"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Due to ....

..re-location beyond the reach of Inspector Knacker there may be an hiatus in proceedings.

May we indulge your patience.

Abnormal service may be resumed.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Presumably this is because Ziz's comment in this morning's Torygraph was in clear breach of the Govt's recently introduced Despondancy Law.

The Grammar Police are also after the Postman because he can only say "an hiatus" if the "h" is silent, which it is not. (Well, not after 90 days it isn't. :)

Anonymous said...

Grr...

Sam_m, if you're going to be a pedant, at least do it correctly.

Monsieur Patel is quite correct in his usage:
"an hiatus".

Try reading Fowler's "Modern English Usage"; the original classic, not the dumbed-down modern version.

Essentially, it's a question of phonetic euphony. The rule is normally:
- "an" before a vowel *sound* (as opposed to letter)
- "an" before an *unstressed* "h"+vowel sound
- otherwise "a".

Hence:
- "an owl"
- "a hatchet"
- "a euphonous sound"
- "an historic occasion"
- "an hiatus"

Whatever happened to the great British tradition of smarmy, superior know-it-alls? (And that's superior pronounced [sju] not [su]. You know, the superior way.)

It's a sad day when a lowly Antipodean is forced to correct the usage of a venerable gentleman from the Mother Country.

Then again, what is Patel's blog if not a voyeuristic commentary on the creeping barbarianisation of Blighty and its people.

Stef said...

of course, none of the above applies if you grew up in London

Stef said...

and that Jeff Randall article is pony

Anonymous said...

@ anonymous 12.18


Clearly my comment was based on euphony and no, I don't accept "an historic.." along with "an hiatus".

Stef's point is that the London Richard III would have been calling for "an 'orse, an 'orse, my kingdom for an 'orse." before he got his throat cut.


You are not "an 'ero in error" in assuming I am either venerable or a gentleman.

You missed further pedantic fun on my contentious spelling of "despondency". Oh dear...

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish