blackouts, outages, cuts and bruises
Jul. 13th, 2009 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wytchcroft[Error: unknown template qotd]
It's a very interesting thing language - when exactly did we start using the phrase power outage?
Common enough now of course and the question above correctly notes that power outages are what cause blackouts but still, i can't help wonder if it's a shift in terminology - i've come across this many times in the press and so forth.
Why the change? Well i suppose the connotations of blackout are many and mostly negative - the war and the blackout, the strikes and the power-cuts (not outages) and the idea perhaps of applying it to environments as much as people. Bowie of course linked the two in his song Blackout off the Heroes album. Bowie refers not only to his own ‘heart attack’ but the blackout in NYC. This notorious event is still something of a mystery, the cause unclear – my favourite explanation is a secret testing of Nicolas Tesla’s secret anti-electricity device, cue evil Emperor Ming type laughter.
But no, places don’t like to admit to blackouts anymore. But perhaps that’s not so strange…
Imagine, "Well how's dear old Blighty then?"
"Not bad, dreadful blackout the other day..."
"Really? Since when? Have you considered therapy? Drugs?"
"Yes, yes we have."
"Ah, perhaps that explains the blackouts!"
All kinds of insults and finger-pointing could follow. Of course, here in the UK now we are considerably more fortunate than many with our power, disgustingly so really (though we always like to complain). My friends in other countries, Europe, the former Soviet Republic, the Middle East, etc. have all faced power difficulties or do so continually.
The worst i can describe recently was the hilarious axing of the mains cables in the nearest town by a firm of road menders - they nearly got lynched, but i was laughing and imagining some sort of Ealing comedy bank job during the blackout.
As for personal blackouts - well, i suppose they proved useful enough at boring parties during my hinter-years but i never really experienced enough of them to know for sure. Accidents, well that's different and the funniest was definitely falling off the lighting rig and onto the stage during a festival for a London suburb that i loathed with every fibre of my being - and still do.
I mentioned strikes earlier. Well, as a child I grew up in the era of the three day week and regular strikes as a consequence of the unions' unrest. Everyone liked to either moan or talk blithely of the spirit of the blitz. Of course for a child it was wonderful (in those pre-computer game days).
I remember quite distinctly the joy i felt coming back from school and clicking the light switch only to discover that there was no supply. Why was i happy? Well it meant that we would, as a family, cluster round the fire (it was coal back then, hand delivered,) and play cards or boardgames by candle-light. My eternal favourite boardgame was 'Alice through the looking glass' - which featured amazing pieces with mirrors so that they could change according to where they landed.
Nights were fun, because lying on my bunk I would shine a torch at the ceiling and describe a tour of alien planets or the moon, for my younger brother's enjoyment, picking a way through craters, rings and Martian canals.
Since I was already convinced I was from space this was easy enough!
It's a very interesting thing language - when exactly did we start using the phrase power outage?
Common enough now of course and the question above correctly notes that power outages are what cause blackouts but still, i can't help wonder if it's a shift in terminology - i've come across this many times in the press and so forth.
Why the change? Well i suppose the connotations of blackout are many and mostly negative - the war and the blackout, the strikes and the power-cuts (not outages) and the idea perhaps of applying it to environments as much as people. Bowie of course linked the two in his song Blackout off the Heroes album. Bowie refers not only to his own ‘heart attack’ but the blackout in NYC. This notorious event is still something of a mystery, the cause unclear – my favourite explanation is a secret testing of Nicolas Tesla’s secret anti-electricity device, cue evil Emperor Ming type laughter.
But no, places don’t like to admit to blackouts anymore. But perhaps that’s not so strange…
Imagine, "Well how's dear old Blighty then?"
"Not bad, dreadful blackout the other day..."
"Really? Since when? Have you considered therapy? Drugs?"
"Yes, yes we have."
"Ah, perhaps that explains the blackouts!"
All kinds of insults and finger-pointing could follow. Of course, here in the UK now we are considerably more fortunate than many with our power, disgustingly so really (though we always like to complain). My friends in other countries, Europe, the former Soviet Republic, the Middle East, etc. have all faced power difficulties or do so continually.
The worst i can describe recently was the hilarious axing of the mains cables in the nearest town by a firm of road menders - they nearly got lynched, but i was laughing and imagining some sort of Ealing comedy bank job during the blackout.
As for personal blackouts - well, i suppose they proved useful enough at boring parties during my hinter-years but i never really experienced enough of them to know for sure. Accidents, well that's different and the funniest was definitely falling off the lighting rig and onto the stage during a festival for a London suburb that i loathed with every fibre of my being - and still do.
I mentioned strikes earlier. Well, as a child I grew up in the era of the three day week and regular strikes as a consequence of the unions' unrest. Everyone liked to either moan or talk blithely of the spirit of the blitz. Of course for a child it was wonderful (in those pre-computer game days).
I remember quite distinctly the joy i felt coming back from school and clicking the light switch only to discover that there was no supply. Why was i happy? Well it meant that we would, as a family, cluster round the fire (it was coal back then, hand delivered,) and play cards or boardgames by candle-light. My eternal favourite boardgame was 'Alice through the looking glass' - which featured amazing pieces with mirrors so that they could change according to where they landed.
Nights were fun, because lying on my bunk I would shine a torch at the ceiling and describe a tour of alien planets or the moon, for my younger brother's enjoyment, picking a way through craters, rings and Martian canals.
Since I was already convinced I was from space this was easy enough!
