Thread #106: Jim’s in a jam, Peggy’s made a pickle and Lexi is blooming - sounds like the entries are lining up for this year’s flower and produce show, but who will be on the organising committee?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to LillianGish for the title of this thread.

Holding episode tonight, I thought - not much progress on any current storyline. I was a touch surprised Natasha wasn't offended by the postnup idea but I suspect she's biding her time.

Similar to a “pub lunch” or a “car radio”. In other words, “box” becomes an adjective in that expression.

Notcoping - box does not become an adjective, it's just a feature of English that a noun can be compounded with another noun. (if box were an adjective we would be able to do adjective-ish things to it, such as intensifiers - "a very box set" - or combine with other adjectives - "a box green set").

I happily think of a packed lunch as a lunch in a pack, so I don't have too much trouble with "pack lunch".

We should take this discussion to Pedants' Corner.

DDD I’ll take your grammar lesson on the chin re labelling box/pub etc as adjectives in that context but really -you’d say your lunch was in a pack? What do you mean by pack? A packed lunch is in a lunchbox or a sandwich bag or a bag - would you really say “I’ll just get my lunch out if its pack?”. (Unless you’d bought it pre-packed in a supermarket).

Whereas one would say (before they went online) I’ll get the DVDs out of the box. I was just making that distinction to try to identify why the PP felt one expression was acceptable but the other one was not.

- "a box green set").

You’d need to hyphen box-green, DDD, as it precedes the noun.

😀

But you could say a green box set. There's an order that adjectives go in, in a multi-adjective sentence, though I can't remember it. Box set seems to be a sort of compound noun.

Now my brain wont be able to resist further thinking about this.

Usually adjectival clauses placed before a noun are hypehnated.

Unless box-green wasn’t what you meant, DDD? That is, the colour of box hedges? If so I misunderstood you!

I admit that would be a pretty particular kind of box set. Perhaps a gardening series.

Aaaand back to the Archers. Perhaps Jim needs a good discussion about grammar to take his mind off things?

We will have a scenario where Eddie knows he needs to find a tactful way to tell Natasha that unfortunately he can no longer be part of her scheme, while simultaneously Tom and Natasha will agree that Tom should be the one to tell Eddie that his services are sadly no longer required.

Then, they'll meet, talk over each over, then one will come clean and the other will bemusedly have to pretend that it's a great disappointment, but they're sure they'll manage...

It will be hi-LAR-ious

DDD - how???

I came on to say much the same thing, put thus:
And it came to pass even as DDD had spake.

Somewhat to my surprise I found myself in tears at the end of the episode, I'm just a sentimental softy at heart...

You’re definitely a softie SilveryPussycat. I, otoh, am slightly furious that the BBC seems minded to convert Jim to religion through suffering.

And it came to pass even as DDD had spake.

Oh shit! I heard the first five minutes tonight before being interrupted by family things. I heard Eddie say he was going to speak to T & N, and I vaguely thought "I wonder..." Sounds like I'd better go now and listen.

I was giving "box green set" as an example of something you wouldn't say, demonstrating that box is not an adjective. Whereas you could take "large set" and change it to "large green set" and it would be valid because "large" is an adjective. (Although I appreciate that certain adjectives come in certain orders, which Silvery alludes to and I agree is a fascinating topic).

DDD Are you the new Mystic Bore then?

Sorry that sounded confrontational ! Wasn’t meant to be!

And of course, Tom making out that he told Eddie, not telling Natasha that actually, Eddie beat him to it and resigned. What happened to their promise to be completely honest with each other?

I hope Eddie mentions it to Natasha, perhaps by apologising to her for letting them down.

Wow, get me. Part of the reason I predicted that scene so well is they did rather do it by the numbers: "I've got something I need to tell you" - "Oh, before you do, there's something I need to say first" blah, blah, yawn.

I agree about the dishonesty with Natasha. Unfortunately, I think the SW were still in sitcom mode where Tom winks to camera "oh yes, I told him all right!" forgetting they are meant to be realistically portraying a marriage where trust matters.

DDD Are you the new Mystic Bore then?

How very dare you?!

In all fairness though, DDD 's prediction was excellent

In other news, the 🔮 has been saying for months that Shugs and Al will get back together.

Wot!? No shacking up of Shula and Jim?

How disappointing.

( )

Yes but Bore you knew I was going to say that didn’t you?

MrsGrindah

Well, while it all ended happily ever after, why did Shula tell Jim she was going to pray for him, she could do it anyway, and indeed should, as it becomes a form of boasting. Just get on with it, woman. Pious bore.

I wondered why too. Does she have some sort of code of conduct that means she can't pray for someone unless she has their permission? It's not as if they'd know if she had, and she knew Jim's stance on religion.

She didn't need to offer a prayer to show Jim that other people care about him. It does smack of virtue signalling. "You've been very unkind to me in the past, but I'm so saintly, I turn the other cheek and offer you my forgiveness. I want to send a message to God to ask him to heal you."

For someone as violently Atheistic as Jim, I would tend to ask if they are okay with me praying for them. 1) It is polite; there are people who get very upset if they hear you have been praying for them (I don't get it myself, as if you think there is nothing in it why be cross). 2) It is a bit like telling someone you are thinking of them, and that holds even if they say No, at least they know you care enough to want to pray.

It is a bit like telling someone you are thinking of them, and that holds even if they say No, at least they know you care enough to want to pray

If it was about thinking about the other person, then that's what they'd say. To say one is praying is very different, it's imposing a religious element which, in the context of Jim is out of order, but very Shula.

@echt We will have to disagree. But I'm sorry for anyone I whoever offers to pray for you, however well intentioned.
To be honest I would be quite happy for anyone from any religion "praying for me" as long as it didn't involve my participation (just like Jim being wary incase Shula was going to "lay hands on him" there and then). But I know fundamentalist Christians who might well feel very uncomfortable by anyone of another religion praying for them. Just as some Atheists could object.

It's a fairly common feeling amongst people who don't believe surely, it would certainly make me uncomfortable.