Show 1008 Thursday 26 March
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.
Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.
Today I recommend a video called: Hardly Working: Punctuation Recession.
It’s a funny video about punctuation marks. Punctuation marks, of course, are the symbols that you find in sentences that aren’t letters – stuff like: apostrophes, commas, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, hyphens, inverted commas.
In this video there’s a meeting in an office and the boss is telling the staff that to save money they have to use less punctuation marks.
This is what he says: As a lot of you probably know, right now we’re in recession. We’re going to have to cut some corners if we’re going to say afloat. So, as of today, we’re cutting back on punctuation. Question marks, commas, these things cost us money, money that right now we don’t have.
And then everyone starts trying to speak in a way that doesn’t use punctuation marks, but they’re not very successful because it’s quite hard to do, so it’s pretty funny. You should go and check it out.
Ricky: As a lot of you probably know, right now we’re in recession. We’re going to have to cut some corners if we’re going to say afloat. So, as of today, we’re cutting back on punctuation. Question marks, commas, these things cost us money, money that right now we don’t have.
Jake: How the hell can you budget punctuation?
Sarah: Jake, stop asking stuff, you’re going to cost us all our question marks.
Ricky: That’s the spirit Sarah.
Sarah: Thanks!
Ricky: You just cost us an exclamation mark.
Pat: Well, Miss Perfect who’s wasting punctuation now?
Jeff: Well at least she didn’t cost us two quotation marks, did she, Pat?
Sarah: Oh, Jeff, now you’re wasting question marks.
Amir: Wait, here’s an idea if we actually never cease to talk, then we never finish a sentence, thus we never use a punctuation because punctuations come at the end of sentences, sometimes …
Streeter: I would like to know about hyphens.
Ricky: That’s a great non-question, Streeter. You are no longer an Irish-American, moving forward, you are simply Irish.
Streeter: Jesus Mary and Joseph!
Pat: Dude, exclamation point!
Streeter: Fuck off with you!
Jeff: Forget hypens, we need to worry about commas.
?: Agreed. So no more lists of cars, food, places,
Jack: OK, you are listing things right now
?: Crap, so sorry, so remorseful …
Jeff: Stop!
Amir: … because earlier you dismissed my theory of never-ending sentences, but if you think about it, maybe it’s not so crazy …
Ricky: Guys! How’s this company going stay afloat if you guys can’t act like professionals?
Jake: Sorry Ricky.
Sarah: He’s right, let’s just get back to work.
Ricky: We can’t, we only have one question mark left.
?: What are we going to ask?
Streeter: Jesus Mary jumping leprechaun shamrock!
Ricky: Guys!
The Acadia Report
Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
Acadia University is in Wolfville which is a small town in Nova Scotia – and one of the cool things about Wolfville is the Farmers Market which is on every Saturday morning. During winter it’s held inside the university and in summer it’s held in town. You can find out more at their website and they also have a YouTube channel.
And one of the interesting videos that I watched recently is called: Reflecting On Sixteen Years Of The Wolfville Farmers’ Market.
So the market has been going for more than sixteen years now and in this video they interviewed some of the people that have been involved with it for a long time. One guy says that he used to be able to read a newspaper from cover to cover but, as he says: … as time has gone on, the customers are getting in the way of my newspaper, so that’s what I consider progress.
1:02 Al Stewart
I remember year number one. We were down in, ah, in our summertime location. I used to bring, ah, a very little bit of produce and a Saturday newspaper and I got my newspaper read from cover to cover and my crossword crypti ? done. And as time has gone on, the customers are getting in the way of my newspaper, so, ah, that’s what I consider progress.
1:58 Pam Frail
We were always wishful, um, and it was growing, um, to the point that we realized we needed somebody to go around and collect the money. So we decided to hire, ah … it wasn’t a co-ordinator at that time, I think we called her a market manager maybe, I don’t even think she was a manager … I can’t remember the exact profile … title … but she was mainly hired to collect the money because no vendor wanted to be responsible for leaving their booth and getting the money and do some minor promotion. We went through two different co-ordinators before we got Kelly Marie and then things really took off.
