Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2014 November 15

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November 15

Reds

Australia's Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has recently been aggressively rude to Vladimir Putin. Russian warships were recently seen somewhere out in the Coral Sea way off the coast of Queensland. Obviously wanting to make the connection for its less well-informed readers, one of our tabloid newspapers produced the headline "The Reds are Coming!". It seemed anachronistic to me. The USSR died 20 years ago. Are the modern Russians still called Reds elsewhere in the world? HiLo48 (talk) 04:12, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Not except in the wackier reaches of the tabloid universe and their online counterparts. Is this one of Rupert's papers, by chance? (We Yanks would love to give him back to you... please....?) --Orange Mike | Talk 04:37, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

You betcha. As for that generous offer, no way. He's yours now! HiLo48 (talk) 06:13, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

People still read Murdoch papers?--Jeffro77 (talk) 01:50, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

• You seem to have forgotten, HiLo, Vlad's the head of the KGB. I am surprised you aren't familiar with the "going out of business" scam. "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." μηδείς (talk) 04:39, 15 November 2014 (UTC)
  • Medy, my friend, you've disappointed me. No, Putin was never the head of the KGB, but just an ordinary unremarkable KGB agent with no great achievements (apart from his short undercover spying career in Germany). In the 90s he retired from the service and was a "bodyguard" of the then St. Petersburg mayor or, saying bluntly, has been an errand boy of more powerful bosses. And I think he still is. His astonishing career from nothing is likely a result of many promotions from oligarchic "The Family". They all are no more "red" communists than Henry Ford. --Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 09:58, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Please forgive him. Contrary to his other thoughtful and substantive interventions at the RD, I never take seriously anything Medeis says about Russia because he's too obviously got a Rusyn bone to pick with Mother Russia. But I'm always grateful for a few minutes of The Who. (There's also "Baba O'Riley" from the same concert on YouTube). Contact Basemetal here 10:14, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Wasn't implied. I've just cleared the issue. And as I once said before I can't be offended by Medeis, I frankly sympathise him, he's a good guy.--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 15:32, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

My fault, I thought I remembered he was head of the KGB in East Germany, at least. The comment about my having any hostility toward Russia itself is ignorant, racist, and even worse, simply false. In any case, the issue is no different from asking why an anti-Nazi politician in 1938 might refer to the Germans as the Huns, a term from WWI. Calling Putin Red is an insult, not an ideological description. μηδείς (talk) 19:52, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Would you prefer that the headline writers had said "The Russkies Are Coming"? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:00, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

In answer to User:Orangemike's question above, see "Rupert’s rabid tabloids in full McCarthy mode..." . The only recent mentions of "reds" in the UK press seem to relate to Liverpool FC (and yes, the Murdoch empire is not very welcome here either, see News International phone hacking scandal). Alansplodge (talk) 11:29, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

I wanted to say this. For me "the Reds" are rather associated with sport. I suppose Aussies do not wear red uniforms? *irony* --Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 15:36, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Our national colours are green and gold, sometimes associated with white. The flag is red, white and blue. Is that confusing enough? HiLo48 (talk) 06:16, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

What's confusing is watching the current ODI series between Australia and South Africa, where both countries are wearing green and gold, and both with green predominant. What were the organisers thinking? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 08:36, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

That's nearly as silly as both teams wearing all white. HiLo48 (talk) 09:23, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Please guys if you're gonna start mentioning cricket you'll have to translate. They wear colors in One Day Internationals but both teams wear all white in Test Cricket? Is that it?Contact Basemetal here 09:36, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Yep. But there's Twenty20 as well. They wear colours there too. HiLo48 (talk) 09:54, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Does this statement make sense?

'The Cold War ensured that these contemporary ideas found ground within national states encompassing the global south whilst they struggled to come to terms with the offset of post-colonialism. The various deviations of both Communism and Capitalism that had been entrenched within the third world spawned tensions only to be exacerbated by the worlds two superpowers.' --SolliGwaa (talk) 19:21, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Well I struggled to make sense of it, but I eventually decided that they refers to the national states and that it was the tensions that were exacerbated, not the deviations. I prefer sentences where subordinate clauses refer back to the subject. Dbfirs 20:06, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

It's not too bad - I would suggest the following corrections.

