Re: A bit of archaic terminology
I'll add two more: - A Dr Who episode in the 1980s showed the Master pulling a recording of all of history out of the TARDIS... it was a rather convoluted tape carrier, as big as he was. (I think the idea was it was supposed to be like a map, so you'd know where in history you were... but it was a tape. Even Isaac Asimov's stuff set thousands of years in the future tended to assume everything would be on tapes, or in some cases microfilm.) - We "turn out" the lights, even though they generally haven't been gas-powered since the nineteenth century. G.
Tech is rife with these: 37 examples of anachronyms - English in Progress <https://englishinprogress.net/blog/30-examples-of-anachronyms/> On Mon, Mar 2, 2026 at 3:42 PM gsteemso via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I'll add two more:
- A Dr Who episode in the 1980s showed the Master pulling a recording of all of history out of the TARDIS... it was a rather convoluted tape carrier, as big as he was. (I think the idea was it was supposed to be like a map, so you'd know where in history you were... but it was a tape. Even Isaac Asimov's stuff set thousands of years in the future tended to assume everything would be on tapes, or in some cases microfilm.)
- We "turn out" the lights, even though they generally haven't been gas-powered since the nineteenth century.
G.
Hello! To quote a (well dressed) good friend "I resemble that remark!". Yes of course I remember that scene but not the episode name. And Mike in the time of Star Trek as you've supposed they did indeed record information on tape. Dave M? If you're reading this on a handheld device shown to you by a tall fellow with a green hat, please rub it and his head for luck. Jeff I still see scoring caused by reptiles on those messages. ---- Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8@gmail.com "This signature was once found posting rude messages in English in the Moscow subway." On Mon, Mar 2, 2026 at 3:43 PM gsteemso via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I'll add two more:
- A Dr Who episode in the 1980s showed the Master pulling a recording of all of history out of the TARDIS... it was a rather convoluted tape carrier, as big as he was. (I think the idea was it was supposed to be like a map, so you'd know where in history you were... but it was a tape. Even Isaac Asimov's stuff set thousands of years in the future tended to assume everything would be on tapes, or in some cases microfilm.)
- We "turn out" the lights, even though they generally haven't been gas-powered since the nineteenth century.
G.
participants (3)
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Dean Notarnicola -
Gregg Levine -
gsteemso