Is anyone else not getting the news letters? I Received the one back in December but haven't received any others.

I've been getting them all, but some have had trouble with their email or something where they didn't receive them. Send an email to Dave and he can look into it for you, and resend the ones you have missed. Lynsay & Terri are gone on their St. Lucia trip now. I'm sure Mr. Spice will be checking in with us on the forum, too.

hth, wren

Did you check your spam box?

Mine were ending up there.

That is what happened to a friend of mine. Hers also went into her junk/spam folder. Some ISP's have problems with certain e-mail addresses.

Good luck

Cindy (C1 of AE3)

Naomii

If it isn't in your spam folder then send an email to admin@lynsaysands.net and I'll pick it up from there.

Dave

I've been told that to keep things from ending up in your spam folder from people you want to talk to, add the person/people to your address book and it will get through. I haven't tried it yet but it sounds like it should work. Hope it helps.

Kim

mine went to my junk folder aswell. I just added it to my safe sender list.

I just signed up for the newsletter a couple weeks ago. Does it take a while before you receive your first one?

Jill did you check your spam folder? My friend got hers within a few minutes of singing and it went to her spam.

I thought to check after the first week but honestly I regulary delete my spam so I probably accidently deleted from the sounds of it.

E-mail Dave and Lynsay at admin@lynsaysands.net and they can re-add you.

C1 of AE3

Thanks all. I'll start checking my spam file before I delete it. I stop checking that file since I get over 100 a day I just deleted it.

Just to let everyone now that I had the newsletter resent to me and I also added the e-mail to my address book and I received it with no problems.
Thanks Dave what ever you did, did work even though you weren't sure if it would.

I got my newsletter today I thought the crossword was awesome I had to go back and review the book for the answers. Do they have a crossword every month? Also is there a competition every month as well?

Jill,

Unless something goes amiss - like a world shortage of crossword grids or an international ban on the use of the letter 'e' - we will be having crosswords in every newsletter.

I'm lobbying Lynsay to allow a special 'English' edition of the crossword where all the answers will have the British way of spelling the words - like honour, colour, centre, programme or, perhaps, words that actually are different, for example; nappy (diaper), pavement (sidewalk), tap (faucet), bonnet (the hood of a car), boot (the trunk of the car), torch (flashlight) and dialling code (area code).

All of which reminds me of the quote I once heard about Britain and America being two nations separated by a common language.

Dave (who is fluent in both)

Mr Spice, I think that sounds interesting. Kind of like the difference in how people speak in Canada and Newfoundland!

Sorry to anyone from Newfoundland, I have a lot of newfie friends and everyone thinks I am from Newfoundland but I am from Nova Scotia.

Jodi

I can always hear the legacy of the Scottish and Irish accent in Nova Scotians. I have to say that Newfies tend to baffle me a bit because they have a whole different dialect rather than just an accent.

Along with Nova Scotians, though, they are the only Canadians who really have a distinctively different accent from the majority of English speaking Canada.

And in true Canadian style:

Je peux toujours entendre le legs de l'accent écossais et irlandais en Nova Scotians...


Dave

I never really noticed the Nova Scotian accent until I went home this summer. I had been away for 3 years and I found my Grandmother and my Father's accents were really strong. funny I never noticed before.

I work with a lady from Newfoundland and when she gets excited I can't understand a word she says

and as for french as a Canadian I am sad to say I never could understand it.

Jodi

That's okay, Jodi...

My dh was born in France, and he never learned the language. In all fairness, they returned to the US when he was 6 mos. old. His mother began speaking English at home, because his father could not understand his sister's and brother's "baby french," when he was on his own with the children.

Also, being a military family, they moved around so much. He says that changing schools so often makes it a wonder that he has a grasp on the English language.

wren

Mr. Spice,

I think it would be fun to have a puzzle with British spelling...though I may have to have a translation dictionary for the other words! I've been asking for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for awhile. I want at least the first book in the British edition.

Now, to spell "humourous"...is that correct? It looks kind of strange to me.

wren...who speaks American English with a true southern drawl...

P.S. Dave, do you speak rapidly? Because the English family from Bristol that I met at Disney spoke so rapidly that I had a hard time keeping up with what was being said. I wonder what they thought of my speech. I didn't have any problem with the family I met from Aberdeen, Scotland, though. We seemed to understand each other just fine.

