Insane---Mad

[Eric Alan Weinstein]

At 00:52 01/08/97 EDT, you wrote:
>Quoth davemarc re the use of various words to mean addled, mad,
>irrational: 
>
>> I've been mulling over P's use of the word "insane"
>>throughout M&D.  It strikes me that he uses it in a slightly offbeat 
>>way, though I suppose it might not've been so unusual back in 1763 or
>so.  
>
>I am not the one to say, but it seems to me that "insane" is particularly
>British.
>
>Chris

I think "mad" is British English for insane, as it is American English
for "angry." Except in the US expression "Mad about You" for 
crazy for you---a la Paul Shlockmeister's TV show. There is a British
version of the show, by the way, which uses exactly the same scripts,
but British actors. And it doesn't use London or Jewish inflections
as well as the original used NY, which is a pity. If the buggers had
only paid me the £120,000 I asked for, it would have been a better 
show. Hey, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys, babe. Does anyone
realise how much a really good swizzle stick is these days?

Eric Alan Weinstein
University of London
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk