WW2 PoW stuff:

[Joefour]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

Do you know the last time I heard that, I was standing in the Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch listening to a Welsh male-voice choir. I'd gone to Holland with my dad on his (as it happens) last veterans' anniversary trip.

It was unbelievable the way even young people outside in the City streets were running up to these old guys with flowers and hugs as they marched by. I really can't see us Brits demonstrating our gratitude in quite such a manner if it'd been us. We'd probably hide indoors until they'd gone.

Aktungbby gets all the credit for providing the historical contexts (see his link above, but I don't know what happened to his original reply)

You folks over in the old world still have some respect for yesteryear. Here in the States what was once a branch of european culture has been systematically destroyed and done in such a way that the populace never even noticed. Rap has become the norm; one idiot Supreme Court Chief Justice's misinterpretation of separation of church and state back in the 50's has resulted in things like grade school kids being sent home with a nasty note from the teacher because Junior said grace before he ate his lunch. In Oregon you will go to jail if you are caught swatting your misbehaving brat. Culture has broken down. I should shut up and get off my soapbox-this isn't Hyde Park. Sorry for the rant.

[Eichhörnchen]

Originally Posted by August

Here's a good one:

Stalag 17

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046359/

Otto Preminger as camp commandant!



This is the movie that inspired the TV show Hogans Heroes. Even has a character named Sgt Schultz (played by Sig Ruman).

Well I didn't know that either, and I'd forgotten all about Stalag 17. What a great photo, and wasn't William Holden in this movie? It's another one I still haven't got...

[Eichhörnchen]

Originally Posted by Joefour

You folks over in the old world still have some respect for yesteryear. Here in the States what was once a branch of european culture has been systematically destroyed and done in such a way that the populace never even noticed. Rap has become the norm; one idiot Supreme Court Chief Justice's misinterpretation of separation of church and state back in the 50's has resulted in things like grade school kids being sent home with a nasty note from the teacher because Junior said grace before he ate his lunch. In Oregon you will go to jail if you are caught swatting your misbehaving brat. Culture has broken down. I should shut up and get off my soapbox-this isn't Hyde Park. Sorry for the rant.

No you go ahead, pal. Don't we all sometimes wish we were the Commandant sitting behind the big desk in a prison-camp?

[Platapus]

Just watch the movie "Chicken Run" and you will get the best of all the POW movies.

[Joefour]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

No you go ahead, pal. Don't we all sometimes wish we were the Commandant sitting behind the big desk in a prison-camp?

Don't encourage me, I tend to go off with things like that. It's just that the US of A today is an entirely different place than the US of A when I was a kid. Things really started to go south when JFK was killed in Dallas.
There would have been no Viet Nam, for one thing, which split the nation asunder. He also had plans to trash the Federal Reserve (which by the way, is not part of the Federal Government but rather a private corporation) and put this country back on a debt-free currency.

I'm going to shut my face now and let you go to bed. I realize that you Brits are about 9 hrs. or so ahead of me, and it's 4:00 P.M. here.

[Eichhörnchen]

My God, you must live a long ways from here; my sister went to live in PA in about 1963 and she's five hours behind us...

By the way, I'd been fishing out frogspawn in a jar from a pond the day JFK was killed.

[Eichhörnchen]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Just watch the movie "Chicken Run" and you will get the best of all the POW movies.

Absolutely agree. I've got a 13 year old son so we get to see all this stuff. Current favourite is "Rango": really funny. Took him to see "Planes 2" last week.

[Joefour]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

My God, you must live a long ways from here; my sister went to live in PA in about 1963 and she's five hours behind us...

By the way, I'd been fishing out frogspawn in a jar from a pond the day JFK was killed.

Pacific Daylight Time, about 35 miles south of Seattle. The day Jack Kennedy was killed, I remember being in the 3rd grade in elementary school. We were taken from our classroom to another one down the hall where the school's only television set was set up and the live news was going with all the reports coming in.

Frogspawn-is that what we here in the "colonies" call tadpoles?

[Eichhörnchen]

It's still mind-boggling to me that we can be communicating with such immediacy over such a vast distance.

Frogspawn is while it's still frogseggs to us.

[Joefour]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

It's still mind-boggling to me that we can be communicating with such immediacy over such a vast distance.