We were a military family aswell. I was born in Lahr, Germany but I don't speak a word of German, we left when I was 2. My parents don't even remember how to speak it. We didn't move around much we were one of the lucky families. We lived in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (my family is from there originally) and then moved to Yellowknife where I have stayed (I met my husband) along with one of my brothers who lives with me.

Jodi

Wren, the Aberdeen accent tends to be the best and most well spoken of all the variants in the UK and they do seem to be easily understandable.

The range of different accents is huge considering the small geographical size of the country and to compound that there are also numerous dialects where there are different words and phrases in common use.

I was born in the county of Yorkshire although I don't have the local accent, but if you ever heard anyone speaking in true Yorkshire dialect you would probably not understand a word of what they said.

This is an example of true Yorkshire dialect as would have been understood by my maternal grandparents - even I'm struggling to comprehend what it's about:

It fair caps me what for fooaks want te it goodies i’ Choch! Yan wad reallye think ‘at soomm fooaks couldn’t saah ther prayers wivoot a goody i’ ther moothes. It caps owt! It dis Ah seer. T’ parson o’ Soondah ad nobbut joost getten inti t’pew , an a fat oard woman i’ t’seeat i’ froont o’ me thowt sher were fooast te ev a goody. An sher parzels ’er and awaah roond tiv ER greeat oard pockit at t’ back , an’ began scrattin aboot, an’ rattlin kays an paaper an sike like, te see if sher could finnd a bit o’ goody. An there sher war laatin an scrattin aboot, like a en on a moock midden, wharl wer gat te t’ Psalms. An sher gat that vexed, becos sher couldn’t finnd yan o’ onny sooart, sher could scaarce bard. Sher bleeamed t’ bairns, yer knaw, for gerrin tiv ‘ER pockit throof t’ week. Sher knawed sher’d left twe or tree o’ t’ last Soondah, d’yer see? Or else sher wad a getting soomm mare when she were i’ Pickering Set’dah neet; bud noo sher couldn’t finnd yan, naather a mint, ner a rooase, ner a acid, ner a anise, ner owt.................

When I've had time to translate it I'll explain what it says.

Dave

Here we go with a translation

I don’t understand why people want to eat candy in church. You would think some people were unable to say their prayers without a piece of candy in their mouth. It beats me, it really does. On Sunday the priest had only just begun the service when a fat old woman in front of me thought she had to be the first to have some candy. So there she was fidgeting around in her coat pockets and she’s flapping and scratching around like a hen on garbage pile all the while until we get to the Psalms. And then, because she couldn’t find candy of any kind, she became so stressed she could hardly breath. She blamed her children, you know, for going through her pockets during the week. She knew she had left two or three candies in her pocket on the previous Sunday, otherwise she would have bought some while she was in Pickering (a town) on Saturday night. But she couldn’t find even a single one, not a mint, or a rose, or an acid drop, or aniseed or anything… (these last names are types of candy)

And just to confuse things further 'candy' is generally called 'sweets' in the UK but there are a number of regional names for it and where I come from it's often referred to as either 'spice' or 'spogs'.

Dave

I can see it now that you translated but I wouldn't have had a hope before.

Jodi

Ah,Mr. Spice the question is are you fluent in American Slang?

My friend and coworker is French Canadian and I tease her all the time that she speaks better English than me. And it is her second language. But it is fun teaching her new and interesting American expressions that she has never heard before.

American slang, eh? Try me.

Mr. Spice,

I could pick up a little by reading carefully, mostly from historical romances. I tend to like the ones that are set in England, or I don't think I would have understood as much as I did. But that was only because I could read it carefully...not trying to listen to someone speak to me in that dialect. I had to have your translation to know all of what it said.

So, do you speak rapidly in comparison to Americans and Canadians? And did I spell humourous correctly? Also, I wonder why the Aberdeen dialect is so much easier for communication. Hmmm...acid drops sound like acid pops in Harry Potter. What are they actually like? Did you move around a lot so that you lost your local accent from Yorkshire? My dh doesn't have a regional accent, because he moved all around the world until he was in his late twenties. He has picked up some southern expressions over the last 20 years, but he is never going to have the drawl. In movies or tv shows, it is so irritating when the actors are playing southern characters and can't get the drawl. It makes everything so fake!

