The Ecphorizer

Letters

Issue #23 (July 1983)

Dear Editor:

Re "Strine" by Dyvid Durst (March ECPHORIZER) . ...There was a time when many of us felt a bit embarrassed about the Oz pronunciation particularly because some Brits (our colonial masters) said it was "crude" and "uncultured," and this made us cringe. There is still some slight trace of a raw spot. With the passage of time, however, many of us have grown up and got to like what is a new dialect - for three reasons. One, and principally, is that it says to hell with everyone else as a model. Two, that it has some quite unique and colorful expressions. Three, that it is both courteous and egalitarian, such as with Dyvid's "teng slidy" and "teng smite."

The "author" quoted by Dyvid is Aufferbeck Lauder. It is a real book, but the pseudonym translates as "you have to speak louder"; I doubt if any Murican readers of the article would have guessed that. Then the place in the article called "Useless Loop" was the only phrase which tricked me -- it took me an hour or so to find out that there is a place here called Useless Loop, and it's famous for its salt works.

Of course, in the U.S. South I nearly died of thirst until I learned to ask for a "glaazer waarrtah," but one can't learn fast enough to communicate with the next New York City taxidriver, and it's safer to have the destination written down to hand out.

Chris G. Heyde
Sydney, Australia


[line width="40%"]Dear Editor:

Neal Wilgus's poem, "Up, Up and Away" (June ECPHORIZER) is, I fear, (not) good science. True, meteorites do leave a fiery path as they fall, but their interiors are as cold as outer space, and the outer crust, less than 1/4 inch thick, is cooled to the atmosphere's temperature - or less -- in a very few seconds. A picked up meteorite could not burn one's hand - or any other part of his anatomy!

Paul W. Healy
Walnut Creek, CA

Neal replies:
On the rocks of Cold Science I found grief;
I'm in ruins on Fact's rocky reef...
    But in Science Fiction
    you create your own Friction
when you choose to Suspend Disbelief! 

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Hokus Pokey

Issue #23 (July 1983)


It is claimed that the Board of Councilmen of the city of Canton, Mississippi, once passed the following set of resolutions:

Resolved, by this council, that we build a new jail.
Resolved, that the new jail be built out of the materials of the old jail.
Resolved, that the old jail be used until the new jail is finished. 

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