'lympic spoilers

[fox]

dudes. gymnastics still isn't a sport, but damn, that was exciting.

i approve very much of young paul not believing he'd won -- and not in that half-assed way you normally see people being all can't-believe-i-did-it, but genuinely not believing it happened. (i do not, however, approve of his voice.)

Comments

Have swum

[wholenother.livejournal.com]

It's bad enough when non-swimmers get that one wrong. When swimmers get it wrong, I want to cry. I once had a discussion about had swum/had swam with a man in his fifties who is on my team and who simply refused to believe/pretended to refuse to believe that "swum" could possibly be a word. We ended up hunting down a dictionary at the coffee shop, and the discussion ended in, "well, that just ain't right." Grr.

Re: Have swum

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

actually it wasn't a yelling-at-the-TV-to-correct-the-commentators thing, though. this was yelling at the TV to encourage the swimmers -- only because of the tape delay, yelling "swim! SWIM!" was even less likely than normal to do a damn bit of good. but we couldn't just not yell, after all, so we started yelling "have swum, damn you! have swum faster!"

there aren't too many languages where it's that easy to make a present perfect imperative. :-)

Re: Have swum

[wholenother.livejournal.com]

Oh. Teehee. I heard one of the U.S. women's 4 x 200 swimmers say "had swam" and figured jgesteve was referring to that. I refrained from yelling at her, figuring it wouldn't do much good and, besides, she had just broken a record that had standed for 17 years. Who could blame her? The fact that yelling doesn't do much good doesn't stop me from yelling, "drop it! drop it!" at opposing teams' outfielders in baseball, though. What can I say?

We leave tomorrow. I know you're crazy-busy, but any chance you could do any stopping by tonight?!?

Re: Have swum

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

i'm waiting to hear back from this attorney on what tomorrow is supposed to look like. i'm also waiting (probably in vain) for Hour Eyes to call me and tell me my right contact lens is here. so although i hope to leave here in an hour and a half, i don't know what i can do tonight. :-( :-( :-(

but i will say this:

she had just broken a record that had standed for 17 years.

[lowers chin, raises left eyebrow][you know precisely the face i'm making right now]

Re: Have swum

[wholenother.livejournal.com]

I did it on purpose! :p Would "she had just broke a record that had stood" have been better? What about "she had just broke a record that had standed"?

Just call if you end up free, how's that?

Re: Have swum

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

yes, "had stood" would have been correct.

she'd just broke a record what done been standin' ...

Re: Have swum

[wholenother.livejournal.com]

Um, why, yes, it would have been correct, but if people can say "had swam," can't I mock them by saying "had standed"?

Re: Have swum

[wholenother.livejournal.com]

. . . or mock them by saying "had broke," for that matter. I just didn't think to use "break" incorrectly.

Re: Have swum

[wholenother.livejournal.com]

Hmm, and reading his message again, I can't see how I could have interpreted him to mean after the race when he clearly said watching . . . as we screamed.

Re: Have swum

[merrycontrary.livejournal.com]

Dear lord, I love you, woman! I will be screaming "have swum" at all future Olympic swimming events. And damn don't I wish I had been reading my flist this week so some of these comments would be at all timely.