Barack Obama in the Beano

[DandyEd]

OED has a very strict sense of what's acceptable and what isn't and often lags well behind when considering common usage.

As Laura says, "noone" is in common usage with publishers both here and across the pond, and industry usage guides vary in their instructions, hence my opinion that it is, in fact, now an acceptable variant.

My own opinion can be gauged by our preference for "no-one" in The Dandy.

[Raven]

OED has a very strict sense of what's acceptable and what isn't

Of course it has, but that's the point of it and any authoritative dictionary; it's down to whether we want to use authoritative resources for reference (as opposed to, say, Wikipedia).

Not just the OED though - I don't think you'd find a spell checker or single official reference source that accepts 'noone' as a word. It is increasingly in common usage - as are "would have" and "could have" - like them, I think it's accurate to say that it's a very common spelling *mistake.*

As Grammar Monster says:

"Noone is never right."

http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_c ... no_one.htm

(Urban Dictionary puts it more amusingly: "Most commonly used by people who acquired their literary skills in online chat rooms.")

Basically, these people should simply have read more comics when they were young -which have traditionally always been pretty fastidious about correct spelling and grammar!

[DandyEd]

My own opinion can be gauged by our preference for "no-one" in The Dandy.

[Digifiend]

lol Craig... you already said that.

[Raven]

Indeed, and it was good news the first time, but I was, of course - not at all in a snooty way, I hope - responding to the other statement that it was "in fact, now an acceptable variant."

[DandyEd]

Sorry for any confusion, Raven. I was largely agreeing with your previous post where I think you said that a usage being deemed acceptable didn't make it right.

I do think that "noone" is now an acceptable usage (maybe I should say an accepted usage), but for me "no-one" is the preferred form, which is why we stick with that.

[stevezodiac]

Getting back to Dennis at 60 this was in today's Daily Express "THE WORLD'S GREATEST NEWSPAPER" Lew Stringer is quoted but I doubt if he was interviewed by them, more likely they pinched his comments from somewhere else? Oh ye, just checked, it was the interview he did for the BBC mentioned on another Beano thread.

[Lew Stringer]

Getting back to Dennis at 60 this was in today's Daily Express "THE WORLD'S GREATEST NEWSPAPER" Lew Stringer is quoted but I doubt if he was interviewed by them, more likely they pinched his comments from somewhere else? Oh ye, just checked, it was the interview he did for the BBC mentioned on another Beano thread.

Thanks for that Steve! The Express isn't a paper I'd buy so I didn't know about that. I was interviewed last week by a freelance journalist and although he quoted me a little for the BBC website the Express article is actually closer word-for-word to what I said! I can only guess that the journo supplied the Express journalist with the quotes as well, as a newspaper "stringer", ironically. (http://www.wisegeek.com/m/what-is-a-stringer.htm)

I suggested to the reporter I spoke to that he could also interview someone who actually draws Dennis today (such as Nigel) but sadly deadlines were close and the journo said he didn't have time.

[Phoenix]

A propos the Daily Express article about Dennis, perhaps the reason the lad's father never saw the thick book he had stuck down the back of his trousers prior to a beating is that the book was Arthur Koestler's The Invisible Writing.

[Digifiend]

Where did they get "tie and a blue jersey" from? It's grey in the original strips, which had no colour, and white on the new figurine.

[stevezodiac]

The book down the trousers always reminds me of Laurel & Hardy. In one of their shorts the seat of Ollie's pants catch fire and, as he bends over for Stan to extinguish it, you can see a perfect flat shape. Obviously where a board has been inserted to stop harm coming to Oliver Hardy's abundant posterior.

[Digifiend]

lol - Roger does something similar in this week's strip (another reprint I think) by putting a book under his jersey when he knows Cruncher Kerr is going to thump him.

[Digifiend]

Channel 4 News report uploaded to Youtube 6 April.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAZOgTjp0kQ