The Amazing Meeting

[rlrose328]

Has anyone been to The Amazing Meeting, held by James Randi?  It looks like there will be two this year, followed by an August 2008 cruise to the Gallapagos (wish I was rich!).

The Amazing Meeting

[Mister Joy]

Sounds interesting. I would probably pay to go if it wasn't in the US of A (like most other things that aren't ancient relics). Tickets to cross the Atlantic are pretty expensive. Actually I could probably afford it - I've been over there in the past plenty of times - but trust me when I say that if you're British, young and in the United States you're in for an incredibly annoying experience. "Oooh I love your accent! Say 'Aluminium tubing'!" everywhere you bloody go.

As I say though, sounds good. Are you going?

[donkeyhoty]

you mean, "aluminum" tubing. :wink:

[rlrose328]

... but trust me when I say that if you're British, young and in the United States you're in for an incredibly annoying experience. "Oooh I love your accent! Say 'Aluminium tubing'!" everywhere you bloody go.

As I say though, sounds good. Are you going?

I must admit  :oops: I'm one of those who would sit and listen to you talk... I LOVE accents, British and Irish being my favorites.  I wouldn't ask you to say anything specific... just recite the ABCs or bible verses and I'd just sit there in awe.  LOL!

[a_jaynepayne]

Has anyone been to The Amazing Meeting, held by James Randi?  It looks like there will be two this year, followed by an August 2008 cruise to the Gallapagos (wish I was rich!).

The Amazing Meeting

Maybe you should just pray to get rich...I hear it works.

[MysticalChicken]

... but trust me when I say that if you're British, young and in the United States you're in for an incredibly annoying experience. "Oooh I love your accent! Say 'Aluminium tubing'!" everywhere you bloody go.

As I say though, sounds good. Are you going?

I must admit  :oops: I'm one of those who would sit and listen to you talk... I LOVE accents, British and Irish being my favorites.  I wouldn't ask you to say anything specific... just recite the ABCs or bible verses and I'd just sit there in awe.  LOL!

Ditto.  Especially if you have a Cockney accent.  I adore Cockney accents.

Also, you have free reign to use the word "bloody" as a curse word.  I wish I could do this, but an American using British curse words just sounds stupid.  Although I do find myself saying "shite" a lot.

[pjkeeley]

It must seem strange to you folks, but I still balk when I hear an American accent -- not on TV or in movies or anything, but when it's coming out of a real life person. I think it's just the social conditioning of growing up having almost every movie or television show being acted by Americans. Now, I think I subconsciously categorise the American accent as being within the realm of fantasy, like it isn't real -- so when I hear a real person speaking it, I get a sudden shock, like feeling as if a movie or TV character has come to life! Haha. It's bizarre.  

[Tom62]

I know exactly what you mean pjkeeley. It is kind of eerie to hear a real person speaking with an American accent. Especially when they speaking with a Southern drawl. I always associate this with the TV-Series "Dukes of Hazzard" and Sheriff J.W. Pepper of the James Bond films "Live and Let Die" and "The Man with the Golden Gun". But I have to admit that I can understand American accents better than English accents. Especially the northern-english accent is fully incomprehensible to me.

[Mister Joy]

I've never really seen the American accent as particularly mythical or far-away. I guess I sort of partially grew up over there, though. Plus there are a lot of American & Canadian immigrants in Bristol & the towns surrounding it. I have a mate from Chicago and my fav. local pub gets the odd one in every so often. I pretty much own the dart board down there (only one other regular is on par with my amazingness), so it's pretty fun to watch them play. It's kind of an unspoken rule that if they're brave enough to have a go, and if they manage not to hit anything living, someone has to get them a drink.

And yeah, there are some English accents that I struggle with occasionally. The one I most often have trouble with is the working class South-Western accent (to those who don't know what that is, think cider-loving pirate farmers: "Ooo-arrr me laaaad! Geit thaa' scrumpy down yar gullet, an' make i' sharrpish."), especially if they've had a few, and I'm not just English, I live in the South-West. Effing inconvenient.

Ditto. Especially if you have a Cockney accent. I adore Cockney accents.

Also, you have free reign to use the word "bloody" as a curse word. I wish I could do this, but an American using British curse words just sounds stupid. Although I do find myself saying "shite" a lot.

I'm not cockney, no. I hate London I'm not really sure what you'd call my accent, to be honest. Fairly generic English, I suppose.

And is 'bloody' a British thing? I'm fairly sure I've heard Americans use it a few times & the Irish use it at least once every sentence. We do have a lot of fairly random offensive slang, though, it's true.

you mean, "aluminum" tubing.

I speak real English, ya cheeky sod. :wink:

Maybe you should just pray to get rich...I hear it works.

Then God will bless you with a brand new pick axe from the back of a van, implying that it's OK for you to discreetly massacre your entire family and channel all of the inheritance. The moral scope of the fundamentalist comes with copious benefits.

[McQ]

I don't know what the hell is the matter with you people, all talking about American Accents. Everyone knows that we don't have accents. The rest of the world does!
 :roll:

OK, for those who don't know. I'm just kidding. No hate mail, please!

What does bother me about us Americans, is that there are people here who actually think that way. Agh! I remember an American friend of mine meeting an Australian friend of mine once. The American commented on her "cute" British accent. I thought she was going to slap the shit out of him, especially when he asked her if she had a hard time understanding other people in Australia. You can't make stuff like this up!

[Steve Reason]

I'd dearly love to go to that. But unless my ship comes in before that ship comes in, it ain't gonna happen. I guess whether I'm religious or a humanist, I'm always on the outside looking in. Ah well, I hope they have fun and learn from it.  

[SteveS]

especially when he asked her if she had a hard time understanding other people in Australia.

Yikes - that's sort of .... shocking.

About American accents - I travel around our country quite a bit, and my short list of accents that must be experienced is:
1) Rhode Island - amazing
2) Any other state in New England (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine)
3) Either of the Carolinas
4) Either of the Dakotas, ditto for Minnesota
5) Texas - the "Reba" style accent

Of course, sometimes a person's nationality has more influence on their accent than their geographic locale. We've got Italian, Polish, Irish, Asian, and Russian in plenty in the Chicago area.

The most disastrous combination I heard of was a woman with a serious Virginia accent attempting to learn to speak French - she was speaking (trying to speak) French with the Virginian accent still in tact - !!!

[rlrose328]

I'd dearly love to go to that. But unless my ship comes in before that ship comes in, it ain't gonna happen. I guess whether I'm religious or a humanist, I'm always on the outside looking in. Ah well, I hope they have fun and learn from it.  

[rlrose328]

especially when he asked her if she had a hard time understanding other people in Australia.

About American accents - I travel around our country quite a bit, and my short list of accents that must be experienced is:
1) Rhode Island - amazing
2) Any other state in New England (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine)
3) Either of the Carolinas
4) Either of the Dakotas, ditto for Minnesota
5) Texas - the "Reba" style accent

I fell in love with my husband in part because of his accent... he was born and raised in Cleveland, OH.  We met online in 1992, pre-web, so a large portion of our courting was done on the phone and wow, did I love the even syllables, smooth consonants and soft accent.  It was so soothing and lovely.

I love all accents... but an Aussie or British or Irish accent will have me swooning.

[McQ]

I'd dearly love to go to that. But unless my ship comes in before that ship comes in, it ain't gonna happen. I guess whether I'm religious or a humanist, I'm always on the outside looking in. Ah well, I hope they have fun and learn from it.  

I'll have to figure out a way to give myself a warning for participating in the thread hijack. Or maybe I'll just have a beer instead.