In the latest TA summary from Aunt Beeb it says:

"Brian is keen to help with the harvest, but Adam wants to show that 
he’s across it all..."

"Across it all?" I've never heard that before. It's obvious from context 
what it means, but what part of the country is it from?

BTW, the first time I pasted in the quotation, I'd failed to pick it up 
properly and still had a chunk of ebay's latest press release instead... 
now that could have been a TWATBILI and a half!!

-- 
Kimbo xx

www.booksbykimbo.com

On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:18:31 +0100, Kim Andrews 
wrote:

>In the latest TA summary from Aunt Beeb it says:
>
>"Brian is keen to help with the harvest, but Adam wants to show that 
>he’s across it all..."
>
>"Across it all?" I've never heard that before. It's obvious from context 
>what it means, but what part of the country is it from?
>
>BTW, the first time I pasted in the quotation, I'd failed to pick it up 
>properly and still had a chunk of ebay's latest press release instead... 
>now that could have been a TWATBILI and a half!!
Brian was very irritating last night.  And what about the
motorbike/Alan reference.  I hope that his not going to win the St
Stephen's Churchyard stakes before the wedding(s).

Kim Andrews wrote:
> In the latest TA summary from Aunt Beeb it says:
> 
> "Brian is keen to help with the harvest, but Adam wants to show that 
> he’s across it all..."
> 
> "Across it all?" I've never heard that before. It's obvious from context 
> what it means, but what part of the country is it from?
> 


Never heard it before. Maybe it's Borsetshire dialect :-)?


-- 
Marjorie

To reply, replace dontusethisaddress with marje

On 4 Jul, 08:49, badriya  wrote:

> .... what about the
> motorbike/Alan reference.  I hope that his not going to win the St
> Stephen's Churchyard stakes before the wedding(s).

Wofe shouted out "Oh no that american woman's going to hit him!"

On Jul 3, 5:18 pm, Kim Andrews  wrote:
> In the latest TA summary from Aunt Beeb it says:
>
> "Brian is keen to help with the harvest, but Adam wants to show that
> he’s across it all..."
>
> "Across it all?" I've never heard that before. It's obvious from context
> what it means, but what part of the country is it from?

Maybe they've been watching "A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie" on DVD:
[quote]
Fry: Our language, tiger, our language: hundreds of thousands of
available words, trillions of legitimate new ideas, so that I can say
the following sentence and be utterly sure that nobody has ever said
it before in the history of human communication: "Hold the
newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand
my trousers." Perfectly ordinary words, but never before put in that
precise order. A unique child delivered of a unique mother.
[/quote]

Googling "he’s across it all" returns only this OP.

In message 
, 
Ralph B  writes
[]
>Maybe they've been watching "A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie" on DVD:
>[quote]
[]
>it before in the history of human communication: "Hold the
>newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand
>my trousers." Perfectly ordinary words, but never before put in that
[]
That - or, at least the latter part, the former being just about 
conceivable - reminds me of

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

which is something I picked up decades ago - I think it was used a lot 
in discussions of how hard it was/is to enable machines to parse speech 
(especially English). (ISTR "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like 
a banana." came up in the same discussions, but ICBAM.)
-- 
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL(+++)IS-P--Ch+(p)Ar+T[?]H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for thoughts on PCs. **

"Mummy, Mummy, I'm 13 now can I wear a bra?"

"SHUT UP RALPH...."

J. P. Gilliver (John)  wrote:
> Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
> 
> which is something I picked up decades ago

It's a standard example in linguistics to point to the problems a
mathematical or AI model of language semantics would have to solve -
and it even has its own Wikipedia entry which says that Noam Chomsky
came up with it in 1957.

Sebastian

In message , Sebastian Lisken 
 writes
>J. P. Gilliver (John)  wrote:
>> Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
>>
>> which is something I picked up decades ago
>
>It's a standard example in linguistics to point to the problems a
>mathematical or AI model of language semantics would have to solve -
>and it even has its own Wikipedia entry which says that Noam Chomsky
>came up with it in 1957.
>
>Sebastian
>
I continue to be amazed - and impressed - how much knowledge you, as a 
(I presume from your name and posting source) non-native speaker - have 
of all things to do with the English language! (I fear there are 
probably far fewer English people with corresponding opposite-way 
knowledge, though I'm sure there are some.)

(Bielefeld rings a faint bell in my mind; I lived in Dortmund in the 
1960s, then Muelheim/Ruhr, so I think it must be nearby.)
-- 
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL(+++)IS-P--Ch+(p)Ar+T[?]H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for thoughts on PCs. **

"Mummy, Mummy, I'm 13 now can I wear a bra?"

"SHUT UP RALPH...."

J. P. Gilliver (John)  wrote:
> I continue to be amazed - and impressed - how much knowledge you, as a 
> (I presume from your name and posting source) non-native speaker

That's too kind. :-) Actually knowledge of literature is one of my weak
points. It was luck that I knew this one - linguistics was my minor
subject at University (mathematics being the main one). You can hardly
avoid that sentence in linguistics.

