On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 12:27:26 +0000, "Dave Doty" <davedoty@hotmail.com> wrote: | >From: "Joshua Hutchinson" <joshua@hutchinson.net> | | | >PS The expression is part of a two phrase dichotomy. Free speech (rights) | >and free stuff (beer). The two types of free. | | And if we have to use the phrase "free stuff" to explain the phrase "free | beer," maybe we've hit on the alternate choice right there. | | For the record, I'm not familiar with "free beer" as some sort of idiom, but | I understood the distinction from "free speech" instantly. I'm confused why | people are confused, to be honest. But if we can find an alternate phrase | that maintains the parallelism, I say go for it if it makes people happy. Just to point out that although we have free speech in the UK, we do not bang on about it like the leftpondians. So any parallelism will fall flat on its face here. When writing for a worldwide audience, I try to write things which will be understood by readers in the UK, India, Australia, etc not forgetting the USA. This is IME quite^h^h^h^hextremely difficult. -- Dave Fawthrop <dave hyphenologist co uk> "Intelligent Design?" my knees say *not*. "Intelligent Design?" my back says *not*.

On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 14:05:38 +0100, Dave Fawthrop <hyphen@hyphenologist.co.uk> wrote: | When writing for a worldwide audience, I try to write things which will be | understood by readers in the UK, India, Australia, etc not forgetting the | USA. This is IME quite^h^h^h^hextremely difficult. Sorry about following up my own post, but a little explanation of how to | write things which will be | understood by readers in the UK, India, Australia, etc not forgetting the | USA. seems to be in order. Assume that the reader knows *nothing* except that meaning of words which is common to all versions of English. Assume that he/she knows *nothing* about the culture you live in, or any other culture. Avoid words which have different meanings in the various versions of English, trunk, pavement etc etc etc. Avoid words which are only used in one culture or version of English, such as "lathi" Avoid all similes metaphors, parallels and the like. Avoid all references to your own culture and *all* minority cultures. The result will be deadly dull, but understandable to most ?English? speakers. -- Dave Fawthrop <dave hyphenologist co uk> "Intelligent Design?" my knees say *not*. "Intelligent Design?" my back says *not*.

On 10/26/05, Dave Fawthrop <hyphen@hyphenologist.co.uk> wrote:

The result will be deadly dull, but understandable to most ?English? speakers.

But if you want an attractive website, as opposed to a VCR manual, you don't want the result to be deadly dull.