And it's not just the All Blacks, New Zealand as a whole benefits, to be honest.

My nomination for quote of the year.

Oh, no. Does this mean I'm going to start being interested in rugby?

robyn, please lower your shields, and prepare to be assimilated.

:)

Or do they just scout around the public schools?

> robyn, please lower your shields, and prepare
> to be assimilated.

best. pickup. line.?

Righto, as you were ... blog away you rugby heads! : )

Che is the Borg.

Rugby mimics War in that those who serve "our" interests are "us". WWII the promise of Treaty recognition brought forward many Maori to serve "God, Queen, & Country, Awe! Ake ake ...".
These promises were given little?

> robyn, please lower your shields, and prepare
> to be assimilated.

best. pickup. line. ever ;>

Oh no! I feel all funny now!

Joanna, help me! The boys are seducing me with their rugby talk!

Joanna, help me! The boys are seducing me with their rugby talk!

It's okay Robyn, head on back to Hubris and I'll talk about boobs some more...

and I'll talk about boobs some more...

Yeah, boys hate that.

> Rugby mimics War in that ... PI Rugby Player
> like Maori soldiers only have an honoury white
> status in NZ.

but yeah, that too :((

One other apsect of course is the nubmer of ex All Blacks who are now coaching overseas. There's at least two at this World Cup, quite possibly more, not to mention all those ex ABs coaching?

One other apsect of course is the nubmer of ex All Blacks who are now coaching overseas

All good illustrations of market forces in rugby and the fact that NZ does a great line in the global rugby export (and knowledge) economy.

But does anyone else think its a bit?

Samoans, Tongans, Fijians etc do not exist in?

It looks like we need a new lock over in France. I reckon we should send Flavell, Filipo and Rawlinson, and ask the NH rugby folk to choose the proper Kiwi for us. What's the betting they pick the import?

If I was a NH rugby person, that's exactly what?

Hee hee that rules. Well done.

Just one nit-picking quibble--I don't think you really mean "homogeneous." That means "made up of identical components." I think maybe you?

That make 3 for the All Blacks, 2 for Sth Africa, & nil for Australia.

Please correct my numbers I plucked them from god?

Just one nit-picking quibble--I don't think you really mean "homogeneous." That means "made up of identical components." I think maybe you mean "indigenous"?"

I dunno that you can even pick this nit really. 'Indigenous' usually refers to people who are the original inhabitants eg. Maori in NZ and for instance?

born somewhere means nothing.

i was born in sydney, for example. i had extreme trouble convincing australians i was anything other than a new zealander.

i had extreme trouble convincing australians i was anything other than a new zealander.

You should've had a criminal record, then they'd believe you.

And hooray for Mike's first post!

Merc: the NZ Maori have never been a test playing team.?

Google tells me it was in 2000: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/world_cup_2000/group_4/1006739.stm

(that's not an erotic fantasy, by the way).

Trust me it's not just Stephen Jones, all four major national papers have been at it.?

Great photos of French rugby players.

Check out http://www.rouvre.com/main.php?lang=en and go to the exhibition called "broken faces".

It's really worth a minute or two.

Marcus

By the way the new Dropkicks podcast is up.

Out of curiosity, I subscribed in iTunes, and listened to about half of the latest podcast on my walk to work this morning.

I rather like it. It's not muntery and doesn't rely on the listener having encylopedic rugby knowledge to?

(I feel like I'm being initiated into a cult.)

You are.

Gathers in groups at night around flickering fires /screens....stange language of its own....

Just watch for the pamphlets and the funny underwear....

I like it.

But we're not a cult. Most of the time.

But we're not a cult. Most of the time.

No, you're a bunch of cults.

Boom boom!

(I feel like I'm being initiated into a cult.)

Great Robyn. You?re well on your way. Now a few points about the breakdown, (forgive me if this is old hat ) The tackle situation is the most obvious example of this. If the ball is on the ground it is?

No doubt you are already excited by the potential of the new Stellenbosch rules that may come in 2008 in which hands may not be allowed in the ruck and we will be able to revert to actual ?rucking? again.

This sounds obscene. I think I will have to have?

And it's really nicely edited, if I do say so.

why, thank you.

Didn't Tonga do well! No Honiss there obviously.

Anyone out there able to tap the Paddys on the shoulder and get them to?

(I feel like I'm being initiated into a cult.)

So you're saying the subliminal messages are just a little too loud?

We'll get the indoctrination engineers right on that.

all hail Xenu

I dunno that you can even pick this nit really. 'Indigenous' usually refers to people who are the original inhabitants eg. Maori in NZ and for instance Zulu in South Africa. I think the Dropkicks have gone for a less loaded word.

i'll give you an inch, but that's all.?

Apparently the Celts determined you by where the womb of your womb is buried...

sweet that would have me at ?Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipuka-kapimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuaakitanarahu? then.

Jim, "niggardly" should get you fired.

Michael, you're not serious, I hope.

Jim, niggardly should get you fired. I like your search for identity but it requires a wider acknowledgement than you're giving it.

michael--ok, i give up. i have no idea what you're talking about....

The most important thing...well, one of hte most imporant things...look, a kind of significant thing... to remember about the game of rugby is this: it's all about cheating and – this is the important bit – getting away with it.

The founding?

Dad would know what to do.

Too right. Damn good clip 'round the ear. Tolja once, tolja a hundred times!

Jim I enjoyed your exploration of identity through language.
I think there is more to it as well.
I take?

If you're in Washington D.C. & throwing around a word like "niggardly" you are out of touch and have no place in power, irrespective of your intended use of the word.

You should also be fired for using words like country, Whakatane, whopper, pollywog, and any other words that have a?

Word meaning cheap used by smart ass racists.
(You can't think of any other word to use? Why not?)
Richard Roper wrote a column in defense of it's use.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=niggardly

Robyn, thx for listening. It should take at least three casts before the programming really kicks in. You'll be quoting the offside rule to beer-gutted blokes at pub in no time.

The rest of you. Carry on.

What would the chances be of 'Dad's Tips' being released in one of those new fangled digital formats, do you reckon?

I would buy that in a heartbeat.

I take it Whisky Galore are proud to support smart ass racists?

Michael: not for the first time, I'm asking you to pull your damn head in. Your comment is completely unwarranted and based on a faulty understanding of the meaning of the word and its derivation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niggardly

Perhaps you?

throwing around a word like "niggardly" you are out of touch and have no place in power

That's exactly what I think about the people who complain it is a racist term. That, and pig ignorant. Apologies to the pigs.

LOL yes. exactly.

What about afghan Hounds then? Brazil nuts?!! Guinea Pigs!?

Or am I on the wrong track?

I enjoy PA & it is you sand pit but I'm right on this one. Niggardly is used by smart ass racists ( so says the Urban dictionary) and I can't compromise on this position.

What might be called common sense, or an understanding of socio-political reality of?

or an understanding of socio-political reality of our world would surely have people realise this word is offensive,

I have little truck with people who would employ falsehood to accuse others of racism.

The word is not offensive, the assertion that it is is just wrong. Maybe in between getting?

Niggardly is used by smart ass racists ( so says the Urban dictionary) and I can't compromise on this position.

It's also used by people who would be gobsmacked to be told it has racist connotations, and are using it for its actual meaning. To call them racist is offensive.?

word that will get u fired...even though it doesn't mean anything offensive

I said niggardly and then i had to apologize...because my boss doesn't have a strong grasp of the english language

Um... so we?

Emma you have demonstrated first class reasoning there, thank you, very clear, intent is crucial to understanding.

Cheers, merc. Though in this case it does feel a bit like fishing with dynamite.

For a couple of years, the most offensive thing you could call anyone at my kids' school was?

When I knew Japanese and my sister didn't, I used to frequently yell "Anata wa chikka tetsu desu!" at her, because it sounded harsh and nasty.

Of course, I was saying "you're a subway", but she didn't need to know that...

[Niggardly is] also used by people who would be gobsmacked to be told it has racist connotations, and are using it for its actual?

About once a week I get told something or get some silly email which snopes.com or google or any half-decent site disproves?

I enjoy PA & it is you sand pit but I'm right on this one. Niggardly is used by smart ass racists ( so says the Urban dictionary) and I can't compromise on this position.

michael, dude! don't want to harsh on your buzz, man, or be mean, but most of?

Well the whiskey will apologise for all the world's ills. Mmmmm.

And, maybe I'm also too innocent, but how is "Rule of Thumb" sexist?

"It's okay to beat your wife as long as you don't use a stick thicker than your thumb" is the general thought behind that saying which is the controversy.

Urban Dictionary is entertaining, but not a good place to look up the meaning of an actual word. Last time I checked, the definitions of the word "Maori"?

Urban Dictionary is entertaining, but not a good place to look up the meaning of an actual word.

