Victoria

Not my style, but I'm in. $30. TT, thanks so much for your generous outlay!

I suppose when you have fellow pedants like me around to correct you. One of my favourite off-the-cuff retorts was by a local Republican lady politician, who was being challenged by an extremist opponent in any way he could to take headlines away from her (she basically has the seat for life, if she wants). It went something like this. "In the Netherlands, they have have a more humane system. When you're dying, they allow you to end your life assisted by a medical doctor. In the US, we even have the death penalty!! I'm here to change that to the European way, because what kind of system is that???" She replied, "Because in the US, we kill convicted murderers not grandmas". She brought down the bloody house.

"Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Igor, would you give me a hand with the bags? Igor: [doing a Groucho Marx] Certainly, you take the blonde and I'll take the one in the turban." Oh that Marty Feldman.

Guys, this isn't a strictly political thread. Let's try to keep it upbeat and needle people, if you like, but not talk politics per se. Like this: "A Slip Of The Tongue: Offhand Remarks That Derailed High-Powered Careers" $8.95 from Amazon! I'm sure it didn't make it, because it's fairly recent, but we all know how many malapropisms the current US President has offered the world (LOL! I love the one about "sharing their love with women" for OB-GYNs). Did you know that Segolene Royal, the recent Presidential candidate, nominally a Socialist (really she was wishy-washy about most things) said this: Last January, French Socialist Segolene Royal referred to "bravery" in a presidential campaign speech. The Socialist candidate used the pseudo-word bravitude instead of the correct bravoure. In English, Madame Royal's unfortunate utterance reads: "As the Chinese say, one who has not gone to the Great Wall is not brave. One who goes to the Great Wall conquers braveness (bravitude)." Bravitude is almost as good as misunderestimating. And in a country like France, where the French prize their language, OMG! No wonder she lost. So yeah, I challenge ya'll to speak of politics without getting specific and bitter. Can we do that?

Frahn-ken-steen. (It's as Puggy pedantically put it, though I would've done a much more pedantic job of it, possibly injecting a personal anecdote too)

ROTFLMAO!!! Considering one of those was for my mum, I suspect, thanks for the Hoo-lops!! Bvlgari. :lol: When I read this, through our tears of laughter, my mother figured it out. She's a really un-PC lady who frequently calls our local Chinese restaurant to place a take-out order: "2 rarge Flied lice wi' chrim, plea" And by God if they don't have 2 large fried rice with shrimp waiting for her to pick up. EDIT: Read this back to her, and she said I forgot the 'rarge'. (Spare me if this shocks anyone. You think no one has ever made fun of her German accent. Lighten up people!)

We both used difficult analogies, because something organic is at once more precious than something mechanical, and can be time-intensive, but isn't as technically difficult to create as a timepiece. Shall we say that people who buy gen watches have their reasons, and their reasons are not wrong; whilst people like us who buy reps are often quite knowledgeable but practical -- and leave it, more or less, at that?

And how do you feel now, straddling both sides of the fence, as it were, Wheaton? (Seriously, not being facetious. I'd like to know. Panerai is a cult marque, and owning a gen one I think would make me feel different to my owning gen Cartiers versus rep ones)

Ahh, the age-old question of satisfaction versus worth. There are some people, Freddy, that find it unconscionable to pay for bottled water. "WHAT! $5.70 for a bottle of Perrier at a restaurant, when I can get tap water for nothing?!?!". Well, that's true. The same is true of "government cheese"/generic cheese and the goodness of imported, aged French cheese. Cheese is cheese. Water is water. A Fiddy is a Fiddy. But whether or not you know something is good, doesn't mean they don't know something is better. At least, IMHO.

