A little help with something strange...??

[Poizyn]

I heard someone speaking about a speech made and the speaker said something like "the problem with the french is that they dont have a word for Entrepreneur". Can anyone tell me who the speaker was and what the speech was about?

[squarebear]

George Bush is rumoured to have said it to Tony Blair when discussing the decline of the French economy.

However, it is an urban legend and totally untrue. It's another story to illustrate President Bush's lack of intelligence.

[Quizmonster]

Supposed lack of intelligence. The problem is that most people who so suppose have probably got a school certificate in Religious Studies and Geography, for example, whilst President Bush has degrees from both Harvard and Yale!

[derrynoose]

Why does he pronounce 'nuclear' as 'nucelar', then?

[Quizmonster]

So, you believe mispronunciation is evidence of a low IQ, eh, Derrynoose. Dear, oh dear! Listen to TV newsreaders, for example...they regularly say Wensday, Febuary, vunribble and a host of other 'mispronunciations'. Are they all a bit dippy, too? If an Irishman says he's "Oirish", is he by definition mentally challenged? I'll bet I could talk to you - or just about anybody else - and be able to point out a mispronunciation within five minutes.

[Fink-Knottle]

... nevertheless Quizmonster, and more to the point, Bush's demeanour and penchant for malapropisms do nothing to indicate that he is anything but an arriviste plonkah.

Education can train,but not create,intelligence.

I have both R.E. and Geography at 'O' level btw.

cheers!

[Poizyn]

I agree with Fink. Although he may have degrees from both Universities it means nothing if he's a right git. I know several people with degrees in many things, yet on occasion they seem to have the intelligence of a drawing pin and personalities to match. But that wasn't really the topic of my question. Questioning Bush's intelligence is another matter entierly.

By the way, thank you all for answering my question :-)

[Quizmonster]

My reference to university degrees, Poizyn, was purely in response to Squarebear's and Derrynoose's mentions of intelligence or signs of its absence rather than to your specific question.

I notice that your user-name is green which normally means you are a relative newcomer to AnswerBank. I have to advise you that this sort of 'diversion' will often happen here. That is, answerers will feel perfectly free to respond to other answerers rather than just the original questioner.

Fink-Knottle, I have nothing but admiration for your educational achievements! I merely wished to point out that a) a tendency to malapropisms has nothing necessarily to do with low intelligence and b) Yale and Harvard are among the world's most prestigious universities and a qualification therefrom is surely evidence of a reasonable level of IQ, however maladroit the person gaining it may be in other respects.

And there I shall leave the matter.

[VillageVicar]

Quizmonster: You made me smile when you reminded me of President Bush�s degrees from Harvard and Yale.

Closer to home, at the Royal Society of Chemistry, Professor Sir Richard Norman bestowed the fellowship of the institute upon the venerable (hah!) Elena Ceausescu. This was to recognise her life as a distinguished scientist, who had dedicated herself to �macromolecular experimental chemistry and the stereospecific polymerisation of isoprene, on the stabilisation of synthetic rubbers.� And just a day later, she was made a �Professor, Honorius Causa,� by the Polytechnic Institute of Central London.

But it�s a known fact that the honourable (I�m trying to speak kindly of the dead) woman couldn�t mix a cup of tea, much less isoprene in a test bottle! And whilst Elena didn�t suffer from malapropisms her almost freakish outbursts of profanity, at the most inappropriate moments, suggested that she actually was either wrestling with a hefty case of Tourettes syndrome or was just a common piece of gutter trash with the intelligence of a slug. I suspect the latter.

�Street smarts� sometimes far excel �book smarts.� But neither ensures the beneficiary has sufficiently grasped the dynamics of social skills to prevent them from appearing as utter morons. But as the world has seen, compassion for those �special� individuals reigns strong, as some countries even vote them into office.

:-)

Fr Bill

[derrynoose]

Just for accuracy, Quizmonster, my post re pronunciation was made after you mentioned degrees in yours.

[abstibus]

So, Quizmonster, you are now the de facto arbiter of pronunciation on AB. I shall defer to you in future when I try to order a pavlova, for example. Where should I put the stress?

[abstibus]

Quizmonster
I don't have a qualification in either RE or Geography.
You omitted a comma in front of the non-defining relative clause in the second paragraph in your 06/10 post at 7.52 to Poizyn. Shame on you!
See, I can point out a punctuation mistake in less than five minutes, and there I shall leave the matter.

[Quizmonster]

Since we have moved on to punctuation, I feel free to add further comment here.
You merely reinforce my point, madam! You caught me fair and square in a punctuation error - well, typo, really - and my IQ is in the 150s. A perfect illustration of my argument that errors of language, whether written or spoken, have nothing whatsoever to do with intelligence. My thanks for your supporting evidence.
If - as appears to be the case - you are having difficulties with pronunciation, I would recommend a good dictionary. Regarding your current problem, click here and, once on the linked site, click on the two red loudspeaker icons in turn for alternative pronunciations of 'pavlova'. It is an American dictionary web-site, but I have heard both in British usage, too.
I am not familiar with Russian, but I suspect that - for the actual Russian name, as opposed to the Australian dessert - the stress is on the opening syllable. Your lower-case �p' and the notion of �ordering' one suggests the dessert, of course. That, I myself would stress on the second syllable, as do Chambers and The Oxford English Dictionary.

My apologies for the sequencing error, Derrynoose, though I can but reiterate the point remade above.

[Poizyn]

Actually, Pavlova is a Dessert originated in New Zealand not Australia as many have been lead to believe. I say this not only because I also originate from there, but because it's been proven more times than I've actually eatten the delectable egg white dessert. Not that any of that was any actual help, but if you knew the history of the 2 countries you would understand our little rivalry. I do suggest that you all order said dessert at one stage in your life. Enjoy the rest of your day/night.

[Quizmonster]

Oh dear, Poizyn, I truly would not want to be bringing further grief to the Kiwis at the moment, after what happened in France recently!
Apparently, the earliest recorded use of the word was in Davis Dainty Dishes published by Davis Gelatine Ltd NZ in 1927. That doesn't prove the dish was first invented there, of course, but henceforth I shall always call it a New Zealand dessert. Sorry.

[abstibus]

Quizmonster
The correct stress for pavlova is on the first syllable, but it sounds rather pretentious, and I wouldn't like people to think that of me. I feel It's a bit like saying 'Paree' or 'Moskva'.
Don't know my IQ - never bothered to have it checked, but as I'm Oirish, with a degree in Russian, it can't be too low.
Does George Bush eat pavlova?

[sense4all]

Well George told me he had to eat Pavlova " 'cos the Humble Pie was off!! " love Sense

[Quizmonster]

Exactly, Annemollie. If one wishes to emphasise that the dessert's name is based on that of the divine Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, then one stresses the opening syllable. However, since the sweet dish has taken on a life of its own, as it were, stressing the second syllable is now standard. The OED doesn't even offer the alternative.
The only reason I know my IQ, by the way, is because - whilst I was at university some decades ago - I was used as a guinea pig by the Psychology Department to illustrate in minute detail to students how such tests were carried out. Obviously, I am not silly enough to have joined MENSA!
Finally, I can't claim to be Oirish, but at least I'm a fellow Celt, being from Scotland. Sadly, there isn't a way of expressing that one word in non-standard pronunctiation. I suppose I could write 'Scoattish'.
I'm sure that, as a graduate, you can - just like George W - claim to have an IQ that "can't be too low". Cheers