The Tony nominated play The Man in the Glass Booth recounts the trial of a man accused of being a Nazi official. It was written by Robert Shaw from his own novel. Shaw, of course, is best known for playing Quint in Jaws
Shaw as in great shape well into his 30s. His fitness was conspicuously feted
in From Russia with Love (1963), when he was 33.
He apparently gave up working out, yielding to flabbiness which was apparent
by the time of Jaws (1975), and died of a heart attack in 1978, age only 51.
George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright, is the only person in history to win a Nobel P{rize for literature and an Academy Award for best screenplay. He died at age 94.
George Bernard Shaw’s wife, Charlotte Payne-Townshend, bequeathed £100,000 (an amount worth millions in today’s USD) for societies and events that would “polish the manners of the Irish”. Shaw’s own estate, much larger than his wife’s, was willed to create a new phonemic alphabet which he hoped would eventually be taught in primary schools, though ultimately most went to museums and charities when the will was broken. He and Charlotte were married for 45 years but never consummated the marriage.
A poster boy for English-language phonetic spelling reform is “ghoti”
which may reasonabley be pronounced “fish”:
gh > as in enough
o > as im women
ti > as in action
I had always heard that George Bernard Shaw created this example
of the phonetic chaos of the language. Just a few minutes ago, however,
I happened upon the folowing which seems to pull the rug out from
under yet another popular misattribution:
(from link):
Actually, according to English rules of pronunciation “ghoti” is pronounced “goaty.”
“gh” at at the beginning of a word is always pronounced has a hard “g” (e.g., ghost) When used at the end of the word, it designates a voiceless velar fricative that has no corresponding letter; the sound disappeared from the language and the spelling remained. The “gh” is a fairly accurate representation of the sound at the time the word entered the written language (as are all spellings, BTW).
“woman” is the only word in the language where the “o” has that sound; it’s a misspelling of “wifmen” that has become entrenched.
“ti” is only prounounced “sh” if followed by “on.” “Ti” is pronounced “tea” without the “-on” added.
Ultimately, “ghoti” as “fish” shows complete ignorance of how the English language is pronounced, concentrating on a few outlying quirks and extrapolating them to be hard and fast rules.
Maybe that should go in another thread.
The fish was an early symbol of Christianity, and now can be seen on the backs of many cars. Flying Spaghetti Monster and Cthulhu variants are also commercially available.
Some astrologers interpret the Jesus fish as relating to the Age of Pices, what with Pices being the astrological sign of the fish.
Pisces-class submersibles are three-person research deep-submergence vehicles designed and built by the now-defunct Hyco International Hydrodynamics of North Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.
Oh really? Well, I am sure glad to know “though” originally was a near rime with “vogue”.
And “designed” (now “de-zynd”) was “de-sig-ned”?
Not to get anyone in a snit or anything, but how about “ghoughpteighbteau”
for “potato”?
Those interested in the game should skip to the end.
No, it was pronounced “thoo,” the representing the velar fricative that has been lost. The closest to the sound is the German “ach.”
No, the word is the past participle form of the word “design.” The original spelling was “desseigne,” from the French “desseing,” an obvious folk etymology using the word “sign.”
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Gh at the beginning of a word: already covered – it’s always pronounced “gh” at the start of a word.
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“ough” from “hiccough” – that’s a unique example, not a rule, and caused by the loss of a velar fricative. Once the sound vanished from the language, several different variations were chosen, but this particular one is an exception.
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pt from ptomane. That’s how its pronounced at the start of a word (or the end). In the middle of a word (e.g., “upto”), both consonants are pronounced.
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“eigh” – usually pronounced as “ay,” as you indicate. Again, this is another case of the loss of the velar fricative. Many words just ignored the letters once the sound was gone.
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bt in debt – That’s at the end of a word. In a medial position, both consonants are usually pronounced (“subterranean”).
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“eau” – yes, pronounced as “oh” That’s how that combination is pronounced in the original French. So it’s really a quirk of French spelling/pronunciation, not English.
So “ghoughpteighbteau,” according to standard English pronunciation, would be pronounced “gougpataybtoe.” It’s pronounced “potato” under the same principle as “Luxury Yacht” is pronounced “Throatwarbler Mangrove” – i.e., totally by fiat and ignoring the principles of English pronunciation.
Back to the game:
In 1994, the New York Rangers defeated the Vancouver Canucks to win the Stanley Cup after a drought of 54 years.
Those interested in the game need do no skipping, nor need
they listen to any yelling in the form of oversized type, nor need
they do any squinting, as in trying to read undersized type.
“Drought” is descended from O.E. drugað, or drugoth, or drugath,
depending on what source you prefer to use as the foundation
of your soapbox. Some would prefer replacing the “u” with a 2nd
“o” and the “gh” with (viz. lost velar fricative) in the process of
“clarifying” stuff for the 99.99% of the population who are an unwashed mass.
Oh, and “designed” is a verb form, I think. If so, it may have had
a slightly different path into the English language than the noun:
The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is one of the most arid places on earth. Many meterologists and geologist believe the desert received no significant rainfall between 1570 and 1971, making it the longest drought ever recorded.
Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet whose Italian exile was dramatized in the movie Il Postino, owned several homes in Chile and all contained many of his large collection of ship figureheads. (Virtual tourof his Santiago house.)
“Santiago” was the Spanish battle cry during the centuries of the Reconquista.
The word means “St. James” in Spanish; St. James is the Patron Saint of Spain.
Recall that one of the most evil characters of the Shakespearian canon is Iago
of Othello. Although I cannot source this, I strongly suspect that the name of
the character was chosen with anti-Spanish animosity in mind. Even if the Iago
of the play was not a Spaniard, his blood enemy, protgonist Othello, a Moor,
must surely be identified with the millenial blood enemy of Spain. Hence the
Iago of the play may be assosciated with the England’s foremost enemy. The play
was written ca. 1603- 15 years (not that long) after the infamous Armada campaign,
and England and Spain were still at war.
The most important of the traditional burial place of the Apostle James, brother of St. John, is Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, one of the most important sites of medieval pilgrimage and still receiving many pilgrims today. Sites along the way are marked with a scallop shell, the emblem of St. James, who is the patron saint of (among many other things) taxidermists and veterinarians (bringing to mind the “either way you get your pet back” joke).
Basil St. John, the mysterious love of glamorous Chicago Trib reporter
Brenda Starr, sports a signature black eyepatch, and cultivates rare
black orchids. He and Brenda did finally got married after a decades-long
romance, but I am having trouble tracking down the date.
St. Mark is the patron saint of lawyers, and his feast, by coincidence, falls in the same week as May 1, proclaimed Law Day by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as a Cold War counterpoint to the militarized Soviet holiday of May Day.
Actor Tommy Lee Jones is a graduate of the elite St. Mark’s private school
in Dallas TX.
Also a Harvard grad Jones played every down on offence as a guard on
the 1968 undefeated football team which tied also undefeated Yale 29-29
in one of the most famous American football games ever.
While an upperclassman at Harvard, Tommy Lee Jones was roommates in Dunster House with Al Gore. (Hope this one hasn’t been used yet.)