Free as in bread

[cosmolinguist]

'I really am a geek,' Andrew announced.

'Yeah,' I confirmed. If he feels like announcing really obvious things like that, I can humour him.

But it turns out he had an example of this: 'I was looking at the bread wrapper, and it says "This bread is free of artificial colours and flavours", and once I got to the word "free" I was thinking "free as in speech or free as in beer".'

I laughed. Yay for geeks.

He says he likes me because I know what he's talking about there, and because we'd just had a conversation about dating Robert Heinlein books on the basis of how he talks about sex in them. I suppose then I'm stuck being a geek too.

Now I'll go back to correcting someone else's sentence structure and punctuation, in my free time.

Comments

[kalieris.livejournal.com]

How do you date a Heinlein book? Wouldn't there be very distressing paper cuts in sensitive locations?

[cosmolinguist]

Wrap it in clingfilm first, of course. We think of these things.

[kalieris.livejournal.com]

Y'know there was that whole debate a while back whether clingfilm was as good an HIV/STD barrier as dental dams (which are apparently a slightly different polymer). So, if you procured dental dams and wrapped the books in them, you'd be protecting yourself against both papercuts AND HIV. You never know who else the book may have gotten sexy with.

*This completely unnecessary public service announcement has been brought to you by the letters 2, W, and @.*

[cosmolinguist]

I don't know if you knew this or not, but you are very cool.

(I'm still giggling at that last line... yes, I know I'm easily amused.)

I must confess that the clingfilm bit is Andrew's fault; he once told me about this site, and though it's not really at all pertinent to having sex with books, I think the image of wrapping things with clingfilm has been indelibly burned into my brain.

And, with any luck, now yours too! Share the love. Or the horror. Same thing, anyway.

[gentleman-lech.livejournal.com]

I like it when both types of free are combined into one product. :)

And now I'm wondering if I should pick up some cling-film on the way home. You know, just in case.

[paninogirl.livejournal.com]

"Clingfilm," huh? Are you talking about SaranWrap? If that's the case, is that another British term?

What happened to the Americanized Holly!?!?!

setharoo and I have talked about how I'm having difficulty seeing you be so easily influenced by Andrew/Britain and his/Britain's varying spellings and uses of punctuation...

...that is, unless you are British born in the wrong country. Then, maybe I'll be more understanding/accepting.

;D

[cosmolinguist]

I don't know if 'clingfilm' is British or not... I don't think I've had a conversation about it since I've been in Britain.

Overall, though, I'd say that I seem to have picked up a rather eccentric vocabulary--while largely regional, the occasional odd word will sneak in here and there. A girl who sat next to me in class was driven crazy by the fact that I say 'soda.' She said it has to be 'pop' and accused me of being from Wisconsin. And Andrew has told me a couple of words I use naturally are more British than American (or he'll try to translate something into a word he expects me to know, and I'll be more confused.

I don't know why I'd have an eccentric vocabulary, except that I read a lot and I pick up words from that. If I hear a word that I like better than some other word ('soda' instead of 'pop', for example), I'll use that instead. I'm not really trying to be British--not just because I couldn't do it convincingly and would only make myself look ridiculous, but also because that's an indication that I am not, in fact, British. I cannot remember all the differences in spellng and prununciation--and I keep coming across new ones! yesterday Andrew laughed at the way I said 'troll'! I mean, of all things!--and thus don't really try.

But, of course, as I'm here I start to pick up some things, because I'm like that. The most I've noticed is that there are a couple of words I'll use interchangably without really thinking about it, but even that's mostly when I'm at the shops or around Andrew's family, so I think it really is influenced more by my environment--and wanting people to understand me :-)--than my desire to be more British. I like being what I am.