The next phase of the English language...

Chris F Waigl chris at LASCRIBE.NET
Wed Jun 6 22:19:50 UTC 2007


James A. Landau posted something in base64:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> Subject:      The next phase of the English language...
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> PERJViBzdHlsZT0iZm9udC1mYW1pbHk6QXJpYWwsIHNhbnMtc2VyaWY7IGZvbnQtc2l6ZToxMHB0
... is apparently cryptic. base654 -> HTML -> text, but I didn't correct
the non-latin characters which made your email client send base64 in the
first place. (The listserv software is unable or not configured to
correctly handle transfer-encodings. What you sent was a correct e-mail,
and the garbled way it's displayed is also according to the protocols
and standards). Decoded:

> My daughter sent me the following:
> I don't know if you heard of the lolcat meme, or if it's been
> discussed on the ADS list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolcat
> for definition)...
>
> ...or if you saw this sonnet by abi sutherland:
>
> I in ur sonnet, doin ur ritin.
> How do this hapn? I just a kitty.
> Main job of catz are just 2B pritty!
> (‘Cept with the doggies, then us be fitin.)
> Course back in da old days catz was workin
> Eatin ur mouses an axin fr milk…
> Now giv me treatz or me clawin ur silk!
> An bring em here fast, none of ur shirkin.
> U humanz r comin under r powr
> Uzin ur money to pamper n feed us,
> Learnin from websitez how much u need us.
> R clvr planz is comin to flower!
> Now mousie are safe in his tiny holz
> Nless u go catch him. I da boss. LOL
>
> ...but now it's become big in the snarky academic side:
> http://community.livejournal.com/loltheorists/
>
> Rachel
>

Personally, I'quite enchanted by Francis Heaney's rendering of _This Is
Just to Say_
(http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009050.html#191265):

oh hai
you had some plums
but I eated them
I is sorry

they had a flavor

Pictorial versions for example here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/larryb/513668996/

Chris Waigl

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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