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More hijinks from Sam and inadvertently gets in the way.

Punchbot falls to pieces over the repairs.

Pintsize arrives for his weekly defrosting.

Jeph moves onto a different storyline.

Steve and Cosette eat a new type of cereal.

Something something humorous and witty comment.

[OldGoat]

Yeah, Southern accents, and particularly the Southern Appalachian accent, are associated in a lot of minds with lack of intelligence or education. Unfortunate, but that's the way it is - if you want people to see you as an educated person you have to lose that accent. It wasn't so much an issue when she was at Duke University, but there is no way Harvard would ever have hired her if she spoke with her mother's accent.

That's why UK "public schools" taught "Received Pronunciation," so one could move on to "university" without an accent of lesser social status.  For all I know they still do.  Can the UK folks confirm or deny?

[Pilchard123]

I don't think so, but then I never went to a public school (I assume you mean fee-paying, selective "public schools", not schools for the peons plebs poor people general public). Its certainly not something that some of my friends who went to those schools seemed to pick up. Also, given that a lot of the top universities are likely to have people from all over the world studying there, accent probably isn't as much of an issue as it used to be. But Oxford or Cambridge, I forget which, did catch a lot of flak recently for being too elitist. That may include preferring students from RP-favouring backgrounds.

That said, I do come from the south-west and we all talk like farmers down yur; I also never went to a conventional university. pwhodges or Thrillho might say differently, since they're nearer to one of the big universities (I can't remember which).

[pwhodges]

I was never taught a pronunciation, nor did my schools try to do so (well, except Latin, for which I was taught two - one in the classroom, and one in the choir).  But I already spoke that way (RP, or BBC English, as you prefer), as my parents did...  Nor did this have a bearing on the fact that I subsequently worked at the BBC for a period.

[Gyrre]

I'm still trying to figure out where "you'uns" comes from. Where I grew up (Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio) it was the plural of "you," as in "Are you'uns coming over for supper this Sunday?"

Probably "you ones," probably evolved from "young'uns" (young ones). 

I recently got gibed for sounding like a TV network newscaster (Pacific Northwest accent).

I grew up in Wichita, KS, so I've been asked by Oklahomans and Nebraskans if I'm from NYC because I have the Midwestern city accent (the one newscasters are supposed to emmulate). Before anyone asks, yes, rural Kansans do have a little bit of a drawal. It's more pronounced along the Missouri and Oklahoma borders, but only in the tiny "towns" (villages and hamlets).

[Gyrre]

BTW, it should be pointed out that y'all along with basically the entirety of the Southern accent stem from the accent of 1700s English nobility.

[OldGoat]

I grew up in Wichita, KS, so I've been asked by Oklahomans and Nebraskans if I'm from NYC because I have the Midwestern city accent (the one newscasters are supposed to emmulate). Before anyone asks, yes, rural Kansans do have a little bit of a drawal. It's more pronounced along the Missouri and Oklahoma borders, but only in the tiny "towns" (villages and hamlets).

I was told in high school that the closest thing there was to neutral English was the Des Moines, Iowa non-accent, so that seems to fit with the "Midwestern City" name. 

WRT British "public schools," my understanding is that it referred to boarding schools where all meals were taken "in public."  Makes as much sense as any other explanation I've heard.  (On this side of the Atlantic Pond it's strictly "publicly funded.")

[TheEvilDog]

Public Schools in the UK rose from charity schools for poor scholars, where the term public referred to that the idea to access to them were not restricted to religion, home location or occupation. They've since had a long association with the upper classes.

Grammar schools were secondary schools (high schools) where admittance as based purely on ability, with the idea that students who attended would go onto higher level education, more than likely university.

Comprehensive schools were based on the other end of the spectrum and the most recent, serving a particular catchment area and where students were expected to learn a trade when they left.

[comicalArchitect]

It occurs to me: as of a few days ago, Marten and Dora have been broken up for half the strip.

[Gyrre]

I grew up in Wichita, KS, so I've been asked by Oklahomans and Nebraskans if I'm from NYC because I have the Midwestern city accent (the one newscasters are supposed to emmulate). Before anyone asks, yes, rural Kansans do have a little bit of a drawal. It's more pronounced along the Missouri and Oklahoma borders, but only in the tiny "towns" (villages and hamlets).

I was told in high school that the closest thing there was to neutral English was the Des Moines, Iowa non-accent, so that seems to fit with the "Midwestern City" name. 

I've also heard it called a 'cosmopolitan accent'. Though, I'm also asked if I do radio voice over or that I should.

EDIT: I suppose I should point out that I have a grandfather from Wisconsin, a grandma from Illinois, a step grandma from SW Nebraska, a grandma from Missouri, and a grandpa from Tennesse (I think). Yes, somehow they all ended up in Kansas.

[pwhodges]

Comprehensive schools were based on the other end of the spectrum and the most recent, serving a particular catchment area and where students were expected to learn a trade when they left.

Not quite: those were "Secondary Modern" schools - about fifty years ago Comprehensives replaced both Grammar (except those that chose to go private) and Secondary Modern schools, handling the full range of abilities and backgrounds in a single institution, with the benefits of breaking down some class barriers and reducing marginalisation.  They were often successful, but class barriers put up from outside by parents often compromise the principle to this day.  The current government has expressed a desire to return to creating Grammar schools, which has been much protested against as deliberately socially divisive (the Prime Minister is proud of having gone to one).

[JimC]

Hmm. In my day we grammar school kids were regarded as academically superior to the students who'd gone to public (eg private) schools. In my time at Imperial College I don't ever recall any class barriers at all - in those early 70s days it would have been regarded as highly uncool.  There must have been a considerable social mix because I remember a considerable variety of accents - particularly one lass from up country Devon who needed an interpreter in the local shops when we were on a field course in the Clyde Estuary (lowland Scotland).

The minority of working class kids who got to grammar schools had virtually guaranteed social mobility - one only has to compare the Tory Government of Thatcher and Major with that of Cameron. The trouble is the whole debate is riddled with ridiculous political assumptions (on both sides) and any kind of rational evaluation and discourse is impossible.

[Thrudd]

The trouble is the whole debate is riddled with ridiculous political assumptions (on both sides) and any kind of rational evaluation and discourse is impossible.

Politics and rational thought go together like .... no, not oil and water .... or a match and gasoline ...... more like a plasma furnace and puppies. 

[BenRG]

Politics and rational thought go together like ....

• Water and molecular Sodium;
• Frankenstein's monster and ballroom dancing.

[traroth]

A fist and an eye

A chicken and a hair comb

[Zebediah]

Frankenstein's monster and ballroom dancing.

Not exactly ballroom, but:

 

[Is it cold in here?]

Global Moderator Comment

Is there anything more about that week in the comic?

[Gyrre]

Politics and rational thought go together like ....

• Water and molecular Sodium;
• Frankenstein's monster and ballroom dancing.

Pacemakers and electromagnets.

[USS Martenclaire]

The trouble is the whole debate is riddled with ridiculous political assumptions (on both sides) and any kind of rational evaluation and discourse is impossible.

Politics and rational thought go together like .... no, not oil and water .... or a match and gasoline ...... more like a plasma furnace and puppies. 

Or Donald Trumps and White Houses?