I beg to differ – the Wellingtonista had a particularly lively time getting the definitive definition of a snowball vs. a snowjob one time.

"Niggardly" comes from the Old English word "niggard", which means a miser, or a stingy person.

I looked it up in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, and found this:

niggardly is the adverb form of niggard
niggard is a late Middle English word which comes from nigon
nigon is a Middle?

Urban Dictionary is entertaining, but not a good place to look up the meaning of an actual word.

Definitions are reader submitted. There is room for moderation, but it lets you turn your in-jokes with mates into legitimate entries. Nightball, anyone?

Plate setters, setting plates for an English Royal banquet, place the plate against the tip of the thumb while holding the arch of the thumb and first finger against the table edge.

the definitive definition of a snowball vs. a snowjob

You mean the sex ones?

the Wellingtonista had a particularly lively time getting the definitive definition of a snowball vs. a snowjob one time.

That was yet another instance where it was reinforced on me that indeed, I have not seen & heard it all by any means.

Ewww

You mean the sex ones?

We thought that a snowball was a sex thing, and a snowjob was a PR thing (I won't make any comment on the connection between PR and sex). We learnt that both could be both. And unfortunately I had to close the comments on that?

Rob, I think the thread became a little "Friday Arvo".

Robyn, I love the way that the word "niggardly" eventually dissolves into nothing.

Wow, I thought rule of thumb was going to be some kind of dirty measurement thing. You know, like shoe sizes.

As in the length of the imaginary hypotenuse between your index finger and the end of your thumb if you hold them at right angles? Data on the accuracy?

Look how small the pen is.

Robyn, I love the way that the word "niggardly" eventually dissolves into nothing.

I wouldn't be surprised if its origin was some Viking going "Nnnnn!" to express his displeasure at a stoopid pal.

OK, now you've lost me totally, and I've been following this thread closely until now.

It is so Friday afternoon ...

by three whiskies i'm thinking, "probably both"

It would be niggardly of me not to point out, as a rule of thumb, that so many here provide material pertinent to the discussion at hand, as is usually the case.

Indeed. Members of the community are cordially invited to now come up with examples of words whose "wrong"?

And back to the original topic for a second: We now have to put up with our own SH reporters saying we've got imports

Like the All Blacks, the Portugese sport some overseas-born blow-ins.

Back to the snowballing

telling someone they're "a bit hoary".

works on a couple of levels.

half the problem is that once i wrap these humungous mitts around a tumbler of whisky or two it comes hard to tell if i'm niggardly or curmudgeonly.

I'm predicting that with each measure consumed you become less niggardly and more curmudgeonly.

You may test my hypothesis, but I expect?

I'm predicting that with each measure consumed you become less niggardly and more curmudgeonly.

You may test my hypothesis, but I expect any subsequent report to be peer-reviewed.

We'll keep an eye on him come monday night podcasting, and report back to you there RB.

And Joanna. The guy's 6'5",?

Just as well I'm a lady and have other things to brag about.

Like your delicate embroidery and light-as-air sponges?

Meanwhile I wear size 11 shoes...

Yes Che's hands can be seen here, careful may not be work safe if you work for either a chicken outlet, or a medical facility

Che's site is blocked where I work, for its pornographic content. As hard as I try though, I can't seem to get Hubris blocked.

You don't get this stuff from Wynne Gray.

Che's site is blocked where I work, for its pornographic content.

Actually, if you squint your eyes, that whole duck pictorial kind of looks like porn.

Not that I am suggesting anyone do so. That would be weird.

Like your delicate embroidery and light-as-air sponges?

Meanwhile I wear size 11 shoes...

Crikey! More tea, vicar?

Was it a Mallard you were eating?

I always feel inadequate when there is talk of rules of thumbs involve handspans and shoe size. I mean, if I was a guy, I wouldn't have much to brag about. :(

But since you're not, you would, surely. ;)

Che does not make a hash job of the duck though.

'Course not. He's working with a Global there. Single-piece Japanese stainless steel, and the favoured blade of Anthony Bourdain. Respect.

Indeed. Members of the community are cordially invited to now come up with examples of words whose "wrong" meaning has become generally accepted through sheer currency in the language.
Or, knock off and have a drink.

Or both.

Cheers.

Words, now...

My folks, especially my dad, use the term "coon"?

once from happy to gay. and again from gay to [insert whatever the hell the kids are using it to mean these days].

and, bourdain is a hero of mine. wrote kitchens like kitchens are.

but?

My folks, especially my dad, use the term "coon" to mean basically anyone who looks odd.