2:47 Summer Fike
I’m Summer of Pumpkin Moon Farm and I have been here for fourteen years. I think Al Stewart and I are the longest time vendors now. And so I have seen this market grow from its infancy until what we have today, which is, um, a huge achievement for a small community in fourteen years. And what would I say? Um, I work in community development and I would say this market has been a tremendous example of what a small community can do when it rallies behind its local producers and the values of, um, fair wages for farmers, support for organic farming, support for small rural communities and put their money where their mouth is and make something happen.
So I’m tremendously proud to be part of this market and I think that we have, as a group of people who have committed to something and made it happen, we have a lot to be thankful for on this birthday day.
STICK NEWS
Kia ora in Stick News today the New Zealand kiwifruit export season has begun and it’s expected to be a bumper season.
New Zealand is the world’s second biggest producer of kiwifruit.
In New Zealand, most of the fruit is harvested in May and June.
The New Zealand Herald has reported the first shipment of kiwifruit has just left Gisborne almost two weeks ahead of last year’s season start.
The shipment is of 140,000 trays and is due to arrive Kobe, Japan on the 6th of April.
Kiwifruit marketing organization Zespri said they planned to capitalise on the early start to the season with aggressive campaigns.
They said the promotions will focus on the health benefits of New Zealand kiwifruit, supported by consumer competitions and nutritional campaigns in schools.
And that was Stick News for Thursday 26th of March.
Kia ora.
TDES Niseko Snow Report
in Hirafu
Thanks to: Daniel Yeo
Daniel was a guest on show 1005.
Have you spent seasons in any other countries?
I have. I’ve spent a season in New Zealand, ah, and in the US – a place called Winter Park. And then I’ve spent time in various resorts in Europe. This is my first season in Japan.
How does Niseko compare to the other places you’ve been?
The runs aren’t as steep or as long as the other places, but the snow here’s the best in the world. You can’t beat that, really, so … and plus Hirafu’s a great town to be in, so …
What’s been your best day on the mountain this year?
My best day on the mountain was about a month or so ago. It had just been snowing since the day before and it just bucketed down. Woke up and there was, you know, about half a meter or so of fresh stuff. And going up … went up through Miharashi and up to the top of Swinging Monkey and then came down through, through Rob Roy, or Roy’s Run, from the top there. And it was the deepest snow I’ve ever been in and the lightest snow I’ve ever been in and it was actually bottomless and it felt like I’d never, never hit the bottom. It was great.
Word of the Day
Today’s word is tremendous.
Tremendous means: very great, as in: a tremendous amount, or extremely good, as in: it was tremendous.
And the adverb is tremendously, as in: it was tremendously exciting.
In the video about the Wolfville Farmers’ Market one of the woman interviewed says the market is: a tremendous example of what a small community can do when it rallies behind its local producers.
And she said she was: tremendously proud to be part of the market.
conversations with sarah
#635 What’s a period?
Step 1: Repeat Taka’s lines.
Step 2: Read Taka’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Taka What’s the difference between a dot and a full stop?
Sarah A full stop goes at the end of a sentence but a dot goes above an i or a j …
Taka What about when there are three full stops at the end of a sentence?
Sarah Oh, then they’re called dots. Dot, dot, dot.
Taka You can’t say: full stop, full stop, full stop?
Sarah No. If there’s more than one full stop then they all turn into dots.
Taka And what’s a period?
Sarah Oh, that’s the same as a full stop. It’s American English.
links
today's news
today's STICK NEWS pictures
music
show start
artist: Boom Tschak
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: More Chocolate, Please
from: Former Yugoslavia
MySpace
The Acadia Report start
artist: DJ iPep's
album: Home Mix 2007
track: Concerto
from: EVREUX, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
nsr start
artist: Zeropage
album: Ambient Pills Update
track: Is It Real?
from: Switzerland
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
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: Wolfgang S.
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: Dynamite
from: Belgrade, Serbia, Former Yugoslavia
artist site
MySpace
qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site
qa bgm
artist: Triplexity
track: Afro Blue
artist at Jamendo
album at Jamendo
artist site
Have you translated this script - or part of it - into your language for English practice and published it on your blog? Please leave a comment and a link so other people can read your translation. Thank you.
Posts
