Welcome, Visitor,
My enthusiasm for Paul Potts is even greater thanks to the impact of this You Tube video. This post is drawing more traffic than of any of the 2,200 published here in three years of blogging. Links in the first comment are worth following if you're interested in Potts' progress.
If you have the time, please look around. Feel free to leave a comment. My interests are eclectic and my opinions eccentric by most measures. But I'm having a ball blogging into my retirement. And at this point, I'm not trying to get you to buy anything.
Thanks for reading.
Hoots
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From the pearls before swine department...
Sorry. I couldn't resist. Television talent shows are as old as the medium. It's a sure-fire format that will always be around. Ted Mack, Arthur Godfrey, The Gong Show...I remember way back.
I'm not a stickler for grammar, but Britain Has Talent would be just as easy to understand and wouldn't contribute to the vulgarizing of the language as much as Britain's Got Talent. I don't expect the Queen's English from the USA but from the UK I expect better.
This one's a treat. Worth a minute or two of your time.
Thanks, Josh Claybourn.
Bloggers are all over this story.
I think we are all very hungry for something to just make us feel better. What better way than to see an unmistakably ordinary guy with such a gift carried with uncommon modesty?
How could anyone not want to see him do well?
And I swear the first line of this post was written before I found this.
There is also a Wikipedia article published within hours of his first success.
Followup, November 25, 2007...
Paul Potts was a guest on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday this morning. He now is selling a CD and is touring the US.
7 comments:
Paul sailed through the semi final last night as well.
He posts over at OneCompare.com a lot so if you want to leave a message of good luck to him for the final on Sunday head on over!
What is so wrong with "Got"? British Standard English is not intrinsically better than Non-Standard varieties.
RE: "What is so wrong with "Got"? British Standard English is not intrinsically better than Non-Standard varieties."
It's not the "Got" on its own that is the problem. Because it has "Britain's" before it the full non-apostrophised title would be. "Britain Has Got Talent". "Has Got" is bad grammar in this case.
This is because "has got" can only be used when followed by an adjective or adjective statement, i.e. "grammar has got worse/grammar's got a lot better". But, when you're talking about something or someone possessing something else, you should drop 'got' as this is a tautology.
For example, Simon has a black T-shirt, his criticism has got better and Piers has no idea about talent.
You should read "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss. She highlights a letter that killed many people because of bad grammar. It conveyed the opposite message because of a few missed punctuation marks and people actually dies because of it.
Next week: Less vs. Fewer, LOL.
I recognize that grammar on the internet is not usually given much weight by bloggers and others posting on the internet; but when one is complaining about others' grammatical missteps, one ought to check one's own grammar a bit more carefully than done here. E.g., subject-verb agreement.
Just my two cents.
Oops. Stones and glass houses again. My bad. While you're at it, don't forget pop buzz words and phrases, sentence fragments and split infinitives.
About Paul's performance(s) that I have seen thanks to the services of 'YouTube' and Hoots' site.
The last time that I can remember a musical performance like Paul's, that raised the hair on my neck and put a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye, was by the violin virtuoso, Michael Rabin in a performance in the early 70's, some 35 years ago.
Inherent, genuine, extraordinary talent, honestly and generously given to those of us who cannot possibly measure up to their standards but cheer them on and hope for nothing but good things for them and their families.
Bravo, Paul !
Like you, I have received more comments from new Paul Potts fans than anything else I have published in the past two years. There is something special and big going on with Paul Potts and I have a feeling his new album, "One Chance" will amaze many skeptics when it shoots to number one on the charts without significant radio station airplay.
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