Year's Review

[H]

A Blonde's Year in Review

January -
Took a new scarf back to store because it was too tight.

February -
Got Fired from my pharmacy job for failing to properly type labels....."duh".....the  bottles wouldn't fit in the typewriter!!!

March -
Got excited... the only really great month I had... finished a jigsaw puzzle in 6 months.....box said "2-4 years!"

April -
For the 5th year in a row, I got trapped on an escalator for hours during a power outtage!!!

May -
Tried to make Kool-Aid but I couldn't make 8 cups of water fit into those little packets!!!

June -
I set out to go water skiing but couldn't find a lake with a slope.

July -
I'm sure everybody knows about this now -- I made a public protest. I lost a breaststroke swimming competition because all of the other swimmers had cheated -- they used their arms!!!

August -
I got locked out of my car in a downpour so I couldn't put the top up -- I got soaked and the car got swamped.

September -
Got counted out on my very first 'trivia' question. But I know very well that the capital of California is "C" !

October -
I still hate M&M's... even the new colors are too hard to peel.

November -
Baked a turkey and it took a week to clear the house of smoke. The turkey was ashes. I followed the instructions and cooked it for the 1 hour per pound it said. I used a calculator and I weigh 108!!!

December -
I had to run to the neighbor's because I couldn't call 911 on my home or cell phones. Neither one has an "eleven" button!!!

What a horrible year!!

[2992]

March -  
Got excited... the only really great month I had... finished a jigsaw puzzle in 6 months.....box said "2-4 years!"

LMAO

[Gunny04]

LOL  ;D

[Hagar]

LOL makes one appreciate how life must be a continual struggle for your average blonde.

This one always amused me.

April -  
For the 5th year in a row, I got trapped on an escalator for hours during a power outtage!!!

A typical example of the Americanised version of an expression being longer than the original. Even blondes in the the UK would call this a power cut.

[TacitBlue]

I see she didn't get locked in her car this year.

[myshelf]

This one always amused me.
A typical example of the Americanised version of an expression being longer than the original. Even blondes in the the UK would call this a power cut.

the term "blackout" became politically incorrect i take it?

[Hagar]

the term "blackout" became politically incorrect i take it?

The term "blackout" was last used in Britain during WWII & has an entirely different meaning. Showing a light at night was a criminal offence & although the electicity supply was not cut off all buildings were literally blacked out with blackout curtains.

[Saitek]

I never even thought of the word blackout before could be taken in any way other than what Doug said.

I loved that though. Really super!

[myshelf]

This is a list of famous wide-scale power outages

The Northeast Blackout of 1965 on November 9, 1965.
The New York City Blackout of July 13-14, 1977, resulted in looting and rioting.
On December 19, 1978, a major blackout affected 80% of France.
The Great Storm of 1987 brought down power lines throughout southern England causing extensive blackouts.
On March 13, 1989, a geomagnetic storm caused the Hydro-Quebec power failure which left 6 million people without power for 9 or more hours.
The January 1998 Ice Storm in northeastern North America caused prolonged blackouts, particularly in Quebec where many transmission towers were destroyed by ice.
The 1998 power failures in Auckland, New Zealand: see 1998 Auckland power crisis
During the California electricity crisis there were regular power failures due to energy shortages and market manipulation resulting from failed deregulation.
On August 14, 2003, there was a wide-area power failure in the northeastern USA and central Canada, affecting 50 million people: see 2003 North America blackout.
There was a 2003 London blackout on August 28 which won worldwide headlines such as "Power cut cripples London" but in fact only affected 500,000 people.
On September 2, 2003, a power failure affected 5 states (out of 13) in Malaysia (including the capital Kuala Lumpur) for 5 hours starting at 10 am local time.
On September 23, 2003, a power failure affected 5 million people in Denmark and southern Sweden.
On September 27-28, 2003, a power failure affected all of Italy except Sardinia, cutting service to more than 56 million people. (see 2003 Italy blackout)
On December 20, 2003, a power failure hit San Francisco, affecting 120,000 people.
On September 4, 2004, five million people in Florida were without power at one point due to Hurricane Frances, one of the most widespread outages ever due to a hurricane.
On May 25, 2005, most part of Moscow was without power from 11:00 MSK (+0300 UTC). Approximately ten million people were affected. Power was restored within 24 hours.
On August 18, 2005, almost 100 million people on Java Island, the main island of Indonesia which the capital Jakarta is on, and the isle of Bali, lost power for 7 hours. In terms of population affected, the 2005 Java-Bali Blackout was the biggest in history.
On August 22, 2005, all of southern and central Iraq, including parts of the capital Baghdad, all of the second largest city Basra and the only port Umm Qasr went out of power for more than 7 hours after a feeder line was sabotaged by insurgents, causing a cascading effect shutting down multiple power plants.
On August 26, 2005 1.3 Million People in South Florida lost power due to downed trees and power lines caused by the then minimal Hurricane Katrina. Most customers affected were without power for four days, and some customers had no power for up to one week.
On August 29, 2005 Millions of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama residents lost power after a stronger Hurricane Katrina badly damaged the power grid.
On September 12, 2005, the Los Angeles blackout affected millions in California.
On October 24, 2005, Hurricane Wilma caused loss of power for most of South Florida and Southwest Florida, with hundreds of thousands of customers still powerless a week later, and full restoration not complete until November 11.  

