any different?
> 
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Craig Cockburn, Digital Equipment Co. Ltd, Reading, England.     Suas
>  Internet: cockburn@edieng.enet.dec.com                           leis
>  UUCP:..!decwrl!edieng.enet.dec.com!cockburn                      a'
>                                                                   Gha\idhlig!
>  Views here are my own, and are not necessarily those of Digital
From: ian@hpopd.pwd.hp.com (Ian Watson)
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1992 13:23:48 GMT
Subject: Re: Re: Pardon my ignorance and such
Organization: Hewlett-Packard ISG-SBU-PWD, UK.
From: guy@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: My wife's gon to the West Indies
Keywords: joke
Date: 6 Oct 92 18:44:05 GMT
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK

Here are a couple:

	I once went to a cabaret in Malaysia.
	Singapore?
	Yes, bloody awful.

	Then I had a nasty accident in Thailand.
	Bangkok?
	No, but I broke a couple of ribs...

Oh, I've just thought of one more:

	My wife's gone to Switzerland.
	Geneva?
	
	Er... what does "neeve" mean?

(Sorry!)

-- 
Guy Barry | Computer Laboratory     | Centre for Cognitive Science
          | University of Cambridge | University of Edinburgh
          | Guy.Barry@cl.cam.ac.uk  | guy@cogsci.ed.ac.uk
          | +44 (0)223 334757       | +44 (0)31 650 4422
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth)
Subject: Re: Enforced Shakespeare?
Organization: Software Engineering Institute
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 12:40:22 GMT

In article <1992Sep29.212802.4550@epas.toronto.edu> sfysh@epas.utoronto.ca (Stephanie Moskal Fysh) writes:

>It's bonkers because Shakespeare's English is now 375 or so years old.
>Why should we be expecting 14-year-olds to comprehend it?

Because it's good English, and because the minimal effort of comprehension
is far outweighed by the joy of reading it.

From a larger perspective, because culture extends in time as well as
space.  What Shakespeare has to say is just as true today as it was
400 years ago, and we are very fortunate that we can read exactly
what he wrote.  After all, Toronto is about 3750 miles from London.
Does that argue that the inhabitants of the two cities would be better
served by having mutually incomprehensible dialects?  And in any
culture that hopes to survive, communication across time is even more
important than communication across space.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:13283 rec.arts.books:17263
From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Enforced Shakespeare?
Date: 30 Sep 92 17:04:38 GMT
Article-I.D.: netcom.1992Sep30.170438.29625
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)

In article <1992Sep30.122808.5256@epas.toronto.edu> sfysh@epas.utoronto.ca (Stephanie Moskal Fysh) writes:
>After 4-5 years of Shakespeare in high school I'd have expected my
>19-20 year old first year Honours English students to comprehend it
>too.  Many of them didn't.

	If I'm reading Ms. Fysh's misplaced modifier as I believe it was
intended, she laments the fact that her honours students did not already
understand what she was there to teach them.  In previous postings, she 
blamed this lack of understanding on the age ("375 years") of Shakespeare's
language.

	The difficulties of Shakespeare's language for students who have 
read little should not be underestimated.  Shakespeare's vocabulary is, of
course, large, and much of it is obsolete (in the dictionary sense, I hasten
to add); more than that, his syntax is, to these same students' sense, 
terribly, needlessly convoluted.

	Which is why they need to be taught Shakespeare.  Not because he is
"God of the English Department" but because he is a writer of rare, perhaps
unsurpassed excellence and because the work students put into understanding
him will be rewarded in at least two important ways:  first, the analytical
skills required to construe even moderately difficult passages in 
Shakespeare will serve them well in all other reading; second, in coming to
terms with the interplay of dramatic and poetic elements in the plays and
poems, they will learn standards of complexity that will similarly improve 
their reading.  In short, Shakespeare can serve as an occasion for 
instilling the fundamentals of reading literature.