So, try you on American slang? I'll have to think about it. Especially as I have always lived near Louisiana, which is in a category of its own as far as dialect goes in the states. The first year we were married, we lived in California and I had a job as a secretary/receptionist. My supervisor was giving me the names of the sales reps for the company.
I spelled one lady's name Thibeaux...her last name was Teboe.(pronounced te-bo...long vowels)Well, where I come from, Thibeaux is Cajun and that is how it is spelled. Of course, Louisiana is different from all the other states in a lot of ways. It has parishes instead of counties like the rest of the states, and from its French and Spanish background, lots of words that are beautiful but that people who haven't lived near usually don't know how to pronounce or spell.

There is American slang...and then there are the regional dialects. When Jeff Foxworthy, the comedian of "You Might Be A Redneck" fame began his career as a stand-up comic, his agents wanted him to take voice & speech lessons, but he resisted. His point was he spoke like one-fourth of our country, and he was right in that it has never hurt his career. He sounds the same way as he did growing up in Georgia. He is also making a fortune now with his funny books on how to sound like a southerner!

I like interesting topics! wren

Oh, and "spogs" sounds like something between spores and bugs or bogs! But "sweets" is a word I like to hear!!

wren

Ooh Mr. Spice, seems like you threw a smack-down or is it slang-down?


And I ain't gonna act like I know more than you about slang. Your posts prove that you can show me whose boss. Your a bit of a brainiac with all those translations.

But then again I am originally from Jersey (New Jersey - not the cow or t-shirt in case you weren't sure) And if you came to my neck of the woods we can show you how we roll. Just sayin'

Just kidding I am not really that scary.

Besides I love my BBC and you Brits give new meaning to slang. Thank goodness for close caption and even then I'm not entirely sure what was said.

Okay, Mr. Spice, the statement is "Hey, bring me a coke, please." What is the proper reply?

wren...from central Mississippi

okay Wren I am curious. What is the reply?? I know that you are from the south and they have different expression than us yankees.

W2

I second Jill. Born and bread up north. Lived in Pittsburgh, Pa for awhile and they have their own dialect different than anyplace around. Now in the south.

C1

heeheehee...Where is Mr. Spice?

wren...who will tell you...soon

oooh WREN and you cal me BAD!!

now I have to know!!
( knwing you though, it probably means....
Bring me a coke!!! )

3 of AE3

Not fair Wren, that's just not fair. Mr. Spice better answer soon because I want to know!!!!!

And I want to tell you, because it's a really silly, simple, southern thing...but dh & I actually got to go on a "date" yesterday...& when I was trying to think of something for our British Brain, dh reminded me of when he first went to work in the deep south...

wren

hehehe...
I know the answer to wren's riddle...but...

IRL southern sister, GypsyCharm

gypsycharm.....

thats no way to make new friends.....

(i can see your going to be as much trouble as wren)

3 of AE3

I second that. So G3 are we going to name them the terrible two??

C1

Sorry for the delay. I was busy bringing Wren a coke.

What's the reply... You have me baffled.

I knew that wren was going to get me in trouble, it is just like growing up all over again...

Nice to meet y'all,
Gypsy

Gypsy
We just want to make you feel at home.

C1

Thank you very much, Mr. Spice!

The correct southern answer would be "okay, what kind do you want?" at which time you would indicate your carbonated-style beverage of choice.

In a general sort of way, all those beverages that others call "sodas" or even those people from farther away like you yankees call "pop," most of us southerners simply call "cokes."

As in, when GypsyCharm ask the younguns a couple of days ago "Y'all want a coke?" only she got a Coca-Cola, while 2 kids got Pepsi and 1 got Sprite! Had dear hubby and I been there, he would have got Mt. Dew and I would have got Dr. Pepper (which he thinks is ) If those were not available, we would have both got the real thing, Coca-Cola! But in true southern style, they are all "cokes!"

Soon after dh first moved to the south, he came home from work and said, "People at work will ask me if I want a coke. When I say yes, they say What kind?" He found it a bit perplexing...but after living here awhile, it's kind of like us southerners...we grow all over you just like kudzu...the vine that ate up the South!