can't help it, i find the the word "blackout" in connection to power failures and later than WW II

[Hagar]

can't help it, i find the the word "blackout" in connection to power failures and later than WW II

You proved your point.

I must admit I've never really thought about it but now you've pointed it out I realise my mistake. We always used the term power cut where I live. I wouldn't refer to it as a blackout myself but not because it was politically incorrect. I can't be doing with all that nonsense.

It always amused me that the American simplified version of commonly used terms is very often longer & more complicated than the original. There must be a logical reason for it but I'm darned if I can figure it out.

PS. Of course it would depend on who wrote the article you quoted. It could have been an American.

[myshelf]

well, in this case i guess it's because in american english a "power cut" usally refers to an engine that gets power reduced to idle.

[H]

well, in this case i guess it's because in american english a "power cut" usally refers to an engine that gets power reduced to idle.

This is also true with electrical supply, especially in earlier years. Heavy loads cause a "cut" (reduction) of power to the recipients, whereas an outage indicates a complete shut-down of supply. Properly, a "blackout" would be similar to Hagar's description, being effected at the recipient end but terms are often interchanged. Also realize that @ 11,000,000 in the U.S. are illiterate in any form of English and may use whatever seems anywhere near applicable.
Considering application, for many [particularly, not natural] blondes, "blackout" may mean something quite different!

[Hagar]

This is also true with electrical supply, especially in earlier years. Heavy loads cause a "cut" (reduction) of power to the recipients, whereas an outage indicates a complete shut-down of supply. Properly, a "blackout" would be similar to Hagar's description, being effected at the recipient end but terms are often interchanged. Also realize that @ 11,000,000 in the U.S. are illiterate in any form of English and may use whatever seems anywhere near applicable.
Considering application, for many [particularly, not natural] blondes, "blackout" may mean something quite different!

Not wishing to labour the point but this sort of thing always fascinated me. I'd never heard the word outage until fairly recently & something about it doesn't seem quite right. It doesn't look like a word that evolved with the language in the more conventional way & it probably didn't actually exist until some bright spark dreamed it up. This is nothing unusual in the US as you Americans seem to make up words as you go along, even if a perfectly good word for the purpose already exists.

OUTAGE - "a period of interrupted service, as of electric power or gas. 1903, formed from 'out,' adv. + 'age,' on the model of shortage." "The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology" by Robert K. Barnhart (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1995).

I also realise that we might call this a "power failure".*

The word blackout is also commonly used in aviation to describe the effects of positive G on the brain. The opposite being a redout.

*PS. Power cuts were a common event when I was young. We would probably have said something like; "Oh blast it. The 'lectric's gone off again!"

[beaky]

In American, it's called a "blackout". There are even occasionally "brownouts", when some areas go offline and the rest experience a drop in voltage...
My favorite is the entry for March, I think...

[eno]

it probably didn't actually exist until some bright spark dreamed it up.

If it was a bright spark then the power couldn't have been out  ;)  :P