In July 1957, just a bit more than 64 years ago, I got on a bus in Central Square, Cambridge and rode off with a bunch of other six-monthers to do basic training at Fort Dix,That New Jersey. When basic training was over, I was sent to Fort Devens, Massachusetts to be trained in communications. This was before computers, cell phones, and other such technological marvels, and communications training consisted of such things as learning to climb telephone poles with gaffs strapped to your ankles so that you could string wire. Our principal form of actual communication was a little handheld wired radio called the PRC 10 or Prick 10, as it was universally known. The Prick 10 was not a telephone. It was a very simple radio. You pressed a button to talk and so long as you held the button down and talked, the person at the other end could listen but could not answer. To facilitate communication, we learned to end each part of a message with the expression “over” which was a shorthand way of saying “I am finished talking and I am taking my finger off the button so you can answer me now and I will listen.” A conversation consisted of a series of statements, each of which was punctuated with “over.” When you were done talking and were going to hang up rather than listen for a response you said “out,” which meant “this is the end of our conversation, do not reply.”
I was 23 at the time and all of this made a considerable
impression on me, so it drives me absolutely bonkers when somebody in a movie
or on television says “over and out.” These are flatly contradictory messages
and no one who sad received communications training in the Army would ever
combine them in this fashion.
But then the Vietnam War happened and because it almost
destroyed the U.S. Army, the generals decided to move to an all volunteer army,
which was much better suited to America’s new status as the leading imperial
power in the world. There were lots of consequences to this transition to an
all volunteer army, but the one that really eats away at me is that almost nobody
anymore seems to understand that it is impossible, absurd, contradictory, not
done, to say “over and out.”
I am sure there are more important things going on in the
world at this moment but this really gets to me so I thought I would say
something about it. Do me a favor. If you ever call me on a Prick 10, please
do not say “over and out.”
20 comments:
I was 6 months old when that bus departed Central Square, so missed the draft and almost all that it entailed (I did have to register, but a friend who was 5-6 months younger did not).
Now that I know the correct use of "Over and out" (i.e., there is none), I have a question about another term; does anyone know when is it correct to say "Roger dodger"?
Wilco.
There’s a nice parody of this in one of the Powell and Pressburger films, where one of the characters repeatedly forgets to say “over”, and has to be reminded by the person they’re talking to, who says “Did you mean to say ‘over’, over?”
It's like an Abbot and Costello routine: The prick's on first, it's over at second, and third is out.
If you google "over and out", you'll see that all the online dictionaries are aware that the two terms are contradictory, so it's not really true that "almost nobody anymore seems to understand", as you claim, that the two terms are not used together.
In the OP title, the "ET" in "CROTCHET" is of course silent.
You are incorrect le terre du mal--- you name no doubt is what misleads you into thinking that the word is french.... but it's not
The final "t" in the english word "crotchet" is sounded.
Listen to the english pronunciation on Google translate. And BTW, the french translation of the english "crotchet" is "noire."
https://translate.google.com/?sl=en&tl=fr&text=crotchet&op=translate
I got the joke, le terreau. ;)
P.S. https://youtu.be/JUY6K_gI8ew?t=219
Michael, ありがとうございます. Some philosophers are not only dense, but lack feeling for intentionality. The die was cast at the mention of the "Prick 10."
Sometimes a dictionary can be useless, especially when used by a dense person; in the case of the following story, three dense judges:
https://jalopnik.com/does-tire-rotation-include-tightening-lug-nuts-michiga-1839270921
Speaking about military training, it seems the Second Resistance in Panjshir province may need the help of U.S. troops & equipment. The problem with that is that the U.S. troops at Kabul's airport have a passive truce (or passive Politik) with the Taliban. If aid is sent to the Second Resistance, the peaceful mission to evacuate Western Allies from Kabul could become one big mess--way bigger than it is right now.
This thread seems to have deteriorated pretty rapidly. I am not clicking the ostensibly funny links.
(D. Zimmerman, understandably enough and probably reading quickly as one sometimes does, took le terreau, I think, to be referring to the final "t" rather than the final "et.")
By the way, my French dictionary gives the meaning of "terreau" as "compost." Unless "le terreau du mal" is an idiomatic expression, I would take "le terreau du mal" to mean something like "the stinky compost pile" or, more colorfully, "the compost of evil" or perhaps, much more loosely, "the pile of s***." But I don't know how le terreau intends his/her pseudonym to be taken.
I think le terreau du mal was referring to “evil soil,” soil in which controversial an provocative ideas flourish.
Here is Sarah Brightman singing about Fleurs du Mal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN5CbmjebPg
If he/she meant "evil soil," it really should be terre de mal, not terreau du mal. B.c terreau is v. specifically "compost" (in my French dictionary), whereas terre, and I don't have to look it up, is a more general noun for land, soil, earth, etc.
Maybe terreau has a sort of idiomatic meaning of "rich soil," which I guess is kind of what compost is. Who knows.
LFC,
There are many acceptable English definitions of "terreau," including "soil" and "potting soil":
French to English
terreau
Translations
• terreau Noun
1. terreau, le ~ (m) (compostterre végétalehumuscouche de terreau)
compost, the ~ Noun
vegetable mould, the ~ Noun
humus, the ~ Noun
garden mould, the ~ Noun
mould, the ~ Noun
soil, the ~ Noun
2. terreau, le ~ (m)
potting soil, the ~ Noun
3. terreau, le ~ (m) (éruptionmoisissureprurigoeczémasycosisvermoulureterre végétalemoisimildiou)
skin eruption, the ~ Noun
4. terreau, le ~ (m) (vermouluremoisissuremoisimildiou)
mould, the ~ Noun
mildew, the ~ Noun
wood rot, the ~ Noun
peat-dust, the ~ Noun
5. terreau, le ~ (m) (terre végétale)
garden soil, the ~ Noun
garden mould, the ~ Noun
garden mold, the ~ Noun
The YouTube link is just a harmless Simpsons bit having to do with "over." I'm not about to defile this comments section with any gutter-minded puns; 't ain't my style...
But I did always like this Sidney Morgenbesser story:
"Morgenbesser is leaving a subway station in New York City and lights up his pipe. A policeman tells him that there is no smoking allowed. Morgenbesser points out that the rules cover smoking in the station, not outside. The officer concedes the point but says 'If I let you do it, I'd have to let everyone do it.' Morgenbesser retorts, with the misunderstood and phonetic double entendre, 'Who do you think you are, Kant?' and finds himself hauled off to the police station. There a colleague has to explain the Categorical Imperative to the officers to secure his release."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Morgenbesser#Anecdotes
1) serves me right, I guess, for using a hard copy somewhat abridged, rather than online or massive hard-copy French dictionary.
2) the Morgenbesser story is amusing.
The potential for the present trajectory of the comments was already present in the original post, to a greater degree than the faint echo discernible here. But perhaps you close readers can resuscitate it.
Is there actual gaslighting concerning Kabul Airport? I say it doesn't matter. If the U.S. wants to stay in Kabul beyond August 31st they're going to have to negotiate and compromise with the Taliban. They're probably going to have to pay for it in hard cash. It would be better to pay the Taliban for each segment of time the U.S. stays there rather than the U.S. paying the Taliban for every person it gets out of Afghanistan--which could be a big mess.
What recently amazed me on the news this past week is that Donald Trump said he took the vaccine and he recommended the vaccine to a crowd of his supporters which booed him. That really was a techtonic shift in his politics. Maybe he believes if his actions are less far right conservative he has a better shot at campaigning in the near future? Embracing the realpolitik of American politics was a smart move on his part--especially since the pandemic is now getting worse.
Post a Comment