Mirabile dictu
Wonderful to relate, on tonight's edition of Radio 4's Any Questions, Jonathan Dimbleby used the expression"" in his introductory link. In fairness, he did add a parenthetical translation; but still, this was a pure Radio 4 moment. A few weeks ago, I was at a script meeting debating whether the word "geological" could be used in a programme about, well, geology; and there is Jonathan Dimbleby peppering his links with juicy Latinisms. Radio 4 really is the sine qua non of intelligent speech radio.
(Post scriptum: Yes, we decided to include the word "geological" in the end.)
Comments
What a coincidence. In grade school I had a schoolteacher with exactly that same name, Mirabile Dictu. Every day she'd say; "good morning class" and we'd answer back; "good morning Miss Dictu." Then one day, someone responded "Klaatu barada nikto, Klaatu barada nikto Mirabile Dictu." Suddenly to our astonishment like the witch of the west in the Wizard of Oz, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke and nobody ever saw or heard from her again. You see, that was "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
William, what are they other words your colleagues at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ are nervous about including in scripts? I'm relieved they agreed on "geological", though I'd have enjoyed watching you present a geology programme without mentioning it. It's almost a challenge, isn't it?!
Why on earth would the word 'geological' require a script meeting?
Isn't it fantastic to remember that the Sperrins were once as high as the Himalayas, before the ice ages and other erosive actions brought them down to earth?
Times of millions or billions of years is a very difficult concept for most of us humans to comprehend, with our measly life span of under a hundred years.
I certainly hope 'biblical' was totally banned from the prog at the script meting!
Not everyone believes in "geo-logic." Some people believe in deductive logic, some in inductive logic, and some don't believe in any logic at all. Take Wilder-Smith and Andy McIntosh for example. Were they to actually consider that there is a coherency to the universe and that the scientific observations and logic which arise from them would lead them to the inescapable conclusion that the earth is about 4 billion years old, that the universe is about 12 1/2 billion years, and that dinosaurs roamed the earth up to 65 million years ago by for example conceding the geo-logic of radio carbon and radio argon dating, then they would be unable to sell their religion and would finally have to learn a trade useful to society. McIntosh for example might actually have to learn thermodynamics instead of faking it. As for Wilder-Smith, I could see him reading stories to toddlers at libraries during the children's hour. That's what his current scam is closest to already.
alan, that's TV for you! Haven't you noticed that programme makers think we're all so thick we don't know words like geological!
as for the biblical stuff, i dont think that would be making its way into a programme on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ about geology.
Micheal, gesundheit.
Oh where oh where have my postings gone,
Oh where oh where can they be?
The dish may have run away with the spoon but who ran away with my postings?
I think there is a secret anti Gilbert and Sullivan counter culture conspiracy out there which sabotages any references on the internet to any of their operettas. I've noticed it in several places but I never put two and two together and realized the extent of it before. Frightful.
Perhaps one less trip to Portland Oregon and Cleveland Ohio to broadcast on NPR would save ´óÏó´«Ã½ enough money to buy a working file server....and someone who knows how to use it. Come to think of it, wouldn't it be cheaper to just send out for Barbecue spare ribs than to take an entire crew to America as an excuse everytime somone high up gets a yen for some? I think they'll fly them to Heathrow from Memphis or Chicago packed in dry ice. Not cheap but lower than the cost of a road trip for the entire WHYS crew.