tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post113559466352781979..comments2023-11-05T12:59:29.404+02:00Comments on Csíkszereda musings: Paula's birthdayAndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11294221123964774524noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-76804912794745749972009-12-22T12:20:16.054+02:002009-12-22T12:20:16.054+02:00I KNEW i should have checked the score before writ...I KNEW i should have checked the score before writing that!! Can you find the team too? Gerry Francis was playing for QPR and i THINK Terry Venables may still have been stumbling about in a hooped blue shirt.<br /><br />Interesting Post Script: All the beds in the maternity ward had names - Dede was in the Queens Park Rangers bed. <br /><br />I was rather pleased she wasn't in the next bed, which was the Percy bed.Ken Wilsonhttp://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-72429779818614542942009-12-22T11:52:58.359+02:002009-12-22T11:52:58.359+02:00Thanks Ken, another great story! And happy recent ...Thanks Ken, another great story! And happy recent 34th birthday to Anya<br /><br />(No I have no idea how this ended up about political correctness - I hadn't looked at it for a couple of years, and it surprised me too when I revisited it this morning)<br /><br />(By the way, because I'm slightly anal and obsessive about these things I looked up the match - and in fact QPR drew 1-1 with Derby :-) http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=48024 )Andyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11294221123964774524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-29667911665875395372009-12-22T11:37:58.902+02:002009-12-22T11:37:58.902+02:00How on earth did this lovely story about a baby be...How on earth did this lovely story about a baby being born skew off into a debate about political correctness??<br /><br />We also have a December baby, our second daughter Anya. She was actually due on 10th January, so I thought there would be no problem attending a QPR game on 13th December. My friend Pete came round, and we went off for a drink. Unusually, Dede insisted that we take sandwiches to the match. Sandwiches?? To a soccer match?? <br /><br />Reluctantly, I agreed to come back from the pub and pick up the sandwiches before heading off to Loftus Road. (B/ground info: This is December 1975, and QPR are second in the old First Division.<br /><br />We arrive back at our third floor flat over a wine shop in Earls Court Road to find Dede tapping hard on the kitchen table as she finishes the sandwiches. <br /><br />You are SO right about women not understanding pain. 'It's just stomach ache,' she said. 'Go to the match.'<br /><br />I didn't have a car and no one answered my 999 call for an ambulance, and there were no empty taxis in the street, so Dede and I took the underground to the hospital. By this time, she was in some pain, and people on the train were staring at us in disbelief.<br /><br />Anya was born at 3.30pm. Instead of watching her birth, I might have been at a soccer match (no mobile phones in those days, remember!)<br /><br />QPR won 1-0.Ken Wilsonhttp://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-7347898410183075522007-01-08T10:24:00.000+02:002007-01-08T10:24:00.000+02:00'women basically have no realistic concept of pain...'women basically have no realistic concept of pain'<br /><br />verry funny ! ;-pAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1136594001390801692006-01-07T02:33:00.000+02:002006-01-07T02:33:00.000+02:00I just realized that I misspelled Paula's name in ...I just realized that I misspelled Paula's name in my recent post. I'm sorry. I like Paula better than Paola too.<BR/><BR/>-KristenAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1135992347073727192005-12-31T03:25:00.000+02:002005-12-31T03:25:00.000+02:00Paola is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful! She look...Paola is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful! She looks quite content, too.<BR/><BR/>Why weren't you in the delivery room, Andy? When I thought about Paola's birth, I pictured you there to witness the event.<BR/><BR/>Happy 2006! It's going to be a very memorable year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1135875054720109252005-12-29T18:50:00.000+02:002005-12-29T18:50:00.000+02:00Andy, fortunately for you, unlike me, you do not s...Andy, fortunately for you, unlike me, you do not seem to have been exposed to attacks by virulent Romanian nationalists who would like to expunge the use of Hungarian place names from all but Hungarian. They would censor/censure the title of your blog, demanding that you use the Romanian name since the territory belongs to the Romanian state may only be referred to in English with the Romanian name. It is politically correct to avoid giving offence by pandering to this, thereby denying the local Hungarian population's perfectly legitimate sense of belonging to ttheir home. It is politically correct to overlook/ignore the history of Transylvania as part of Hungary, regardless of the population mix. I did not want to have to spell this out to you as it leaves me open to charges of being a retrograde Hungarian nationalist or some other similar slur on my reputation (the reason I prefer to preserve my anonymity).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1135863926819772222005-12-29T15:45:00.000+02:002005-12-29T15:45:00.000+02:00Hey Andy congrats! I'm glad to hear all are health...Hey Andy congrats! I'm glad to hear all are healthy and welcome little Paula to the world!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1135841947108117352005-12-29T09:39:00.000+02:002005-12-29T09:39:00.000+02:00No, I still don't see how it is politically correc...No, I still don't see how it is politically correct. I understand what politically correct means, but I think to use it in this context further devalues the term beyond all meaning. Romanians refer to Csikszereda by its Romanian name - Miercurea Ciuc. I fail to see what is PC about this. I (as a native English speaker) refer to Venezia as Venice, Al Quds as Jerusalem, and Krung Thep as Bangkok, without regard for the population of those places. Am I being PC or non-PC?<BR/><BR/>Hungarians refer to Wien (or, as I would have it, Vienna) as Becs. Where does this lie on the PC/nonPC continuum?Andyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11294221123964774524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1135807451367465932005-12-29T00:04:00.000+02:002005-12-29T00:04:00.000+02:00I don't get the PC comment either. I am Transilvan...I don't get the PC comment either. I am Transilvanian, have Romanian, Hungarian and German blood but had always trouble understanding the high intensity behing the bilingual names argument. Tomato/Tomahto. Anyway, cute baby!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1135802099210897752005-12-28T22:34:00.000+02:002005-12-28T22:34:00.000+02:00Andy, I think Romerican fairly well encapsulates t...Andy, I think Romerican fairly well encapsulates the meaning of the section of my comment, which you queried. Although there is a certain anti-intellectualism in some of the populist declarations of aversion to politically correct language I should point out that what I object to in the automatic application of the Romanian term to Csíkszereda, for example, is, as Romerican pointed out that it denies the authentic claim of the local population to belonging there. I have visited Csíkszereda for research purposes (the anthropological atelier having a reputation beyond Romania's borders), which is the chief reason I peruse your blog.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1135762976951210012005-12-28T11:42:00.000+02:002005-12-28T11:42:00.000+02:00I have made a conscious decision to use the name u...I have made a conscious decision to use the name used by the majority of the population of that town. Hence Csikszereda and Udvarhely before their Romanian equivalents, but Cluj and Brassov (for example) before the Hungarian ones. It gets a bit tricky with places like Marosvasarhely/Targu Mures though.<BR/><BR/>However what do you mean by political correctness? In what way is using the Romanian names for the towns political correctness? I suspect PC is an expression used to actually mean "something that I disagree with". Really, I have no idea what you mean by that piece of your comment.Andyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11294221123964774524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7689571.post-1135671741173923042005-12-27T10:22:00.000+02:002005-12-27T10:22:00.000+02:00I enjoyed this piece (in general, I appreciate you...I enjoyed this piece (in general, I appreciate your use of the place names in Hungarian first and Romanian second, refreshingly realistic in the light of the local population and history as opposed to the misplaced political correctness that insists on using the Romanian to the exclusion of every alternative). The sentence concerning the "bits of old sterilisation machines" made me shudder, a chilling reminder of the past.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com