How is it "culturally insensitive"?


I had assumed Mizter T suggested "jellied eels" as rhyming slang for
"wheels". I'd understood that rhyming slang was not inclusive language
and hence was deprecated.

There's also the point that jellied eels are almost unknown outside
London (and mainly working class East London at that) and so do not
resonate with London's multiracial, multicultural selling points.
Oysters are much more a worldwide, up-market product. That said, when
the Oystercard was launched ISTR a Chelsea Blue of my acquaintance
remarking with a laugh that they may have overlooked the fact that "the
only Kosher oyster is a prairie oyster"


--
Robin
PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com

On 20/09/2011 10:36, bob wrote:
On Sep 19, 10:52 pm,
wrote:
On 19/09/2011 18:05, Matthew Dickinson wrote:

Merseytravel have followed the trend for marine-named smartcards by
introducing the Walrus card

http://www.walruscard.com/index.asp

Cool. Are they going to have a Cod card or a Haddock card for Scotland,
I wonder?

I'm assuming Cardiff would have a Whale card.

I wonder how they came up with the term Oystercard to begin with, however?

I belief the official idea was some sort of association with
containing pearls. Of course Hong Kong has the octopus card too.

World is your Oyster?

"Pearl" is Sydney.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On 20/09/2011 18:51, Arthur Figgis wrote:
On 20/09/2011 10:36, bob wrote:
On Sep 19, 10:52 pm,
wrote:
On 19/09/2011 18:05, Matthew Dickinson wrote:

Merseytravel have followed the trend for marine-named smartcards by
introducing the Walrus card

http://www.walruscard.com/index.asp

Cool. Are they going to have a Cod card or a Haddock card for Scotland,
I wonder?

I'm assuming Cardiff would have a Whale card.

I wonder how they came up with the term Oystercard to begin with,
however?

I belief the official idea was some sort of association with
containing pearls. Of course Hong Kong has the octopus card too.

World is your Oyster?

"Pearl" is Sydney.


Pearl's a singer...

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail

"Mizter T" wrote in message ...

On Sep 19, 8:42 pm, "Robin" wrote:

London should have had the Jellied Eel card of course.

But could never have happened:

a. not something the Islington political class eat*; and
b. not multicultural - indeed quite culturally insensitive.

Sigh... welcome to the comments section of Britain's best selling mid-
market paper.


*There was the wonderful (no doubt apocryphal) story of Peter Mandelson
going into a chippie to try to boost his older Labour credential and
asking for haddock, chips and "some of that guacamole" - mistaking the
mushy peas for avocado dip.

If we were to want to talk about vaguely transport related apocryphal
sayings, then how that which was (and still is) widely misattributed
to Maggie about men over 26/30 on buses being failures in life.

What other classic misattribitions or apocryphal stories are there in
the railway (or public transport) world?

I know of somebody who refers to the working classes as "bus poor"

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

On Sep 20, 8:33*pm, Graeme Wall wrote:
On 20/09/2011 18:51, Arthur Figgis wrote:

On 20/09/2011 10:36, bob wrote:
"Pearl" is Sydney.

Pearl's a singer...

So's Sydney Devine (apparently).

Cool. Are they going to have a Cod card or a Haddock card for Scotland,
I wonder? ...

Seattle (US) has an Orca card.

San Francisco has a Clipper card, The logo is a pattern of triangles
that sort of resembles a square rigged ship.

Evidently it's a trend.

R's,
John

"John Levine" wrote in message
...
Cool. Are they going to have a Cod card or a Haddock card for
Scotland,
I wonder? ...

Seattle (US) has an Orca card.

San Francisco has a Clipper card, The logo is a pattern of triangles
that sort of resembles a square rigged ship.

Evidently it's a trend.


.... and Boston has the Charlie card - principally a nod to 'Charlie on the
MTA', and so surely the only transport ticket named after a protest song
prompted by a fare rise, but also presumably a reference to the Charles
River

Martin

On Sep 21, 8:25*pm, "Martin Rich" wrote:
[...]
... and Boston has the Charlie card - principally a nod to 'Charlie on the
MTA', and so surely the only transport ticket named after a protest song
prompted by a fare rise, but also presumably a reference to the Charles
River

Whilst my suggestions upthread weren't entirely serious, I did have
the Charlie Card in mind when pondering alternative potential names
for London's smartcard - I do wonder whether leftfield suggestions
might have got a bit more of a look in had the name been decided upon
directly by TfL (and hence the Mayor) rather than the PFI outfit
Transys that was responsible for implementing and running the
smartcard system.

"Mizter T" wrote in message

On Sep 21, 8:25 pm, "Martin Rich" wrote:
[...]
... and Boston has the Charlie card - principally a nod to 'Charlie
on the MTA', and so surely the only transport ticket named after a
protest song prompted by a fare rise, but also presumably a
reference to the Charles River

Whilst my suggestions upthread weren't entirely serious, I did have
the Charlie Card in mind when pondering alternative potential names
for London's smartcard - I do wonder whether leftfield suggestions
might have got a bit more of a look in had the name been decided upon
directly by TfL (and hence the Mayor) rather than the PFI outfit
Transys that was responsible for implementing and running the
smartcard system.

I presume you're suggesting it might have been called the Newt card?

In article ,
Recliner wrote:
"Mizter T" wrote in message


Whilst my suggestions upthread weren't entirely serious, I did have
the Charlie Card in mind when pondering alternative potential names
for London's smartcard - I do wonder whether leftfield suggestions
might have got a bit more of a look in had the name been decided upon
directly by TfL (and hence the Mayor) rather than the PFI outfit
Transys that was responsible for implementing and running the
smartcard system.

I presume you're suggesting it might have been called the Newt card?

We're just fortunate it's not called the Boriscard.

Nick
--
Serendipity: http://www.leverton.org/blosxom (last update 29th March 2010)
"The Internet, a sort of ersatz counterfeit of real life"
-- Janet Street-Porter, BBC2, 19th March 1996