Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with western

Indian English Speakers with Shifting Western Accent

Non Prosequitur — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:04:40 -0800

Is it a widespread behavior for multilingual speakers of english to get a more anglicized accent when talking to a native speaker? I don't mean just common code-switching (someone getting a drawl in Kansas, or someone going 'you understand' vs. 'you feel me' in different contexts.) But people going from like, Indian english to completely westernized english (in accents, not necessarily in diction or dialect) without making a conscious decision to do so. This is besides people 'faking' an accent because of class issues related to these things.

Road trip through Western US

donajo — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:22:01 -0800

What is there to see on I-80 in the Western US? In a few weeks, I will be on a road trip from San Francisco to Kansas City, helping my sister move her worldly belongings in a minivan to her new home city. There will be three of us going, and we figure that it's about a three day trip along I-80. This isn't a vacation, but none of us has been to this part of the country before and we'd like to find interesting things to stop at along the way to break up the monotony of the highway.

Our route takes us through Sacramento, Reno, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, WY, and Lincoln, NE. What are some cool/interesting/historical sites to see along the way?

Looking at the map, I see that if we get off of I-80 in Sacramento and take US-50 to Carson City and then connect back up to I-80 in Reno, we'll pass Lake Tahoe and add one more state capital to the trip (we'll be passing through the capital of every state we hit, except Missouri). Are there any other detours that will might add interest but won't add more than an hour or two to the entire trip?

Richard Nisbett's "The Geography of Thought" over-generalised and realistic?

Knigel — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:19:40 -0800

Help me determine the accuracy of Richard Nisbett's "The Geography of Thought : How Asians and Westerners Think Differently". I haven't read the book yet; however, I was shown a video associated with the book in my class. While watching the video, my skeptical senses tingled; therefore, now I'm trying to find criticisms of the book. From my perspective, the concepts of difference seemed too far generalised and "Western" and "Asian" seemed too black and white. The book seems popular; however, is it more pop science than real science? How scewed is the hard science of the book?

Old West Novelty Photos in Chicago

jules1651 — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:40:06 -0800

Does anyone know where one can get one of those Old West novelty photos taken? Preferably in the city of Chicago but the suburbs would work, too. Thanks!

Crowd of white-coated riders.

telstar — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:07:21 -0800

A western film I saw on TV about 35 years ago featuring a crowd of horse riders wearing long white coats. Anyone know the title? This western movie featured a large crowd of horse riders who wore long white coats in several scenes, maybe including the climactic final scene. I'm thinking it was a serious film, not a comedy. Henry Fonda may have been in it.

Bookfilter: what book(s) would my father love?

Acer_saccharum — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:40:59 -0800

Book filter: Getting a head start on Christmas presents - what books would you recommend for my kung fu instructing, deadwood watching, social work teaching freemason father? The last books my father really enjoyed were The Poisonwood Bible and The Davinci Code. He joined up with the freemasons shortly after he read the D. Code. He is a social work prof with special focus in aboriginal issues and community mental health organizations, has been teaching martial arts since before I was born and runs his own studio, and he and my mother ADORE the show Deadwood and have watched the entire series repeatedly.

I want to buy him a few books for Christmas that he will adore. I do not read up on these subjects and am at a loss. Help!

PS - If a movie/show/gadget/weapon is coming to mind, feel free to throw that suggestion in also. Much appreciated!

The scene that freaked me out 25+ years ago

Pater Aletheias — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 11:16:30 -0800

Disturbing, graphic Western movie/ TV show from childhood... Okay, my turn for a round of "Does anyone know what I'm half remembering?"

When I was a kid--late 70's, early 80's sometime--I watched part of a Western late at night. The scene that sticks with me--and freaked me out then--involved some vigilante cowboys who kidnapped a native American woman, tied her to a tree or a post and proceeded to skin her. That's really all I can reliably say--but I think it was out in a desert somewhere, and I think that they started by cutting off her eyelids so she couldn't blink in the sun. It's possible that it was a movie we rented. We had a Betamax back then. I can't imagine that could have been on broadcast TV. Or maybe I just had a nightmare. Does this sound like any pre-1983ish movie you've seen?

When the chimes finish, begin.

