gripe

[Paul Mackin]

On Thu, 21 Mar 1996, Dennis Jones wrote:

> "Is the baby smiling, or is it just gas? 
> Which do you want it to be?" (p.131,Picador edition). Gas? I recognised a 
> loaded line when I saw one, but 'gas'? It took two cups of tea and a visit 
> to the ty bach, but the penny finally dropped (so to speak). Wind! "... or 
> is it just wind?". Ah yes! All became clear. Odd though that TP had chosen 
> to revert (if that's the right word) to American English in a piece embedded 
> in a British section`. Maybe that's why it threw me.

Yes, GR does seem scrupulous about keeping americanisms out of
where they wouldn't seem to belong. 

Question: do the Brits ever use the word 'elevator' in place of
'lift'? Reason I ask is because on the second page of GR (in the dream)
it says "the evacuees are taken in lots, by elevator--a moving . . . "
					
 
> P.S.  Can anybody tell a newcomer what originally sparked the great IJ schism?

Ah, so you want cause and effect. 

I think it was never more than an assumption, based on a misunderstanding, 
arising out of a jumped-to conclusion, left unresolved in a characteristically
p-listian fashion. (Mario wants to know what this has to do with tennis.)

			:)  P.