Ha! My mum would use 'honky' to mean agitated. Eg "Don't tell your father or he'll get honky about it."

This got me in trouble at school, with one of my friends assuming my?

planning on buying a BIG version of the paring knife tho. yeehaw.

Moore Wilson has really good prices on the Globals. The most useful is the 30cm chef's knife. But I strongly advise you to also buy a water sharpener (same place). It's actually not good to get Globals commercially?

They could? Jesus, I'm really behind the times. I'm off to a very civilised dinner tonight. I may need to throw those terms around, with a bit of a dirty cackle, and see if I can get a rise out of anyone.

That's probably exactly how people end up getting?

Members of the community are cordially invited to now come up with examples of words whose "wrong" meaning has become generally accepted through sheer currency in the language.

"jealous", when they really mean "envious".

Maharey in the House this week talking about "a range of initiatives we have put in place."

No-one just DOES anything thing anymore.....

BTW, what exactly is a snowjob when it's not a whitewash?

Jackie, I'd advise you to either hit urbandictionary.com or this comment for definitions. If you really need to know. I don't want tthis to be like the time when my sister made my dad ask me over dinner?

It is often used to mean something large ("a quantum leap" "a quantum change") when in fact means means the smallest possible thing.

Heard it used today and I laughed out loud at the speaker by accident,?

A word that has been used incorrectly for a long time is "quantum"

It is often used to mean something large ("a quantum leap" "a quantum change") when in fact means means the smallest possible thing.

No, quantum doesn't mean small, it means portion or particle. The use the word?

The American film"Groundhog Day" (based on Canadian Groundhog named "Bill Bailey" with Bill Murray and Andie McDowell seems to have come to mean repeating the same day over and over.

Yeah, but it sort of fills a useful purpose when used in that way. It's not as if it takes?

Also, not convinced that there is such a usage of "mortified", but maybe I've just not come across it.

TV Newsreaders PLEASE TAKE NOTE:

The past tense of the verb "text" is "texted", not "text"; just because the end of it?

Both in New Zealand and in Australia the names of the days, also holiday, and yesterday are given the full sound of -day instead of the standard?

I blame David Benson-Pope.

What he should have said was: "I deny those allegations. And I intend to confront the alligators."

Mark Sainsbury, for example, can't say "how about". It comes out How Rabout. Mike McRoberts on TV3 does the same. I haven't been keeping a list, but you'll?

Dyan,
Good comment, but "adoo"? Do you mean "ado"?

Yes, I do thank you 1310, I had the spelling of ado mixed up with igloo and skidoo (the old Canadian name for snowmobile).

Groundhog Day was indeed a very good movie, but again, it somehow hijacks the True Meaning of?

Dragging the thread back to the original subject here...

I came across this exact question about our Pacific Island-born players on the Guardian blogs last night – They like the Irish in Bordeaux, and they like their wine too

The question was:

Is it true that a fair?

Just seen another word misused, over the South AFrica – England game – at least one report claims England was 'decimated'.

People use this word to mean something like 'badly beaten' but it has a very precise meaning: it means losing one in ten men. So if 1.5 England players?

Anything else is not just hyperbole (and getting back to the sport=war metaphor talked about earlier) it just plain inaccurate.

A slight derail, but it warmed this curmudgeon's heart when the latest series of Doctor Who used "decimate" in its correct form.

And Brian Edwards can bite me if he thinks common usage based on error trumps correctness!

I seriously don't understand this view of language. 'Correctness' in language, as people put it about these days, is pretty much what our grandparents/parents (depending on your age) had beaten into them at school.?

The idea that there's nothing in 'correct English' which doesn't include words which are actually 'common usage based on error' of some earlier spelling, pronounciation. 's' used to be written more like 'f'. I don't see anyone standing up to demand that everyone do that anymore.

I guess some of?

[decimate] has a very precise meaning: it means losing one in ten men

Mmm, up until recently I thought it meant to reduce to a tenth, rather than by a tenth. I prefer my version.

I guess some of us get antsy when the incorrect-but-accepted meaning kills off the real meaning of some very fine words.

I suspect that the battle has been lost with "enormity", and people will now happily use it as a synonym for "magnitude" and not to mean "horror". Tell me?

I seriously don't understand this view of language. 'Correctness' in language, as people put it about these days, is pretty much what our grandparents/parents (depending on your age) had beaten into them at school. It's post WWII Queens English.

Actually, it's "post-WWII Queen's English".

