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alkan

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  1. I don't understand this. You don't want to name and shame the person who actually committed the crime but you are prepared to blame everybody, adult or child, guilty or innocent, on the grounds that they share what you believe to be a name of similar origin. Nor do I understand @Guy Fawkes, surely @big dale was simply looking at a vaguely possible explanation. How can that be trolling?
  2. You don't think there is simply a large chunk missing from the story as reported? It would seem from what is stated that the only crime is that committed by the "university" in presumably collecting fees for services that they had no intention of providing.
  3. Slots are a minority interest on this forum.
  4. Wot, no savoury pies at all? Steak and Kiddley, Pork, Stargazy? Chinese pie? The Greeks have a rather tasty vegetable one. Perhaps opentops don't count though, you might have to include things like pizza and quiche as well.
  5. Hopefully reality and not the series, you mean.
  6. And very dashing I'm sure you looked. There is something about a cummerbund, though, silk, with a trail at one side and a dagger at the other....
  7. Did you mean a sash in the sense of cummerbund? Or as a Miss America contestant?
  8. I don't disagree at all with the benefits as described by yourself and @quoththeraven. My thought was simply and rather casually that 50,000 was too high a target for the people for whom it seemed to be intended. And, as I indicated, for some authors it would not ever be desirable. I was interested to see that they used a clunky old portable typewriter on their Home Page. Well I remember the struggles with carbon paper and stuck keys - my idea of revision and refining hell.
  9. 50,000 words in a month is a big ask, surely, unless writing to an established formula or under the influence of white-hot inspiration? Unlikely in either case, I would have thought, for someone who tries to do it merely as a response to a casual challenge. Good luck to anyone who took it on, though. I remember once visiting a certain famous essayist who was happy to produce one well-rounded and polished paragraph a day. I have to admit I found him almost unreadable even then, when I had most of my faculties.
  10. I "walked the walls" on my own and that takes you through some pretty rough neighbourhoods and in retrospect was probably not the best idea. At the time, though, it did not feel unsafe. In general I suppose taking the ordinary precautions that a single traveller should take will (probably) keep you safe, i.e. keeping to well-populated areas and not accepting invitations to go with someone you don't know to somewhere unknown. As for what you should see, you will get the greater value from the historic mosques and palaces if you read up a little in advance. This city has a truly fascinating past, long and diverse, and populated by a cast of unique and colourful characters, inspirational, mad and evil beyond comprehension in turn. The Topkapi Palace and the Hagia Sophia mosque are the main tourist sites, together with several of the grander mosques, all of which are organised for tourist visits. Of the smaller (not that much smaller) mosques, I would suggest the Sokullu Mehmed Pasha or the Rustem Pasha mosques, the first for the instructional design and the second for its eye-popping traditional decoration. The Saqarin is a more modern and quite stunning example of the genre. (Most mosques are named after an historical figure, or the patron who paid for them. Even a little research here will pay off in terms of added interest.) I would suggest that you spread out your mosque visiting so you don't, like me, get the details confused in your memory. If you visit most of these and add the covered markets and the Bosphorus cruise (I went up to the Black Sea and back, half a day, but even the ferry crossing to the Asian shore for lunch would be worthwhile), you can see that three or four days can be taken up. Add in a visit to the ancient cisterns under the city and perhaps the Dolmabahce palace for variety and you won't in five days have time for even one out-of-town excursion. The city has hotels in abundance in the full range of prices. The traditional wooden hotels are quite scarce but worth looking out for if you are happy with a less luxurious feel (not always cheap though and often in dark sidestreets.). Other forms of entertainment like belly dancing during dinner (oddly enjoyable) and Mameluke music together with experiencing the whirling dervishes as @Unicorn suggested are easily accessible to the interested visitor. Taxis are reasonably cheap and public transport useful though crowded. Beware of the suburban train services unless they have now decided to have doors on them! I could go on but as you see I am an enthusiast.
  11. My preparation for looking acceptable when going out - finding a classy paper bag to go over my head!
  12. In the areas around the east of London, it was, and still may be, the custom between friends and workmates to shorten names as much as possible. As my full first name has only three letters, the version they came up with for me was "E". At that time, this was the name of a well-known brand of beer. Nowadays of course, it would have different associations.
  13. Not quite what was being asked, but on the same lines. I had a regular, years ago, who used to cook for me when I visited him in his flat. I am a vegetarian but I didn't like to say no to the offered meat. (My original typing of this post had the word "kick" instead of "cook". What Freudian nightmare was that signalling?)
  14. alkan

    Matt Lauer

    Not sure really why you were quoting me in your post on this point as I was talking about public opinion, not what the criminal law says about it. I was trying to answer @MassageAdams point about it not really being rape because of the subsequent actions of the parties. That is where the legalism came in. It used to be the law in Scotland, I think, (It is the only legal system I know anything about, and then not much.) that you could not allege rape against someone with whom you had had sexual relations subsequent to the original action. My point was that perhaps you could not be held to condone an act that you had not understood. As regards the legal viewpoint, if we are going to bring that into it at all, does the fact that the offence seems to have taken place in Russia have an effect on how we should regard the matter? Another complication would then be that the original act as described would have been regarded at one time as sexual assault, not rape. (If I know nothing about US law, I know even less about Russian law.) But as you say, perhaps the criminal law is not involved so better not to invoke it.
  15. What @nycman says. But also, you can't control what happens after you are gone with 100% certainty anyway and, at that point, you won't be worrying about anything. All your concern happens while you are still alive and can take proportionate steps towards the desired outcome. A reasonable precaution to take in your case might be to attach a note to your home copy of the will, saying that UCLA holds another copy. That in itself might make anyone intent on destroying the will pause before taking action.
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