Another fantastic thread, Anton! I think I've seen one or two like it here, but it's always good to refresh our pronunciations. Here is my beloved Sssurfer's pronunciation guide to Panerai-related words (mp3): http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=1729 From Gemnation -- using English phonetics: EXAMPLE - Yankee: Yang-KEY. Audemars Piguet: OH-duh-MAHR PEA-GAY A. Lange & Sohne: AH Lung-Geh Oohnt Sew-neh Baume & Mercier: bohm AY mer-SEE-AY Bedat: bid-UT Blancpain: blunk-PAN Breguet: breh-GAY Breitling: brEYE-tling Bulgari: bull-gar-EE Cartier: Car-TEA-AY Chopard: Show-Par Concord: Con-cord Corum: Core-oom Ebel: AY-bell Franck Muller: Fronk MEW-ler Glashutte: Glass-WHO-tuh Girard-Perregaux: Jee-rar Pear-ago Hublot: OOH-blow IWC: EYE-DOUBLE-YOU-SEE Jaeger-LeCoultre: YAY-ger Le-Cool-ter Longines: Lonn-JEAN Movado: Moe-vah-doh Omega: Oh-MAY-ga Oris: Oris Panerai: Pun-a-rye Parmigiani: Par-mi-GEE-ah-NEE Patek Philippe: Pah-tek Fee-LEAP Philippe Charriol: Fee-LEAP Shar-ee-ole Piaget: PEE-ah-JAY Rado: Rah-doe Raymond Weil: Ray-mand WHILE Richard Mille: REE-Shar MEAL Rolex: Row-Lex TAG Heuer: Tahg Hoy-er Ulysse Nardin: YOU-lis Nur-den Vacheron Constantin: Va-sher-own Cone-Stun-tuhn Zenith: ZEE-nith EDIT: Unfortunately, we English-speakers have a tendency to add an "ay" sound to Latin names. Breguet above is thus not Breh-GAY and Cartier is not Car-tee-AY, but (difficult to render this correctly, because it's said FAST): Breh-geh Carrr-tee-eh Just note that in French, the tendency is to pronounce the last syllable, whereas in English the default is on the first. Don't feel embarrassed to pronounce something "right" because it sounds affected. Tangentially, when I was at my local Blockbusters, I heard a man ask if Denzel Washington's film was out yet, pronouncing Dej

Thanks for that, Natron. Though you have been here a while, welcome to RWG!

I know what you're saying, and some of the attitudes are very preachy and self-righteous. But they're doing it right. They're buying the genuine thing, sacrificing to do so perhaps more than we'll know. That's not wrong. Recently I was emailing with a guy on Risti who confessed he sold 5 PAMs of his to get the dream of his life -- a Fiddy and another model which came up of a sudden. When I was replying to him, I happened to look down at my wrist, and realised that the dream watch he sacrified 5 of his dear possessions was on my wrist for a "mere" U$420. I didn't feel he was a fool. In fact, I felt pretty scummy at that moment. I'm not going to throw away my Fiddy and find morality of a sudden, but that doesn't make their sacrifice, and their scruples wrong. On the contrary, I'm the one doing wrong. And looking great during it.

Cosa! Scroll up, Anton. I revealed it's Italian Minestrone. Not spicey, but yummy. (My best American friend is Napulitan-American. Her dad makes the best Minestrone on earth) EDIT: Just to make this less OT, here is an extra shot of the HBB Aspen. That's me wearing my Barbour jacket, taken during the Capers. The White Magic is remarkably easy to match with ANYTHING you wear. I have a lot of white watches where you can't say that, because of their size or look. It's an excellent sporty watch, at that.

It's yours for a fraction of the price of even the Lite ones. Just remember, it's faux-chrono, and not ceramic (but rather ceramic paint), but it LOOKS awesome. The HBB Aspen has been named "White Magic" by our own Raymond. Very apposite. When I go to the pool, heads turn.

Pix, playing Doctors & Nurses is as international as any "childhood" games. Happy times. (That was not my father's clinic, BTW. I had a doctor's appointment that day) HEY! I thought the French loved soup?! Maybe I'm Russian, because nothing makes me happier than a good bowl of soup, of an evening. Well, maybe a book and a green apple in bed.

Ahh, sorry to disappoint, Anton. I love soup, but I hate anything spicey. That's good ole Italian Minestrone soup, from my favourite local pizzeria/ristorante.

