The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

In the 1973 movie Sleeper, a heath food store owner is cryogenically preserved for 200 years and wakes up to a world where medical doctors are touting the health benefits of tobacco smoking.

But that's a satirical/comedy movie and it was a joke because in 1973 they knew it was killing people. But maybe that's your point!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You've never seen the word used to mean cancer sticks (aka cigarettes)?

The word for cigarettes is different from the word for bundles of wood, although both are a slur with the same root.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Quoth

But that's a satirical/comedy movie and it was a joke because in 1973 they knew it was killing people. But maybe that's your point!

Correct.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by issybird

The word for cigarettes is different from the word for bundles of wood, although both are a slur with the same root.

Might not be. English Public school senior pupils had (have) a junior as a servant/slave to work for them, no sexual slur. A fag who is fagging for them. One job was cleaning lighting the study fire. A faggot in England is also a kind of moulded mince in a dinner as well as a bundle of sticks. Both terms are in common use for that in the South of England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fagging
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)
The slur slang originated in the USA.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Might not be. English Public school senior pupils had (have) a junior as a servant/slave to work for them, no sexual slur. A fag who is fagging for them. One job was cleaning lighting the study fire. A faggot in England is also a kind of moulded mince in a dinner as well as a bundle of sticks. Both terms are in common use for that in the South of England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fagging
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)
The slur slang originated in the USA.

I'm not arguing your expansion of the term especially as I understand the uses you cite, but my exegesis was correct as it stood in regard to the post I was answering.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm not arguing your expansion of the term especially as I understand the uses you cite, but my exegesis was correct as it stood in regard to the post I was answering.

Could be. I wrote "might".

[JSWolf]

What I want to know is why are eBooks in 2023 getting away with such lousy code? This is the code (for a section break) from an eBook published in 2023 by Lttle, Brown, and Company.

<div class="ext_ch">
<div class="decoration-rw10">
<div>
<div class="pc-rw">
<img alt="image" class="orn" src="images/Art_sborn.jpg"/>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="noindent">

[John F]

Interesting that smoking is a problem in the future, yet alcohol isn't (especially for TV starship captains.)

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by John F

Interesting that smoking is a problem in the future, yet alcohol isn't (especially for TV starship captains.)

Alcohol use is arguably as old as humankind, much older than smoking. I guess no one has any hope of that ever changing.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

Interesting that smoking is a problem in the future, yet alcohol isn't (especially for TV starship captains.)

Sythahol in StarTrek on the Enterprise in TOS was alcohol free.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You've never seen the word used to mean cancer sticks (aka cigarettes)?

Or the short form used in a British public school story to mean younger students performing menial tasks/acting as a gofer for older students?

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You've never seen the word used to mean cancer sticks (aka cigarettes)?

I said in the post that I'd only ever seen it used as a slur.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm not arguing your expansion of the term especially as I understand the uses you cite, but my exegesis was correct as it stood in regard to the post I was answering.

Did you check British/Australian slang for a cigarette? See the Wikipedia entry. And I have seen the full word used in a 19th century book referring to cigarettes and/or cigars.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Sythahol in StarTrek on the Enterprise in TOS was alcohol free.

I may be wrong, but I seem to recall scenes in the Star Trek Universe where they were intoxicated?

[Ghostcat]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

When reading an unedited edition of a book originally from the late 1800s or early 1900s, I was a bit concerned about the characters stuffing [a bundle of wood, but also a slur for gay people] into a fireplace, because before that I'd only ever seen the word used as a slur.

It took me a few comments to realise that you were using "Stuffing" as a noun. I have always used it as a Verb, meaning to pack in. E.g. "He was stuffing the pillow with goose feathers."

I suspect that this use is Yorkshire dialect.