Quoting Gaelyne Gasson to Neil Skepper in message dated 16 Aug 1996:

 NS> GG> >
 NS>
 NS> Couldn't resist that one  8-)

 GG> I knew someone around here would just have to rise to the occasion.

I'm always willing to stand up when its required  8-)

 NS> GG> I did too, but my kids liked it.  I'm sure you and others would
 NS> GG> have cringed a lot more if you had heard the background Yank
 NS> GG> commentaries to this presentation.  It was obviously slapped
 NS> GG> together an hour beforehand with very little research.
 NS>
 NS> Funny, I heard exactly the same thing, that the response from most
 NS> non-aussies was rather positive. It would

 GG> Go visit the Email section for SMH sometime on the web.  I found it
 GG> amusing that most Aussies, even if they were in the US at the time
 GG> had that same cringing reaction.

If I get around to getting myself an account I will. Can't see it happrning
for a while though.

 GG> If it were presented as a "kids" thing, it mighta been ok, but to
 GG> represent the country, it fell short.

Maybe we shouldn't feel too bad. It could have been worse.
One of the kangaroos could have opened up to reveal a smiling waving Paul
Keating.  8-)

 NS> GG> And everytime they mentioned (their pronounciation) that
 NS> GG> Melboorrrnnnn was the site of the (insert year here) Olympics I
 NS> GG> corrected them.
 NS>
 NS> GG> Melbun!   (No one heard me though).
 NS>
 NS> Start getting your own back.....repeat after me.....

 GG> No, I just wanted my kids to HEAR it right!!

 GG> Mike is forever saying  Ossie instead Ozzie, and it just gets worse
 GG> from there.

He's only repeating what he's heard in the media.
You think with all those orthodontists and speech pathologists over there
they'd get it right  8-)

 GG> Detroit is funny.   It's about 100 miles south of me, and when you
 GG> meet a person from there, inevitably they're black.  In fact, the
 GG> one time Detroit made the news while I was in Oz, Rod's Mum leaned
 GG> over and asked, "Are they all black in Detroit?"   What the heck,
 GG> I'm 11,000 miles from the zoo, I thought...  "They are," I said
 GG> nodding.  

We've got a city full of Greeks. Only Athens has more greeks than Melbourne.

 GG> Anyway, it never fails.  "Yo mama.  I be from Deeeeeeeee-trot." 

In Melbourne it's "Pitt Street to the Quay? Twenty Dolla. No put feet
on dash."

 GG> It works both ways though. I truly ROFL'd the first time I heard
 GG> the commercial come on Australian tv for the movie "White Men Can't
 GG> Jump", with an Australian announcer reading the name of the movie.
 GG>  

We speak bloody bonza you silly yank tart.  8-) 

Cheers,

Neil.

--- timEd/386 1.10