Dreamcast — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:16:43 -0800

Looking for songs by bands that are in the style of Ennio Morricone's Spaghetti Western soundtracks. I'm quite the fan of songs that have an Ennio Morricone/Spaghetti Western vibe to them (here's an example of an Ennio Morricone Spaghetti Western song, if you've never heard one), but I only know of a few. Anyone have any suggestions? They can be songs by bands/artists that don't usually play that style, or songs by bands that do usually play that style. It doesn't matter to me, as long as it has a Spaghetti Western sound.

I'm a fan of songs like Cast a Long Shadow by the Monochrome Set, Call of the West by Wall of Voodoo, and Los Rancheros by Adam and the Ants, so any recommended songs don't have to be extremely "thick" with a Spaghetti Western sound, it just has to be there.

Help me remember this western/comedy movie.

arniec — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:12:42 -0800

Help me identify this old western movie by its final scene (is it a comedy?) In the mid 80's I saw the end of a ridiculous movie which I've not seen since. It was a western and there was a narrator in a gunfight against a bald man dressed all in black. The shootout occurred and the man in black got shot in the stomach and the hero/narrator walked away. The evil man begged his lackey "Please don't let me die with my boots on!" and so the lackey tugged and tugged on the bald man's black boots.

The narrator wrapped up the happenings in the movie and then said "As for I don't know if his lackey ever got his boots off" (or whatever). And it showed the lackey STILL tugging on the bad guy's boots.

The bad guy looked like James Carvell, or kinda like Christopher Lloyd in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Anyone seen this movie (scene this movie ;) ) and if so, can you scratch this itch and tell me what movie it was I saw 20 years ago?

G-tech or Western Digital Hard Drives

captainscared — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:23:43 -0800

I am looking to buy 2 1T drives. I'm doing some final cut work but mostly for media storage. I'm looking at the Western Digital 1 TB My Book Premium Edition II Triple Interface ($236) and the G-Tech Q drive which retail at $445. That's almost twice the price of the western digital.
Two questions:

Which is my best bet? The g-tech or the wdc?
Are the drives differences really represented by the price differential?

Thanks.

I need some portable history for my commute!

Asherah — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:30:12 -0800

Is the Eugen Weber lecture series 'The Western Tradition' available via podcast? I know the videos are available via www.learner.org, however I'd like to listen to the late Professor's lectures on the go. Are these available anywhere?

Generic books (titled as such)

suki — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:53:44 -0800

Did the Generic Food people put out Generic Books? I remember, during the 70's, the supermarkets in Maine (Shop-n-Save, now Hannaford's) carried low cost generic food (including generic beer - pleck).

I think I remember also seeing generic novels, with the same black print on a white background. They were titled simply, "Western" or "Romance."

Am I imagining these books? I doubt my 9 year old self would have been clever enough to come up with this concept (though my 9 year old self was a kook), and I have a fairly clear memory of flipping through some of them at the store.

Google has failed me, and the references I've found to the "generic" brand are only about the food and the beer.

No guns allowed, y'hear?

mrmcsurly — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:54:26 -0800

Looking for old westerns with a scene where cowboys have to surrender their guns to the sheriff in order to enter the town, or on their way into an event. e.g., Back to the Future Part III (at the town dance), or Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven.

Identify this 80s movie featuring Indy-type blond heroine and... Aztecs?

gentle — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:30:57 -0800

Back in the 1980s, I remember watching a bizarre sort of Indiana Jones-copycat treasure-hunting/western movie. It featured a young, blond Daryl Hannah lookalike and possibly Aztecs who liked to dip humans head-first in liquid gold before decapitating them. It was fairly violent stuff, and one scene had the characters being horrified when one of their comrades returned headless on a horse. The whole thing must have been somewhat tongue-in-cheek, however, because it ended with a humorous 70s-style montage that set up a (presumably fake) sequel with the blond girl as a butt-kicking Indy-type heroine. I am pretty sure it was made in the 80s, and I remember the dialogue as being English, but I could be wrong; all I know is that Bud Spencer and Terence Hill weren't in it. Ring any bells?

