| David Richerby 2005-02-23, 6:50 am |
| Nick <nickbourbaki3@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
quote:
> When I read John Henderson's column for ChessBase (which placed
> Vera Menchik's death in Kent), I assumed (whether correctly or not)
> that John Henderson was referring to Kent in a contemporary context,
> *not* in a historical 1944 context. Given that John Henderson was
> writing for an international audience and most readers at ChessBase
> should not have been expected to know anything about the historical
> changes in England's internal borders, I believed that it was
> reasonable to assume that John Henderson was referring to Kent
> in a contemporary context. If John Henderson had intended to
> refer to Kent in a historical 1944 context, then he should have
> added such a note of explanation.
This is true. Perhaps he just saw that the address ended `Kent' so
said `Kent', not realising that the borders had changed. That's pure
speculation, of course.
quote:
>
> Phil Innes's original statement (above) referred to a place in
> North London being 'just a few miles away from her house', which
> I had been led (by John Henderson) to believe was in Kent.
>
> On some occasions I have said something like "I'm going out to
> walk for just a few miles", and on those occasions I never have
> walked as far as 'about fifteen miles'. I *could* have walked
> 'about fifteen miles', but then I would *not* have described
> it as 'just a few miles'.
Sure. I used Blackheath as an example because that's the closest place
to central London that I know for sure used to be in Kent. There are
probably better examples.
quote:
> The V-1 had quite a reputation for inaccuracy, often landing nearly
> at random.
They were targeted by being pointed in a particular direction and given
enough fuel to fly x miles. They only hit London at all because it's
such a big place.
Dave.
--
David Richerby Indelible Flower (TM): it's like a
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ flower but it can't be erased!
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