Dums or da?
Is it "referendums" or "referenda"?
There seems to be some confusion and it also seems to be a subject which people get quite steamed up about. Personally I couldn't give a shite.
We had better resolve the problem though because it appears we are going to have six of the fucking things next year.
Reducing the voting age to 16? Who cares? I doubt many 16 year olds do as they seem mostly to be preoccupied with getting drunk or getting laid [or both].
Reducing the candidacy age to 35 for the presidency? For fuck's sake! Abolishing the presidency is more like it.
Same sex marriage? What the hell is that doing in the constitution? It shouldn't even be in the law books. It's not up to me, the state or anyone what people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms [or in the car park in the local woods]. Leastwise it is nothing to do with me.
Patents and intellectual property? You must be joking! I thought the constitution was supposed to be a document stating the aspirations of the people? Do we aspire to allow monkeys take "selfies"? Do we care?
There is mention too of "women in the home". I haven't a clue what that is about. What about men in sheds, kids in the attic and skeletons in the closet? Don't they deserve a mention?
There is another topic for a vote but apparently it has been redacted. The people are going to be asked to vote yes or no on trust for this one. Either that or they'll fill in the details after the vote?
Maybe the last one asks whether the people should adopt "referendums" in preference to "referenda"?
As a student of the classics (ahem), it's referenda for me. Another six chances to spoil a vote too! Women in the home eh? Was it not a Fine Gael politician, John Bruton, who made a pre election promise to pay stay-at-home wives £9.60 a week back in the 80s? Only problem was in the small print, the money was coming out of the spouse's income as an extra tax. He forgot to mention that.
I too would have thought referenda [mensa and all that shit] but there seems to be some confusion on-line. I won't miss any sleep over it. On the other hand, I am going to be exhausted from not voting in all those referendadumsdada.
I think Bruton was thinking of housekeeping? Fucking idiot.
A point of pedantry. Mensa is singular (I think the plural is mensae, but it's 47 years since I took my Latin O level so I'm a tad rusty).
All of the above because of some 'browser security settings warning' and the fact that click ctrlV into 'the box' doesn't show fuck all has been posted!
Amend or laugh if you would be so kind…
I also passed Latin in the Leaving Cert and am sort of certain that the plural of referendum is referenda. However the illiterati (singular: illiteratus) like to call a shower of them referendums – or should it be a hustings of referendums? The proposal to change the gender specific clause in the Constitution pertaining to the social contribution by Woman in the Home is perhaps, on your esteemed site, a topic which might appropriately elicit a special post from Herself?
Before some of us get our six-guns out, here is a dictionary link which gives all the etymological guff on the word:- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/referendum. Check your guns before entering the bar, says the town sheriff.
When I saw the title of this piece I thought it was about the lyrics for the Match of the Day theme tune, which is neither da nor dum but do. Meanwhile the debate about the lyrics for the theme from Hawaii 5-O rages on.
I've had this debate over forums / fora, but it would seem from the link that Ger gives us that that debate collapses into "Yeah, whatever…"