• "gained ground" rather than "found ground".
• "nation states" rather than "national states".
• "Global South" rather than "global south". "Comprising" or "forming" might be better than "encompassing".
• "while" rather than "whilst" ("whilst" is a very old-fashioned word today).
• Pedantry would point out that "they" in the first sentence strictly refers back to "ideas", rather than "states". "Those states" would be the simplest correction, although it's not very elegant.
• "offset" probably isn't the right word, although it's not obvious what the replacement should be. "Consequences"? "Onset"? "Impact"?
• "deviations" isn't strictly wrong, but it implies perversion or abnormality, which I don't think is your intention. "Types" or "instances" or "examples" might be better.
• "Third World" rather than "third world".
• Being pedantic again, "exacerbated" strictly has "deviations", rather than "tensions", as its subject. "tensions, which were [to be] exacerbated" might be better.
• "world's" rather than "worlds".

Tevildo (talk) 20:18, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Couldn't really fully follow the sentence, but I did notice the missing apostrophe in "worlds". Anyway, in a lot of countries it seems that self-seeking autocrats installed cronyistic "control regime" economies (see ISBN 978-0-521-71525-6, chapter 4) which could be dressed up with phoney capitalistic rhetoric or phoney socialistic rhetoric as the occasion demanded... AnonMoos (talk) 20:44, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

True - if that is the OP's intention, something like "peversions" or ""corruptions" would be better than "deviations". "Deviations of captialism" implies "deviations produced by capitalism", rather than "deviations from (the idea of) capitalism". Tevildo (talk) 22:05, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Or just change "of" to "from". InedibleHulk (talk) 05:46, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Pianism

Hello, I am trying to list my interests for my CV, and one of my most recent things is that I'm autodidactically learning to play the piano. I should like to put "playing piano" into one word -- I thought maybe "pianism", but I googled it and it's slightly different in meaning. I googled "pianistry" too, but that doesn't appear to be a word. Does anyone know a word meaning "playing piano"? Thanks, 92.237.191.99 (talk) 20:39, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

You could always just put "piano", but then someone might think you meant listning to it. --65.94.50.4 (talk) 21:00, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

You could switch instruments and put "drumming". Contact Basemetal here 09:53, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Now seriously, I know everyone else has long ago moved past the one word con un drum (oops that's three words), but I wouldn't want you to think that you really have to switch instruments. What matters is that you let your prospective employer believe that. Some may wonder why he (or she) would care if you played the piano, the drums, the marimba or the hurdygurdy, but, if he (or she) is into well-roundedness it seems the drums (or timpani) have that additional slight bit or roundness to them. Unless of course he (or she) is into roundness à la Nell the kitchen wench. Note "Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands? -- Oh, sir, I did not look so low." The English have always had a problem with Belgium, I'm telling you. It's a national psychiatric condition. Of the English I mean. Incidentally are Shakespeare's "Belgia" and "the Netherlands" meant to be synonymous or does he already use the one for the southern part and the other for the northern part of the Low Countries? Does anyone know? Contact Basemetal here 14:01, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Ah, actually nevermind. To remove all misunderstanding I've increased everything to two words, e.g. "reading literature", instead of just "literature", and so I can say "playing piano". Thanks 92.237.191.99 (talk) 21:17, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

You could also perform the same surgery on the non-word "nevermind".  :) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 08:33, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

I have never written a section on 'my interests' on my CV, because a potential employer doesn't want to know what you do in your spare time, but rather what you CAN do when working for him. If, somehow, he does want to know, you will be asked at the interview, anyway. I doubt my hobbies of playing wargames and mountain-biking (usually separately) would impress a future employer from a translation company, for example. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (Chin Wag) 08:46, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Haha, well nevermind should be a word! And, really? Quite often, at least from my experience, employers like to see well-roundedness. (I'm sure that's not a word, but you know what I mean). The more unrelated one's hobbies are to one's job, the better it seems to be. I'm not actually looking for a job at the moment; I recently got one, so I thought I should update my CV now, when I can do it at my leisure. 92.237.191.99 (talk) 21:31, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

I think 'well-roundedness' is a perfectly good word. Contact Basemetal here 21:52, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

And 'Nevermind' is the title of a Nirvana album. So it is a word too. Contact Basemetal here 22:00, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm indebted. However, if 92 was referencing the Nirvana album when he wrote "Ah, actually nevermind" (which I have a nagging suspicion was not the case), it was kind of irrelevant to the rest of what he was saying. And if he was not intending to make any such reference, then the conclusion is left as an exercise for the reader .... -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:11, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Maybe he's listing the album as one of his interests.--Jeffro77 (talk) 01:47, 18 November 2014 (UTC)