How can I mount WD Worldbook drives in Linux?

jackofsaxons — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:00:36 -0800

I have two hard drives out of a Western Digital Worldbook (WD10000D033) that both show up as a Linux RAID partition in cfdisk. How can I mount these drives to pull the data off?

What are the classics of genre fiction?

TheophileEscargot — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:42:15 -0800

What are the classics of genre fiction? What are the best thrillers, mysteries, westerns, horror, romances, etc? I just finished "True Grit" by Charles Portis and loved it, looking for more good books outside the mainstream. I've read a lot of SF and Fantasy already, so don't really need suggestions for those.

so tasty, and no calories! win/win!

Lucinda — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:48:42 -0800

Western New Yorkers! Do you have Diet Mountain Dew Code Red? It doesn't seem to be available anywhere in Rochester, NY. I've seen it while on vacation in Cincinnati, OH and Winston-Salem, NC, but I'd like to not have to drive hours and hours to get it.

Bonus points if the location is somewhere that I could convince my family to go on a day trip sort of thing (kid stuff, historical stuff, etc.)

Where do we go from here (here being Las Vegas in October)?

Kibbutz — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:57:45 -0800

Leaving Las Vegas in October, and looking for the nearest warm beach . . . I'll be in Vegas on bidness for a few days in late October. My wife wants to accompany me to LV, and after I'm done we will continue on to a relatively-remote, hot-as-possible-considering-the-calendar location that has a good number of quiet beaches, where we will kick back and celebrate our anniversary.

Extra karmic points for places to eat and stay.

Kauai? We've been there, loved that. And it's a fallback option. But I'm betting your collective brilliance can come up with something similar, but better.

1917 Train Wreck In Akron Colorado

rglasmann — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 05:49:46 -0800

I would like to find some information about a train wreck that happened in or near Akron, Colorado on July 17th, 1917. Does anyone know how I can discover any additional details online? My 80+ year old grandmother lives in Akron, Colorado. The town just put up a marker on a large mass grave site in the town cemetary that reads "in memory of the unknown people who died in a train wreck on July 17, 1917". She is something of a western history buff and would like to know more about what happened. She has tried asking at the local newspaper, but apparently their archives were destroyed in a fire. She has also asked everyone she comes in contact with in town and no one seems to know any more information than what is printed on the marker.

The Denver Post only has online archives back to 1993. Older newspapers are available on microfilm in the Denver Public Library, but unfortunatley I live in Boston and a trip in to Colorado is not planned for the near future.

So, can anyone point me in the direction of additional resources that I might be able to search online?

Help me revive a Western Digital hard drive

pantufla — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:15:22 -0800

Is there any way to get my western digital external hard drive to properly display the disappeared files & folders on it so that I can back them up? I've been backing up stuff to a Western Digital My book essential edition 500 GB drive for a few months now. It was working fine (under os 10.3.9), until I made the mistake of installing os 10.4 on my mac. Now the drive icon still appeared on the desktop, but when I double-clicked it to open it, the computer stopped responding. I then connected the drive to my xp laptop and ran the western digital diagnostic tool, which told me that the drive was functioning properly. After I ran that diagnostic, I could see what was on the drive (without freezing), but now the only thing present was a folder called "Folder.502" that was empty. Nonetheless, both the pc and the mac reported that about 200 GB was in use on the drive. I am moderately hopeful that the drive can be resurrected, but unsure as to how to resurrect it. I've been looking at data recovery services, and they cost in the thousands of dollars. Is there any way to get this drive to properly display the files & folders on it so that I can back them up?
Extra info: mac is a 5 yr old g4 867 Mhz, drive is connected by USB 1.0
Thanks!

It's keeeeeeling me!

