Moan, Moan, Moan - 2011

[Anthony Darby]

I recently ordered an Eye-fi card for a camera. Just now I got this email from them:


"Thank you for your recent order. We appreciate your business.

We are at the point now where your order is ready to go, but we just
need to quickly view some sort of proof of address documentation
please.

Please provide us with a copy of any of the following: *Utility Bill
Copy (electricity, gas, water, phone, other personal account that
contains your full name and address details) Or, *Driving License Copy

Please ensure that the details on the documentation that you provide
to us match the details that you initially provided for your actual
delivery address. If this is not the case, please call us, or drop us
a reply email to let us know and we’ll see what we can sort out for
you.

If you’ve asked us to delivery your order to a work address, you can
simply forward us a copy of your business card (if appropriate), or
send us your email address – either will suffice.


I cancelled the order and asked for my money back!

[Lesley Cox]

Good for you Anthony. I think I would have made a comment along the lines of the recent indiscretion made by Tiger Woods' late caddie.

[Anthony Darby]

I ordered the same item from Amazon and saved $40. This was an Australian company. Don't see why I need to send proof of my address. I'd paid for the stuff. I'm hardly like to send the wrong address! They'll learn.

[Gerry Webster]

I'd suspect attempted identity theft,  but then I'm paranoid.

[Paul T]

Could just be that they've had some problems with sending stuff to NZ that never arrived, or they've had people scamming them and saying that things never arrived or that the address they had sent them to was incorrect?  They might have learnt the hard way that they needed some sort of verification?  Asking for proof of address is pretty harsh though, but if they've been bitten often enough maybe they don't have much choice?

Just a possibility anyway?

[Anthony Darby]

I don't think proving an address will stop scams. I've never come across it before and, as I said, I just cancelled the order.

[Lesley Cox]

But, is "draw rings" the common pronunciation?

And, if so, why?

Paddy

Alas, it IS the common pronunciation, just as are libary and Febury. I believe it all started years ago when teachers or the boffins in education decided it didn't matter if children mis-spelt and mis-pronounced; didn't matter if their grammar was appalling so long as people understood it. It is symtematic of many areas within the world today when the lowest common denominator is the accepted standard, instead of striving for something better - and certainly achievable if only we were not all so damned lazy.

One that gets me every time is "one in every six people are treated for measles" or one in 4 children are below the accepted educational standard"... or whatever. When I was in Sydney for the first time, I saw a banner stretched across over a road from the airport. It read "Drive carefully. One in ever 20 pedestrians are injured by a car." I hear it several times a day. Feel free to label me anal if you wish.

You would have got on well with my mother Paddy. Drawring was one of her special hates. When I really wanted to annoy her I said "I'll just go into the drawring room and do my practice."

Edit by Maggi: that noise you hear is the sound made by Lesley's dear  departed Mother whirling in her grave.  

[Martinr]

There are some good Scottish ones: modrun fillums (OK, from The Isles, perhaps) and pew-miss for modern films and pumice come to mind.

Looks aawrite tae me, just guid Scottish dialect

[Darren]

Darren,

Your "lightening" would be quite common here, a habit brought over from Irish where a "guta cúnta", a "helping vowel" is part of the spoken language. Half-past seven would often be heard as "half a past seven".

Anthony's "fillum" is also commonplace; as is farum and the likes.

I suppose variations in pronunciation are to be expected but the drawrings still irritates me. I'll have to live with it, I suppose.

Paddy

I've heard 'fillum' frequently in Irish films and TV shows but never understood the linguistics behind it. Thanks - that is really interesting actually. Language and dialect fascinate me. Where Susan comes from on Walney Island chimney is pronounced 'chimbley' and Walney itself gets an extra 'l' - 'Walnley'. Just dialect of course and I can live with it spoken. Perhaps one day I'll find an expert in Cornish who can tell me what my surname means in it's language of origin rather than it's English meaning.

[Darren]

There are some good Scottish ones: modrun fillums (OK, from The Isles, perhaps) and pew-miss for modern films and pumice come to mind.

Looks aawrite tae me, just guid Scottish dialect

Oddly enough I quite like to see Scottish dialect written like that, contrary to my previous post. 

I just read a novel set in Sunderland where the only attempt to make the working class characters appear working class was to replace every spoken occurrence of 'you' with 'yer'. It nearly ended up in the stove...

[Maggi Young]

Somehow there is a difference between dialect and sloppy speech .... hard to define but I know it when I hear it 

[Darren]

Somehow there is a difference between dialect and sloppy speech .... hard to define but I know it when I hear it 

Well put Maggi - that is it exactly!

[Paul T]

Anthony,

I would have too.  I was just trying to think of a reason why they might have done this.  Sorry.

Edited to fix spelling mistake

[Anthony Darby]

No worries Paul. I was puzzled and a bit annoyed with them. Saved me money in the end. I just wondered if anyone had come across it before? Your reason is as good as any I could think of.

[Anthony Darby]

Somehow there is a difference between dialect and sloppy speech .... hard to define but I know it when I hear it 

Like teachers and pupils in my former place of employment saying "the bell's went"!