cars

Question:
I just noticed this. I'm watching ESP and I notice Foster gets in
his big 'old pink car, and..the steering wheel is on the left (IE,
US) side. Why might this be?

PS
And why didn't they launch Sky1 to blast the UFO before it hit the
farmhouse???

I believe most, if not all of the cars in UFO are left hand drive. They also drive on the right hand side of the road. As to why, this is merely a bit of speculation. I'm guessing that Gerry Anderson thought that in the future, Brits would have advanced to the point where they would drive on the side of the road where 'normal' people drive (just a bit of humor). : ) Most of the world drives on the right side of the road, in left-hand drive cars, not hat it matters...

Jeff

Brinke <[hidden email]> wrote:



Question:
I just noticed this. I'm watching ESP and I notice Foster gets in
his big 'old pink car, and..the steering wheel is on the left (IE,
US) side. Why might this be?

PS
And why didn't they launch Sky1 to blast the UFO before it hit the
farmhouse???









Yahoo! Groups Links









[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Anderson has said the he figured driving patterns would have been
standardized by the 1980s and that the "British" driving pattern would have
given way to the more prevalent worldwide standard of driving on the right
side of the road.

As I pointed out a few weeks ago, that's a mighty big assumption, if you
consider that there are NO right-side steering (i.e., British-type) cars in
the show (except in flashbacks). Whichs means EVERYONE would have either
gotten new cars or had their old cars converted in a matter of just 10
years.

And as someone else pointed out in response, all the british roadways would
have had to have been redone in that time period as well. A mighty big job.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Brinke" <[hidden email]>
> I just noticed this. I'm watching ESP and I notice Foster gets in
> his big 'old pink car, and..the steering wheel is on the left (IE,
> US) side. Why might this be?

These may have been discussed in this group a long time ago, but here goes:

1) Anyone notice that on a wall of instruments the word "computer" is
misspelled as "computor"? I believe it's some instruments at Shado HQ and it
shows up in several episodes (if not HQ, then it may be on Skydiver).

2) Fans of "Dr. Strangelove" might be interested to know that Tracy Reed,
(Foster's brief love interest in "The Dalotek Affair") plays Gen. Buck
Turgidson's (George C. Scott's) secretary, the one who is in the bedroom
with him when the phone rings.
I believe, but am not positive, that she's also the scantily clad centerfold
in the Playboy that Slip Pickens is looking through later in the moive. The
fact that IMDB lists her character in Strangelove as "Miss Foreign Affairs"
leads me to believe that's true.

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 07:14:49 -0600
"D Persica" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> 1) Anyone notice that on a wall of instruments the word "computer" is
> misspelled as "computor"? I believe it's some instruments at Shado HQ
> and it shows up in several episodes (if not HQ, then it may be on
> Skydiver).

Interesting one. In fact "computor" is the original British English
spelling, but like "programme" (only in the computing context however)
it was abandoned in favour of the US English spelling many years ago,
well before 1969 I think.

I think those are the only two US English spellings ever to have
been "officially" adopted in classic English, possibly because most
R&D in computing was being done in the US back in the '50s.

James

I noticed the spelling of "Computer" as "Computor", and at first put it down to being a mistake. However, could there be a reason for it being spelt as such? A calculator calculates, and is not spelt "CalculaTER", so perhaps whoever made the props and lettered them in that way reasoned that a computer computes, and as such should be a compuTOR.

Just a thought...

D Persica <[hidden email]> wrote:


These may have been discussed in this group a long time ago, but here goes:

1) Anyone notice that on a wall of instruments the word "computer" is
misspelled as "computor"? I believe it's some instruments at Shado HQ and it
shows up in several episodes (if not HQ, then it may be on Skydiver).

---------------------------------
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

hello dennis, hello all,

the reason for the "computor" is explained by it's latin origin. it is a
composite of "com", a frequently used modification of

- "cum", meaning "with, together", and

- "putare", meaning to put, to lay, to accumulate, to amass

so the original meaning of "com-putare" ist not to calculate, but to "put
together", "amass", "accumulate". which makes sense, as computers - strictly
speaking - don't do much more than accumulating plenty "0"s and "1"s at a
very
high level, don't they?

many (or even most? you know better than me) english (and german) words
basing on latin vocabulary are ending on "...OR", e.g. doctor (original
meaning, coming from "docere"= a well-taught, highly educated person =
scholar, savant), lector, creator etc.

some of them have been adjusted to every day language, ending "...ER", like
"computer", some have not.

i remember, in the 60's, they also had "computors" in the german TV-station
my my dad was working for.

elfriede, tormented for 5 years with latin at school :-)
(back to lurking mode and an overloaded desk)





----- Original Message -----
From: "MICK DICKENS" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 11:25 AM
Subject: Re: [SHADO] Trivia



I noticed the spelling of "Computer" as "Computor", and at first put it down
to being a mistake. However, could there be a reason for it being spelt as
such? A calculator calculates, and is not spelt "CalculaTER", so perhaps
whoever made the props and lettered them in that way reasoned that a
computer computes, and as such should be a compuTOR.