Showtime indeed, Raymond! Great idea. My 3 Hublot Big Bangs on display for you all. HUBLOT BIG BANG in YELLOW GOLD (Paul) HUBLOT BIG BANG ASPEN (Narikaa) HUBLOT BIG BANG YACHT CLUB DE MONACO in YELLOW GOLD (Narikaa)

Whatchamean, By-Tor! I myself gave him an Artistic. On checking it again, I see he's got 3 Gold Stars, and 3 Artistic! As I just echoed on Repgeeks, flawless, Maxmilian. One of the best reps I've ever seen.

First, good job in trying to do this for us all, CISO. But I'm not really surprised. When I read the idea, I had some reservations myself, and I'm not even a Moderator or anything. There's a lot closer relationship between Repgeeks and RWI, than between RWG and RWI. There are several reasons for that, that don't need to be got into, I'm sure you'll agree. Bottom line is, if you feel it's a good idea, go for it! Best of luck too.

That's an excellent point, Ratchie. One thing I have noted is that Americans expect and like their Senators to be almost seignorial. They don't mind that at all, when it comes to them -- out of character to the egalitarian American spirit. You know what they say about US Presidents: that their personality has to be in line with an average American wanting to sit down and have a beer with them. I'm guessing the good Senator from Arizona just wanted to be more jokey than Senators usually are thought of. Interesting bit of trivia, since there are so many Senators who are Presidential frontrunners. Only 2 Senators have ever been DIRECTLY elected to the Presidency FROM the Senate in the history of the US Presidency: Warren G. Harding (1921-1923) John F. Kennedy (1961-1963 - won by just a peep over 100,000 votes over Nixon) 2 out of 43. No one until over 100 years of Presidents. Tough odds Senators McCain, Clinton and Obama. EDIT: Just realised both these gentlemen served at eerily close dates, and both died in office. And both were serial womanisers. EDIT #2: I'm threadjacking my own thread! Here is a WONDERFUL quote I just found on Warren G. Harding by one of the finest journalists the US ever produced, HL Mencken: "He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash." ...string of wet sponges, stale bean soup, pish, rumble and bumble LOL! I'd kiss the first NYT reporter that ever wrote such things today about ANYONE. Especially salient last point, agreed.

Oh poor Stephane. I'm sorry. I know the VIP thingie is ever on your mind. Or perhaps there are other considerations. Anyway, you're a great member! 1 post per day from you is better than my 25.

Nono. John McCain is one of the more famous candidates, who most Americans would know by sight AND name. Only Rudy Giuliani tops him. These kinds of schoolboyish retorts makes any Senator look bad, not good. This is not a question of, as Spaniards say, "Talk badly about me, but talk" or even "bad publicity is still publicity". These jokes take away from his standing, IMO. Even Reagan cut out the "we'll begin nuking the Soviet Union in 30 minutes" kind of (off-air) jokes because it's not something a President, let alone a presidential HOPEFUL, says.

I literally could've walked into the airport at Glasgow with a pound of cocaine in my suitcase, without one Customs officer in sight. Is there anyone there? Ever? Wow. Based on my experiences, I told a Cuban-American friend to take a Colombian lady who lived there, and pined for her homeland's cuisine, a suitcase FULL of special flour/harina to make Arepas. We packed it to the rafters, and he said, are you sure I won't have problems with Customs? I'm sure, I said. He walked right in, not even showing his passport. Oh, and in the second suitcase he took her a few cans of frijoles negros/black beans. She was so grateful, she paid for his ticket...I should start an Arepa-to-Glasgow sideline.

True. True. But also in a commentary that makes him look like a geeky Senior running for Student Government President, trying to make his juvenile audience laugh by showing them how cool he is: "And if elected, I will run the Principal's underwear on the flagpole, and cut classes by 30 minutes, HAHA!"...patently NOT as potential leader of the United States of America. BTW, not the first time he's come out with a joke most people would refer to as being "out of left field".