Comments on: Prediction: “It will be a girl. At least one of her names will be Diana.”

By: Steve Bloom

Steve Bloom — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 21:35:00 +0000

And George it is. How unadventurous.

By: Steve Bloom

Steve Bloom — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 05:44:48 +0000

Albert (traditional family name, BTW the actual name of KGVI, father of Liz, who in honor of his own father chose George as a throne name). OTOH maybe Albert is considered a little too Belgian at this point, and the usual “Bertie” might remind people too much of Wooster. We shall see soon enough.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 00:28:38 +0000

Also, in America, someone “knocks you up” and you’re pregnant. In the UK someone “knocks you up” and you have tea or something.

By: Byron

Byron — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 00:20:58 +0000

And you buy tickets from a guy that sells tickets for sold out events … never a “scalper”

By: Eric Lund

Eric Lund — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 17:05:32 +0000

To me “delivered of the child” makes it seem as though some illness has been remedied.

It’s an archaic phrasing which reflects a time when a pregnant woman ran a substantial risk of dying in childbirth. In those days, a mother who survived the birth and produced a healthy child could indeed be said to have had a difficult medical condition remedied.

By: JohnR

JohnR — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:48:42 +0000

I like Jethro, but I’ll go out on a limb here and predict that the new Prince will be named Williamanmary; a fine, traditional name too long lost from the Royal family. Alternatively, if they want to play to their (nominal) Saxon roots, Hengist is a good name. That way, he can have a wife (or horse) named Horsa when he matures.

By: dean

dean — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:31:42 +0000

Your prediction is likely better than mine, but wouldn’t KIng Steve (King Jethro) be cool?

Didn’t realize common phrases differed so much. To me
“delivered of the child” makes it seem as though some illness has been remedied.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:10:38 +0000

Dean, British lingo regarding birth, etc. is fundamentally different than American. A woman “falls pregnant” and is later “delivered” of the child.

I predict the new royal will be George.

By: dean

dean — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 14:47:45 +0000

I predict the new royal will be named Steve (or possibly Jethro).

Question: How does the construction

… was safely delivered of a son

work grammatically?

By: Greg Smith

Greg Smith — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 12:51:37 +0000

They are sacrificing the first prediction for the payoff of winning points on the second. If there’s a high % that a girl will have ‘Diana’ in its name, then that’s a prediction you can safely make, but only by first predicting it’s a girl. Even if the probability of ‘Diana’ being used for a girl is not high (I’m no expert on how royal names are chosen, but skeptical on this) then you still get to play to people’s emotions who want a Diana, which is what making ‘psychic predictions’ is really about.