	This is no simple task for the teacher of Shakespeare and perhaps 
should not be given to anyone who does not willingly embrace it.
-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
		"The Reptoids eat humans like we eat chickens."
				Alex Alexander
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.books
From: smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Children in Pubs?
Date: 5 Oct 92 10:13:29 GMT
Reply-To: P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Organization: University of Bristol

In article <BvMvJ1.Do0@comp.vuw.ac.nz> Francesco.Ballara@comp.vuw.ac.nz (devitt) writes:
>My mother, my brother (aged 15) and I are going to Britain in January.
>We thought 'pub lunches' might be a cheap and possibly nice way of gaining
>nutrition.
>
>What is the age limit for entering pubs in Britain?
>Can my 15 year old brother go into a pub, when accompanied by his
>mother, in order to eat only?

I believe the magic number is 14, any advances?  (Now I've put in AN
answer, someone will almost certainly put in the RIGHT aswer, if I'm
wrong.)

Further, most pubs which do 'serious' food business will have a
'family' room, or area, into which minors are allowed.  The basic rule
is that kids can't be in an area where alcohol is sold; they can be in
an area where it is consumed.  (I've always wondered about the
psychology of that.  They're allowed to watch, for themselves, the
'fun' which adults have drinking the stuff, but they're not allowed to
be made aware that the grownups have to pay for it.)

-- 
Paul Smee, Computing Service, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UD, UK
 P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk - ..!uunet!uknet!bsmail!p.smee - Tel +44 272 303132
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british

Paul :Amongst such things I'd include power, water, sewage disposal, etc.  I
Paul :don't see any particular reason for government ownership of steel
Paul :works, car companies, coal mines, etc.

I was led to believe that the government maintained steel, coal and
engineering-manufacturing (e.g. car-making) capabilities as an insurance
against war.  Despite potentially being loss-making per se, if the capacities
of such industries fell too low or disappeared, the loss of such capacity and
the skills that go with it would make the nation unable to gear itself up for
war.

This line of thinking may now be out-moded; defence seems to have gone the
same way as the computer industry : no one manufacturer/country can supply all
the solutions, and collaborative efforts are more the norm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ian Watson, HP Pinewood Information Systems Division, England.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: ray@philmtl.philips.ca (Ray Dunn)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Accents (was Re: Abuse a Brit)
Date: 4 Oct 92 16:00:00 GMT
Organization: On the Brew.

In referenced article, dbrooks@penge.osf.org (David Brooks) writes:
>It's probably because you speak English very well, and with a perfect BBC
>accent.  Like most of the Dutch people I have known.

Can't say that matches my experience, and if you look at my site name
you'll see I have considerable experience with Dutch accents!

I think that when people ask are you an 'X', it's got more to do with their
experience than with nuances that you're exhibiting.  

As an example, after several years here, I mistook a particular Australian
accent for a London one.  The next Londoner I met I "accused" of being
Australian of course...
-- 
Ray Dunn at home  |  Beaconsfield,  Quebec,  Canada.
(514) 630 3749    |  ray@philmtl.philips.ca  or  ..uunet!sobeco!philmtl!ray
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker)
Subject: Re: <None>
Reply-To: Hallam@zeus02.desy.de
Organization: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Experiment ZEUS bei HERA
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 16:22:43 GMT

In article <1992Sep28.151432.9078@vax.oxford.ac.uk>, wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
writes:

|>In article <DiFRRB7w165w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca>, yadallee@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca
|>(Dave Shariff Yadallee) writes:
|>> 
|>> What I am against, from a political, national, religious, moral and
|>historical
|>> point of view is that Maastricht is the key to letting the Anti-Christ come
|>to
|>> power.
|>> 
|>Try again Dave. You mean you are against Maastricht because Damien will
|>succeed
|>Jaques Delors? Or are you so unhinged that you consistently contradict
|>yourself, thereby becoming consistently inconsistent as it were?


|>> Religiously and morally,  it is written in the Revelation according to
|>John,
|>> that Rome is going to be the seat of this Empire.  Brussels I do believe
|>will
|>> get lose to Rome, thus completing this prohecy.  I heard the argument that
|>the
|>> USA is scared of this because it would mean a loss of its economical
|>> influence.  WHO CARES ??!!
|>
|>Well if St John had written that Brussels would be the seat of the empire he
|>would never have been put in the bible. As for the USA's economical
|>influence,
|>it's gone in this part of the world.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. St John was a memebr of a Jewish sect who were out to
get rid of the Romans from their patch and decided that in order for that to
work they needed to have a rather more widespread rebelion.

