The Humanity

On 29-Apr-2005, LX-i <lxi0007@netscape.net> wrote:

> OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!

It is interesting how the Hindenberg disaster got someone upset that he crea
ted
a phrase that has entered our language.   Did he mean "Oh the inhumanity"?
What humanity was he referring to?

On  2-May-2005, Peter Lacey <lacey@mb.sympatico.ca> wrote:
 
>
> He was referring to the people he could see jumping or falling out of
> the collapsing wreck.

It still seems odd.   If he wasn't under such emotional stress, I expect he
probably would have edited that to "oh the people".    We don't see humanity
jumping or falling out of a dirigible, we see people.

At any rate - quotes made from his broadcast aren't referring to people as s
uch
- they refer to disaster.   "Oh the Humanity" means "What a Calamity" or "Ho
w
Terrible", not "Oh the people".

There's another word that I can place its origin.   In the U.S. "tarmac" is 
used
exclusively to mean "airport apron" - and our airport aprons are usually mad
e
out of concrete.    USAmericans didn't use the term "tar Macadam" to mean
asphalt, and we were unfamiliar with the phrase until the BBC reported about
 the
hostages at the airport at Entebbe.    He mentioned the people lined up on t
he
tarmac, USAmericans saw that they were lined up on the airport apron, and we
inferred wrongly what tarmac meant.

Howard Brazee wrote:
>
> On 29-Apr-2005, LX-i <lxi0007@netscape.net> wrote:
> 
>
> It is interesting how the Hindenberg disaster got someone upset that he cr
eated
> a phrase that has entered our language.   Did he mean "Oh the inhumanity"?
> What humanity was he referring to?

He was referring to the people he could see jumping or falling out of
the collapsing wreck.  There was a documentary about this recently;
several survivors were interviewed and with them, the bit of the film
that showed them getting out - very dramatic but terrifying footage.
Incidentally, another documentary concludes pretty convincingly that the
Hindenburg burned up so quickly because its skin material contained
powdered aluminium - Shuttle fuel!  Pieces of the skin still exist so
that part of the analysis is absolutely solid.  The rest of it is due to
static electricity in the air and the lack of grounding of the various
skin peices - a bit difficult to convey as I didn't fully follow it.

PL

Howard Brazee wrote:
> On 29-Apr-2005, LX-i <lxi0007@netscape.net> wrote:
>
> 
>
>
> It is interesting how the Hindenberg disaster got someone upset that he cr
eated
> a phrase that has entered our language.   Did he mean "Oh the inhumanity"?
> What humanity was he referring to?

Not Top Posts/Bottom Posts, but....... do tend to agree with Richard
about cutting junk out.

However, somewhere, presumably my having made a reference to the
Hindenburg with regard to gasoline/petrol also being volatile, somebody
then quoted the US radio man who was on the spot at the time.

Be damned if I've seen that message. Inclusion of the original quote
would have been useful on this occasion :-)

Jimmy

Howard Brazee wrote:
> On 29-Apr-2005, LX-i <lxi0007@netscape.net> wrote:
>
> 
>
> It is interesting how the Hindenberg disaster got someone upset that he cr
eated
> a phrase that has entered our language.   Did he mean "Oh the inhumanity"?
> What humanity was he referring to?

Not quite sure - but, it was me realizing that it was time for my
participation in that thread to end.


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