Who knows...maybe it has something to do with Coca-Cola being invented in Atlanta, GA And, it was first bottled right here in Vicksburg, MS...

wren...who baffled y'all, even Mr. Spice

Sorry, that last post signed from me was from me...the actual wren...who didn't notice that Gypsy was logged in on our computer...

Hey, we're working on it! And, I did NOT get her into trouble growing up...there were two of them and one of me...even though I am boss! Just ask her to tell it truthfully, without embellishments!

Gypsy says I'm so Bad

That's okay, C1 and G3 still love me, I think?
Of course, they don't have to live with me...wahahahaha! G3 can always orb them to a hunky Argeneau!

wren...W2ofAE3...happily sipping her coke from Mr. Spice

W2of course we still What would AE be without W2??? Ok you go curl up with ur sweetie. I'll tell him you said HI.

Ci of AE3

Wren, I knew the answer to that! I grew up in Connecticut but I joined the Army right after high school (1990-94) and met people from all over the country. It's amazing how many different names there are for the same thing. I now live in the Midwest (Wisconsin to be exact) and this is something I've always found amusing. Anyone out there know what they are talking about when someone asks where the "bubbler" is?

Kim

That's funny. We call it "soda" here. But I guess I would get in trouble if I asked for a "soda" down south huh?

Isn't language wonderful? English especially. It's almost like a linguistic DNA that shows traces of where we all originated from with bits of everything we've ever encountered along the way added to it like some strange sociological stew.

What a wonderful way of describing it. And a person's accent just adds to flavor of the stew. You can take one word like "drawer" and depending on where you are, it is pronounced different each time.

nah, Jill, people here would know what you were asking for as cokes are called sodas unless you grew up here...or transplanted and stayed like my dh. Now, though, if a southerner asks you if you want a coke, you know they mean any soda of your choice! If someone called it pop, even the "older than me" generation would know what people are talking about. They would just know that you or your family of origin didn't grow up in the south, because family influence always shows up in our speech, also.

Mr. Spice, that was a beautiful way of describing language. Most worthy of Lucern, imo!

Funny thing is I was actually looking for "American slang"(yes, to try & challenge Dave ) and when I did an internet search, lots of articles came up about it, including by regions of the US. In an article on southern slang, it briefly mentioned about how Coca-Colas made all soda-pop into "cokes." I didn't really think about it again until dh and I were talking and I mentioned that I was looking for American slang to try on our Mr. Spice E.G., even living all over the world growing up, had not heard that one before and found it very odd.LOL We had only been married a little over a year at that time, and had just returned to Mississippi. Our first year together we lived in California, but with Navy life...we were only together about six months total out of that first year of wedded bliss. The rest of the time he was out floating on the ocean somewhere.

As for me & GypsyCharm & her twin(you will meet her soon,) we grew up on the Gulf Coast and the three coastal counties of MS are totally different from the rest of the state, in spite of being hurricane ravaged every few years (Katrina nearly wiped the Mississippi Gulf Coast off of our map.) Along with the US Navy and Air Force presence, the coastal counties are between Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisana, and Interstate 10 runs through them, and so the area was always more transient and touristy and you meet a lot more people from different states and countries there. So, you still grow up southern, but you often pick up more of others "linguistic DNA" along the way.

You may also pick up some language from your favorite author. I use the expression "needs must" all the time now, which I learned from Lynsay and her books. To me, it sounds perfectly natural! Is it a Canadian expression?

Kim...I'm going to take a guess here. Is the "bubbler" the water fountain? If not, perhaps the restroom facilities?

This forum is fun, but also educational...especially due to our Mr. Spice!

I thought sweet AE3 sisters C1 & G3 might pick up on it, but although they currently live south of the Mason-Dixon line, they are both in states where tourism and relocation from other areas is much more prevalent.

wren...W2ofAE3... as usual...

C1..I think we are goping top have to watch them, thats t the name sticks!! the terrible 2. Not to mention, we are going o have to watch what we say now, because they are playing the twin game. (Gypsy logs in as WREN and vice versa!)
thats mean to do to your sisters!!!sneaky girls!!!
hey so does that mean that GYPSYCHARM is our very own, BILLIE!! (she helped the charmed ones!)

gypsycharm,
don't worry we like to play with people. I think I can vouch for most that we are very easy going. I f i haven't said it yet, WELCOME!!

3 of AE3