Bageena — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 10:11:19 -0800

Please help me figure out why my computer stops reading my 1TB WD My Book Premium II external storage thinger before I punch it. I've searched for an answer all over the internets, but my Googlefu is weak on this one. I bought it about three months ago, I have a Dell machine with WindowsXP. I'm using regular ol' USB. Sometimes, it works for days on end without issues. Sometimes, it stops every few minutes. Here is what happens;

The external makes a clicking sound, the lights on the ring go dark for a second, then go warm in the middle and another light makes it's way around the circle like an Xb360 controller. Meanwhile, my computer just stops reading the drive. I have to unplug the power supply from the back of the storage unit, then plug it back in for Windows to sense it again. Sometimes when I do this, it changes drive letters (J:, K:, whatever). I wouldn't care so much if I didn't think this was probably fragmenting the heck out of all my info stored on the unit. Please? Help? I'll give you a cookie.

spaghetti western music in entertainment lately

gerg — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 10:00:36 -0800

What are some some examples of how Spaghetti Western music is being used today? Two examples I can think of off the top of my head are how Tarantino has appropriated the works of Luis Bacalov and Ennio Morricone to create the soundtrack for Kill Bill 1/2 and Gianfranco Reverberi's 'Nel Cimitero Di Tucson' as sampled in Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy'. Others?

How do you make a Wild West Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game?

ZachsMind — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 14:15:45 -0800

What would it entail to produce a MMORPG in the western genre with subtle steampunk and/or horror undertones ? Ynoxas mentioned this in the Blue the other day and I've found myself dwelling on it but not to a point where I can find an answer on my own. A lot of people have talked about it. Some people have even tried to make it happen. Why are there so many anime, and scifi, and swordplay MMORPGs, but genres like western and steampunk and horror just haven't really been explored? Is there just a lack of interest? Is there something about the mechanics of it that makes it near impossible?

What would it take for a world of this nature to interest you enough to download it? What events would have to occur to make such a thing happen? What would you want it to be like, and how would you get it there?

A Cowgirl's Dream

Miko — Mon, 01 May 2006 09:07:06 -0800

Where can I find Western-style truck decals? I have this Subaru Forester, right, and though I love it as a car, it really bothers me that it is a standard soccer-mom vehicle. I'm not a soccer mom. I have plastered it with bumper stickers in an attempt to convey a crunchier outdoorsy image. But recently I had this new idea: it would be really, really fun to take all the other stickers off and just decorate with those long, curlicued Western-style flourishes that you often see on F-150 trucks in the South and West.

I don't know where those things come from, or what they even are. Are they painted on, or stickers? I've googled all sorts of things such as "western" "truck" "decals" "stickers" and I've found only a lot of cactuses and bucking-bronco stickers. What I'm looking for are more just the long decorative lines.

I think the Forester will look hilariously nifty dressed up to honky-tonk.

Is taking turns to speak a Western cultural phenomenon?

hoverboards don't work on water — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 07:22:34 -0800

Is taking turns to speak a Western cultural phenomenon? Last year I worked in a school where the majority of the children were of Pakistani origin (aged 11-18, either first or second generation). The staff told me that the biggest problem with the kids was that most of them didn't understand the concept of not speaking while the other person speaks. They assured me that this was because they had been brought up in "foreign" households where this mode of conversation is rarely employed. I found it hard to believe. I would have found it impossible to believe if not for the fact that it appeared to be true:

1) most of the upper school kids took turns talking, and most of the lower school kids didn't.

2) (all three) parents I met had this (incredibly annoying) problem too.

3) this happened in the playground as well as in the classroom.

I doubt it was an act of conscious defiance (or even just being naughty children) as they would talk to each other like this too. The non-Pakistani (mostly white, but some Indian) children were typically noisy, but in the alpha-male-playing-to-the-audience pattern rather than constant two-way escalating shouting. In the classroom, the shouting matches usually had to be ended by a teacher, but in the playground, they would be resolved by either one kid backing down, or a fight.

There are also a few things that make me think there's more to it:

1) the (Pakistani) children were mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds, were low attainers, and had behavioural issues; a classic recipe for all kinds of bad results.

2) the (majority white) teachers were mostly pretty damn racist. On the whole, race relations in the school were poor. This was clearly a racial phenomenon, but not clearly a Pakistani culture thing.

3) I have never seen this behaviour anywhere else, ever, amongst adults or children.

So what the hell was going on? I spent quite a bit of time talking this over with the staff, laying out the above and insisting there must be another explanation, but they had nothing else to offer other than "it's the asian kids".

Do Pakistani communities emigrate en masse? Could a whole community have come from the same region in Pakistan where this is actually how things are done? Has anybody here met people who do this?