Would you like to pat a kangaroo? See koalas up close? Of course you would, every tourist does! So the Sydney Aquarium on Darling Harbour is expanding. In the soon to open Sydney Wildlife World, you will be able to see all of Australia's wildlife without having to leave the city. Flapping flags all over the CBD promise you the wilderness... in a area half the size of a football field. Ah it's a brave new world, where the big outdoors are disneylandised (do you like my new verb?) for the mutual benefit of foolish consenting tourists and greedy unscrupulous developers. But why should I be surprised?
10 comments:
Aaah! Fanatastic, I did not know that. I look forward to visiting the expanded wilderness one day.
I'll definitely take you there!
My question to all native English speakers: should my verb be 'disneylandized' rather than 'disneylanded' - or anything else?
would love to visit some day.
very exotic visit that would be for me =)
like the photos!
Salut Nathalie,
I will mad if you take only John!
It sounds perfect! You are very lucky ...
Once upon a time in a world far, far away, we tended to use 's', while the Yankees used a 'z'. The rot began early though, Nathalie, and I recall that while 'mechanised' was what I insisted was the appropriate spelling, in 1954 while checking out what I had deemed an outrageous assertion, I was surprised when comparing two dictionaries, to find one of them used the dreaded 'z'. From memory, it was 's' in the Oxford, but 'z' in the Cambridge.
Little did I realise at the time that this was the beginning of the end for spelling in this country. Compared with what's now happened with Webster's, where 'ain't' is no longer slang, I guess I should have been grateful that it could have been even worse?
As for how anything should be spelt, or what any word neans, I can do no more than refer you to the seminal philosopher of postmodern 'thinking', Humpty Dumpty, and the advice he gave Alice. Little did I realise when I came across it as a youngster that I'd live to see the day when Humpty's approach would dominate Western Society.
p.s. You can already see Australian wildlife within the city at Taronga Park, and no matter what they do with this new pocket handkerchief display, it will never come even remotely close to being able to compete with what's waiting right now just a short ferry ride across the Harbour.
Hmm, the Disneylandification of The World.
Well, here in Australia, MOST of us still usually spell "...isation" etc with an "s".
[I am aghast at the number of kids who finish the alphabet with a "zee" rather than "zed", but I'm a shockable old chook!]
PS I much prefer Parc Asterix to Disneyland Paris ;-) About that I am Dogmatix, or is that Idefix?
PPS - Dogmatix and Idefix is almost the perfect bilingual pun, except I think it works better in English because it has the word "dog" in it.
Thanks to both Norman and Sally for their comments on the Z versus the S in ...isation. The Z has become so widespread these days that it makes me wonder if I'm plain wrong when I use the S. I'll go for good old fashioned style and I'll talk about the Disneylandisation of the World then.
And I agree with Norman, Taronga Zoo is ten times better, if only for the chance of the ferry ride!
Perhaps it's important to clarify that the "Z" in "Zoo" is correct, and not just another irritating americanisation?
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