Frogspawn is while it's still frogseggs to us.

The internet is indeed a wonder.

[Eichhörnchen]

Do you, as I suspect, have a background in linguistics?

People who know languages have much more insight into their neighbours on the planet, I think. So what do you reckon the Germans make of the British and U.S. male's habit of seeming to be able to regard them only in the context of the war? It's often not a negative context, either: when we make models, the most popular tables at shows always seem to be the ones covered in German stuff. And when we were kids playing War, everyone wanted to be the Germans. And one of the most popular comedians over here is a German, because he makes us roar with his own references to the war.

I feel sad and rather guilty as a Brit now when I hear young Germans saying they feel bad about the war, because they weren't there, but it doesn't seem to stop us picking away at this, because we still make shows like 'Allo 'Allo (do you know it?)

[Joefour]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

Do you, as I suspect, have a background in linguistics?

People who know languages have much more insight into their neighbours on the planet, I think. So what do you reckon the Germans make of the British and U.S. male's habit of seeming to be able to regard them only in the context of the war? It's often not a negative context, either: when we make models, the most popular tables at shows always seem to be the ones covered in German stuff. And when we were kids playing War, everyone wanted to be the Germans. And one of the most popular comedians over here is a German, because he makes us roar with his own references to the war.

I feel sad and rather guilty as a Brit now when I hear young Germans saying they feel bad about the war, because they weren't there, but it doesn't seem to stop us picking away at this, because we still make shows like 'Allo 'Allo (do you know it?)

Never heard of 'Allo, 'Allo. To answer your question, yes. I suppose you could call me an amateur linguist. Ever since my german teacher in high school, Herr Peerenboom got me interested. I could never understand english grammar until I had studied german. One thing that I find fascinating is word origins, such as curfew-from old french "couvrir le feu", cover the fire, or companion- "with bread", the person you break bread with. As far as how young germans feel about the war, I'm not going down that rabbit hole publicly.

[Eichhörnchen]

My Dictionary of English Etymology is always close by.

If you've never heard of 'Allo 'Allo then you've missed a treat. It's a rather pantomimic comedy series set in occupied France, with an extremely vulgar take on things as you might expect from us, though without any bad language. In the same style of the "Carry On" films, if you know what I mean.

Or how about "Dad's Army", then, a comedy series about the Home Guard? If you've never seen that then you've missed absolute Comedy Gold: the best thing ever made for TV by anyone.

[Kptlt. Neuerburg]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

My Dictionary of English Etymology is always close by.

If you've never heard of 'Allo 'Allo then you've missed a treat. It's a rather pantomimic comedy series set in occupied France, with an extremely vulgar take on things as you might expect from us, though without any bad language. In the same style of the "Carry On" films, if you know what I mean.

Or how about "Dad's Army", then, a comedy series about the Home Guard? If you've never seen that then you've missed absolute Comedy Gold: the best thing ever made for TV by anyone.

I love 'Allo 'Allo, I've got the whole series on DVD and it's one of the best WW2 comedies I've ever seen! Here's a couple of YT vids for you Joefour just to kind of get a "taste" of 'Allo 'Allo. Also on YouTube there's a playlist someone put together of what seems like the whole series. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...BKDQJu4dA3tfCV

[Joefour]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

My Dictionary of English Etymology is always close by.

If you've never heard of 'Allo 'Allo then you've missed a treat. It's a rather pantomimic comedy series set in occupied France, with an extremely vulgar take on things as you might expect from us, though without any bad language. In the same style of the "Carry On" films, if you know what I mean.

Or how about "Dad's Army", then, a comedy series about the Home Guard? If you've never seen that then you've missed absolute Comedy Gold: the best thing ever made for TV by anyone.

About the only British shows that make it over here on the "telly" on a regular basis is what brought in by PBS (Public Broadcasting System, free but donation based television channels). Upstairs, Downstairs, Are You Being Served?, Benny Hill, etc. I think Downton Abbey and the Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett are two of the best series you Brits ever came up with. Good stuff. It's a crying shame Jeremy Brett died of cancer before they could do all of Doyle's Sherlock stories-he was the best Holmes ever, bar none. And they followed the original storylines fairly close to the printed plots.