Thus the claim that the anti christ would appear in Rome is more part of general
Xenophobia.


--

Phill Hallam-Baker
From: jas@oasis.icl.co.uk (Jason Morris)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: abuse a brit
Date: 2 Oct 92 16:29:39 GMT
Distribution: soc
Organization: ICL, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 4SN, UK

john.lovett@channel1.com (john lovett) writes:
> 
> AC> Can anyone think of a derogatory term used by other nations (that the
>   > British can understand to be insulted by it), to refer to the British
>   > (or in my case the English)?
> 
> AC> I don't mean things like 'Limey' or (from a Scot) 'Englishman' :-)
> 
> AC>    Alan
> 
> In the U.S., we have the impression that the British, or at least the
> English, feel so superior to every other nation, that any insults
> offered to them would be beneath their notice.
> ---
>  ~ SPEED 1.20 #1132 ~ ****
> --
> Channel 1 (R)   Cambridge, MA

  Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. =8-)

    Jas.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Jason Morris         jas@oasis.icl.co.uk           +44 344 424842 ext 2662 |
|     ICL Computers Ltd, BRA01, Lovelace Rd, Bracknell, Berks, England.      |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|               I do not speak for ICL. I speak for everyone...              |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Celtic History in England
Date: 28 Sep 92 09:21:57 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

From: cla04@seq1.keele.ac.uk (A.T. Fear)
>Just read an interesting new book by N.Higham of Manchester University
>called Rome, Britain, and the Anglo-Saxons which argues that an awful
>lot of Celts stayed in place and were acculturated. Not sure I agree
>with all of it, but it is a stimulating and IMHO worthwhile read.
>Published BTW by Seaby's.

The traditional historical account was that the Anglo-Saxons
did indeed push the Celts away to the extremities. This is
supported by the fact that there are almost no Celtic words in
Old English (I am not talking about words taken at a later date
from Scotland, Ireland or Wales, I am talking about the sort of
vocabulary you might expect to see if the language of around
the year 1000 were derived from a fusion of Celtic and
Anglo-Saxon).

However I have seen suggestions (maybe from the author who Andy
mentions, I forget) that settlements of Welsh-speaking people
remained in England after the Ango-Saxon conquest ("Welsh"
originally being used by the Anglo-Saxons to describe their
Celtic predecessors, who were later pushed into Wales according
to tradition). Arguments for this include references to
"Welshmen" in law books of areas remote from Wales itself - the
suggestion is that these were the Celts who remained in place
rather than people from Wales. It was suggested that they
remained recognised as a distinct group of people right up to
the Norman conquest, though by then they had adopted the
English language.

Matthew Huntbach
From: hg798502@LANCE.ColoState.Edu (Hugh Graham)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Sod
Date: 6 Oct 92 22:16:59 GMT
Organization: Colorado State U. Engineering College


"Springtime is Sod Time"
Turfmaster Sod Farms, Ft. Collins, Colorado.

I also enjoy

"Clean Fill Dirt Wanted"

and we have an estate agent here called Doug Bonk.
He likes putting hig name on large billboards.
BTW, Bonk (UK) = Boink (US)


Hugh
@CSU not 4CSU
--
hg798502@longs.lance.colostate.edu
I am not a free man, I am a number.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:13217 rec.arts.books:17166
From: livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Enforced Shakespeare?
Date: 30 Sep 92 00:45:44 GMT
Organization: sgi

In article <5871@mccuts.uts.mcc.ac.uk>, zzassgl@uts.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Lane) writes:
|> In article <1992Sep29.062354.18381@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> baker@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Andrew Baker) writes:
|> >Why is this bonkers?  It sounds like an excellent idea (although it might
|> >be better to require more than one play).
|> 
|> As the marking of exams is now supposed to take into account the 
|> spelling and grammar used in the answers for subjects such as 
|> physics and chemistry (a GOOD IDEA) AND Shakespeare is to be used 
|> as an example of "good" English would you be marked down if your
|> physics exam answers were expressed using the grammar and spelling 
|> used within the good old bard's plays?  

I guess that cuts e e cummings out of the curriculum as well.

jon.