doesn’t make it a real word! I hate stupidity. And I met a woman who clearly does not know how to THINK for herself. There was a community input meeting at a local elementary school. In a room she called a ... auditeria, or maybe it was cafeterium. "A what?!" I said, "That’s not a word!"
"Oh yes, it is," she insisted. "The county made it up, so it’s a word."
"Just because the county makes it up does not make it a real word." I insisted.
[RANT]
She was miffed. And she insisted she had done some teaching. She didn’t even speak like an educated person! Later, she was going on about how we should just accept the new building plans because they were going to build something and if we didn’t accept this it could be worse. And she went on about using "undeveloped land" as if nature were to be avoided! She also thought it was up to the county to do the right thing and we should just be quiet and let them get on with it.
Against fools, even the gods strive in vain, AgDrgn.
At least, that’s my theory. At work, I have a sign on a stick that says "activate nitwit filter", which I can pick up and hold high anytime I feel that it’s appropriate. (Of course, I’m supposed to be creative and wierd, so I can get away with some things that most people couldn’t). Actually, it doesn’t happen that often, but still…
One of MY pet peeves is this: we’re admiring a print of, let’s say, Miro, Modigliani or Picasso. Some idiot pipes up and says, "My three-year-old could have painted that." If I’m in a good mood, I simply say, "No, they couldn’t." If I’m in a bad mood, I may use the F-word.
- PW
who can forgive almost anything before stupidity
Running in circles, perhaps. Actually, I’m somewhere else entirely. :)
I don’t really give a rat’s ass if my icons jump or not. Wonderful though it is to have some, um, diversity in the group.
Please desist in running around me, though. There’s always the risk of a Dervish effect. I’m very easily confused. Sudden movement can trigger who knows what?
- PW
who enjoys teasing Miss Katy almost as much as she apparently enjoys teasing me
Many schools have a cafetorium or cafeterium; it acknowledges the room’s dual use. Our theater is labeled "classetorium", since two sections of it can be rotated to create three spaces for classes to meet if necessary. We don’t call it that, but apparently they were proud of the concept when it was built.
Maybe schools could pioneer other multipurpose rooms such as a librasium, a place to read, do research or play basketball, or even an adnauseum, an all purpose room. ;D
[quote author=demijohn link=board=idiom;num=1054693194;start=15#17 date=06/04/03 at 16:00:26]
To be hotly debated by the local school [s]board[/s] bored.
DJ
"In the first place God created idiots; this was for practice. Then He created school boards."
-Mark Twain
Words are always being made up and entering the language. Look at snafu, from WWII. (The AHD as the first uncensored definition of snafu that I’ve seen.)
It’s easy to see the origins of auditeria, cafeterium, and cafetorium, and perhaps they are more desciptive than Multipurpose Room. Still, I’d worry less about what a room is called by Homo bureacratus scholasticus and more about whether H. b. s. designed the entire school to meet current and projected needs.
I’m not certain this particular room was actually designed. Well, ok, it had a stage with steps and minature fake cafeteria tables strewn about. What a dam depressing place. In fact, I don’t think I’ve been in any school in Baltimore County that wasn’t depressing!
No, I don’t think the schools were designed for then current and future capapcities. In this area they are all overcrowded. The rule is that schools can be 115% capacity before the county even thinks of not allowing more building. This is AFTER the icky portables and trailers are put up. But then, if there is a district that is even one child under that, surrouonding district developments are allowed to build. Even though no child is going to be going to that other school.
This sucks. In fact, ... Ooops. I’m about to rant again. I don’t mind if new words are made up. I mind that they are made up by government types and then mostly to hide inadaquacies, and I mind idiots embracing them with thoughtless energetic excitement. This is the same woman who thinks the government is going to take care of things appropriately and that it isn’t her role to be concerned.
Around here the portables start to go up between the time the new school building is completed and the time it opens for the first day of classes. This is because someone has cooked up a theory that there is an optimum size for a K-5 school, and the school boards obligingly eat it up, regardless of the realities of the population they serve.
