Ahh. I can see the wings of the bird now that you pointed it out. The lack of parabolic arc for the dropping also threw me. Unless it was a hovering hummingbird of course…
C,tAH has a point. Anything dropped from a bird or airplane (or a bat I suppose) in flight will not fall straight to earth as depicted in the fifth panel, but will follow a curved path. That’s how bird poop ends up on your windows.
I have no idea why WordPress has dubbed me pjfq3x99us. I used to be Ooten Aboot, so shouldn’t they call me pjfq3 x99ca?
The trajectory of the dropping will depend on many factors, including the speed of the bird, the force of the evacuation and wind. It is possible for it to drop straight if, for example, the bird is effectively hovering and now wind. Not many birds do this, but this bird does not have the characteristic “action” (scary quotes not intended) lines typical in cartoons. Then again neither do the two evacuating the pool. They obviously saw the dropping before it hit as they are clear of the water just as the dropping is entering the water or very quickly thereafter.
The thing is, Mitch4, I have never heard any Canadian (except recent arrivals from Scotland) actually pronounce “out and about” that way except in jest. In normal speech both out and about rhyme with pout and spout, not with hoot and boot. I suspect the oot and aboot myth originated from U.S. contact with Nova Scotians a century or two ago.
Incidentally, the usual American pronunciation of the phrase sounds to Canadian ears – mine anyway – like “āowt and abāowt” but we don’t mock it – at least not in front of our American friends.
Yeah, it’s not “aboot”, and it varies across Canada how strong it is. What it is (per my dad the linguist) is a “tense” vowel. Say “about” but keep your lips tense LIKE you’re saying “aboot” and you’ll reproduce it.
Much like the “Asians say ‘L’ for ‘R’ and vice versa”, it’s not that simple. The Asian thing is more “Their ‘L’ is closer to an ‘R’ than ours”, and same for R vs L.
Yes indeed! There is a problem with this because of the conventions of spelling with oot, which as you point out is used in a parodic or at least exaggerated way that is unrealistic. But that corrective does not mean that there is just no such thing (in some parts of Canada) as that vowel raising. … And as indirect evidence that you have provided :-) , to say that you notice how some typical U.S. pronunciations differ from your own is also to accept, conversely, that your speech differs in these points from general U.S. speech.
I remember back a while (probably the 90s?) there was an effort by the Canadian tourist board to get Usanians to come visit their lovely country, so they were running ads on TV. The ads were a montage of various scenes and bits of in media res action overlapping and fading into each other, and in the subtlest of background conversations, you hear one guy talking to another guy about what he’s doing for the weekend involving enjoying the water, so in the end, the conversation wraps up with the one guy summarizing, “So, you’re going out and about in a boat?” in the appropriate accent. It was so subtle as to almost be subliminal, but I thought it was really nicely done.
I know a few Canadians, mainly my uncles and aunts and cousins, eh? Or at least the family came down from Canada many generations ago, eh? So they live in upstate New York and upstate Vermont but they never lost their Canadianness, eh? I never heard them say “oot” or “aboot” but there is one very Canadian thing they all do when they talk, eh?
I visited the province of New Brunswick numerous times with my family. Most people there said “oat” rather than “oot”,
There was one notable exception, however. A young tour guide at a chocolate factory reminded me of the Lighthouse keeper in the Warner Bros. cartoon shouting about a “moose loose in the hoose”. Perhaps it was a Scottish derived accent?
Comics I Don't Understand 
It’s a bird dropping, making the pool suddenly less attractive.
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Ahh. I can see the wings of the bird now that you pointed it out. The lack of parabolic arc for the dropping also threw me. Unless it was a hovering hummingbird of course…
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C,tAH has a point. Anything dropped from a bird or airplane (or a bat I suppose) in flight will not fall straight to earth as depicted in the fifth panel, but will follow a curved path. That’s how bird poop ends up on your windows.
I have no idea why WordPress has dubbed me pjfq3x99us. I used to be Ooten Aboot, so shouldn’t they call me pjfq3 x99ca?
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Yes, I always thought of you as “Canadian Raising” :-)
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The trajectory of the dropping will depend on many factors, including the speed of the bird, the force of the evacuation and wind. It is possible for it to drop straight if, for example, the bird is effectively hovering and now wind. Not many birds do this, but this bird does not have the characteristic “action” (scary quotes not intended) lines typical in cartoons. Then again neither do the two evacuating the pool. They obviously saw the dropping before it hit as they are clear of the water just as the dropping is entering the water or very quickly thereafter.
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It also doesn’t help that the bird looks more like a pufferfish shot straight up from the pool.
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The thing is, Mitch4, I have never heard any Canadian (except recent arrivals from Scotland) actually pronounce “out and about” that way except in jest. In normal speech both out and about rhyme with pout and spout, not with hoot and boot. I suspect the oot and aboot myth originated from U.S. contact with Nova Scotians a century or two ago.
Incidentally, the usual American pronunciation of the phrase sounds to Canadian ears – mine anyway – like “āowt and abāowt” but we don’t mock it – at least not in front of our American friends.
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Yeah, it’s not “aboot”, and it varies across Canada how strong it is. What it is (per my dad the linguist) is a “tense” vowel. Say “about” but keep your lips tense LIKE you’re saying “aboot” and you’ll reproduce it.
Much like the “Asians say ‘L’ for ‘R’ and vice versa”, it’s not that simple. The Asian thing is more “Their ‘L’ is closer to an ‘R’ than ours”, and same for R vs L.
Phonemes are phun!
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Yes indeed! There is a problem with this because of the conventions of spelling with oot, which as you point out is used in a parodic or at least exaggerated way that is unrealistic. But that corrective does not mean that there is just no such thing (in some parts of Canada) as that vowel raising. … And as indirect evidence that you have provided :-) , to say that you notice how some typical U.S. pronunciations differ from your own is also to accept, conversely, that your speech differs in these points from general U.S. speech.
LikeLike
I remember back a while (probably the 90s?) there was an effort by the Canadian tourist board to get Usanians to come visit their lovely country, so they were running ads on TV. The ads were a montage of various scenes and bits of in media res action overlapping and fading into each other, and in the subtlest of background conversations, you hear one guy talking to another guy about what he’s doing for the weekend involving enjoying the water, so in the end, the conversation wraps up with the one guy summarizing, “So, you’re going out and about in a boat?” in the appropriate accent. It was so subtle as to almost be subliminal, but I thought it was really nicely done.
LikeLike
I know a few Canadians, mainly my uncles and aunts and cousins, eh? Or at least the family came down from Canada many generations ago, eh? So they live in upstate New York and upstate Vermont but they never lost their Canadianness, eh? I never heard them say “oot” or “aboot” but there is one very Canadian thing they all do when they talk, eh?
LikeLike
I visited the province of New Brunswick numerous times with my family. Most people there said “oat” rather than “oot”,
There was one notable exception, however. A young tour guide at a chocolate factory reminded me of the Lighthouse keeper in the Warner Bros. cartoon shouting about a “moose loose in the hoose”. Perhaps it was a Scottish derived accent?
LikeLike