The Magic Pudding metaphor has become a mainstay of economic discourse in Australia. The idea of an ever-replenishing resource is too tempting a motif to pass up. But how recent is it? Piers Kelly looks back through the annals of Australian political discourse to find its earliest use, and finds some surprising sub-plots.
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Commenting or commentating on the polls
The prime minister doesn’t ‘commentate’ on opinions polls. Or should that be ‘comment’? Piers Kelly investigates the history of these distinct meanings.
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Lingua Franca
Piers Kelly writes: I’m on Lingua Franca this Saturday talking about Fully (sic) and why it’s … fully sick (and reading this post). I’m afraid that under pressure I revert to a monotone, like cornered prey trying to blend in with in with the sound of the circling wasps. For best results, I suggest you [...]
READ MOREDown with detailed programmatic specificity
In case anyone missed it, here’s the HappyLittleVegemiteKR clip that’s been doing the rounds: It seems the Courier Mail was the first to get hold of the story and described it hilariously as a “tax-payer funded video”. (Yeah, Kev, if you want to swear at the camera do it on your own dime.) There’s nothing [...]
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When will Teresa Gambaro assimilate?
Piers Kelly scrìvi: Ridiculing Teresa Gambaro is no fun at all. Her advice to immigrants, first on hygiene and last week on how to avoid racist slurs by learning English, are so elegantly moronic as stand on their own comic merit. It’s as if Gambaro is a kind of dead-pan performance artist, with some pundits doing [...]
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The Talkley Award – a word nerd’s night of nights
Piers Kelly writes: Earlier this month the inaugural Talkley Award was presented to celebrity linguist Kate Burridge at a small ceremony in Canberra. The award acknowledges the contributions of Australian linguists who promote language awareness in the public arena. As well as her appearances on ABC radio and television, Burridge was recognised for her part [...]
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Translating ancient manuscripts via crowdsourcing
Piers Kelly writes: Since the 1990s, scientists have recruited idle home computers to help with data analysis. I remember that our family’s clunky old PC used to run a screensaver that used its spare computing power to analyse the structure of cancer molecules and send the results back to a distant lab. We felt pretty [...]
READ MOREThe Chinese people moisten a female horse
Yesterday a reader wrote: I was just too intrigued by the claim in Rundle’s recent column that “Zhongguo renmin zhan qilai le” could mean “anything from “the Chinese people are infected by skin disease” to “the Chinese people moisten a female horse” — could you get your resident Chinese speaker to type those alternate versions [...]
READ MOREAn archbishop, an imam and a linguist walk into a tax office…
There’s been some recent discussion on a linguist mailing list about how to fill out an eTax form. Specifically, which profession to choose from the drop-down menu. One individual has written: Year after year I am annoyed by the fact that I don’t know what a linguist is to make of the drop-down menu in [...]
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