#1085 Philosophical Bouncer, Sarah’s ID Story, Gmail Out Of Beta, Sombre

Show 1085 Thursday 9 July
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.

Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.

The video I recommend today is called Philosophical Bouncer.

This is a great video to study if you’re planning on going to a club when you’re studying abroad or if you’re on holiday in an English-speaking country.
If you go to a club, there’s a chance you’ll be stopped by a bouncer and this video gives you a pretty good idea of the kind of questions they might ask. Well the first part anyway.

The bouncer says: When’s your birthday? Or he might actually say: What’s your birthday? … I couldn’t quite tell.
And he asks: What’s your sign?
Address?
Apartment number?

I think those are pretty normal questions. Because the bouncer is trying to determine whether that’s actually your ID or whether you’ve borrowed it off a friend.
And then the bouncer in this video moves on to more unusual questions that a bouncer probably wouldn’t normally ask you, like: Your ID is coated in a polycarbonate of what substance to prevent tampering?
And: If God is good, why does evil exist?

This video reminded me of the first time I went to a club in New Zealand. So I thought I’d tell you that story.
I was 16 at the time and you were supposed to be 20, so I borrowed someone’s driver’s licence. And at that time, driver’s licences in New Zealand didn’t have photos on them, so borrowing someone’s licence was pretty easy to do.
And I knew that the bouncer might ask me questions, so I studied the information on the licence really hard. I studied the name and the date of birth and probably even the star sign. And then we got to the club … and sure enough the bouncer asked me for ID because I probably looked really young.
And the first question he asked me was: Where do you stay? I still remember that’s how he said it because I thought it was an odd way to say it at the time. He meant: Where do you live? Or: What’s your address? Anyway, as soon as he said it, I just went, Oh. And I thought, Oh no, the address … because it didn’t occur to me that I had to remember that as well. But there’s really no way you can get out of that because it’s not like anyone doesn’t know where they live. So I was just like, Ahh … and so it was really obvious that it wasn’t my licence. But the bouncer was really nice, and he just smiled and gave me the licence back and said, Not tonight ladies.

STICK NEWS



Kia ora, in Stick News today, after 5 years Gmail has finally come out of its beta phase.

Gmail is a free email service provided by Google.
It was launched on the 1st of April 2004 as an invitation-only service.
On the 7th of February 2007 it became available to the general public and now over 100 million users have opened accounts.
This week, on the 7th of July 2009, Google decided to remove the beta label.
But if users miss the label they can easily turn it back on again with a click.
According to Wikipedia: "Beta is a nickname for software which … has been released to users for testing before its official release.”
But Google seems to have a different meaning for the word.
The New York Times quoted an analyst as saying that Google probably retained the beta label for so long because it had a coolness factor that appealed to the digerati.

And that was Stick News for Thursday 9th of July.
Kia ora.

Word of the Day

Today’s word is sombre.

One of the funny questions the bouncer in the video asks is:
What kind of face are you making in the picture? An example might be sombre.
And the guy says: Um, I guess, slightly surprised.

By the way, sombre is like centre in that it can be spelt er or re depending on what part of the world you’re in.

Sombre means sad and serious.
For example: Paul was in a quiet and sombre mood.

conversations with sarah
#688 Busy night?

Step 1: Repeat the guy's lines.
Step 2: Read the guy's lines and talk to the bouncer.

Bouncer Hey, ID?

Guy Oh, yeah, sure. Busy night?

Bouncer Yep. When’s your birthday?

Guy December 26th 1984.

Bouncer What’s your sign?

Guy Capricorn.

Bouncer Address?

Guy 211 East 14th Street.

Bouncer Apartment number?

Guy 11A.

Bouncer What kind of shirt you wearing in this picture?

Guy It’s a plaid shirt. Plaid.

Bouncer What kind of face you making in the picture? An example might be sombre.

Guy Um, I guess, slightly surprised.

notes

Beta is pronounced differently in different English-speaking countries.

I decided to go with the US pronunciation because I couldn't remember how we say in in NZ English.

Male, UK

Female, US

Male, Canada

links

Gmail announcement
Gmail - Wikipedia
today's STICK NEWS pictures

music

show start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: Future Cha Cha
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site

WOD start
artist: DJ iPep's
album: Home Mix 2007
track: Game Toy
from: EVREUX, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: The Jazz Woman
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: Kevin MacLeod
track: Tea Roots
from: Brooklyn, NY, United States
artist site

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