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Thoughts on life - glurge warning
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 9020" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Glurge is the generic name (not purely Aussie) for the sort of sentimental, tear-jerker stuff that people send to other people. A lot of glurge is accompanied with messages like "if you're a genuine, warm-hearted loving person you will post this to all your friends. if you're not then I won't receive a copy back from you," sort of thing. The emotional blackmail link is common to glurge but not essential.</p><p></p><p>And occasionally, something crops up that is really worthwhile, in my opinion.</p><p></p><p>I found a link that defines glurge - <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=glurge" target="_blank">http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=glurge</a></p><p></p><p>When I look at it, I'm not sure if this qualifies. But it comes close. Still, I like it. It's not about any specific incident, which makes me feel more comfortable about sharing it. So often the "true" stories aren't. And that gets me annoyed.</p><p></p><p>Hoax emails are of the sort where you get a warning about a situation or problem, such as the story about a bloke waking up after a party, in a bath of ice with a note on his chest telling him to get himself to hospital because his kidneys have just been removed for sale on the black market. These sort of things are usually spread around to discredit or damage a particular place. Sydney copped that particular one from about mid-1999, apparently aimed to turn people off wanting to visit Sydney, even though in Australia there is no way any organs can be purchased for transplantation in Australia. Even blood donors don't get paid here.</p><p></p><p>But glurge - not necessarily a warning, just a heart-warming message often about little Betty or Johnny, who never had shoes to wear to school until a kind person gave them some money; now little Johnny (or Betty) owns a shoe company which provides shoes to homeless people, or some similar message. Generally untrue, just made up to sound more inspirational.</p><p></p><p>Sorry about the slow link to dial-up, Barbara. We've only just gone on to broadband ourselves. It's not a joke or anything, just something a bit sentimental.</p><p></p><p>About language variations - we first noticed this back in the Sixties when my sister spent a few years in the US & Canada. We had a brand of sticky tape which turned out to be a brand of prophylactic over there. She got into a lot of trouble at work when hunting for the tape.</p><p></p><p>Then sister in law spent a year in Iowa as an exchange student. She found the language really puzzling and the amount of swearing (generally four-letter words referring to various bodily functions) a bit hard to handle. Then SHE said something which offended her host family. While for us, blasphemy is a category which includes references to the Almighty Himself without it being relevant, any other Biblical reference, such as to purgatory (and other names for it, often associated with the classic Aussie adjective) are not an issue for us. I remember reading "BC" comics and seeing one where a character is walking around holding a sign "War is heck" and the person was saying, "This is a FAMILY strip, pal." I didn't get it.</p><p></p><p>Basically, some words are more or less offensive, depending on where in the world you go. And it's not just words - some gestures mean totally different things in different countries. That's less of an issue between Australia & the US, it's more Europe & Africa. And Japan. But I do know that if I ever visit the US I'm going to have to watch my mouth.</p><p></p><p>And it does make for some difficulty in translating some jokes.</p><p></p><p>For those who saw our pretty pictures of children and references to trains as a metaphor for life, I hope you enjoyed it. For those who couldn't - undoubtedly it will go round again. And again. As they do.</p><p></p><p>But this one, we liked.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 9020, member: 1991"] Glurge is the generic name (not purely Aussie) for the sort of sentimental, tear-jerker stuff that people send to other people. A lot of glurge is accompanied with messages like "if you're a genuine, warm-hearted loving person you will post this to all your friends. if you're not then I won't receive a copy back from you," sort of thing. The emotional blackmail link is common to glurge but not essential. And occasionally, something crops up that is really worthwhile, in my opinion. I found a link that defines glurge - [url="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=glurge"]http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=glurge[/url] When I look at it, I'm not sure if this qualifies. But it comes close. Still, I like it. It's not about any specific incident, which makes me feel more comfortable about sharing it. So often the "true" stories aren't. And that gets me annoyed. Hoax emails are of the sort where you get a warning about a situation or problem, such as the story about a bloke waking up after a party, in a bath of ice with a note on his chest telling him to get himself to hospital because his kidneys have just been removed for sale on the black market. These sort of things are usually spread around to discredit or damage a particular place. Sydney copped that particular one from about mid-1999, apparently aimed to turn people off wanting to visit Sydney, even though in Australia there is no way any organs can be purchased for transplantation in Australia. Even blood donors don't get paid here. But glurge - not necessarily a warning, just a heart-warming message often about little Betty or Johnny, who never had shoes to wear to school until a kind person gave them some money; now little Johnny (or Betty) owns a shoe company which provides shoes to homeless people, or some similar message. Generally untrue, just made up to sound more inspirational. Sorry about the slow link to dial-up, Barbara. We've only just gone on to broadband ourselves. It's not a joke or anything, just something a bit sentimental. About language variations - we first noticed this back in the Sixties when my sister spent a few years in the US & Canada. We had a brand of sticky tape which turned out to be a brand of prophylactic over there. She got into a lot of trouble at work when hunting for the tape. Then sister in law spent a year in Iowa as an exchange student. She found the language really puzzling and the amount of swearing (generally four-letter words referring to various bodily functions) a bit hard to handle. Then SHE said something which offended her host family. While for us, blasphemy is a category which includes references to the Almighty Himself without it being relevant, any other Biblical reference, such as to purgatory (and other names for it, often associated with the classic Aussie adjective) are not an issue for us. I remember reading "BC" comics and seeing one where a character is walking around holding a sign "War is heck" and the person was saying, "This is a FAMILY strip, pal." I didn't get it. Basically, some words are more or less offensive, depending on where in the world you go. And it's not just words - some gestures mean totally different things in different countries. That's less of an issue between Australia & the US, it's more Europe & Africa. And Japan. But I do know that if I ever visit the US I'm going to have to watch my mouth. And it does make for some difficulty in translating some jokes. For those who saw our pretty pictures of children and references to trains as a metaphor for life, I hope you enjoyed it. For those who couldn't - undoubtedly it will go round again. And again. As they do. But this one, we liked. Marg [/QUOTE]
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