But yes, good poking at that apostrophe.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby/article2461113.ece

Sadly for us no explanation of Simon g?s I, 2 and 3.

Black Gold:
New Zealand has enjoyed a seam of Samoa?s most talented players

Couldn't Fitzy have come up with a better title? (Oh and I'm not implying he's racist just that the title is?

good poking at that apostrophe.

Don't forget the hyphen. ;)

OK, but here's the etymology of some words you used in your post:

Guess originally meant to estimate/appraise, as in value. You've used it as a qualifier to water down what you're about to follow up with, and the meaning you've applied to it is "think".

Kill originally meant "to?

The results are here: Retrospectively Speaking

Fickin heck!

By the way, slightly off topic but distantly related – I noticed that Flight of the Conchords fellows Brent and Jermaine are each lacking the letter "r" in their names.

Er, surely Bret is in fact missing one letter "t"?

Kyle, you have confused etymology which means derivation or the origin of the word itself with original usage , meaning how the word was originally used in its first state – whether that is Latin, Greek, Middle English, Old English, Scandinavian, Polynesian etc.

Umm. Etymology, has three meanings in my?

By the way, slightly off topic but distantly related – I noticed that Flight of the Conchords fellows Brent and Jermaine are each lacking the letter "r" in their names.

Er, surely Bret is in fact missing one letter "t"?

I don't understand,?

It's "past tense", not "passed tense". :)

I was going to say that, but I knew you'd be along soon enough ;-)

I don't understand, on this one, what either of you are saying. (He says, taking care not to split the infinitive).

Bret and Jemaine of Flight of the Conchords both have unusual variant spellings of their Christian names, in that each appears to be missing a letter. If I ever?

to stand in say 1950 (1960, 1970 etc), pointing at 2007 saying "that's wrong", without looking at the couple of thousand years behind you is, I think, short-sighted.

No-one's saying that *all* new, altered usage is "incorrect"; just some. When people say "should of", it's not an example of the?

No-one's saying that *all* new, altered usage is "incorrect"; just some. When people say "should of", it's not an example of the vibrant evolution of the language; it's just a mistake.

And I just like "enormity". It has a flavour.

Perhaps the missing letters explain the extra h in conchord, by way of compensation?

I don't understand, on this one, what either of you are saying. (He says, taking care not to split the infinitive).

Actually, that should be 'what either of you is saying'. Either and neither are singular.

Er, surely Bret is in fact missing one letter "t"?

Damn, you NZers are observant.

It's "past tense", not "passed tense". :)

See? You may not be able to pronouce the letter "r", but dang, you are observant. And good spellers.

Except Brent and Jermaine's parents.

Couldn't Bret be missing an "n"?

Unlikely. Name me a star of either stage or screen who is called Brent.

Couldn't Bret be missing an "n"?

Unlikely. Name me a star of either stage or screen who is called Brent.

Well, duh, that's obviously why he changed it when he got to the States. Ha, not so observant now are we mes amis?

Perhaps the missing letters explain the extra h in conchord, by way of compensation?

Some people claim Bob Dylan added a "g" to the name of the gunslinger John Wesley Hardin to make up for all the 'gs'' he'd dropped in the titles of other songs.

OTOH, Brent mostly consists of?

I believe the Conchords have that extra h to make a musical pun, Beatles-styles.

Members of the community are cordially invited to now come up with examples of words whose "wrong" meaning has become generally accepted through sheer currency in the language.

Bimbo – I seem to remember this meant a silly person, if not specifically a man as late as the 1980s.

Anyone brought up the usurpation of `uninterested' by `disinterested' – makes this old pedant want to go postal...

I also hate that and I don't consider myself that pedantic.

Uninterested: not interested
Disinterested: unbiased

How hard is that to remember? Seriously!

My pet peeve is the increasing use of "orientated"

Perhaps people use orientated because oriented might seem more like Oriented, suggesting something to do with the Orient.

"Invite" employed as a noun.

Well, you won't be receiving an invite to the Nouning Verbs Society's annual ball.

My pet peeve is the increasing use of "orientated", a back derivation from "orientation"

I recently heard an American politician use the "word" "evolutionized", for "evolved"

@ Emma Hart,
re: "either" being singular.
Yeah, you got me.

Well, you won't be receiving an invite to the Nouning Verbs Society's annual ball.

..or from its rival organisation, the Verbing Nouns Association. This year we'll be cocktailing and barneying those Nouning Verbs misguideds.

What on Earth is wrong with ironic?

"two times less"