m_kingdom2

"If you just say "The Times" how do you distinguish the London Times from the Financial Times?"

The word "Financial" is a little bit of a giveaway as to the paper's nature, or some people call it "The FT". The Times is a national paper, you can buy it all over the country. The local paper is the "(London) Evening Standard".

"The London Times" doesn't exist as such in the UK, it's a foreign misconcept.

m_kingdom2

P.S. I think London is lucky that these people have had this "thought", London is spared from more white tennis shoes, and this board has eighty thousand less, "can I wear my jacket with only one button done-up?" questions.

Neopolitan

And another couple of hundred Americans have been spared the possibility of running into a Londoner so aloof, so negative, and so insulting to Americans that they might return thinking all Londoners were like that.

ira

Hi P,

>All diplomats are exempted from the laws of the country to which they are accredited.<

Not quite. They're immune from criminal prosecution and taxes, but the common sense of diplomacy would dictate that they don't make egregious nuisances of themselves by setting out to flout local laws.<

So, when are your diplomats going to pay their parking tickets in NYC?

LJ

Amybody catch the Saturday, April 1st episode of COPS on FOX (yeah, yeah, I know you were all too busy watching The Lonely Planet or PBS reruns of Shakespeare or Pinter)?

Guess what crime-ridden, drug-infested, violence-torn community they were in...London, England???? No way, it was Ft. Myers, Florida, USA.

And judging by the age of some of the offenders the officers apprehended (they could have been band members...) maybe it is London needs to be protected from the citizens of Ft. Myers.

Neopolitan

LJ, good point, although I doubt that footage included many high school marching band members -- right age -- different kids.

Meanwhile, you are right about the crime statistics. The various crime comparisons on that link from THE TIMES is kind of amazing.

walkinaround

i read about this a few days ago and wondered when it would make fodors.

it's funny how many of you are "embarrassed to be americans" after the school decided to cancel its trip. from the other side of the pond, i think london parade board acted childishly and irresponsibly in issuing their retaliatory security warning about ft myers.

blatently playing politics with these kinds of warnings is not just "sport" but a serious disservice to travelers who might depend on these things (although from what i know, it was not an official warning but based on statements from the idiot parade director).

so a school band is afraid to go to london. i don't see the problem that merits such childish and aggressive response. whilst i certainly think that staying out of london for terrorism fears is silly (i live here and travel around in no fear). i don't agree with their decision but it's none of my business.

i certainly don't fear bombings of any sort in london, but it's funny how there is only mention of 7/7...bombings have occurred in london with a fair degree of regularity for the last several decades...literally ripping the city apart. these don't get much press in the US as they are (i suppose) not considered as "evil" since they were perpetrated by christians.

jahoulih

In the United States (or at least in the pages of the "New Yorker," which is about the best usage one can find in the United States these days), the "Times" means the "New York Times." Mr. Murdoch's similarly named newspaper requires a modifier.

Barbara

jahoulih, that may be colloquial usage, but the correct name of the newspaper is "New York Times", www.newyorktimes.com.

In London, the newspaper's name is "The Times". www.times.co.uk, and on Sundays, "The Sunday Times". There is no "London" in the name at all.

Neopolitan

What an odd statement, jahoulih. Of course in The New Yorker, a reference to The Times would mean The New York Times, but when we're talking about a paper in UK, I doubt that many would get confused and think we mean The New York Times. The entire world does not revolve around New York, believe it or not.

jahoulih

So when we (or our eponymous publication) are located in neither New York nor the United Kingdom, should we not be a little more specific when we refer to the "Times"? It's clear how we do that when it comes to the New York Times, but if we're not supposed to refer to the publication whose website is www.times.co.uk as the "London Times," then how should we refer to it? Calling it just the "Times" when one is not in the UK strikes me as excessively UK-centric. "UK Times"? "United Kingdom Times"?

walkinaround

as most of us have been taught to cite:
The Times (London) or The Times, London.

i don't think the order of the words is worth a debate of this magnitude. of course the city should be qualified to avoid confusion on this international website.

jahoulih

By the way, www.times.co.uk doesn't work. The correct link seems to be www.timesonline.co.uk.

Barbara

You're right, what I should have written is www.thetimes.co.uk.

And why wouldn't you just refer to each of them by their correct name? That would solve the whole "problem", especially as this is an international site.

Barbara

walkinaround, it's not a matter of "order of words", but of the actual name of the paper.

jahoulih

"The Bluebook" (last refuge of a lawyer) agrees with walkinaround: "Include the place of publication in ordinary roman type in parentheses following the name of the newspaper if not clear from the name." The example given is "Times (London)" (with "Times" in small caps, for irrelevant reasons).

Barbara

And lawyers always have to have the last word!

Out here in California, "The Times" could also be the Los Angeles Times, and that is the correct name of the paper. Funny how you have to take all that time looking stuff up when you could just use the registered name of the newspaper. Try to remember there's a whole country out here outside New York.

Neopolitan

A bit of an update on the Ft. Myers Band trip. After a big uproar, the band parents were allowed to do a vote and they did vote for the kids to go to London to march in the New Year's Parade. They are currently raising the something like $150,000 to go. The authorities in charge ended up being sort of a laughing stock.