`What's on, Alf? Don't you drongos speak Strine?'As I once wrote to a friend of mine, I have a fair number of friends from Oz, and can even understand Strine ( Ozzie English) if people speak ve-rry slowly and use hand gestures.
Apparently they could have used my assistance as a translator on a certain SkyWest flight to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where poor New South Wales resident Sophie Reynolds was busted for 'swearing' at a flight attendent....
When informed by the flight attendant that there were no pretzels left for her to snack on, Ms. Reynolds muttered "Fair dinkum," a classic but inoffensive bit of Ozspeak.
The next thing she knew, the flight crew rounded on her en masse and demanded her passport to note down her name and details, telling her that swearing at flight attendants was a crime.
And when she arrived in Pittsburg, three police officers were waiting for her when she left the flight ,and wanted to arrest her for swearing at the flight attendent.
"They said: 'You swore at the hostess and there are federal rules against that'," Reynolds told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"And I said: 'I did not swear at the hostess, I just said 'fair dinkum'."
`Fair dinkum', depending on the circumstances can be loosely translated as `is that so?', `that's the way it is', `that's the real deal' or as an affirmation that something is good,proper and correct. It can also be used ( as it probably was here) to express disappointment in a situation where crude language is not appropriate, such as finding your five year old happily finger painting the walls of your living room in bright colors.
Of course,when muttered by an Australian with a true Strine accent and inflection, it could be misconstrued as another rather short, well known and pithy phrase expressing disappointment.
"Our initial reports indicate it was more than a misunderstanding of the language," SkyWest spokeswoman Marissa Snow told the journal. "We witnessed aggressive behaviour throughout the flight."
Snow said that SkyWest was still trying to contact Reynolds. She said no charges had been filed as a result of the incident and Reynolds had been allowed to go on her way after talking to the Pittsburg police.
Fair dinkum, that.
2 comments:
Joshua - an update on this bogan (from a dinky-di Aussie):
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Fair dinkum, she bailed on family
August 19, 2007 07:00am
THE AUSSIE woman arrested for saying "fair dinkum" on a flight in the US had left behind two young children to wed her internet lover.
Sophie Reynolds, 41, came to the world's attention when reported to US police by Delta Airlines for muttering "fair dinkum" and displaying aggressive behaviour when told there were no more pretzels on a flight from Atlanta to Pittsburgh.
During a television interview last Tuesday night, Ms Reynolds spoke of her bizarre run-in with the US authorities before explaining she was overseas to get married.
It was the first Reynolds's young family - Elly, seven, and Matthew, nine, and her partner of 15 years, Peter Plank - had heard about the marriage.
The announcement prompted Elly to burst into tears.
"I don't want another daddy," she said, as A Current Affair's host, Tracey Grimshaw, revealed Reynolds was happily wed.
In an exclusive interview, Mr Plank said he had been forced to put his job as a brickie on hold to look after his two children when Ms Reynolds "took off" two weeks ago after meeting a man on the Internet.
On Friday, he sought legal advice with the ACT Chamber of Magistrates in order to maintain custody of the two children.
When contacted by The Sunday Telegraph, Ms Reynolds admitted she had not told her family she was getting married, saying it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
She said she phoned Mr Plank to tell him she was married but after he told her his grandmother had died she didn't want to hit him with a "double whammy".
She decided to wait before telling him but he found out about her marriage through the media.
Ms Reynolds, on long-service leave from the public service, said she had met James at a pub "at the top of Pennsylvania somewhere" during a road trip in June and the pair hit it off instantly.
On her return to Queanbeyan, Ms Reynolds said she stayed in touch with James over the Internet and via telephone before travelling back to visit him in late July.
Mr Plank said he did not know Ms Reynolds, whom he began a relationship with in 1993, had visited America in June.
"She told me she was visiting her son in Melbourne from her first marriage," he said.
--------------------------
from
http://www.news.com.au/sundaytelegraph/story/0,22049,22266078-5005941,00.html
Well that's crook...what a ratbag!
Here's hoping Dad gets custo from the ACT courts.At least the kiddies will have one decent parent. And seeing as he's a brickie and most likely doesn't make a fortune, maybe they can help him out with some court ordered child support.
He's well shed of her,IMO ..that sheila isn't worth dog tucker!
Thanks for the dinkum oil, Anonymous...always chuffed to get a note from one of my pals in Oz.
Woulda got back to you sooner, but I was on holiday.
All Best,
FF
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