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#30896 06/06/01 06:33 AM
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At last, someone actually got round to adding to my inaptonymic list! Squid, mate, no flies on you (as we like to say here in the Alice).

It is, I regret to say, all true about bad movies and Alice Springs. Last month a friend of mine was pulling focus on the set of some ghastly aussiewood extravaganza starring an animatronic kangaroo. The latest goss is that Julia Roberts is coming to town to immortalise Robyn Davidson's 70's desert trek: Camellen Brokovich?

BTW, in the meantime I've been reminded of another inaptonym: 'enervate'. And then there's 'uxorious', which sounds like anything but its meaning to me.


#30897 06/06/01 10:38 AM
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Enervate, certainly
Reactionary

Marianna


#30898 06/06/01 02:21 PM
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>surely someone can suggest a less inapt term

actually, inaptonym sounds too apt, thereby making inaptonym heterological (non-self-descriptive), or horribly inapt... ouch, my head hurts.

as an alternative, I propose diseuonym.


#30899 06/06/01 06:27 PM
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really rusty!
(Hmm, he's called rusty, which implies sort of red hair but i know red head are called bluey in Oz-- so he must have blue hair--

Just like Marge Simpson.. Interesting-- he didn't say he was retired, and Alice Springs doesn't seem like Palm Beach, --filled with blue haired grandmothers.. )

If you expect our thread to run straight-- blimey, you're at the wrong place!


#30900 06/07/01 08:33 AM
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Your syllogism, HoT, is (almost) impeccable. It rests however on the sadly erroneous assumption that I have hair. To speak of. Had Rusty hair, doubtless blue 'twould be. As it is, it's Rusty who's hairlessly blue.

While we're twisting threads, and speaking of lawyers in Alice Springs, I'll take this opportunity to pass on a linguistic inquiry by one of our judges earlier in the week. In the course of sentencing a local miscreant for a car sale fraud, in which vehicles were stolen in, say, Brisbane, and spirited to the outback with false plates and badges etc to be sold - a scam known as 'rebirthing' - His Honour said:

Nevertheless, in the scheme of things, his relative role in the conspiracy was comparatively minor. He did not engineer the scheme, finance it, cause the vehicles to be stolen, or the vehicles to be rebirthed - or is it reborn?

Well?


#30901 06/07/01 11:54 AM
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or the vehicles to be rebirthed - or is it reborn?

(Rusty, I picked the color to match your hair.)
I say rebirthed. I think it has to match the actual name of the act to which it was assigned.




#30902 06/07/01 12:50 PM
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vehicles to be rebirthed - or is it reborn?

Ships can be birthed and rebirthed. Cars can be rebored and convertibles can be born-again.
Rod


#30903 06/07/01 01:00 PM
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and if all the cars in Oz were red convertables, it would be a red carnation...

I would think "born again" since that is the most common expression i know.. rebirthing cars happens here too-- only its a worse scam. some states have stricter laws about what constitutes "totaled" (a car that for insurance purposes is a total loss) so a car that is totaled in NY can be re-born in a used car lot in alabama. Of course the poor sucker who buys it, is buying a lemon. and such rebirthing in US is unethical-- but can be legal.

and the law for what is totaled vary a good deal-- coastal state, often have stronger laws about water damage than inland states.. and in general, norther states have stronger laws than southern.. but not always.


#30904 06/07/01 01:15 PM
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a car that is totaled in NY can be re-born in a used car lot in alabama

I have a friend here in NYS who totaled the same truck three times. Nothing illegal about it. You just buy it back from the insurance company for a ridiculously low price and it's yours to do with as you will. It has to pass inspection to be street-legal. Selling a car that has serious damage without telling the buyer may or may not be illegal according to state law. Stealing a car is illegal in most states. Knowingly selling stolen merchandise may also be illegal; consult your local laws.


#30905 06/07/01 02:39 PM
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a car that is totaled in NY can be re-born in a used car lot in alabama

In the UK we use the term "ringing" for rebirth, or in the words of the Home Office document "swapping the identity of a vehicle they have stolen with that of a written-off or scrapped vehicle".

There is also "cut and shut" which is making one whole (but quite possibly dangerous) car from two write-offs or stolen cars.

Write-off=totalled of course.

There is a single agency in UK for vehicle registration and a proposal (don't know if it is law) for a Vehicle Identity Check for all reregistrations on written off vehicles to combat ringing. I'll just have to find a different hobby

Rod





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