De Beauvoir Cycle Gang Strikes Again

Yes. it can also mean "brightly coloured or patterned"

Racist and homophobic. Reported.

That's the sort of thing only a German would do :-)

Actually, two rival academic movements tried to do just that to English. One group wanted to graft made-up Latin and Greek-derived words into the language, to make it more like the classical ideal and make pretend that we were the natural inheritors of Greco-Roman culture. The other group wanted to return it to a Germanic purity that had probably never existed. The first group won, mostly. If they hadn't, Stephen Fry wouldn't have a cushy job arguing about the plural of Octopus on BBC2.

De Beavoir vigilante ride

1. dommyracer
   
2. Chukker
   
3. Khorn
   
   

Seriously, how many lfgss's live or ride around there? A bike version of the guardian angels is what we need.

Just a wee heads-up

A cyclist was attacked in De Beauvior this evening...there has been a spate of attacks over the last 2 months. Some of the punks were caught...seems their back?

There were 3 police staking out the area when I went by 20 minutes ago, (but they won't be there all the time guys!) they recommend to stick to the main roads at night.

Basically avoid like the plague: Northchurch Road meeting Culford and Lawford Road.
Its the intersection where the bollads are (no car access and minimal lighting), heading through to DB square and onto Kingsland Road.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=de+beauvior+town+london+n1&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=41.139534,90.263672&ie=UTF8&hq=de+beauvior+town&hnear=London+N1,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.541671,-0.081636&spn=0.003957,0.011019&z=17

(I read about the attacks on here, but I could not find the original thread to post in)

I saw 3 kids getting a talking to by 2 coppers on that junction last week, was only around 6pm but it made me think of these attacks. Probably completely unrelated though.

And I'm sure once they are arrested they will be given a hard 5 year prison sentence and not be out to commit exactly the same crime 18 months later?

or even less than 18 months, think weeks

De Beavoir vigilante ride

1. dommyracer
   
2. Chukker
   
3. Khorn
   
   

Seriously, how many lfgss's live or ride around there? A bike version of the guardian angels is what we need.

A few of the North East polo crew live close by.

Mike, this post belongs on thisislondon, not here.

The cops nicked 2 kids 2 months ago for doing exactly this in exactly the same area, which hardly suggests that they aren't doing anything.

It so happens that some of the kids that hang around there occasionally come to watch polo. So I have met some of the kids that you are suggesting should rounded up & shot. I guess you mean these kids, because they hang around on the street near the junction of Culford, Lawford & Northchurch. They all seem like nice enough kids.

Yeah you are right, I didn't mean round them all up. Obviously. It's hard to be impartial when you are mugged on your doorstep by these exact same scumbags. Having had your head smashed against the wall and kicked in the ribs a few times when you are down, before being relieved of all your possessions.

The level of crime in that very small radius is shocking and I am sure there is more the police could be doing.

The problem is its a heavily residential area with hardly any off licenses/pubs/restaurants which has created a dark/dead zone, that is also traffic (car!) free....unlike the bright lights of Kingsland road 100meters away.

I'll provide sausage rolls and mulled wine for the vigilante riders : )

I understand that. FWIW, I was nearly subject to one of these attacks some years ago in De Beauvoir Sq. I only escaped because I was riding an 8 Freight, and the guy who was trying to have me off was put off by the width and, although he connected with his punch, he didn't bring me down.

^ My hero... blushes

I only escaped because I was riding an 8 Freight, and the guy who was trying to have me off was put off by the width and, although he connected with his punch, he didn't bring me down.

WTF is an 8 Freight?

De Beavoir vigilante ride

1. dommyracer
   
2. Chukker
   
3. Khorn
   
   

Seriously, how many lfgss's live or ride around there? A bike version of the guardian angels is what we need.

you would all look silly in berets

He must have been on crack.

I look great in a beret, guess it's a latin thing...

I look great in a beret, guess it's a latin thing...

In *your *opinion Joe.

http://wyclefjean.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/che-guevara-albertokorda-1950.jpg

fuck me thats big

sorry

. I only escaped because the guy who was trying to have me off was put off by the width

(titters)

(yes, Oliver, all traffic)

Oops, this just reminded me that I forgot to reply to this:

People do not say it all the time. People in a particular field of interest may write it in dry technical documents and web pages because they wish to be precise.

It's not lazy shorthand, it's perfectly valid colloquial usage. For it to be lazy the person using the term would have to be aware that they should be prepending the adjective, and for the most part they are not. Is "United Kingdom" lazy shorthand for "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, its territories and dominions?"

To use the term 'motor traffic' yourself may be considered precise, but admonishing someone else for not using it is definitely pedantic.

That's the sort of thing only a German would do :-)

To use the term 'motor traffic' yourself may be considered precise, but admonishing someone else for not using it is definitely pedantic.

You did get the joke, didn't you? ;)

But seriously, in a nutshell it's quite simple. The meaning of 'traffic' is clear. It hasn't changed with majority usage. That people are not 'aware that they should be prepending the adjective' is a symptom of an ignorant prejudice that has developed on the back of the UK's very great motor dependence (higher than that of any other large European country, although some smaller ones come close). It is perfectly possible to be called lazy for a failure of just falling in with general usage without thinking.

This sort of shorthand that is by no means only a concern of specialists--people genuinely lack the understanding that 'traffic' can work in another way, as with 'traffic' being taken over by a wrong meaning in their minds, they then lack the concept. Words are not only words--they have an important role to play in people's access to concepts.

can you conduct your tedious discussion via pm please? i want to read if the chavs have stopped beating up yuppies on bikes in de beauvior town

lol..

I cycled through De Beauvoir the other day, I was shitting it because of this thread.. all I encountered were a collection of young people wearing Barbours in an ironic way and old people wearing Barbours whilst walking their labradors...

anti climax.

I meant to reply to this, Oliver, you are right, technically speaking, but Niall is right that in colloquial use traffic has evolved to mean motor traffic.

For example, if I said "There is a lot of traffic down my road" most people would think I meant motor vehicles, expect my flat to be noisy, and be surprised if they arrived at my flat to find our road is very quiet. Lots of people on bikes go past, but very few motor vehicles.

People don't say 'motor traffic' or 'pedestrian traffic' or 'cycle traffic' in spoken English. Language evolves, and you might not like the direction it evolves in, but the only certainty of language is change, and you can't control that. Take it from a linguist. =)

'cycle traffic' = 'bloody cyclists' in popular parlance.

I hate the word comfy. I think it is an inelegant and pointless contraction of comfortable. I had assumed it was a modern concoction, along with many other efforts to butcher the language, but no; people have been indirectly pissing me off since 1829 and it's a perfectly acceptable word to use. I'm yet to get over it.

/barely relevant word and word-use related thread derailment