My gast is really flabbered!

TPS only works for calls made in the UK, and if the company who's phoning you has a) agreed to abide by it and b) can be bothered to read the list. International calls and companies who blatantly ignore it can't be blocked.

SO back to the annoying phone call I had this afternoon (rushed in from the garden, with dirty hands and feet thinking it was one of the DC) and the buggars person rang off just as I got to the phone. NO it wasn't anyone I knew. Probably selling boilers or trying to reclaim some PPI that we never had.

TPS doesn't work either - does anyone know how to get it to work?

(wonder how long that'll last?)

Bog off, AAA...
You're getting beyond a joke now.

Elegran Fri 20-Jun-14 08:13:21
AAA - Would you mind taking this discussion of Zs and Ss away from this thread and into the Pedants' Corner topic? You are hogging the limelight and being exceedingly boring. Everyone else agreed long ago that minute dissection of the finer points of grammar and spelling just impede the flow of the conversation and are better relegated to their own threads.
Hail to thee, Elegran -
+ Self appointed guardian of the traditions established by yourself.
+ Honorary Moderator.
+ Director of free flow discussion. [Were you a Traffic Light before you retired?]
If you feel you MUST vent your spleen, try directing it at the persons who started and continued this side issue, for example:
Ana Tue 17-Jun-14 17:45:18 And what's with all the Zs?
If you are going to act as a Mod, then Mod.
At the moment, as Oscar Wilde said in 'Earnest' ... ''You're creating a false impression.''
A period of quiet introspection, perhaps?

American spelling and grammar sometimes retain archaisms that have gone out of use on this side of the Atlantic. Among these is the use of the -ize suffix. They also use, for example, 'gotten' which survives in British English only in 'forgotten', 'begotten'; I have seen and heard 'oftentimes' in American English, an old-fashioned word which would be regarded as poetic if used by a modern writer or speaker. It's simply a matter of the language diverging when the Founding Fathers crossed the Atlantic and developing in only slightly but mutually comprehensible forms.

Ancient Greek also had four moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive and optative), and three voices (active, middle and passive)

How many posters deal confidently in English with the subjunctive, let alone tackle the antique optative? Let sleeping languages lie.

Well said Elegran and Micelf.

I was simply pointing out, with some amusement, that SOD, while only admitting the z spelling, happily cites two uses of the s spelling, thereby providing precedents for those of us not concerned with showing off our knowledge of Ancient Greek.

Well said Elegran. Disruption and pomposity have no place here.

AAA - Would you mind taking this discussion of Zs and Ss away from this thread and into the Pedants' Corner topic? You are hogging the limelight and being exceedingly boring. Everyone else agreed long ago that minute dissection of the finer points of grammar and spelling just impede the flow of the conversation and are better relegated to their own threads.

Thank you.

grumppa
My understanding of what you are saying is :
1) The SOD and the OED are as one in supporting the supremacy of the Greek -ize, over the French -ise.
2) The SOD claims that the magnificent total of TWO famous authors favoured the -ise form.
Now this is the jump I don't understand - on the basis of this you state :
If it is good enough for them it's good enough for anyone else.
I could understand if you wished to align yourself with a couple of dissenters, but to claim that their perspective is the correct one because they were in such a minute minority is about as logical as subscribing to the possibility of Cold Fusion, or the certainty that MMR causes Autizm.

No idea, AAA - it's all Greek to me...

Ana Thu 19-Jun-14 20:28:49
I think...... we....... heard you the first time, AAA.
Gosh - did I miss the ballot where you were elected spokesperson ?
Or perhaps it's the Royal WE ? ...... .....~~.....~~~~

I make no apology for referring AAA to the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, which specifies the z spelling but then quotes Defoe and Swift using the s spelling. If it is good enough for them it's good enough for anyone else.

rosequartz I am still getting post for DD from the PDSA. It is forwarded from an address they left about 10 years ago and comes to me in spite of the fact that they haven't lived with us for 9 years! She has written to them many times to tell them about the change of address but still it comes!

I think we heard you the first time, AAA. Affected or what?

AAAHappyMan Wed 18-Jun-14 08:42:26
We traditionalists prefer to adhere to the original (Greek) -ize spelling, and not join the trendy, Gadarene with their affected (French) -ise spelling.

Soutra

zzzzzzzzs we have had a lot of those lately as we have bumble bees nesting in our eaves. And DH snoring gently in the armchair of course.

Is it American spellings? They use a lot of "zeds2 where we put S. I had to fiddle my computer on to UK English to stop these dratted z spellings.

That would be quite understandable in the circumstances Ana

Well, I did wonder how to frame my query, as zs looks wrong, and zeds does too - was going to put zzzzzzzs but you'd think I'd fallen asleep...

I read your question re the zzzzzzz s Ana and thought they referrred to a certain tedium even ennui and maybe losing the will to stay awake if not to live......

(Sorry, back on track...)

It was HappyMan's use of 'ill advized' which caught my eye - never come across that before!