> (Bielefeld rings a faint bell in my mind; I lived in Dortmund in the 
> 1960s, then Muelheim/Ruhr, so I think it must be nearby.)

Not far at least - about 115 km from Dortmund, mid-way between there and
Han(n)over. The main thing to stress of course is that Bielefeld exists!
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld_Conspiracy)

Sebastian

On Jul 5, 12:04 pm, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
 wrote:
> "Mummy, Mummy, I'm 13 now can I wear a bra?"
>
> "SHUT UP RALPH...."

What a bizarre insult. But if that's the way you feel, I will.

Ralph B wrote:
> On Jul 5, 12:04 pm, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
>  wrote:
>> "Mummy, Mummy, I'm 13 now can I wear a bra?"
>>
>> "SHUT UP RALPH...."
> 
> What a bizarre insult. But if that's the way you feel, I will.

Please don't.

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> 
> (Bielefeld rings a faint bell in my mind; I lived in Dortmund in the 
> 1960s, then Muelheim/Ruhr, so I think it must be nearby.)

He's the chap who produced the characterless version of Fowler a few 
years back, isn't he?

In message , Sebastian Lisken 
 writes
[]
>> (Bielefeld rings a faint bell in my mind; I lived in Dortmund in the
>> 1960s, then Muelheim/Ruhr, so I think it must be nearby.)
>
>Not far at least - about 115 km from Dortmund, mid-way between there and

Ah, must have had something to do with B. A. O. R. (the British Army Of 
the Rhine), with which my father was associated at the time, so I heard 
it in conversation.

>Han(n)over. The main thing to stress of course is that Bielefeld exists!
>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld_Conspiracy)
[]
Loved it - especially the unfortunate publication date of "Bielefeld 
gibt es doch!"!

The reliance on certain coincidences being preserved reminds me of the 
theory someone once proposed at my place of work about 20 years ago, 
that the head of department and the whistling bog cleaner were actually 
one and the same person; the coincidence that kept that one going was 
that, indeed, no-one could remember ever having seen the two of them 
together ...
-- 
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL(+++)IS-P--Ch+(p)Ar+T[?]H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for thoughts on PCs. **

"Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same." - Oscar Wilde

J. P. Gilliver (John)  wrote:
[Bielefeld]
> Ah, must have had something to do with B. A. O. R. (the British Army Of 
> the Rhine), with which my father was associated at the time, so I heard 
> it in conversation.

Absolutely - BFBS had a studio there and the station has a very strong
transmitter in Bielefeld (103.0 MHz). In Dortmund your frequency would
probably have been 96.5 though. Discovering BFBS near the end of my school
years and BBC radio relayed through BFBS created my special interest in
the language.

Some British army remains in Bielefeld, and the German headquarters of
BFBS are now in the neighbouring town of Herford. A German hospital in
Bielefeld has become one of (apparently) five designated to provide
hospital care to the army community, now that the British Military
Hospitals have been shut down.

Sebastian

In message 
, 
Ralph B  writes
>On Jul 5, 12:04 pm, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
> wrote:
>> "Mummy, Mummy, I'm 13 now can I wear a bra?"
>>
>> "SHUT UP RALPH...."
>
>What a bizarre insult. But if that's the way you feel, I will.

As anotherrat has said, please don't! It's just one from my random .sig 
file ... can't remember where I got it from.
-- 
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL(+++)IS-P--Ch+(p)Ar+T[?]H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for thoughts on PCs. **

the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'evidence'. Professor Edzart Ernst, prudential
magazine, AUTUMN 2006, p. 13.

On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 23:05:40 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
 wrote:

>In message , Sebastian Lisken 
> writes
>[]
>>> (Bielefeld rings a faint bell in my mind; I lived in Dortmund in the
>>> 1960s, then Muelheim/Ruhr, so I think it must be nearby.)
>>
>>Not far at least - about 115 km from Dortmund, mid-way between there and
>
>Ah, must have had something to do with B. A. O. R. (the British Army Of 
>the Rhine), with which my father was associated at the time, so I heard 
>it in conversation.
>
>>Han(n)over. The main thing to stress of course is that Bielefeld exists!
>>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielefeld_Conspiracy)
>[]
>Loved it - especially the unfortunate publication date of "Bielefeld 
>gibt es doch!"!

I know two people from Bielefeld, which I suppose proves that I've
been got at by IHNEN.
>
>The reliance on certain coincidences being preserved reminds me of the 
>theory someone once proposed at my place of work about 20 years ago, 
>that the head of department and the whistling bog cleaner were actually 
>one and the same person; the coincidence that kept that one going was 
>that, indeed, no-one could remember ever having seen the two of them 
>together ...

It is true that I've never seen both of my Bielefelders in a room
together, but they're quite different looking (to my processed eyes,
of course)

-- 
Jo