crm@duke.UUCP (Charlie Martin) (12/20/85)
In article <35@cstvax.UUCP> br@cstvax.UUCP (Brian Ritchie) writes: dot dot dot >that by-now-rather-tired-and-much-overused phrase. This was YONKS before >Foundation's Edge and The Guide. I remember because I thought it was >funny then. > > -- Brian Ritchie. A couple of little questions: 1) whats a yonk? 2) shouldn't it be "these were yonks"? -- Charlie Martin (...mcnc!duke!crm)
ds@warwick.UUCP (Douglas Spencer) (01/06/86)
Summary: Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Keywords: Xpath: warwick snow snow ubu Xref: ukc net.books:500 net.sf-lovers:6530 In article <6734@duke.UUCP> crm@duke.UUCP (Charlie Martin) writes: >In article <35@cstvax.UUCP> br@cstvax.UUCP (Brian Ritchie) writes: >>that by-now-rather-tired-and-much-overused phrase. This was YONKS before >A couple of little questions: >1) whats a yonk? >2) shouldn't it be "these were yonks"? So far as I know, there is no such thing as a yonk. Use of the term YONKS implies a long time, ranging from several minutes (I put the kettle on yonks ago, and it still hasn't boiled) to millenia (dinosaurs have been extinct for yonks). Compare 'This was AGES before' to 'These were ages'. The 'This' refers to the event of calling a book a fourth-in-a-trilogy (singular) rather than 'yonks' (possibly plural -- who knows ?) It seems to me that I spend my whole life teaching Americans to speak English. :-) -- +-------------------------+-------------------------------+ | Douglas Spencer | ..seismo!mcvax!ukc!warwick!ds | | Mathematics Institute +-------------------------------+ | University of Warwick | "It's Ipford 23194," he said, | | Coventry | "and I'm not joking." | | CV4 7AL | Who said it, what story ? | | England | please email, big(?) prizes | +-------------------------+-------------------------------+