Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 December 29

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December 29

Oh the humanity

This phrase has never made sense to me. Any help? Temerarius (talk) 01:42, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Herbert Morrison (announcer) saying "There’s smoke, and there’s flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers screaming around here! I told you; it – I can't even talk to people, their friends are on there!" Maybe he is saying it would be inhumane to talk to people whose "friends are on there". Bus stop (talk) 02:15, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

I always took it to be referring to the mass of people on the ground, as opposed to the passengers. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:25, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

• I always thought it was obvious that it referred to the passengers, who he assumed were all dying as he spoke. --142.112.159.101 (talk) 05:23, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

• "The humanity AND all the passengers" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:13, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

• This is assuming something cogent is being said. Just because words come out doesn't mean someone is saying something. Bus stop (talk) 14:25, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

• Good point. Soon after that, he said it was the worst thing he had ever witnessed, and the anguish in his voice was plain to hear. So it could just be one of those things, like "one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:30, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

• tvtropes claims there was an interview where he said he was referring to the people on the ground, but i couldn't find it.—eric 04:07, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

• You may have heard Russ Hodges' famous call of Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning home run in 1951. As I recall from his autobiography some decades ago, he had little or no recollection of exactly what he said. A Dodgers fan who had been recording the ninth (hoping to capture a Dodgers pennant win) had no use for the tape, so he graciously turned it over to Hodges, otherwise his call would have been lost to history, and Hodges never would have known exactly how he called it. I wouldn't be surprised if Morrison didn't know exactly how he called the Hindenburg crash either, until he listened to his own recording. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:18, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

• You are correct. The Giants win the pennant. Bus stop (talk) 04:05, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the question is. Is the question about the adoption of the phrase by the general public or is the question about its original meaning as blurted out by Herbert Morrison? Bus stop (talk) 05:05, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Bus stop, the question is: it would seem normal to refer to a disaster as "inhumane," and to refer to an act of charity as "humanity." Why the curious reversal? Temerarius (talk) 00:49, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

"Humanity" is a large group of humans. It does not mean "an act of charity". And disasters are not "inhumane" unless they're done on purpose. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:56, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

But do see Humanity (virtue). --Wrongfilter (talk) 12:12, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

Another famous spur-of-the-moment-stream-of-consciousness outburst was by radio commentator Bjørge Lillelien, when Norway unexpectedly beat England 2-1 in a qualifier for the 1982 FIFA World Cup:

“We’re the best in the world! We’re the best in the world! We’ve beaten England 2-1 in football! It’s absolutely unbelievable! We’ve beaten England! England, birthplace of giants – Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana! We’ve beaten them all! Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, I have a message for you: We have knocked England out of the World Cup in football. Maggie Thatcher, as they say in your language in the boxing bars round Madison Square Garden in New York: Your boys took a hell of a beating!"

A recording of this now forms part of Norway's contribution to UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. [1] There's no logic to these sort of speeches; they just pour out, bypassing any filters on the way. Alansplodge (talk)

If the reader finds the above FIFA quote amusing, cf the page colemanballs. Temerarius (talk) 20:20, 3 January 2020 (UTC)

Going gassi

What does "going gassi" mean? I see it in the article Louise Schroeder: "In 1957 she was accidentally run down by US army tank (on occupation duty in Grunewald training range, Berlin) while going gassi with her German Shepherd dog 'Alter Fritz' and survived that not." That whole sentence seems rather dubious to me... Zagalejo^^^ 05:28, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

I just went ahead and removed the sentence, but I'm still curious what "going gassi" is supposed to mean. Zagalejo^^^ 05:33, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

This article says she died of a heart condition. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:19, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Thanks! Zagalejo^^^ 14:22, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Gassi gehen is a German expression meaning "to walk the dog". --Wrongfilter (talk) 07:46, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Thanks! Zagalejo^^^ 14:22, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

@Zagalejo: A slang term for "walk the dog". A "Gasse" is an alley in German, and that's where you walk the dog; so, the way you might say to an English-speaking dog, "Wanna go for a WALK? A walk?" you would say, "Gassi, gassi" to a German dog, meaning, "Alley, alley" which they associate with going for a walk. And start barking in anticipation. Barking in German, of course. (If there are wiktionary users here, the wikt entry ought to be expanded to include this.) Mathglot (talk) 10:36, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

@Mathglot: There is wikt:Gassi already... --CiaPan (talk) 12:06, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

Good catch, but that either should have been part of wikt:Gasse, or linked from it. Mathglot (talk) 12:23, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

@Mathglot: Linked? Done: wikt:special:Diff/58258461. --CiaPan (talk) 13:48, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

Thanks! Zagalejo^^^ 13:33, 30 December 2019 (UTC)